The Rain in Spain.....

After such a great day of riding yesterday, we were ready to see what today held. After a yummy breakfast in the cool hotel restaurant, we headed down for our Route Rap. Tim was our tour leader for the day, with Christian and Max in the vans. He gave us the details on the morning’s 43k (25mile) ride, which had some good up and downhills.

Ken decided to hang back with Donna and I, as he had gotten the speed out of his system yesterday. We left the hotel, following our individual gps’s that are mounted on the handlebars with our routes, which are so much better than the old paper directions that we have

used in previous trips. The route was on a very narrow road, in the midst of the vineyards and with very few cars (which is never a bad thing). We climbed along the ridge and the views were amazing in every direction, which turned out to be the theme for the day.

Over the next 2 hours, we did some pretty good climbs and then of course, pretty good downhills and all with incredible views the entire way. Around every corner, we would say “wow!! Look at that!!” and take a few more pictures, which I am sure won’t do it justice. Since we took the normal route and most of the group took the longer route (it added an additional 5 miles and a had a significant climb) we were the first group to arrive at our little village for lunch in the outdoor square.

Paige and Justin, from Austin had joined us on the normal route as

she has been feeling under the weather, so while she went in search of a pharmacy for meds, we took advantage the food already set up on the tables. It was family style and had wonderful fresh salads, vegi dishes, Spanish croquettes and a cold tuna dish that Ken couldn’t get enough of. Sitting on the beautiful old square, eating amazing Spanish food after an awesome ride was a perfect way to spend our break.

The rest of the group arrived and gave us the update on the longer route, which had a bunch of mud, so we were glad we missed it! The weather has been iffy all week, but luckily we had escaped any further rain after the drizzle when we first started yesterday. There were two options again for the afternoon, with the longer being another pretty hefty climb. Our trip leaders suggested that if anyone had done the long option that morning, the should not do the afternoon due to the fatigue factor.

Donna, while she had really done well so far, decided she was done for the day and Paige decided the same, so they were going to take the boost back to the hotel. I was ready to roll the last 20k back, so Ken, Tim (tour leader) and I hit the road while the others were finishing up lunch.

Soon after leaving, the sprinkles began and soon it was pouring with us just starting down a pretty good downhill. Not only am I not a great downhiller, but now it was even worse with slick roads, so I reduced my ebike gears to 4, which really slowed down the bike without cranking on the brakes.

After making it to the little village where we stopped for coffee, the rain started to slow and we decided to keep on going. While were

stopped and deciding if we needed to grab the van, Tim got word that due to the rain, most of the group called it a day and were getting the boost from lunch. Luckily it had pretty much stopped at this point, so we cranked it up and pedaled the 7k back to the hotel.

Since everyone was accounted for, Tim took us on a little detour into our little village of Elciego and gave some color commentary on the old buildings and culture before finishing the ride at the hotel.

Our evening activity was in the walled village of Laguardia, about 15 minutes away via the vans. The first stop was to a small winemaker, whose family has been making wine for 500 years. Underneath the village are over 600 caves, which were originally built for defense, but now are used to store wine. This was such a different experience than what we had seen the night before at Marques de Rescal, which was high tech, while Javier’s production was quite manual and low tech…but still produced great wine!

Our dinner was on our own, and we found Dona Blanca, a local bistro outside the walls of the village. We had an amazing dinner of fried artichokes, the best caprese salad (totally fresh tomatoes), duck and amazing meatballs with a cream sauce of truffles. Truly wonderful. It was time to head to the van and back to the hotel, where Donna, Ken and I had one last night cap before heading to bed.