31-07-2013     Ojedo – Puente Viesgo     132 km

Alarm at 7:15 a.m. so that I can take the breakfast which starts at 7:30 a.m, and not sit alone in my room which is getting rather boring, the more so since also in the evenings I seldom have more contact than a superficial talk - like yesterday evening. An almost 100% clear blue sky welcomes me. Enticing! By force of habit I put on my sun glasses for the morning ride which will take me to the south-east. However, the road is turning all the time, so much of the time the low sun is behind the high mountains close by.

	Oh these beautiful mornings		. . . . .
	What's in store		One of the last panoramas of the Picos

From Potes (300 m) it's up 1050 m till the Puerto Piedrasluengas. Gorgeous ride, with to my surprise great views back to the Picos in the west. It's a long regular climb - 28 km - which I manage without strain and hardly making use of my smallest chain wheel (the 'triple'). For a while I ride up with an Englishman who's making a circuit P-P-P-P (Potes - Puentenansa - Panes - Potes) with his girlfriend, and who stops to wait for his cycling mate (I hope I will meet some companion like that during this lifetime!) at an exit to the north. In fact, that's the road I'm going to take later, but I first want to add the Puerto just mentioned to my 'have been there' list. Around the highest point of the day (and of the days to come) the surroundings get more open, and there are several miradores. I'm less than ten km from the Pico de Tres Mares of eight days ago. Shortly after the pass there's a village, Piedrasluengas, so I descend a little in search of coffee and a bite, which I won't find (though if I had pushed a little I think I would have been served a coffee in someone's garden).

	Shot by English photographer		Last phase to Puerto de Piedrasluengas
	View to the other side of the   . . . .		. . . . Puerto de Piedrasluengas

	One of (at least) three miradores		And another one . . .
	After the dam   . . . .		. . . .   with the dried up lake   . . . .
	. . . .   another stunning section		. . . .   stunning
	. . . .   stunning		. . . .   STUNNING

I redescend to the north, to the tiny road - CA-281 - the Welshman in Medina de Pomar had recommended ('a lovely 35 km descent'). I'm looking forward to a nice hour. In fact the way down takes longer, because I interrupt it with a 'second breakfast' break with coffee and bocadillo con huevos. The first part of the CA-281 is curvy and forestry. After 12 km I pass an almost dried up storage lake, and after the dam the most spectacular, absolutely amazing section (hurray for the Spanish road builders!) unfolds. With a few hairpin bends the road falls into a gorge. After this the valley opens up and I peddle easily to Rianonansa/Puentenansa.

Later it gets more open

And it's warm

In the meantime it has become hot! I do some shopping (again my favorite Danone yoghurt) and while I eat part of it in a shady corner along the street say hello to both the English. In the afternoon I cross three mountain ranges, not so high anymore (around 700 m) between north-south valleys. The climbs become shorter each time, while the temperature rises. I make a not very scenic sidestep via Los Corrales de Buelna, hoping/expecting to find an oficina de turismo there, I still hope to reserve a bed in the youth hostel at Arzantales, but to no avail (i.e. no tourist inform). A sign at a farmacía records 40°. First I take the wrong roads (three times) to find the ajuntamiento, and finding my way out to the east I get lost too - which often happens when I have to cross a railway! I find some coolness at a gas station in the form of shade and a beer. The road is dusty, and again I have to go up. I'm tired! Luckily this last climb is the easiest of the day.

One of two small collados

It gets WARM!

The descent seems quite a bit steeper. I have decided to call it a day in Puente Viesgo (well, that was the destination I had in mind when I left in the morning). Shortly before I reach the town I pass an alojamiento rural, Posada La Anjana, and mainly because I'm tired and it has the same name as the nice hostal in Ojedo I go in to ask for (the price of) a room. I'm not willing to pay € 50,- and tell the innkeeper I'm used to pay 25 to 35 euros. He lowers the price with € 10,-, and I accept. It's indeed the most luxurious room I've had so far, but luxury is not at all what's important to a tired cyclist. I just need a bed, a shower and hopefully some company.

Final ride down

Second night in "La Anjana"

And some food, for which I ride into town, well, to buy things for a salad/sandwich. Puente Viesgo is quite a tourist place with many bars and restaurants. This might have to do with the caves/museum I see signs of (Cueva del Castilla), but am not going to visit. Instead, after the purchase of the necessary nourishments I end up on a terrace with a convenient table for writing. Two beers and one calamares later - I thought I saw a couple eating patatas bravas and asked for 'the same', which appeared to be calamares (for a 'tourist' price of € 11 or so) - I ride home with too much food for the little appetite that is left. I have half a sandwich on the posh porch while the sun sets. When I am about to 'break up' there are sounds of people arriving. Cyclists! An English mum and her teenage son have been riding in the dark at least one hour, after they have been to a campground that wasn't a campground anymore. Pity the prices here are way above their budget (however, I think later, they have a tent, haven't they?!)

