Reid's 2014 Bike Ride

so the 2 day ride from albecete to valencia was fairly uneventful. i met another dutch cycle tourer heading the opposite way so passed on my knowledge of the train track. some hairy moments on the freeway getting into valencia but fairly easy riding. id like to thank my sponsors, the morning tailwinds and gravity as i came down off the highlands down to sea level

spent 3 nights in valencia which was fairly quiet due to still being holidays and the locals go elsewhere. hung out with a english guy, irishnguy amd american guy. tried to get in with the german female group of uni students in the hostel but no joy. another goddamn snorer in our room. valencia has this great massive public park that uses the area the main river ran through the city before they redirected the river southnof the city due to flooding. they almost turned it into a freeway but luckily they didnt. a really good use of space and they habe done a goodmjob with it. unlike their "science and art" precinct which while it looked impressive the buildingsare all starting to deteriorate and apparently has been a colossal political shit fight with spending.

left valencia at midday to head to barcelona. road along the coast road with alot of european semi nudity. (some good, some very bad). in the late arvo met rapha a spanish cycle tourist who even spoke english and rode 40km with him. really nice guy with no fixed address and a self proclaimed "gypsy".he was spending a couple days with his girlfriend in the town ahead so i camped in a mandarin farm. (yay for me). he was heading inland after that so we had to say our goodbyes. was good to finally ride with someone.

i had been intending to do 2x 150km days to get to barca. considering the coast is all flat it would have been achievable. but a strong head wind slowed me down and by 4pm id only done 40km. then i took the 'scenic' route in the arvo which ended up being a 20km dirt track which with a fully loaded touring bike was pretty rough and slow. great scenery though as you were right on the water. ended on 95km and had a terrible nights sleep for some reason last night so unlikely ill make it to barca today

28.04.14

saturday had to deal with a bit more headwind, and kept doimg little detours along the nice coastal towns which were in varying stages of weird abandonment. weird amount of construction in progress or maybe was in progress before they realised no body was coming. in think the tourism (especially british) is very seasonal but these were ghost towns.

further up highway luckily realised that the girls selling drinks on the side of the road were actually selling alot more than that.... was about to stop until I clicked.... but jesus these women were rough! i swear eastern europe had sent over the absolute bottom of the barrel. i kinda feel sorry for the spanish truckies who i assume are their clients.

didnt get on the bike until 1pm (more like 11am sun wise). just very tired and slow. day before i smashed out this 25km section trying to break a record so that may have something to do with it.

usually the first 40km are the hardest and then you just settle in. ended up finishing to barcelona after 127km with a really awesome section in the arvo. a crazy winding road around cliffs. pretty crazy but the spanish drivers are vrry considerate and always give you heaps of room. from what i could find it was the only way into barca to avoid the freeways. finally a dash through the city finding some accomodation in the dark.

rest day tomorrow for sure

kinda looks like trick photography