I left it all out there today, knowing that I now have 3 days off to recover for the last 4 days of this cycle, I decided to push hard on the inclines, keep up good pace on the flats and generally try to enjoy myself. It was pretty hard to do this however as today was one of the hottest days I’ve ever rode a bike. Its only going to be even hotter after the weekend when I have the last 300 miles to go.
I worked it out that over the first 10 days before the rest day in La Rochelle I had covered 650.41 miles. Since that rest day up until now, which is 13 days I have covered a massive 909.12 miles. My legs are feeling it a bit tonight and are zoo looking forward to getting them selves horizontal on a beach tomorrow. I’m staying near to where I used to go on family holidays about 20 years ago, so going to try and re capture some photos from back then and see just how much it has all changed.
As I was packing up my stuff this morning and putting it all on my bike ready to go, out of the blue and it was def out of the blue as the place I stayed last night wasn’t the biggest of towns. One of those men that normally walks around the beach selling glasses or watches only offers to sell me some socks! Now all kitted up do I really look like a man that wants to buy some socks!As I was staying right on the N-332, before i had even clipped both feet into the pedals I had to take the photo of the sign post. It was literally this road all the way into Alicante until the last mile or so. So you can say I ended up getting pretty friendly with it. Saw my first Spanish Bull on top of a hill today, well I saw 2 in the end but thought id share one with you. Not that I took a photo of the other one, I’m not that sad.
I didn’t go look at any data on my sat nave or odometer today. I just knuckled down and got on with it. When I was tired I stopped, when I was hungry I ate, and when I needed to go, you know, I went.I was soo fast today that I ended up cycling straight across the Atlantic and ended up in Canada. They really do have the strangest signs over here. I used this opportunity to have a little toilet. As I was going this old man rode past on his bike and said hello. So by the time I had got back on the bike and set off again, he was in the distance but catchable. I was catching him slowly and had planned what I was going to chat to him about, when all of a sudden this convoy of 3 bikers ride past me (not saying hello, seems to be if your on the same side of the road you don’t say anything). As they then overtake the old fella, he gets a second wind and starts drafting them. Cheeky git was out of sight before I knew it.
Now what I hadn’t planned for on this route was a massive climb. Not only did I have to ride 90 miles I had to ride to a height of 860 foot, which is higher than the day I crossed the border! I did get to see some great views from up there though. But on the way down I was going pretty fast when a bug flies into my shirt. Been riding with it zipped half way down my front to get a breeze and cool me down. I don’t know what it was, but going downhill at some speed and having to try and get this bug out of my top isn’t something I wish for you to try at home kids.It was after this lovely long downhill section that I then encountered half an hour of sheer pain. It was around the 5 hour mark of riding and it was up and down for what seemed like an eternity. I took a picture of what I was having to deal with. But like I said earlier I didn’t just plod up the hills, I was maxing it out and getting up to 20mph.
Well as you can see from the stats below, I’ve broken a record, I’ve already drunk 8.5 litres, now that’s more than some of you will drink in a week let alone a day! And the days not even over yet!
Today’s journey was 92.76 miles, riding time of 6:22:49, max speed 32.04 mph, avg speed 14.54 mph, 5645 calories, 8.5 litres so far.
I Just Felt Like Cycling 