The hotel was like a circus this morning. The Be Live Talavera was 7 floors high and full of Spanish Pensioners.
I´m surprised there was room for us or maybe we got lucky booking a long time ago. I was on the 5th floor, breakfast on the 3rd floor, bags were to go to the vans in the underground car park on -2 and bikes to the reception on the ground floor.
All sounds OK until I tell you that there are only 2 elevators and only one of them goes to the subterranean floors 🤦♂️
After 10 mins waiting for a lift that never came it was clear that the stairs were the best option.
After lumping the bags down to the van I went up to breakfast. Long queue at the coffee machine, terrible selection of "food", people everywhere 🤷♂️
I bailed out and informed Joe that I was off early 🚴
I came across a roadside Café after 22km so stopped for a coffee 🍵 the first refreshment stop wasn´t until 46km and I didn´t want to wait that long.
I got there in no time as the beginning of the ride was flat and the wind strong but helping. There wasn´t much to see as I bombed along the N-502 but when I pulled over for a quick pit stop I saw something that reminded of where this epic journey had started ...
I believe it´s a Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum).
Back on the bike it wasn´t long before the flats ended and the road started to rise to meet me. I knew it was coming of course and was looking forward to fast rewarding descents on a main road with a good surface and very little traffic in these parts.
Cris & Dave were parked by the roadside on one of the bigger ascents and took this photo of me grinding it out.
The morning descents were all ruined by the wind and as you can see in the photo I still have my jacket on. It was forecast to get warmer but not until much later.
At the first stop we all complained about how unpleasant the wind was making things. On these roads you can see far into the distance and when descending you want to let the bike go but you can´t when the wind is battering you from the side. Then an 18 wheeler 🚛 will fly past you at 120 km/h and the draught from it will almost knock you over 😐
Only 37km to the lunch stop and still on the N-502.
Thankfully the wind dropped a bit and I was able to really enjoy the ride from now on 😊
Dave caught me on one of the long sweeping descents with a nice shot 68km from where I started and 15km before lunch and 47km from the destination. My top speed today was 57.7km/h 😮
By the time I got to lunch it had warmed up a bit and I could lose my jacket again. Although it was an interesting place to stop for lunch with a beautiful Dam I was really enjoying myself now and after a quick sandwich hit the road again.
It was strange to ride over 100km on the exact same road and not that interesting really so I was really glad the wind dropped and I could let Grace fly after every climb 🚴🚴🚴
When I got to the hotel there were 4 of the faster guys there enjoying a beer in the sun 🍻 😎
I was a bit envious to be honest as they handed me a 0,0% and congratulated me on a great ride.
I started to think about the fact that not only had I not taken a single pain killer this whole trip I had not suffered from any cramp at all either 🤷♂️ When I mentioned this to the guys they reckoned it was because of my no alcohol policy before and during the ride. They might have a point I thought, maybe I should consider staying off alcohol permanently? 🤔
I went for a leg massage with Ricky and he agreed that the lack of alcohol was probably a good thing. After my rub down I went back to the hotel Bar to see who else had arrived and they were all spilled out on the terrace drinking beer in the sun🍻😎🍻😎 so
I treated myself ...
I´m getting really excited now about arriving in Seville and hitting my fundraising target. A few more donations came in today and as I post this update I´m at a whopping €6487,00 which is 96% of my target.
Fingers crossed I can get there before the dinner on Saturday evening 🤞
Distance covered 114.9 Km
Climbing 1591 M
Moving time 05h 27m 07s
Summary:
Wonderful day once the wind dropped, best fun I´ve had on a bike this journey 😊
Difficulty rating 5/10
PS. After due consideration, never going to happen 😊🤷♂️🍻
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