Day 99: Sequeros (cyclo)

So I'm cycling along when, in the distance, I can see a mountain with a "big white cigarette" upon it. That looks interesting to me, and I think to myself: I'll have to find out exactly where it is and, more importantly, find a route to get to it.

This is what I saw:

And here we see it again, but a little closer:

Shortly thereafter, it dawned on me that, perhaps, what I was seeing was the end of the climb to Peña de Francia, which was in fact the main climb of the day! And, so it was!

Here's a photo taken at the summit looking towards the pueblo I'm currently resident at:

Another summit photo:

My route back to Sequeros took me through La Alberca. It was like stepping back in time. It is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. It is clearly very popular with the tourists. Maybe Easter Sunday helped with the footfall!

Again, today's route effectively ended with a climb ... the last 500 metres were downhill! To get to the downhill, a climb of about 15 kilometres with an average gradient of 3%, with a final 4 kilometres at 5 to 6 percent, needed to be conquered. The temperature whilst on this climb started at about 28.5°C and towards the end was at over 30.0°C. Yes, I did feel as though I was loosing the will to live as the climb was drawing it is end, perhaps it would be the end of me too!

Fortunately, as evidenced by this post, I survived to tell the tale!

Originally, I had a 101 kilometre ride pencilled in for today but, I was feeling pretty tired and wondered whether the heat of yesterday was a litle to much for me. So, opted for a shorter ride, which I'm pretty sure was the correct option to pursue.

• Distance driven: 0 miles
• Distance cycled: 73 kilometres
• Weather: Hot, sunny and not much wind.

Today's route: