San Jamie to Gata de Gorges
After an evening of pursuing a couple of cockroaches around the house(both finally caught and dispatched) it was an earlyish start of 7.55am for the ride in order to avoid the excessively hot weather. Even then the temperature was already 28 degrees rising to over 32 degrees C by the end of the ride.
Only one rider, Chris, set off from San Jamie for a fast 100m descent to the Mediterranean coast line. At the end of the descent the front brake was making a horrendous noise and was overheating – possibly the pads were down to the metal (a job for the afternoon). Anyway having given the brakes a quick check over Chris carried on.
From the coast it was then a very hot 275 metre plus climb up to Benissa followed by Senja and Lliber. Turning right at Lliber the road continued to climb for a bit until a predominantly downhill run through olive groves, vineyards and pine forests to Gata de Gorges. There were plenty of cycle groups out including at least one professional team with support cars in tow.
Another short climb followed up to Jesus de Pobre where the road then levelled out with a fast run of about 5 miles averaging 27mph to Javea. Yet another climb up to Benitchell with the temperature rising then a another fast ride down to Moraira on the coast.
Finally it was the last killer climb of 100 metres from the sea back up to San Jamie leaving the rider dissolving in a very large pool of sweat at the finish.
Total Distance 34.86 miles
Average Speed 14.71mph
Total Ascent 788 metres
Rider: Chris S
North Norfolk Wheelers 