It was a nice morning as I left Burgomillado this morning, the sun was actually out for the first time since I left Portugal and I was cycling along a flat Duraton River Valley toward San Miguel de Bernuy where I should have stayed last night but the hostel was full.
When I reached San Miguel there were loud speakers all around town and I think there was a canoe event going on down on the river which is probably why the hostel was sold out.
ITodays ride was all about the first 20 miles which were continuous uphill to almost 4000ft yet again. I left town and immediately was climbing, at the top of the first climb I reached a point where I could continue straight on downhill towards the sunshine and Aranda del Duero and on to my Hotel in Huerta de Rey (a functional day) or I could turn uphill, into the wind towards dark looking clouds.
Hard one, but I went uphill into the wind for more scenery – it was only an extra 20 miles and lots of climbs.
The high point of the day came at 23 miles and I slogged into the wind on uphill after uphill stretches, but the legs were good today and it only took 2 hours to reach the top – great I thought this next bit is all downhill to Maduero where I would have lunch at 36 miles (halfway).
It wasn’t quite like that, the downhills weren’t very steep and because of the headwind if I stopped pedalling I Stopped ! and there were regular nasty little 10% clicks. Nonetheless I sped on and eventually reached Madruena at 1:30 for lunch.
Madruena is a town set on an island surrounded by a wide dammed river, where there was a bridge across and a restaurant just over the bridge. I wanted something hot and had a coffee and a bacon & cheese 10 inch sandwich, I wanted smaller but the girl was adamant that’s the size !
When it came it was probably the worst bacon I’ve ever had, wafer thin, mainly fat but with this white grissely globules. I spent 5 minutes rejecting 75% of the bacon and returning 25% to my sandwich.
I then had a climb back out from the river but the route was heading more west now & that meant tailwind. I had a glorious 10 miles which were downhill AND downwind (the first of the tour) and it was glorious, at Castilejo de Robledo I was going so fast and hit a very steep downhill with bends and sandy grit on the road, I immediately braked otherwise I would not have seen the bottom in one piece. The town had a lovely derelict castle sitting in two parts above the town.
Life and cycling were good – for another 10 miles to Sanat Cruz de la Salceda were I turned into a side wind and went uphill again for 4 miles when I reached the Douro (Duero in Spanish) valley at Vadocondes.
Another 4miles uphill and I then had a nasty right turn onto the BU925, Nasty ? Yes it was straight into a 20mph wind and I had 15 miles all uphill to go.
I fairness the road did bend a bit and quite a lot of the ride I had the wind at 45degrees off the right and the gradient although all uphill for 125 miles was only 1%. With 3 miles to go I even diverted a mile to ride through a village called Quintanarraya – Yes I’m still collecting places starting with every letter of the alphabet and this was my chance for a Q !
When I reached Huerta de Rey there was no mobile signal and I struggled to locate my hostal but after 5 minutes I spotted it there on the main road, It isn’t a normal hostal, it’s a Ruarl Hostal – pretty much someones house with rooms – In fairness there are about 6 rooms, the couple running it live in the front on the first floor with two rooms out back and I was on the second floor where there were another 4 rooms, all very compact but lovely.
And my bike was inside on the ground floor … excellent !
Post Script - There's only 5 bars in town and none of them do a meal so it's bar tapas tonight. I've tried 3 of them and to my surprise it's El Classico (Real Madrid v Barcelona) tonight which explains why all the bars are busy, rowdy and full of drunks. Anyway Real 0 Barc 4 and this old guy tries to leave, the Bar man is shouting at him extremely loudly (I thought he's dodging his bill), nets one of the of the guys grabs him (I thought Oh Oh Fisty cuffs). Then they drag him back to the bar and make him drink some sort of red spirit before he is allowed to leave. I could get used to this village !!!