Today's ride had a high chance of not working, it was the longest of the tour at 120 miles and the weather was still awful with heavy rain, flooded roads and I had seen a weather forecast which suggested 70 mph winds and was advising people not to travel.
I set off and was soaked after 5 minutes as I headed towards Villaviciosa. I reached the coast at Colunga which again looked like it would be beautiful on a good day, Heading towards Ribadesella I remember being cold, wet and miserable as I passed the first sign for Santander which said 150 km ... That seemed like an awful long way on a day like today.
After 60 miles I reached Llanes and as I cycled past a small bar/restaurant the temptation was too great and I locked the bike outside and went in, which was a bit of a job getting all the wet gear off and the paniers organised. I had an excellent meal on a central table on a white tiled floor but as I finished I was rather ashamed settling the bill as I looked down and saw the debris which had ran off my supposedly dry sub layers and in particularly my leggings and shoes. The owners seemed happy though despite the neccesary clean up after I left !
15 more miles along the coast I came to an inlet at Unquera where my road and the motorway ran parallel through an uphill gap in the landscape. There was a large service station and I was forced to stop and shelter underneath the canopies for 30 minutes as the wind got violently wild and the rain was flooding down. After marginal improvement I set off up and over the gap before a better ride along to the beautiful town of San Vicente de la Barquera. I was now forced to stop as my brakes which had been a bit problematic en-route became dangerously poor. After 30 minutes cold hands, bike inverted and playing with disc pad adjustments I had to set off again on less than perfect brakes. A police car had spotted me a kindly stopped to ask if I was OK to which my answer was a stoic "of course" - nothing unusual here !!!
Onward through Torrelavega I really don't remember much of the ride until I reached a long straight busy dual carriageway into Santander arriving eventually at my hotel just trhough the tunnel near the train station.
That night I had planned to see Santander but the rain was so heavy I spent 10 minutes sprinting from the shelter of one building to the next building until I eventually decided to eat in a less than satisfactory looking cafe before heading back to continue drying all my gear on a very poor radiator and a hair dryer.