Feeling hot hot hot

Day 10 - Tuesday 14/09/2010 - Aranjuez to Ciudad Real - 87 Miles

First off, a message to my family at home, we have a short phone call each day, but I hope these words and pictures help you get at least a small taste of the great experience I am having, along with everyone else. It's hard to believe that people such as myself and a good proportion of the others had no cycling experience less than a year ago and we have now covered over 900 miles. I really value all the support you are giving to me every day.

Right, now onto the days news...

Just for a change we left last, at around 9:30. This time it was me, Tim S, Guy, Neil and Rob, we took a quite tour of the town to look at an impressive palace and then rode out of town, almost immediately we hit a long straight climb, which I led, but as I handed over at the top I suddenly found I had almost no energy, it seems the cold I though had nearly gone was having a last hurrah at my expense.

We rode through some urbanised areas and then into farmland with rows upon

rows of olive trees and finally into open country, with some long undulating roads, during this morning session I found it really tough and after a while Neil and Rob left us behind.

We finally got to the first stop to find the van had not arrived and most of the others had already left for the lunch stop, but we linked up with Neil and Rob, along with Andrew G, Tim F, Joe, Andy H and Caroline. We purchased coffee and cakes at a local cafe, after consuming these we brought some bottled water and set off, although the others got a call from the van and went to meet them to get their water supplies.

It was 35 miles to the lunch stop, I was feeling much better after the break, even though it was now getting very hot, if you stopped the heat was almost unbearable, we now have a pretty good idea of what it is like to be a roast chicken!!.

The roads were undulating, but there were no steep climbs that take away all your pace. Tim S, Guy and I got into 'fast cruise' mode, working hard but just below the level where you drain your energy reserves, helped massively by slipstreaming behind each other, we covered the 35 miles in 1 hour 50 minutes, so over 20mph average and apart from being hot and hungry, we felt no after effects at all.

Lunch was in the plaza of a small town, we ate well, but did not hang around as it was getting even hotter and we wanted to get the last 21 miles to the hotel out of the way as soon as we could.

This time we were joined by Joe, Rob, Neil, Andy H and Tim F. Neil, Rob and Joe soon left us behind, but Andy H had suffered from a lack of water in the middle session and stuck with us. After a few miles we caught up with Rob, who had been unable to keep up with Neil and Joe, we passed Caroline and then Derek, plus Pete and David P (who were fixing a puncture), at the outskirts of town we ran into Barnaby and Jamie who were waiting for someone with a Garmin to help them find the hotel. We cruised into the town, passing a sign showing the temperature at 4:30 was 42 degrees.

After checking into the hotel, many of us took the first opportunity to jump into the hotel pool and finally cooled down, or at least we did when we were in the shade.

Neil being sensible

Guy and Hannah keeping cool

After all day in the sun
some want more !!

This evening at around 7:15, we went into town to look for a place to eat, as the hotel restaurant did not open until 9, but it turned out none of the other places did either. For the first time in Spain we had arrived at a reasonable time and now we had to wait !! A number of us found a bar and eventually had a nice outside meal to end the day.

P.S. Mike Spencer is a member of AUDAX UK, a strange group of cyclists who enjoy riding long distances in all weathers. In order to get some sort of certificate, he needs to cycle a 200km ride every month and has decided tomorrow is the perfect day to do that for this month !! Given the temperatures will be similar to today and the ride will be unsupported, some may think he's not quite sane, but young Steven Pipes has agreed to keep him company. All being well, we will link up with them again in a couple of days.