Today was a day of superlatives - > Longest ride of the Tour (80 miles) > Highest elevation of the Tour (3850ft) Oh and also the shortest day of the tour at 23hrs due to the switch to Summertime. I picked a bad night yesterday to watch the Spain Norway match in a bar selling Belgian beers until well after midnight. I was on the road by 10am ! which my logic said was really 9am and straight away I had problems ... getting out of town - ther was a road race on and all the streets were cordoned off - these Spanish in Leon are mad, partying till the early hours then running a marathon the next morning ! I picked my way out of the city onto a straight road out of town - it was closed and a very officious policeman insisted i couldn't go that way - I went down the next street and back up onto my road then cycled off inside the cordon. After a mile I reached the other side of the cordon and an obliging policeman lifted the cordon for me to pass. I had a long day ahead so wanted to get the miles in early and I did - i was flying and knocked out 35 miles inlucing a breakfast stop by 1pm. At this point I turnd off the fast flat main road to add miles by cycling up a quieter road and it was lovely, slowly climbing a shallow valley at a nice staedy gradient and after about 10 more miles the shallow valley was giving way to the mountains. At La Ercina I even reached the Gurdo to Leon train line and followed it to Yugueros which also had a pretyy litlle station. next i dropped off a cliff down to Cistierna - god knows where the tyrain line went but it couldnt have been down this road. I had luch in a cafe which turned out to be an ham omelette baguette due to my absolute abysmal knowledge of Spanish. Afetr lunch it was uphill all the way to Riano and the scenery just kept getting better with massive light grey mountains with deep green forests and beautiful blue lakes. The gradient was steady at first but the wind was strong up in the mountains and it was against - whatever direction the road headed the wind was in my face - I guess it was blowing up the valley I was cycling. At Las calas my heart sank as the gradient ahead went up sharply and I had a 500ft climb - however after half a mile i saw a dam and realised the road was swiychbacking up onto the dam = I was up there faster than a rat up a drainpipe and was soon shooting my next facebook video in the series of Pratty's Iberian Reservoirs ! It was beautiful looking across a turquoise lake towards jagged topped mountains - I cycled through a tunnel in the rockface and then alonside the lake before climbing another 300ft to the high point of the tour so far at 3850ft. Then a fast descent into Riano which you reach across a bridge over the lake - it is absolutely stunning and I took a million pictures. From Riano I had just under 10 miles to my hotel in Lario - I followed the lake to the end into that horrible 20mph wind which was a pain all the way into town where I made a detour for half a mile along a picturesque valley and back just to make sure I reached 80 miles for the day !!!