Puente Viesgo

Late evening sandwich

  01-08-2013     Puente Viesgo – Balmaseda     147 km

	Quite a luxurious abode		Isn't it picturesque!?
	Woww! Cycle path!		The start of an AMAZING road

At a quarter before eight I'm already on the saddle after again not having seen anyone to say buenos dias to in this most luxurious abode. A little earlier than usual because of the forecast of even higher temperatures today - even in Bilbao 39° seems to be exceptional. A calm start: no climbs, no cars. Cool also; and slightly hazy. The tiny road on the map from Iruz to Villasevil is difficult to find and appears to have been turned into a cycle path. (Quite recently, I suppose, as there's still a billboard stating the amount of euros involved in the project.) I'm riding south through the valley of the Río Pas (I've been following SO many rivers, and I can't memorize more than three I'm afraid - and it's the same with passes) on the east side of the river, and I'm afraid the road may stop short at Gamonal, so somewhere (and there aren't that many opportunities) I have to cross the river, which brings me 'back' onto the N-623 (to my beloved Escalada ;-) After 4 km, around Entrambasmestas (nice name!) I'm glad to leave it for the tiny CA-263. Even though I still follow the Río Pas this is again a road that goes up for 5 km and then down during the second half, to end in Vega de Pas. This is the last village to do some purchases, not that I need much with all the leftovers of yesterday. Well, it's good to have these leftovers, since there isn't any shop in Vega. There is a restaurant though where a nice woman serves me coffee and provides me with today's newspaper. I add two granola bars from my own stock. At the end of the village I finish off my supplies of yoghurt (before it will get bad in my bags) and am informed by too elderly men (mayores, not viejos!) on a bench that the elevation gain to the next pass will be 800 m (in 14 km). The next three hours will be MARVELOUS (again!). First a few km gently going up along a very green slope, during which I go at a slow pace because of a tough headwind and at some point come to a complete standstill when I run into a herd of cows.

	Out into the open		Look whom have we got there!?
	Past the 'obstacles'		Slow ride up
	View back		View up

I think I can already see the road in the distance, high on the other side of the valley of the Río Yera. The road is actually going in two big zigzags from left to right to left to right. At some point I'm about vertically above the point where I was 4 km earlier. The green cirque with the zigzagging road, first above, later on below is absolutely stunning. I can't stop making pictures (also I do not stop, but I make many photos while riding). It's the second-last puerto 'above 1000' and it's absolutely one of the nicest.

	no		words
	needed		. . . .
	. . . . .		. . . . .
	. . . .		. . . . .
	Alas, all good things end		Shortly after that puerto

At the summit, i.e. the Puerto de las Estacas de Trueba, I enter León (in fact Castilla y Leóon) for the last time, and I also enter a different landscape. The south side is more open and more rugged. And it's easy to keep a good speed. Luckily the road does not go down too much, since the last 'above 1000' puerto comes immediately after the Puerto de las Estacas de Trueba.

	View back/up		Nice valley in Castilla y León
	Beautiful mountains		of León
	Next puerto:   Puerto de la Sía		Windy, colourful ride up

In between I do not succeed to make any replenishment in Espinosa de los Monteros (I suppose there must be a shop, but I'm not that desperate to find it), and turn north again on the BU-570, from Las Machorras the BU-571. This appears even more winding (nice!) than I gathered from the map, and in the beginning it's also quite steep. I think it's wise to take a rest, have a 'standard' home-made bocadillo, and don't bother too much about where I'll sit down, as long as it is in the shade. Halfway there's a 1 or 2 km stretch where the slope is easier, and from where I can already see (I guess) the pass (and many windmills). To the north (of the Puerto de la Sia) an open view and a 9 km descent and a 1 km 'climb' (no hard work there) partly along a steep mountain slope (a bit like the road between de Col du Soulor and the Col d'Aubisuqe, only shorter) to the Puerto del Asón.

	And back into Cantabria		. . . .   with a nice view back
	Reminds me of the Cirque du Litor		And the fun isn't over yet
	At the Puerto del Asón		And again: what a view!
	Hairpins at the beginning		You don't need to be high to feel high

At this pass, only 682 m high: what a spectacular view into a gorge to the north! Incredible! Especially the first 2 km downhill, with a few 180 degrees hairpins. Later on it's a fast track along a slope, without any sharp bends. I'm afraid I miss a lot of the surrounding beauty while I need all my focus on the road before me. It's such a long descent, it feels as if it brings me down to sea level, in Arredondo, where I only get off one minute to take off my helmet, and because of the time (I don't have a bed yet) continue 11 km to the east, more or less even, to Ramales de la Victoria. I don't expect to find any shops open at this time (which time?), and am happily surprised to find a pastelería with a terrace out of the sun. I take my time with two drinks and some pastry, and have a short conversation with a local who informs me of the actual time, between two-thirty and three. Not bad.

Last province in Spain

. . . .   with its own roads (and small passes)

Some 40 km to go, but without many changes in altitude. First 3 exhausting km along a busy N-road, against the wind, uphill. Then the C-150, becoming BI-630 when I enter Euskadi (Viscaya, pronounced Biscaya, which explains the BI?), and which confronts me with a long (my impression) climb till only 441 m, at the 'peak' of which I re-enter a Cantabria 'island' in Euskadi for some 5 km. After a beer and an icecream (I'm losing count of these 'sins') in Matanza I have enough stamina to make an extra loop via the BI-3614 through a nice green valley, alas 'downstream', so on the busier BI-2701 to Balmaseda I have to regain altitude, which I do to such an extent that the last 2 km are downhill again. Balmaseda looks large enough to offer some choice of places to stay, but there's only one hotel, which I find after some asking and misunderstandings. It looks nice - it seems like an old monastery - and it looks expensive too. The price for one room: € 54,- which I decline to pay. However, before I've reached Koga the girl from the reception comes after me and tells me that her boss (? - a girl about her age) says € 35,- is okay too. My room is VERY nice, the cappuccino tastes lovely, and dinner is about the most alto cocina (haute cuisine) of two-and-a-half weeks in Spain - and it's only the menu of the day (for only € 10,-). I choose fish on the assumption rodaballo is cod. Well, it is fish, but of a different species (it is actually turbot). Luckily it is easy to manage with fork and knife (no struggle with fish bones for the unexperienced fish-eater'- especially truite aux-amandes is a disaster ) and it is delicious.

Nice hotel

With some luxury again