Slept well but wasn´t feeling it when got up at 06.15h. My nose was blocked and I was sore all over 😞
Breakfast was at 07.00h but as usual I couldn´t eat any of it, fortunately I had some healthy and nutritious food that I had bought the night before so I put it in my cycling jacket pocket and headed off.
It was a long one today, over 160km 🚴
From experience I knew that the pain would subside when I got moving on the bike and I´d had the good sense to bring my nose spray as we were back in the land of Olive trees 🌳🙄
It was chilly as I tried to get my heavy legs turning on the main road out of town, it was hard going.
Once I got moving I remembered my breathing exercises 😤. Also I started to tell myself that I was feeling fantastic as I forced myself to smile 😊
After about 10km the route planner took me the wrong way, I didn´t realise for about 1.5km and then turned around to cycle back up a hill into the wind, just what I needed to test my resolve.
About 500m from getting back on track I ran into a group of 9 riders that had done the same, I didn´t feel so stupid when I realised almost everyone else had fallen victim.
I found out later that the navigational issues are being caused by "cross platform" tech issues, exactly 🤷♂️ just show me the road to Seville please? 🚴
At least we were off the main road now and onto quieter roads, beautiful cycling roads. My nose had cleared and I knew I was cycling 100 miles whether I felt good or not so I decided to feel good. This view did help ...
I made it to the first stop without touching the food in my pocket, my plan was to enjoy it with a coffee 🍵 I knew there was no village before the first stop at 47km so I had accepted that I would have to wait.
When I arrived I was devasted to find that there was no coffee available 😟 Someone´s testing me today I thought 🤔
Rising to the challenge I doubled down and headed straight for the lunch stop at 85km without eating.
Exercising fasted is a great way to burn some fat so I decided to see how far I could go before I was hungry?
This route was so remote, it was like I was the only person on the planet🤷♂️ The sun was out, it wasn´t windy and I was feeling stronger now so I put the hammer down and arrived at the lunch stop around 11.40h 💪
To my delight there was a Café open opposite where the vans were parked 😊🍵
It was also warm enough now to lose the jacket 🦺 I was ready for some food now 😋
Joe was there at the lunch stop looking relaxed for once.
As hard as the cyclists are having to work (and some of them are hard work) I think Joe has the hardest job of all.
Herding Cats comes to mind 🙄🐈🐈⬛
Let me introduce you to Joe ...
I deliberately asked Ricky to take the photo so that he couldn´t photo bomb it again 🤣
Even managed to get smile out of Joe 😊
Joe Mearns (Team leader, First Aid, Driver & basic mechanic) A few of you will know me from the Road to Lisbon, so I won’t wax too lyrical here. For those that don’t, I started my cycling adventures on a personal basis back in 1990 with my first long distance ride from Warsaw (Poland) via Paris to London to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. This hobby snowballed with more trips including a traverse of the Himalayas by bike in 1992 after which charities started asking me to design and run rides for them around the world. In the mid 90s a contract with Great Ormond Street Hospital led to me staying there for almost 5 years as the events manger before heading off once again to do my own thing. On this occasion that meant moving to France for the following 5 years and then onto China for several more before ending up back in the UK again in 2010. The pandemic dealt us all a blow as you know all too well from having to cancel the Glasgow to Milan ride. For us it meant an entire rethink as we saw all our of business disappear overnight. So I used the other side of my working life which was engineering and production in China to design a range of titanium adventure bicycles. This is now our main focus and a work in progress. Combined with this we decided we wanted to leave the UK to improve our standard of living (sunshine!) and bring our daughters up bilingual, so we managed to move to a village near Girona in Catalonia/Spain in July 2021 where we are continue to settle and see what the future has to hold. It’s my job to keep the trip on track and along with the rest of my team make sure everyone is safe and well looked after.
What an amazing job Joe & his team have done, thank you guys 👏👏👏👏👏
Fed, watered and back onboard Grace, let´s get this done.
More of the same roads, the climbs were boring but worth it for the descents. It was really getting warm now, at last 🙏
I stopped to take off my base layer for the first time on the trip and wondered how the Scottish guys would fare in the southern Spanish heat 🔆
Refilled the drinks bottles at 127km and kept cracking on for the hotel. There was rain forecast to arrive at 3pm so and I was trying to beat it.
With about 20km to go I was passed by 3 of the faster guys, Dan, Paul & Shane so I jumped on the back of them for a "tow". I knew it would only last until the next incline but it was a nice little rest spell while still motoring along.
I managed to get about 2km out of it before the road started to rise and I dropped back.
Paul took this great photo 🚴🚴🚴🚴
Here is one I managed to take with one hand as I sped along. You can see the weather we were heading into 🌨️
I made it in time even though I managed to go the wrong way again 🤦♂️
Another conflict between road signs and Garmin navigation. This time I chose the road signs and headed into Azuaga, I wasn´t going to make the same mistake I made a few days ago.
Turned out our hotel isn´t in the town but on the outskirts near an industrial estate 🤬
Everyone was commenting on how long and hard the ride today had been, it was tough but it´s done 💪
Hard to believe I´m nearly there, very excited about arriving in Seville tomorrow 🕺🍻
I´ve scaled the route map so you can see exactly where we are. One more big ride to do.
Distance covered 163.7 Km
Climbing 1653 M
Moving time 07h 11m 54s
Summary:
Long tough day when feeling less than 100% but got it done 😊
Difficulty rating 8/10
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