You are now at post Nr. 09 out of 10 for this tour.
If you want to read the post of that trip in order, voilà:
00a Freiburg – Barcelona preparation
00b Freiburg – Barcelona READY to go
01 Freiburg – Lake Neuchâtel (206km, 1200m)
02 Lake Neuchâtel – Geneva (119km, 968m)
03 Geneva – Lyon (167km, 1585m)
04 Lyon into the Cevennes – on climbing and descending… (157km, 1885m)
05 Lac St. Martial – Tarn (187km, 2900m) Prototype of THE cycle touring day
06 Tarn – Carcassonne (203km, 2683m) – A long day in 3 dimensions
07 Carcassonne – Casteil (148km, 2635m) Arrival at the ‘base camp’
08 Walking over the Pyrenees and cycling down into Spain (110km, 2671m) – reality checks
09 Hot as hell. Tortellà, Costa Brava, Canet de Mar (145km, 1468m)
10 La Final: last 48km to Barcelona & recap. What a tour…
Yes… you’re right. This post is delayed. About 9 months delayed! My apologies. The previous post was about pretty much the climax of my trip in 2017, so telling that story felt kind of complete. But I need to finish this, because only then I can tell you about the next CRAZY cycling-thing that’s coming up for me!
So, let’s keep this brief… A story rather in pictures and video clips.
One more post about the very last little stage and a short trip summary will follow within the next days. (This post is about the 2nd of August 2017, written on the 20th of May 2018 in Berlin, Germany)
The previous blog post ended with me getting some rest in my hotel room in Tortelà, after a crazy crazy day and after meeting my friends Marion and Thomas. This next morning started in a similarly relaxed way: Marion and Thomas had invited me for an extensive breakfast and a swim in the pool of their super luxurious chateau-hotel. And because for that day I had only a 140km ride planned there was no need to hurry.
Temperature in the morning at 10h: about 30°C. Time for the pool:
One group selfie with Marion and Thomas. Thanks so much, you two!
Getting ready in the garden of the Chateau:
And on the road again, and a bautiful one, and for now mostly downhill:
My bottle cages were still broken from the stress the previous day, so had to improvise:
And passing Besalu, where the night before I was with Marion and Thomas for Dinner (by car though), this is the apparently famous Pont (bridge) de Besalu:
At some point found an excellent bike shop in Banyoles. They were incredibly helpful and gave me great advice on even a simple thing like bottle cages, and this was also a perfect opportunity to refill my water bottles that were empty already after these just 21km..:
“Hells Angels” in French:
After climbing a last mountain ridge before the Mediterranean Sea, there it finally was in the distance, looking onto the city Calonge:
Already along the Mediterranean Coast at the Costa Brava:
My original heuristic was: “Coastline = flat”. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Right around the hottest part of the day I had to face the toughest climbs along the Coast; but again, climbs mean descends:
I was already looking forward to cycling through Lloret de Mar – I guess because my way of spending my holidays was so much different from the way Lloret is famous for. Still, in that moment I shared some features with presumably many of the Lloret tourists: My passion for calories in combination with not really caring what exactly it is I’m eating…
Slowly approaching the destination of that evening: A campsite in Canet de Mar (50k before Barcelona), still along the coast.
Just 3km before Canet (!) I got a puncture. Of course I was in principle well prepared: pump, spare tube, patches etc.. But it all doesn’t help if that crappy piece of s*** pump fails me again (like a previous time). It is SO poorly designed; and it deserves to be name shamed here: The TopPeak Racerocket. Do not buy it!! It ruined the valve of the spare tube and rendered it and itself useless. Luckily there was a kind cyclist from a neighbouring village passing by and helping me out. The pump ended up in the trash the same evening, accompanied by a feeling of celebration, relief and revenge.
At some point around 21h, much later than I had planned, I arreived in Canet de Mar, welcomed by my dear friends and colleagues Pascal and Anneke. A cold beer, swim in the pool and… ZZZzzzzzzz…….
It was a great day, with incredibly beautiful landscape, crazy hot – in fact one of the hottest days in that region that summer: around 36°C, probably I drank 6-8 liters of water that day…
I took it quite easy, but also underestimated how exhausting the day would be.
Stats of the day:
and the route:
CYCLING TOURIST 