2024 Tour to Gibraltar

In Nantes this morning, its overcast with frequent rain showers. My destination is St Cecile which is off route but a couple of days ago, I had a ping inviting me to stop over. from an old Merlin friend.

This ride is for fun, so I am not wanting to cycle 5o+ miles into a strong head wind and rain, so SNCF was used for part of the ride and I finished off  with some light drizzle for the first 20 mins.

Great evening reuniting and talking old shop over beer, wine, whiskey and a meal in the local eating place.

Le Map

Pictures

Bit At

At the end of the train trip from Nantes. Grey squall coming through,  so took shelter for 10 mins before heading off.

Komoot does not get the plan right all of time. I do not appreciate being routed across puncture terrain!

The evening cleared up nicely in St Cecile. Forecast good for tomorrow.

I am heading off piste from my normal route. I have an invite to stay with Tarik, an old Merlin friend. With a strong headwind today, I have broken the journey into two by stopping in Nantes this evening.

Grey, windy and very overcast. Slight drizzle at time but no deluge!

On a different bike this year. Had a mechanical failure on my touring (& old commuting) bike. Not enough time to get new shifters, so last minute switch to carbon. The ergonomics need some adjustment as its not feeling as comfortable as the Alez Elite.

 
And here is todays map!

Nice to be on the road again for the latest tour. Storm Ernesto arrived just as I was setting off. Although the worst of the weather was “oop norf” in the UK, its still gave me a nasty head wind. Fitness levels are not where they should be, so rather than burning out on day 1, I diverted to Rennes and then got the train to Redon where I had a hotel booked. Weather forecast for tomorrow is wet and windy !

Cycling infrastructure in France grows every year I pass through. We need more of this in the UK. On this route, pedestrians and cyclist are separated.

I am not on a sponsor ride but will be riding as much as I can. If the weather is bad, I will occasionally use the train as a fast forward. Here the trains are really set out well, but a reservation for bikes are mandatory. The booking system is a little confusing as on previous occasions, I have been able to book a ticket and reservation via the SNCF app. But for the moment, SNCF wants cyclist to book a reservation for the bike on a completely different website!

Today, I am giving you two maps to look at. The stop button was pushed at the point I decided to divert for a “rail assist”.

Its a “Wrap” tour complete for 2023. Click the black button to the right to see te full route —–>>>>

For those that have been waiting for me to arrive, donations are still open via Just Giving. I am supporting the Royal United Hospital in Bath and also Save the Children UK. Both organizations doing such amazing work at home in the UK with SCUK also supporting international aid efforts.

A quick word on sponsorship. The overall cost to do this challenge was around £3,000. I am self financing as this is something I wanted to do as I get close to 60 (in December!). Some organized charity events use some sponsorship money to subsidize the riders. I can assure everyone that this is not the case here and 100% + Gift Aid will go to SCUK and RUHX.I am covering all  my own costs. So please do give generously 🙂

Back to the ride. The final day as always is one of mix feelings. Yes its great to reach a destination and complete a challenge, but it comes with a side order of sadness for two reasons. Firstly, I am doing this ride in memory of my late father Colin Hawkins. he always followed my previous adventures and I spent a lot of time during the ride thinking of the great  times we had together.

Secondly its all over for a year. For me the fun is doing the tour, not getting to the destination. The best part is at the point when I get on the ferry to France. The whole adventure in front of me.  Where in Spain do I go next year? Yes I am coming back, but its a non-fundraising tour for 2024!

Final map below followed by pictures. Video content will be added when I get back to the UK.

Early start and up there on the hill is the hotel I have just left behind. It can be a bit expensive but managed to secure a great deal using some points via Hotels.com.

This is a view down the Valley towards Malaga. There is a little climbing but the ride is mostly downhill over 55KM.

Total distance for the ride was 1333 Miles or 2145KM  (I prefer KM as its a bigger number!)

Now, behind the castle on the hill is the town of Ahlora! It was a climb to get up to the town and a super steep drop to leave. The combination of broken cobbles and potholes meant it was safer to walk the bike down the hill than ride it.
Two picture taken by random tourist RUHX and SCUK gear 🙂  Permissions granted to both charities to share these images 🙂

A cool beer is the only way to round of a a good ride in hot climates. (Note – during most days when it was not raining, temperatures would peak at 35 degrees Celsius

Today is one of the highlights of the tour. The ride out of Puente Genil is nice and from there it just gets better.

To be honest, I could have easily made it to Malaga today, but El Choro is so amazing, so an overnight stop was definitely needed!

Tomorrow is the final leg. Just a short ride down to Malaga.

After the climb out from Puente Genil, I can see more hills ahead. I did ask the locals to remove the hills to make the ride easy a few years back, but as you can see from the work in the middle, they have not really made much progress!

Started picking up signs for Malaga. A92 is the most direct route, but as you can see, there is a sign to say cyclists will not be welcomed!

Few hill later. A stunning view!

8KM from El Chorro. Views just get better.

And finally, a view from the hotel!

A short spin of just under 50 miles. Still plenty of climbing to be had.

Meanwhile the story in Morocco is unfolding after a major earthquake near the Atlas Mountains. I am in contact with team members at Save the Children to see what support I can provide remotely.

