One O/J, a tiny sliver of meat between two small rolls, yesterdays croissant and a cup of hot chocolate that looked like chocolate dredge it was that thick, had Henley up in arms and ready to write an official complaint to the Spanish tourist board, Gordon Ramsay or anyone else that might have given a stuff !
The days riding was to be a large unknown. I`d originally chosen the route simply on the fact that the listed N route road we were following (the N611) was most likely the former main road before the motorway was built next to it, was still in good condition, was quiet and was also likely designed by engineers good enough to have found a way through the Cantabrian Mtns rather than over them - a few assumptions I know !
Our ride started well enough with a good verge although plenty of gradual climbing had us thinking the worst !
We passed by dusty Mataporquera which looked like a town founded solely on nearby quarrying and cement making, hardly a village of the year winner !
The N611 was pretty damned quiet and reasonably well surfaced although it had us working hard in one section as we climbed steeply out of one valley into another.
We took an early brake at a servo not sure what else would be open before cycling a couple of descents that had us worried about `payback`!
Way above us you could see modern engineering at work with the motorway hurrying itself straight through a pretty significant mountainside on its more direct route towards Santander.
Past Reinosa we entered the real mountain terrain of the Cantabrians with narrow valleys and high cliff faces.
To our astonishment instead of climbing we in fact commenced an amazing winding 10 km descent at speed passing struggling roadies diving it tough going the other way.
We whispered thx to the God of cycling while marvelling at the road engineers who'd succeeded in moulding the old main road through these narrow valley passes
Eventually we exited the exciting downhill near Los Corrales due Buelna a fairly large town before one final climb and descent entering through the industrial verges of the large town of Torrelavega only 25 km from our final European destination at Santander.
Kev chose our hotel based on its proximity to the nearby fruit shop and after just beating in a bus load of Spanish tourists we did what we do best a) searched aimlessly
for an English speaking TV station and the TDF and b ) Fell asleep (see a healthy looking Henley) after failing with A!
A walk around town confirmed our initial thoughts of Torrelavega as being big & ugly !
Our nights planned entertainment is to see whether we can stay up long enough to have dinner after last nights ridiculous episode when our Hotels restaurant did not open till 9p.m. (apparently not unusual in Spain) forcing us to attack the local supermarket.
Tomorrow will encompass a short ride to our 4 star Hotel at Sentenced 50 metres from the beach!
This will be followed by a civic reception, the presentation of the keys to the city, a parade through town in the accompaniment of a bevvy of beautiful women ..........Woops, sorry must have dozed off again !
Time at last for some long overdue R&R before tackling the UK !
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