Day nineteen 19th June 2013

Stage 19 Lucena to Ronda

85 miles

We had stayed in a hotel perched on top of the hills surrounding Lucena. The views were outstanding, but we felt very weary after such a hard slog yesterday – nearly 100 miles in rain and cold with headwinds, lots of climbs and nightmare roads to overcome. The amount of sleep we have had was not enough to recharge our batteries! However, the three musketeers, ably accompanied by Supersteve, tucked into breakfast and before we knew it we were off at around 8:45am. We descended the hillside and when arriving at the T-junction below saw our first sign to Malaga. We were near the coast, we had not seen the sea since the beginning of Day 2, when we were in Dunkirk and could look out across its famous beaches.

We set a steady pace along the N331, with no wind to slow our progress. Before long we were passing through a small town when we spotted what we believe to be the World’s largest chair. We reckon this could be in the Guinness Book of Records, does anyone know?

Some of the towns and villages we pass through are very quiet, almost like ghost towns. We see very few people, most of the businesses seem to have closed down, and generally the pace of life is very slow. Every time we pass through one of these places, it reminds us of Clint Eastwood strolling into town in one of his gun-slinging ‘Wild West’ movies:

Spain seems to have tried to ‘expand and grow’ too fast. As part of this development, they have constructed a major new road network that now seems in many places to be un-necessary. For example, we travelled down the N331 which has now been replaced by a brand new motorway, which seems to take little traffic anyway. Back on the N331, it is absolutely deserted, and yet there is nothing wrong with it:

It does seem that there have been a lot of projects built in Spain that were not really needed and now the country seems to be in the grip of a really difficult and deep recession.

Onwards we went. The temperature had started the day at around 17 degrees and this only crept up to around 22 degrees as we pulled in to our first stop at 25 miles. Steve was on hand as ever with plentiful supplies of food and drink. He has spoilt us rotten but we are not complaining!

We allowed ourselves 20 minutes at the break and soon we were back on the road. The wind had picked up and it seemed to come from the West or North-West. Our route today zigzagged West and South as we worked our way towards Ronda. This resulted in periods where we re-encountered a headwind, and others where we were able to gain assistance from a slight tailwind. It certainly was not as bad as yesterday! We took a slight diversion to avoid a short section of motorway and although this added a couple of miles, we were rewarded by some beautiful countryside and this fantastic tree-lined boulevard:

For several days now we have been cycling through a region that has been completely covered in olive groves – hundreds of thousands of hectares with every available space covered with olive trees. However we noticed that this was starting to change. We started to see some sunflower fields and also wheat fields. Once again, the landscape around us was changing. By 1:20pm we pulled into our second stop of the day and settled down for some lunch in a beautiful picnic spot:

We were still feeling a little weary; we had done 47 miles but still had just under 40 left to do. We had to get as much food down us as possible, it was the only way to get our energy levels back up in time for the 1,750ft climb up to Ronda. Dehydration was also still causing us a few issues so we spent a little extra time over lunch. When we finally departed we enjoyed an exhilarating descent and at the bottom a tranquil lake lay in the valley floor. Steve phoned through to say that the road we had chosen to take after crossing this lake was closed. He had caught us just in time to prevent us climbing out of the valley to find the road closed. Instead we were able to take a quick right hander onto the C-341 and ride a detour route around the problem road. The road closure was probably caused by a land-slide, we have seen lots of them, all seemingly caused by road cuttings that have been dug out at too steep an angle. The views in and around this valley were spectacular, the scenery and landscape in just a few short miles was changing again!

As we finished our diversion and rejoined our planned route the climb up to Ronda started. It went on for around 13 miles, starting very shallow and eventually reaching gradients of 7.5%. This doesn’t seem too steep, but over a long distance with temperatures now rising to 32 degrees, it saps our energy. However at stop 3 near the top, Steve (now Superhero status) was there to top up our drinks bottles and buy us an ice cream! We crested the climb at Puerto el Saltello which was at an elevation above sea level of 885m and from there on in we had a straight and gentle downhill run across the plateau into Ronda

We had done it again, another 85 miles in the bag and only 65 miles now to Gibraltar. Today we spent 6 hours 27 minutes in the saddle, with an average speed of 13.2mph. Overall we have now completed 1,527 miles. We could only have done this by working as a team. Despite all the challenges that England, France and Spain have thrown at us, we are still going and our spirits are high. We just need to take care tomorrow and go at a steady pace and we will achieve our goal. It is amazing to think that if we succeed we will have ridden to the base of Western Europe and effectively the top of Africa! Just one last push tomorrow will do it. Come on the Fozball Team!!.........but hang on a minute, where on Earth did I put my passport?

The Fozball Team