Wednesday September 3, 2014

Certainly built some character today.  My garmin informed me that I had a new personal record for elevation gained.  Thanks garmin I already knew that.  We beat our previous record of 1,210 metres (New Zealand) of climbing by 64 metres.  Elevation gained today was 1,274 metres.  The hills can be hard when you are tiny cyclists with giant panniers.

We were up early and were on the road by 8:30 am.  We knew we had some hills today and wanted to be finished before it got too hot.  That plan didn’t work out.

Our morning ride included 2ks of 7% grade, but a great downhill to Los Corrales de Buelga for a pay off.  We made reasonable time and stopped for lunch in Los Corrales.  We found a café that made sandwiches and we had a baguette.  I was chatting to a policeman in the café who was trying to tell me about the Fiesta that was happening in Los Corrales.  His English was very limited and I thought he was warning me that Los Corrales had the worst crime rate.  What he was saying was the fiesta was a reenactment of a war (Guerra).  I had heard guerillas (bandits)!

After lunch we popped into a bookstore and picked up maps for the next Region and a Spanish/English Phrasebook.  I think we need it.

Our ride in the afternoon started to kick up almost as soon as we left the Town a 5km 5% climb, worse still we didn’t get the pay-off of a downhill.  We just kept climbing, all afternoon.  It was getting hot and I was getting slower, but didn’t get off the bike until we were 4 ks from our destination when the road then kicked up to a 9% grade – lots and lots of character building.

Even with all the climbing the scenery was lovely.  The morning was primarily through farmlands, we heard cowbells as we climbed.  I felt like I was in the Vuelta with supporters cheering me on every hill.  The afternoon was forested and rivers.  We could hear and see the river flowing in the valley, it sounded so cool and refreshing, while we were so hot.

We almost decided to wild camp here, but decided to carry on to Reinosa which was only about 13 kms away.  Once again the highway paralled the road  or went over it or underneath it.  The N roads can be completely devoid of traffic, but have wide shoulders, which is great for us.

We started the day at just under 200 metres elevation and ended it at just over 850 metres elevation.