Day thirteen 13th June 2013

Stage 13 Alcaniz to Teruel

92 miles

It had been a very hard Day 12, but yet more beckoned. If we were going to get the same weather today as yesterday, we were going to struggle. Having eaten out at a local restaurant the night before, we awoke to the alarm clocks ringing at 6am. Departure had been set for 7:30am for another punishing day. The first 60 miles of the ride was uphill! God help us. Was Day 13 going to be unlucky for the Fozball Team....read on and find out

We cooked up our own breakfast of porridge, packed our bags, checked over our bikes and finally left Alcaniz at around 8am. We had a gruelling day ahead, with 92 miles to complete over some significant mountain ranges. We needed to get some quick miles in before the temperature became unbearable again. At the 18 mile mark we paused – this was the point where we had completed 1,000 miles, the most any of us had ever done on a tour.

The temperature stayed at around 22 degrees as we pushed on, climbing all the way. Gradients ranged from 3% to 7%, with the odd little downhill stretch. However these were always greeted by another long and straight uphill section. We stopped at Los Olmos at the 27 mile mark, having climbed 2,000ft. Steve had secured a position in the shade near a local school. We ate and drank as much as we could to ensure we could maintain our strength for the long day ahead.

Onwards we went, but this time we noticed that the air temperature did not rise so quickly, we were being cooled by a gentle breeze. The next stop was Escusha at the 49 mile mark. We climbed and we climbed and before long we were entering the town, which appeared to have grown up around coal mining, but the pit and processing plant had been shut down. It didn’t look good, a town in a deep recession. It was sad to see. When we looked up at the mountain ridge that overlooked Escusha, we saw dozens of wind turbines spinning lazily in the breeze. Was it these that had forced the min to close? Were they replacing the power generation potential of all that coal? Who knows. 

Leaving Escusha we headed up again, the temperature soon reached 35 degrees. Oh no, not again we thought. But over to the West clouds were looming, and we kept getting offered the shade of the odd cloud right above us. We could see rain in the distance too. When we reached the top at 1,180m above sea level after a punishing climb, the temperature had plunged to 22 degrees and we descended onto a plateau that lay between two mountain ridges.

 

We pressed on and soon reached the climb up to the second ridge which was at 1,380m, but Matt had got a puncture on the way up and we had to stop for 15 minutes to fix it. Whilst doing so, thunder roared above our heads. The summit was at mile 60, so 32 to go! We descended and got some fast and easy miles in, but we were feeling drained. Rain drops fell every now and then, but it was not enough to soak us through, just a little refreshing!  By mile 75 we stopped again, this time at a place called Alfambra. Steve had found us a small restaurant where we could sit outside and enjoy a cool drink.

17 miles to go, could we do it? We pulled out all the stops and pressed on. Whilst cycling this last stretch, we noticed an old railway line and disused stations all the way along. It looked strange, as if it had been partly restored and then abandoned. Or had it ever been completed in the first place? The line ran right into Teruel but not a single sign indicated what was happening to it. Anyone with any info, please get in touch with the Fozball Team, we would love to know more.

The scenery had constantly changed throughout the day, from barren, rolling mountains to rich and fertile valley floors. What we knew for certain was that it was beautiful:

There was one last surprise, yes, you guessed it, another climb into Teruel. However we did it. We arrived at the hotal having covered another 92 miles. We had spent 7 hours and 35 minutes in the saddle and had arrived at the hotel at nearly 7pm. We still had to do the washing of clothes and bottles, checking of bikes, writing of blogs and going out to find a restaurant to eat. We had averaged 12.1mph which was good considering we had climbed a vertical distance of nearly 2 kilometres! On one of the descents we had reached a top speed of 45mph – not for the faint hearted. We fell onto our beds and dozed. We were shattered, but we had done it. Lady luck had shone upon us today. Moreover, the team had stuck together and was now a strong as ever. We only have 530 miles to go, there is a small light at the end of the tunnel. We could actually do this!

The Fozball Team