Vaucluse Dreamer

Today was one of those days that is best split into 3 parts

Before coffee … Glorious

Before lunch … Hideous

After lunch … Longer and steeper than planned.

Let’s start with before coffee. We left the hotel as it opened, just after 8, wheeling our bikes out of the wonderfully secure room they have available, and pedalled off up the drive.

The ride into Igualada took us along the road, lined with Plane trees, the low morning sun playing peek-a-boo between the trunks and leaves. It was all rather beautiful.

We were obviously out and about before everyone else was awake, as we had an easy ride through the town, before making our way up into the hills, on our way to Manresa.

It was the start of what we knew would be a climbing day, and the hills started as they meant to go on, but the road was quiet, with just a few cars making their way across to where it joined a more major route. We quickly stripped off the layers and were soon riding just in our jerseys, much to the amusement of local cyclists, who were dressed for winter (one even with a snood pulled up over his mouth)

As we reached the top of the first main rise, the views opened out in front of us, with the sun catching the rocky summit of a distant range of hills. We stopped to admire the view and catch our breath, before cycling on again.

Once the few cars had turned off, we found ourselves on what must have been the old road and it really was quite magical. In a few places, we’ve seen where new roads have been cut straight through the old ones, which have been left to grow over with grass. Here though the road has been kept as it was and runs alongside, the new one.

It was busy with Sunday morning cyclists and no other traffic at all today, making it the most perfect cycle path. It was like riding along a children’s rollercoaster, with the rises and falls of the road & the way it sneaked from side to side of the new road, which was busy with traffic.

The woodland was carpeted with pale purple and pink heather and it really was the most beautiful piece of road to ride along.

We seemed to arrive in the large town of Manresa, much more quickly than we had thought we would, so we stopped for coffee, munching a croissant too, as we’d left the hotel before breakfast & were already peckish, knowing that from here we would be climbing for a very long way.

Whilst in town, we stocked up on a few other supplies, not exactly the healthiest of shops, but we knew we were going to need all the energy we could get. With smiles on our faces, we set off again following the road to Vic.

Getting out of Manresa was a bit stressful as the junction we needed followed the same route as getting onto the motorway, and we knew that if we missed the  slip road we needed, we’d be on the main Barcelona to Lleida route and that would not be good in any way, shape or form.

When we planned the route, I’d looked at the road we planned to take across to Vic and it looked quiet, with just the occasional car passing the Google camera. There was no reason why it would be busy, as the motorway followed exactly the same route, just a few kilometres away, so most traffic would be using that. Or at least, that was what I imagined.

Yet the moment we turned onto the road, motorway levels of traffic started passing us. This was not what we had in mind, as we knew that we had 26km of what was going to be slow climbing ahead, and doing it in ‘motorway’ conditions was really quite scary.

Over the last week, we’ve ridden along busy roads, but they seemed easy in comparison to this. In fairness 99.9% of the drivers were respectful, giving us space, but 2 close passes (one in particular) set my nerves jangling and my legs quivering, but there was no option to stop and gather our nerves again as it was too busy and we had to keep ploughing on.

Also, the rest of the Spanish motorcyclists that didn’t pass us yesterday, passed us today. All in all it was a really unpleasant, tough climb that I am happy never to do again in my life!

That said, at one point the trees disappeared and we had a glorious uninterrupted view across to the Pyrenees. We pulled off the road for a moment and just admired the view, listening to the cowbells above the traffic. It was as relaxing as this ride got!

Finally, we arrived in the village of Moià and pulled off the road, onto a bench for a sit, a rest and a general calm down. We still had some climbing to do (yes even after 26km) and needed to brace ourselves for the last push through the traffic.

As we were sitting there, we watched a couple of cyclists on e-bikes pull up at the lights and then as they started to pull away there was a sickening crack and the chain of one of the bikes broke, bringing it to a sudden stop. We remember this happening to Andy last year, when we cycled to Provence from Devon and it’s a real ride-ending issue, if it can’t be fixed.

Happily Andy had his chain tool and went over to see if he could help, worrying how he’d be able to do this in Spanish, when we can just about order coffee and beer! But it turned out that the chap was french and from Lodève, so communication was easy. Within a short time, the chain was back together again and they were able to continue with their ride.

Whilst Andy had been helping with the bike, I chatted to his partner, who knew the area we were in well and when I said about the busy road, she suggested a different route for us, which would mean we would avoid the final steep climb on the main road. We watched them go on their way, happy to see them pedalling off into the distance, and decided to take her advice.

It turned out to be both a blessing and a curse

The blessing was that the road turned out to be much quieter. The curse was that we ended up climbing 200 metres and 6km more than we would have done on the original route. It’s fair to say that we were shattered.

It was a lovely ride though, taking us up further into the hills, on a quieter winding road, with glimpses of views to the distance.

We cycled through Plane tree lined avenues leading into pretty villages and finally thought we had finished the climb, only to turn into the final road towards Vic and start heading uphill again.

Over the last 8 days of riding, we’ve climbed well over 9000m, the equivalent of riding up Mont Ventoux every day, and the last thing we wanted to see was another leg-sapping climb. But there is no option, we had to get to Vic and so kept turning the pedals.

We stopped again to admire the view, which really was quite spectacular and kept going up, with no idea of how much further we had to climb.

Just as our sense of humour was on the verge of failing, we came over a rise and started heading down a free-flowing hair-pinned road, dropping off the hills that we seemed to have spent all day climbing.

Our sense of humour returned with each bend in the road, and when we finally cycled into Vic, where we had booked a little townhouse for the night, we were exhausted, but able to muster a smile.

We got the exciting tasks of doing a bit of shopping and washing all our kit (don’t underestimate the joy of having a washing machine), before mustering enough energy to have a little walk into the town centre before supper

We were so pleased that we did. We booked the house here as it was where we could find accommodation on the way through to Girona and had no idea what sort of place it was.

The answer is that it’s incredibly beautiful, lots of amazing buildings, with stunning stonework..

Narrow streets that lead to the most amazing town square, which was filled with the babble of voices from people at the bars and music from musicians too.

It was such a surprise and we only wished we had the energy to sit at a bar and enjoy the atmosphere. But everyone was arriving looking dressed up and ready to party, and we were yawning & ready just for supper and bed.

Tomorrow, we head onto Girona, starting with a big climb, before what should be a nice downhill, but after today, who knows ?

Tonight though it’s time to put our feet up and relax … Over 800km completed and our next rest day in sight.

As with last year’s ride, we’re having a great time and using it as an opportunity to raise some funds for our local Restos Du Coeur in Apt. So if you’re enjoying following our journey and would like to support this much-needed and well-used organisation then you can  Donate via this link