Day 126
Race to the cheese
Well after the highs of yesterday, today was going to have to pull out all the stops to top it.
We had a plan, we were off to a Cheese Museum. OK no tunnels but we were excited. A much warmer start, even after yesterday’s 70+ miler we were soon in the groove. The route was quite simply bridge-tastic. We cycled along beside a train line, past a reservoir that went on for miles. Bridge after bridge appeared in the distance, sometimes man can destroy a landscape or like today he can add to the beauty.
Soon we had only 6 miles to our destination. We were nearing the cheese! Then ahead we saw flashing lights and men in yellow jackets, this didn’t look good. The road ahead was closed. We had to divert. The cheerful but firm man in yellowed told us even bikes can’t go through. I muttered under my breath that they would have let us in France, I mean what’s more important than cyclists?
The diversion was long, about 35 miles all told. Big hills too. But what about the cheese I hear you cry!
Tom was on the case. Spain is full of dusty tracks that meander between farms. In a few minutes Tom had planned a route through the spaghetti junction. We went up, went down. Beside a railway line, then over it. Straight, left, straight, right, deep sand, then narrow grassy tracks. We were nearly out of water, but 6 miles later we popped out back on our route. Tom Tom!
Except when we returned to civilisation there were more men in yellow, and more taped off roads. Could we go? No! It was 12.50. The Museum closed at 2pm. We were only a couple of miles away, hell, we could almost smell the cheese.
Then the reason for the closed roads suddenly became clear. A cycle race! So we sat by the roadside, shouted out words of encouragement to the riders. 30 minutes the man in yellow said. Well over an hour later we finally got back on our bikes. The museum was closed and we didn’t even see the end of the race, ah well.
