Today was a concern after having such a bad day yesterday, I had climbed 6, 700 feet and the legs were in bad shape - today I would do 6, 770 but the legs were strong.
A straight forward morning saw me leave Xativa and soon I was cycling through orange Groves, I breathe through small towns such as Anna, Bolbaite and Navarres up to Quesa, where the first real climb of the day started.
Bins up to the top of the mirador de Bicorp, I could see the town sitting below the mountains down from the viewpoint.
Upon leaving Bicorp I had another massive climb of multiple hairpins and the views were fantastic. Each kilometre was sign posted for cyclists showing the gradients in the next kilometer all the way to the top.
At the top I saw a sign for Cortes de Pallas 31 km away, it looked better than my planned route over rough ground, so I took it.
A difficult 20 miles followed, on an uphill plateau with Baron land, eventually I picked up my route and an exhilarating descent down into Cortes de Pallas followed, I dropped 1300 feet in little over three miles.
A planned lunch didn't happen as Cortez was pretty much closed, so I had to make do with a couple of energy bars. From Cortes the road entered the mountain and emerged on the bridge over the reservoir, quite spectacular.
I was in the mighty Jucar Canyon, which I will also be following tomorrow.
Steady claim over a saddle, then a horrible cimb of a thousand feet with awful gradients and I was in Cofrentes, from where a four mile ride past a huge nuclear power station brought me to Jalance where I am staying tonight.