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Day #3 MCBikeTour 2014

Day 3 of the Medical Cannabis Bike Tour.

Friends, citizens, cyclists… welcome to the third and final day of the tour.  After two days we are tired, sore, aching… but everybody is pumped for the last section!

Today we have 128km from La Selva del Camp to Barcelona on a ride that will climb through mountain roads. This requires precision cycling and an early start…. So we leave at 10.40.

Again the lead pack make a fast start. It’s like the Tour De France (on Cannabis) in Spain… Not so far behind, comes the rest of the tour, with all making great time.

However, there is one last obstacle separating the riders from the finish -a mountain climb through the Garraf and a roller coaster descent to the coast before our Cannabis pelaton rides for Barcelona.

At ten kilometres from the Feria del Cáñamo, there is one last twist in this tale… As our convoy of vehicles and bikes arrives in the city, we get our own police escort for a while, before being waved onwards by smiling cops.

Barcelona, it’s good to be here!

Day #2 MCBikeTour 2014

Day 2 of the Medical Cannabis Bike Tour (Have you checked out the footage from Day 1` yet? www.youtube.com/user/medicalbiketour

So, todays challenge, is  118 kilometers ,from Tortosa to Selva, in Catalunya. We know this will be a tough day! There are several climbs and the roads are small and windy.

The first stretch of the journey sees the first big hills of this tour with hard climbs and steep descents on some tricky roads and riders’ speeds vary in range from 7-70 km per hour. The climbs are hard, the wind is intense in places… and cold.

Pretty soon, we have a pack breaking off for the front. This year we have some experienced cyclists and some good mountain climbers. The pace is fast and the first group arrive 50 km later in good time.

But the tour is not a race. OH NO,, we are all in this for the cause!  On a bike tour there are many mini adventures within this grand adventure – bikes break down, people get lost, vehicles get lost. It’s all part of the fun of course…

Tomorrow is climb, climb, climb and then a sharp descent down to the coast and the road to Barcelona…

This was the 2nd day:

www.youtube.com/user/medicalbiketour

Day #1 MCBikeTour 2014

Group photo of the MCBikeTour 2014 group

So, Day 1 on the ride. We have 130km to make, through Valencia, from Onda to the historic town of Tortosa.

OK, so maybe we are not the early birds… it was a late night at the local Pizzaria the night before. But, by 10am our band of international brothers and sisters are ready to hit the road.

We leave Onda in glorious sunshine, riding across mostly flat country, where orange tree orchards and olive trees line the road.

We are much bigger than last year, 50 people coming together and a lot new faces to get to know. The morning isn’t the smoothest operation, the Spanish countryside can play tricks… and so there may have been a few wrong turns along the road to lunch. But we get there in the end!

Lunch is a relief, after almost 70km. And in the afternoon, the MC Bike Team becomes more like a team! We fly (OK, sometimes crawl a bit slower) through the Spanish countryside, passing many locals who smile and wave (and sometimes just stare).

Tonight, Tortosa, and time to shower and eat some food. There has been talk from some of an early night. WE shall see…

Day 2 is going to be tougher. We leave Valencia for Catlunya and start to climb into the mountains. The winds will be stronger, the roads smaller, the chance of rain… The adventure continues!

Catch a taste of today on:

www.youtube.com/user/medicalbiketour

Day #0 MCBikeTour 2014

Getting ready to start this year's medical cannabis bike tour, valencia to barcelona arriving at the Spannabis

So, here we are, just outside Valencia, waiting for the tour to kick off tomorrow morning. Our base is a hotel in the middle of an industrial complex specialising in ceramics and bricks… well, the views can only get better!!
A hive of activity, the support team have spent the day picking up riders and volunteers from airports and train stations, who have been arriving from all over Europe and North America.
Meanwhile, some of the crew who got here yesterday have been out testing the bikes and getting used to the sun (It has been a long time for many of us!). So far, all signs are good!
The hotel entrance is filled with bikes and riders, getting busy (with the occasional break for refreshments on the sun terrace of course…)
Everybody is pumped for tomorrow, a ride of 130km through the orange fields of Valencia, before hitting some high country on days two and three
SO, follow us as we chart our course for Barcelona and Spannabis… The adventure starts

Performing experiments with cannabinoidsRealizando experimentos con cannabinoides

Research Cannabinoids Cancer Remission

Quick update on the work the team in Madrid are involved in, by the words of Prof. Guillermo.

We have done in vitro experiments with Glioma initiating cell and have found that the combination of cannabinoids with other anticancer agents [and specifically with inhibitors of the growth factor midkine (MK) and the Anaplasic lymphoma kinase (ALK)] can eliminate these cells. This results could be important since the population of GICs is responsible for the high resistance to conventional therapies that exhibit the patients with Glioblastoma (the most frequent class of brain tumor).

– At the moment we are performing experiments in mice carrying brain tumors to test the effect of the combination of cannabinoids and ALK inhibitors in animal models of glioma and also melanoma.

This year we hope to achieve results that confirm these observations in vitro and in animal models of glioma and also investigate the mechanism of action of cannabinoids in glioma, particularly how activation of autophagy is required for the anticancer activity of cannabinoids.
We are also analyzing the effect of cannabinoid combinations in melanoma models in vitro and also in animal models of melanoma.

(In layman’s words, we expect to find results that support the utilization of cannabinoids in novel therapies to fight glioma and melanoma)

Thank you again for your support and please let us know if you require additional information.

All the best,

Guillermo

Also below is a pdf presentation of the work carried out by the team:

Performing experiments with cannabinoids. medical cannabis bike tour 2014