Back to the cycling, a further two days before I reach Malaga. Tomorrow’s run takes me to one of my favorite places “El Chorro”

Sunday morning peleton. I spotted quite a few clubs out on the road this morning. Those hills in the background were climbed a little later by me 🙂
Stopped at this hostel for coffee. Based on the sign to the right, it appears that I am on the Camio De Santiago again.

Spain has loads of these small hostels in villages. Very good value for money. 

And with this being Andalucía,  its proper olive country!

Today the “Flope” was in my favour. Still some climbing needed in places but generally a quick pace down the N Road until my route took me through a nice park area.

The north part of Cordoba where I am staying is very much like Beverly Hills in LA! Some massive mansions. Had a good deal on the hotel and given the 4 star status food and beer surprising cheap.

From here I need to take the most direct route to Malaga. Overnight I lost a bit of sleep due to pain in my back and ankle. Think this is Covid related arthritis from a few months back. Things under control now as I managed to top up on paracetamol!

So from Cordoba, two short legs to Malaga. I have three days on the beach. Ideally I wanted to take in a few extra places, like Ronda, but that can wait until a future trip!

Hotel in the middle of nowhere! It is run by a very friendly wife/husband team. Bar, restaurant and a pool. Great value for money. Hope to call in again on a future tour!
About 8 KM into the ride – another castle!  The village had a pharmacy so I was able to get pain under control again!

There are time when you need to ignore the tech. As you can see, I am on a nice smooth road. Mr Gamin is telling me to leave the road and use the gravel track to the right. This is despite the fact I am set up for road cycling and not mountain biking!
An old rail track was parallel to my route. Possibly used to carry coal to Cordoba and the main lines? Maybe an opportunity to create a new cycle track here?

A shorter ride today as I have just over 200 miles to run and over a week left to do it in. Tomorrow is a rest day and have booked two nights in a rural place with a pool, bar and restaurant.

Regarding places to stay, I will post some links soon listing all the places I stayed at.

The ride passed through some interesting places along the way.

So here we are – Andalucia, my final region. As with over borders, the road surface went from brand new to very poor (but not as bad as the track yesterday).

Over the past 10 years I have cycled through many parts of Spain and this is the first pit I have seen. Like most countries, Spain is moving from fossil fuels and you are more likely to see a wind farm than one of these. There were a number of pits all now disused.

Just down the road from the pit is this disused factory. I am sure there is some interesting history to learn here.

On the map towards the end of my trip for the day, there is a lake (in blue). This is the reality. Its dry and have been dry for some time. As I crossed the viaduct, I could see a cafe/bar/play park which must have closed when the lake dried out.

This is one of those difficult days with a long “Flope” at the end. A “Flope” is a road that gives the impression of being flat but in fact is a slight slope. In todays case, it was 46KM of flopeyness at the end of the ride. The fact there was a head wind just made matters worse.

The ride was bookended by two nice village hotels. Both places were Bar/Restaurants with nice rooms for 30 Euros a night. Both places did good food. And today, the most important thing at the end of a long ride was the cold beer in a frozen glass.

On previous tours I have traveled on a route slightly west of today’s route. Miajadas was one of my favorite spots in wat is considered to be the tomato capital of the EU! A few days ago, I was looking up the Hotel La Toure and could not see it on any of the platforms. Maybe its stopped trading. The impact here is that in Miajadas, hotel rooms went from 21 Euros to over 70 Euros – possibly down to the lack of competition.

Starting out on the first leg. Weather much nicer than it was over the past weekend!  Sunblock on.

Not sure what this is or what it is meant to do. Its in a farming areas and made by somebody who has loads of scrap metals and a welding machine. It was possible to miss this structure due to other things I had to focus on (see below).

From time to time, you hit a rough patch, which is why you need to pay attention when using Komoot as a planning tool. A lot of focus needed here so no damage is caused by potholes. Nearest cycle shop 30KM away if needed.

Its tomato season in this area. Many of these find there way onto roads as they fall off the trucks during transport. Last year I tried playing “Squash the tomato”  with my front wheel as I went along the road. One tomato exploded and got all over the front of my bike. So the new game is “Miss the Tomato”

For many years, I have seen these massive nests. Finally I get to see what lives in the nest!

Weather nice and warm at these lower altitudes. The Komoot app set a route which was straight into a 12% hill for 8KM.  The route would have taken me off the N110 and if you zoom into the map, you will see that I had started to climb the hill.

For start of the climb was really unpleasant. Loads of aggressive flies which made the start of the climb very unpleasant. After about 5 mins of climbing I was faced by a road block to had to turn back and take the slightly longer  path via Plascencia. Given the way the Flies where misbehaving, I think it would have not been so long before I tuned round in any case.

A very convenient and welcome roadblock.

Seen from the Plascencia N110 bypass (South). Radio Ham house set between two large power lines. Wondering what sort of impact the power lines have on the radio quality!

As I head South, this is a view of the mountains that form the South side of the Jerte Valley

Monfrague National Park with a lake. Water levelsseem to be up from last year.

This is a Cafe I stopped at on the 2014 tour. Shame to see it no longer open as it is in the idea location for a pit stop. During the ride, I have seen a few closed places, and this place looks like it been closed for some time. On this road, I was seeing a car about every 10 – 20 mins, so I think its lack of customers rather than Covid 19 that lead to demise of this place.

Over the years, huge investment has gone into new motorways which as had some negative on some businesses likethis.