nbjtours

Cotos Rios, Spain

86 Miles 6096ft

We had just had a quick visit round the market at Siles, as it was the first town we had seen for some while that had some life.  

 Leaving the town down a long sweeping hill, I said to the guys it’s a left turn along here shortly, but too late, Nick was off as usual at top speed, adopting the full tuck position with Chris in hot pursuit. Halfway down the hill was our left turn, which the boys had no chance of stopping for as they whizzed passed at 35mph. 

Lunch stop was along this road in about 7 miles. With no initial sign of the boys and they being a good couple of kilometres further along the road,  I consulted the map and then phoned Nigel, agreeing with him to meet where the alternate routes converged in about 20 miles.  He was a bit disappointed as had just got his motorcycle out ready to enjoy what he said was the trickiest and steepest climb he had seen and we were now going to miss it. 

Was this unlucky or lucky, as we then had the best part of a ten mile sprint with a tailwind at 25 mph despite our tired limbs, instead of a monster climb. We then decided it was a good mistake and probably saved us an hour in the saddle. It pays not listen sometimes……..

Having had an early start, as the campsite was shutting, we got going at 8.40, straight up a climb into the early morning mist.  

 It was jolly cold and we were glad we had our waterproofs which we then put on and used as windproofs to keep us warmer. 

The descent through the mist was slow, as not only was it cold and we could not see where we were going, but the road was very rough.  This picture shows the cloud base from where we had just emerged. 

 Having dropped back down, we then had to go back up the biggest climb of the day,  which was an 1800ft climb to the top of  Puerto de las Crucetillas at 1450m   In addition, Nigel had parked the camper at the top so we had a full coffee stop with chocolate croissants too! 
 The descent was bumpier and slower than the last one and as before, we had to stop to give our hands a rest, as keeping the pressure on was taking its toll.  Our excuse was to take photos of the scenery. 

   
Joining a bigger and resurfaced road we climbed steadily,  passing a Dutchman, Mons who I chatted to for a bit – he was cycling from Barcelona to Córdoba. 

The descent from this summit was one of the best four mile drops that we have ever had, as the super smooth road swept down at a steady rate with some superb twists and turns. Bombing down at over 35 mph Nick was in seventh heaven. 

It was incredible to think that we were really in southern Spain with green trees and mountains, what gave it away were the olive groves everywhere. Some on very steep sided hills. It made us wonder how they could be harvested, except by hand   

 After Nick’s inspired misroute, our belated lunch stop was only going to leave just over 20 miles to the campsite, much to everyone’s relief.

   
The clouds were gathering and we were concerned that this last segment was going to get very wet.  Apart from a few drops of rain in the last three miles we made it to the camper dry, but it did rain this evening. 

     For the next 15 miles we then followed a huge river dam, mostly at some height, although we did drop down to the dam where Chris obeyed the lights as every good Englishman does.  As you can see Nick had already moved on. 

  We had some fun running alongside this, with a couple of French campers that we initially let out in front of us, then overtook them twice as they stopped to take photos and finally went passed them again near the end of the lake where the four occupants had got out of their vehicles and cheered us across an imaginary line.  

 A final short run along the river to the campsite and fantastic showers thanks to Nigel showing the owner how to fix a new shower head on and we were ready for an early night and the next big climb tomorrow.