Geoff Jones

Today started with no real breakfast as all, as the Auberge was only offering a coffee and a cellophane wrapped bun 🙁  But I guess for €25 a night it’s all to be expected.

At 8.15 outside it was a cold morning, only 7 degrees which in shorts & tee shirt is cold! I had to put my rain jacket on. In fact I didn’t get warm till 11.30 with the sun out full blast. Adding to the cold was the fact I couldn’t find a bread shop 🙁

For some reason at Luco de Jiloca the route left the N-234 and took me down some of the worst stony lanes yet! At one point it was pedal height in water 🙁 I at to persevere for over two miles before I could hit the tarmac again 🙂

It wasn’t until after 22 miles I found a bread shop and cafe open in Monreal del Campo quite a thriving community compared to the very poor villages like Baguena. All stoked up even with a banana and an apple I set of warmed up at last.

The route was then a totally deserted road to Villafranca and its rather empty bread shop & rather sad bar, Later I found myself on yet another old rail track going around  the huge chipboard factory and then going past the Caude-Teruel Airport apparently it’s used for storing upto 225 aeroplanes 🙂

Finally it was a 500 foot drop down from 3,300feet to Teruel plus a pedal up through the town to the Hostel Aragon, a great find right in the centre and very adequate accommodation, The town itself has quite stunning architecture and feels very prosperous,

The 61 mile ride and nearly 1000 feet of ascent is on Strava

I tried uploading pictures to my SmugMug account here, but alas it has gotten itself all screwed up 🙁  So it’s back to Dropbox here, but I’m still seeking some software that will display the location of the images on a map like Picasa used to do 🙂

The heart rate is here:

The more observant of you may wonder what happened to Day23, the answer is not much! I basically I flew back out to Zaragoza on Ryanair for considerably less than the flight the other way! Just as well I called in at home as the central heating had deflated so when Nest told it to wake up nothing would have happened 🙁  The flight back was uneventful except for getting some great aerial pics 🙂 The taxis refused to take me to the hotel (to close I suspect) so told me to to get on the bus instead, The Hotel Diagonal Plaza is OK except for lack of staircases and a shower like in a second rate British B&B 🙁 Their dinner was nothing to write home about either.

So today it was Geoff meeting the Sistema Ibérico mountain range with it’s over 3000 feet passes 🙁  I left Zaragoza on a very stony path alongside The Canal Imperial de Aragón before hitting the really quiet N-330 road, lots of road bikers around all of them happily waving to me. Compare and contrast to Germany 🙂

I noticed that the front light was looking rather limp, poor things bracket had suffered metal fatigue and sheared in two 🙁 I started searching the industrial estates for the likes of McKays but to no avail. Eventually at a garage I worked out a scheme using ty-raps to hold it in place until the next bumpy track.

Then it was the major climbs, really interesting to see how the road has grown over the years, as I crawled up, from a twisty track to the highway I was on to the motorway zooming over my head

The town of Daroca is quite stunning with its castle and medieval centre, should have stopped there but I had booked the Albergue in the next village at Baguena.

A great days biking in excellent weather. Strava says I did 67.9 miles and 3,285 feet of climbing and I’m well pleased with the 11mph too, given the stony track & cruising around industrial estates 🙂

Todays pics should be here

and the heart data is here: