Boats and Bikes!

The massive deluge over night in Spain reached the BBC news headlines in the UK. In the morning, the weather was just about to clear up with some drizzle at the beginning.

The ride today continued down the N110. For the past few days, its been a high altitude ride at around 4,000ft. A steep drop at the end of the ride reduced the latitude to a little over 1,000 ft. The Jerte Valley is between two mountain ranges in Spain and one of my favorite spots.

With the weather improving, I am increasing the miles today. The hotel at the end of the ride was very medieval and had been around for some time. A great place to stay.

Departing Avilla – A nice city with a medieval wall. Good restaurants and a cheap hotel owned by a very friendly couple.  From here, the ride was hard work from the first 40KM as it was a gentle up hill slope and a strong headwind. The first major peak was a bit easier as it was sheltered from the wind.

Looking back East – this is the nasty weather I am running from!  It improves.

This is just about the highest point of the ride. The mountains in the middle of Spain are high enough to support skiing during the winter months.

Fresh spring water- Had my first free water top-up here in 2014. This is my 4th refill – Will be back!

And here is te top of the Jerte Valley

Coming Soon (subject to internet connection) – video of the decent!

Some very heavy downpours taking place as I write up the trip blog for the day. I was aiming for more miles, but looking at the forecast, I had a short window to get as far as Avilla before things got very bad. So I managed get cover 55KM with a small sprinkle drizzle.

The usual map is below and in the pictures I will tell you about the bike I am using.

Ride itself was fine with plenty of climbing.

Tomorrow, I head for the Jerte Valley. May take a day off from riding if weather is suitable…

Shortly after leaving the hotel, I took a look back. Plenty of weather around to avoid.

So this is the flight deck. The larger Garmin is 1030 series which can be purchased for £300 (August 2023). This replaced the old Garmin Colorado which I used up to last year. The 1030 has a great battery life and links for my Komoot app. At the end of the day, I still have 60 to 70% battery left.

The large screen is great for navigating  as its easy to switch from map to other screens using the touch function. I would definitely recommend the  1030 whilst you can still get one. The ridiculously cheap price is because there is a new model on the market.

The smaller GPS is just a back up. On these long tours I don’t want to loose any tracking data. On last year’s tour, having a second GPS was useful as the Garmin 820 died on me.

About the bike:

I am using the Specialized Allez Elite which I purchased in 2016. So on this rig, its my fifth tour. Its a good solid bike with standard Shimano Tiagra parts. Generally if something breaks, I can normally source what I need in the nearest Decathlon.

New wheels were purchased for this trip as I had major issues last year with spokes breaking. Metal fatigue should never be under estimated, especially when roads are made of pebbledash!

At home I have bikes which are lighter. The S-Works SL6 would definitely be my preferred choice to ride but parts are more complex an not easily sourced in a local bike store. I did use my SL6 for the first leg from Bath to Portsmouth Harbour.

I previously mentioned that there is an ample supply of petrol stations on the N Roads where its easy to source water and food. On this leg, this was not the case. A new motorway now runs parallel to the N Road and this is one of two stations now gone to ruin. At least it was a place to shelter for a while as a shower passed by.

Not long after I arrived, the heavy rains stated. Hoping all is dry for tomorrow as I have a 80 mile route planned.

Weather forecast lived up to its promise. So reduced miles planned. The first 20 was hard going with frequent stops for shelter.

Breakfast was amazing and one of the best I had on this trip.

Different strategy for tomorrow. Route  planned but no room booked. Weather still unstable so I want to make distance if I can but with the option of stopping if I need to. Normally I book a day ahead at a time for hotels, but I need more flexibility than normal. Good news is that there are plenty of hotels to choose from.

This is what I set off in. Zero motivation….even for just 31 miles!

This picture gives a flavor of the ride. Here things are starting to clear up. Could have done more miles, but hotel booking is committed.

This is Segovia. Lovely place and I would have stayed longer for some tourist picture taking. I was soaked, so needed to press on to the hotel.

What is the obsessional fad with cobbles in old places? They are a nightmare to cycle on.

Despite a bad forecast, the day started dry and clouded over towards the end. The afternoon was really hard going as it was mostly up hill and against the head wind. The other thing noticeable is how the road surface changes when a border is crossed between provincial Juntas. The Soria region has a great road surface, but the Segovia Junta seems to be very keen on using pebble dash for a road surface. Hard to ride on and loads of loose gravel! 

A short uphill gentle climb to the main highway (N122).

The N Roads are quite amazing. These roads are easy to ride and fairly direct. Sometimes super quite (in this case due to a  new motorway).I like the way that there is a hard shoulder to give me space from traffic. Whilst the road surface in Segovia is not great, the layout is the same.

