Euroloop

Brief entry this time in Bordeaux as I have the massively welcome distraction of Kate, and frankly between Kate and typing up a blog entry it’s fairly obvious which one is going to win. The weeks photos are posted here.

This 5-day block was between Burgos in north Spain and Bordeaux. I had to work my way up to the Spanish coast for the first day, more winds ahoy for that little stint of the journey, it was getting to be quite a theme in Spain. More Spanish rocks and nothingness too, again another theme. I went over three or four mountain passes so it was pretty hard work. The final pass started out as a beast of a 10% gradient, first hill I’ve really struggled to get up. It then went into thick cloud and it was absolutely freezing, haven’t felt cold at all for 2 months so it was a bit of a shock. Then down the other side it was a big green valley in the sunset, working it’s way all the way to Santander. The next couple of days was spent heading east from Santander, where the road went to-and-fro between the coast and the mountains slightly inland. I managed to find a camp spot just before the massive urban and industrial sprawl of Bilbao. Unfortunately, this spot and that of the night before had been heavily infested with brambles and it was on the third day that I noticed my legs looked like they’d been through the wars with cuts all over the place. I like to think that they added to the rugged look, but probably just made me more of a scruff.

Through Bilbao on the morning of the third day and it was town after town before and after the main city, which is built on lots of hills. Whilst the city centre looked really nice with a modern, cosmopolitan feel to it, my opinion of Bilbao was somewhat tainted by the busy dual carriageways in and out of the city that weren’t particularly pleasant to ride on. Also, there was quite a lot of pollution in the air that day. Anyway, the road again went through mountains slightly inland and then hit the coast, where there were lots of really nice coastal towns that reminded me almost of ones in Britain, very different to the touristy south coast. Another thing that struck me was that it was noticeably cooler now. My water stayed cold, which makes life a lot easier not having to get new water every hour because it had practically reached boiling point. There was also now proper green grass, none of this brown straw-like rubbish that can set on fire if you click your fingers. And the best thing, I could carry chocolate again without it ending up in a gooey mess, brilliant. The run of coastal towns ended with San Sebastien which I went through in the evening, France was very close and excitement was building. I ended up sleeping that night in a botanical gardens a couple of kilometres from the border, took me ages to find that spot, almost an hour.

The morning of the fourth day, I felt pretty horrible through a combination of not feeling very clean and also a few aches and pains were causing some problems. After downing a litre of milk in the first town I came to, then having a coffee and some chocolate I felt a heck of a lot better and was ready to hit the road again. This lasted until about 2 or 3pm in the afternoon where my backside was giving me severe problems, the worst so far on the trip. The only saving grace was that I was now riding through national park up to Bordeaux and there were tonnes of campsites everywhere, so there was a pretty good chance I could score a shower at the end of the day. So I just had to grit my teeth and carry on.

Once getting to the town where I wanted to stop for the day, there must have been about 5 campsites in and around the town. However, through turning up at two which were closed and getting a little lost as well. It took me an hour of cycling around to finally find one, not a good end to the day. But I got my shower and it was amazing. Another little problem thrown into the works for that night was that halfway through cooking my pasta, the petrol in my stove ran out. I’d just about got the water boiling but the pasta was rock hard still, I was the only one in this small campsite and the family that ran it had gone to bed. I panicked a little at first as I was starving and didn’t have any other food but eventually remembered I’d seen a coffee maker in shed/tv lounge. So my pasta was finished off simmering away on the hot plate of a coffee maker, disaster averted.

Last day and what I thought was an 80km sprint north to Bordeaux but actually turned out to be 100km. Not much more but still a little demoralising as I’d put in extra miles the previous days to try and make the final day a really easy sub-100km. Anyway, my bum was still really sore and for the final hour going through the Bordeaux suburbs to the centre, I didn’t/couldnt sit on the saddle once (I think I have solved this problem. My saddle is leather and has sagged some over the distance I’ve been using it and I have been sitting on the saddles metal frame - hence the pain! I’ve cranked up an adjustment bolt that tightens the whole leather of the saddle which has raised it off the frame. Fingers crossed it’ll be alright again now for the final week).

I finally arrived at the hotel at 4pm only moments before Kate, good timing. Although I had hoped to get a shower before she got here and be less of a stinker but things never quite go as planned. It’s been brilliant to actually hang out with someone on my day off, especially when it is my Kate. She’s been fairly tired as she only returned from India last Thursday and is still trying to get back to normal. So we’ve slept lots, watched films, eaten plenty and strolled around the streets of Bordeaux for a bit. It all makes things very difficult to get back on the bike as I just want to stay here with my beau. The end is clearly in sight now though, three and a half days up to Roscoff on the coast, ferry to Ireland, three days from Cork to Belfast, ferry to Stranraer and a days sprint up to Glasgow. Seven and a half days riding in total. And then that’s it. The end of Euroloop. I can’t quite believe it.

So I must run, got a few more hours with Kate before I need to set off. It’s a bit ominous up France, I need to do about 375 miles in three and a half days, here goes…..

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Here I am in Provencal France spending some days holiday with my mum and dad in a really nice B&B. It’s slap bang in the middle of a wine making area and the house is totally surrounded by vineyeards, it’s about as ideal as the south of France  gets. I’m in one of the very pleasant sleepy villages nearby at the moment at an internet cafe.

So that’s the end of Euroloop Leg 2 now, around 3000 miles in and 2000 left to go. I’ve actaully managed to scrape another days holiday with the parents than I originally itended, taking it upto 3 days rest.  This is due to discovering that I’ve done about 250 miles more than what I thought up to this point. The extra miles in the bank mean that I can also alter my course through Spain a little too to make life a bit easier.

This week saw me whizzing through North Italy and some really beautiful towns (and some pretty horrible industrial ones too) on super flat roads before heading south to the Mediterranean coast. The Italian coast consisted of town after town jam packed with tourists, cars and scooters making for some pretty hairy riding at times, probably the worst so far. I was back in the land of campsites again for some welcome showers, temperatures are still cooking up to 40 degrees at the height of the day down here. Although I did end up paying a totally ridiculous £25 for one night in a particularly shoddy campsite, tourist rip off.

Crossing the border into France I then had to get past Monaco and into Nice. Why anyone thought that it was a good idea to build Monaco on the most ludicrously steep cliffs I have no idea. Anyway, I am definately not cycling anywhere round there ever again, total killer! There was then a one day sprint along the Cote d’Azur almost to Toulon in order to meet up with my folks. The roads round here are all feel vaguely familiar as I spent a summer working and cycling in this area about 6 years ago. It feels good to be in France where I can actaully vaguely speak the language and ask for things, almost the first time in the trip. I did get very excited about that in Monaco, ran into the first service station I saw to get water and asked what the time was just because I could, only to then get very deflated because the guy couldn’t figure out what I was on about! Never mind, I’ve had better results since then. It also feels good to be in France as suddenly I feel a lot closer to the UK and although there’s still 4 weeks left, I’m starting to be able to view the finish line.

So hopefully the 3 days has given me some valuable rest. My knees, back and bum were all fairly sore before I stopped, I think it’s still due to the massive day I put in a week ago. There was a big grin on my face as I cycled the last 4 km to the B&B, all downhill through vineyards in the sunset, totally stunning. And also knowing I had a small holiday, brilliant. Tomorrow I set off again heading along the coast to Spain and I think my next rest day is a little after Barcelona. I am all tanked up on fresh kit and supplies that ma & pa brought out with them and I’m looking forward to hitting the road again (Although going to miss a proper bed!). Click here to view the latest photos. Au revoir.

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