For users of Komoot, the planning is great, but you do need to modify routing to include N Roads and populated are. Spain is a very hot place and if you leave all the planning to Komoot without modification, you risk spending the day in the bush with no opportunity to top up with water!

So I am more than a day from Agreda. This is about the last point I can see the mountain. I must be at least 80 miles down the road.

This is quite random. A Mc D sign in the middle of nowhere. Not that I was looking for fast food. Plenty of better alternatives in Spain.

Another day of nice weather. Plenty of climbing. Weather forecast for the weekend is frankly “Pants”. I have been doing these rides in Spain since 2013 and I have never known the weather to be so unstable.

The destination hotel was very nice. Small village so a real community feel in the bar. Owner spoke English and was very welcoming. After a hot day, beer in a frosted glass is always welcome!

Leaving Agreda starts with a hill. Not my favorite way to start the day. But when the legs warm up, all is fine. The big mountain behind is something I will for some time yet.
Stopped in a village to have a swig from the water bottle and take a 10 min break!

As can be seen from the profile, still plenty of climbing. The Destination is Agreda where I stopped on my 2019 tour. This time I had an apartment with a washing machine so was spared hand washing all my kit!

Map below and as you expect from Spain, some great places to see along the way! 

This is wine country and this is the journey Rioja will start making from the vine to my Wine Rack back in England. Across the border in France, it seems that they are drinking too much craft beer and wine is now being converted to “Hand Gel”. My advice is to drink both!

This is a dead village. Ruin church on the top of the hill. Buildings looked like old work houses. I am sure there is some interesting history to this place!

RUHX is one of the two charities I am supporting on this ride. If you have not donated yet, please use the links on this page.

The RUHX team asked me to take a picture. As I am riding solo, I do not have a “Team” so the media team will just have to manage with a selfie:-)  That mountain to the left of me is close to Agreda where I am heading. Picture taken at mile 50. I could see tis from mile 5!

About 10 KM from Agreda – closer look at the mountain.

Picture of the Agreda town square after dinner 🙂

Heavy rain all night, so all roads have plenty of surface water. Drizzle was just about constant until I escaped the Pyrenees. The Hotel was really great, but as the route is very popular with the Camio De Santiago fraternity, the catering operation was geared to the Pilgrims. Great quality and value for money.

This is how it all starts….Soggy! Enough said!.

This is where I depart from the route and go up some steep hills. The cars that have move horse power than me (and self contained shelter) gets to take the easy route through the tunnel.

South of Pamplona and its dry. The rain is behind me!

An this is the hotel. When I first approached, I though the hotel was an annex to a church. I stayed in a place near Dax in 2017 which was part of a religious establishment with a very basic hotel open to the pubic. I was worried this place was the same set up. But once inside, it was great. Nice rooms, bar and great food.

Forecast is poor for the next couple of days. The only good thing is that I have a tail wind. This leg take me across the border into Spain. No passport stamping (remember when we could just turn up in the EU from the UK with no passport controls?)

The hotel stop this eve is in Elizondo, my third visit since 2017. Luckily, I go in just before a coach load of folks arrived.

Here are some pictures from today’s ride!

Birds seem to be creative about where they pitch camp !  (and no I was not on a train. This shot taken from the road)

That will be the Pyrenees then…..with a massive side order of showers! As soon as I get to the border, the climbing starts!

This is the peak before Elizondo. During the climb light showers were almost constant. After this peak, it was a very soggy ride down hill as the rain got worse!

Lots of rain in the forecast and dodging rain is going to be the theme over the next few days until I get well into Spain.

Riding getting more interesting as small hill and winding roads replace the straight roads between trees. Faster ride today with a tail wind at the end.
Tomorrow, I say goodbye to France as I cross the border and spend  the night at Elizondo,
I deliberately adjusted the route in the Landes region to avoid some of the rough roads I used last year. Unfortunately, I still encountered about 20 miles of rough surface!
Picking up the first signs of the well known pilgrim route. Spotted my first pilgrim today. There will be plenty more over the next few days. Some make quite a noise due to the tapping from the hiking sticks.

The Medoc is very flat and whilst the forest routes have traffic free routes on former railways tracks. The view was just about the same along most of the route. Trees, Trees and more trees!

So far – 444 Miles complete for this tour !

In the past, I have cycled to Lege and then down the Cap Feret strip. Generally not a nice route. This time I headed inland as the old rail route continued. Basically this is a 40 mile traffic free route that still goes on further.

First stop is Soulac Plage for a coffee and Almond Croissant.

The Forrest in the Medoc areas is a huge fire risk! Towers like this all over the place to spot fires. Frustrating to see a walker having a smoke and the flicking his butt into dry grass!

The cycle track is well funded and mostly maintained. Only a few spots where tree roots make the surface bumpy.

An opportunity to give the tires some wind!