Amanda and Rhys are nearing the end of their journey from Barcelona to Malaga, and continue to avoid the passing snow storm. Today’s destination: Granada.
Catch-up:
Quesada – Granada
- 139km
- 1,890m
Our day off in Quesada yesterday was as lazy as we could manage, although the tall narrow house with one room per floor didn’t exactly give us a break from climbing. We spent most of the day snacking on the sofa whilst flicking through TV channels in search of good news, but there wasn’t any to be had. There’s a snow storm passing through Spain and the same images of bundled up weather reporters pointing at foot deep snow and immobile cars was enough to encourage more sleep.
Today’s ride starts with a descent away from Quesada, which is great in the moment but it also makes the first hill of the day feel like gravity has increased. We’ve got stunning views to keep our wheels turning, and despite the snow storm warnings fresh in our minds, the sky is clear. It’s very cold though, so keeping moving is both favourable yet really challenging given the load in our legs after almost two weeks on the bike.
We’re headed for Granada today, and we’ve somehow managed to convince Rhys’ dad, Angry John, to meet us there. He has an apartment in Torrox Costa on the south coast and the offer of a tourist day in Granada followed by a descent of Carretera de la Cabra was too good to resist. La Cabra is an old road from Granada to the coast, and it’s the sort of road you see photos of online and want to experience. Riding through tunnels in the rock as you contour around the edge, with a huge consequential drop down to the valley below on the other side. Angry John has roped his good friend John Andrews into coming, so the two John’s are meeting us at an apartment we found last night.
Latest Singletrack Merch
Buying and wearing our sustainable merch is another great way to support Singletrack
Our day has been incredibly scenic with a backdrop of snowy mountains and a foreground of neat plantations. We’re approaching the most significant uphill section of the day, currently cruising along undulating tarmac, when suddenly I hit something with such a force that all my food and drink explodes off the bike, and I almost get thrown into the deep banking alongside the road. I’ll never know how I managed to save it, but I’d like to think that the weight of the bike came into play at this moment. Rhys takes my bike off me, calmly observes that if I hadn’t stayed upright I could well be dead as we were hauling at around 50km/h, and then he goes to investigate what caused the near crash. On the entrance to a bend in the road, there are some warning strips for cars that are obscenely square edged and deep. They stand around 5cm off the surface, and are clearly well known to the road users as every passing car is going onto the opposite side of the road to avoid them. Once I had recovered enough from the shock to carry on riding, we tentatively set off whilst discussing how fantastic my Arrow Wheels with Specialized Pathfinder Pro tyres are. I should have bent a wheel on that impact, but I didn’t even get a puncture.
The rest of the day is pleasant enough, there’s a lot of climbing but we’ve got a tourist day to look forward to tomorrow and we’re so close to the end of the trip that it doesn’t feel like too much of a worry to completely obliterate our legs. We finally begin the approach to Granada, noticing far more cyclists than we’ve been used to seeing and the landscape starting to build up to an urban area. There’s a beautiful blue reservoir on the outskirts of the city, and from here all the way to the apartment we’re twitching like pigeons, glancing in every direction at the architecture, restaurants, cycle paths, awkward road junctions and everything else that makes a city stand out. It’s a busy place but it doesn’t feel like a stressful place to ride. Cars are predictable and stick to the rules unlike some of the rural areas we’ve been riding through, where it seems laws don’t apply.
Of course, our apartment is up one of the steepest roads in the city, but it’s worth it for the view from the balcony. The two Johns are already there and raring to go out on the town. Their tales of how challenging the journey was are a great distraction from our own discomforts. We may have been riding for almost two weeks, but they rode with backpacks on so are probably more in need of a beer than us.
Exploring Granada
Rhys has found a way to ruin his day, and I spend the morning having a lie in before heading into the city centre to find the Johns who were up and out early in excitement for their city break. By the time I find them, they’re several beers in and Angry John is impressed that I managed to locate them in a place so big (he’s forgotten I have him on FindMy). We enjoy an afternoon wandering around the shops and bars, but when it comes time to get back to the apartment and make dinner plans I feel like a parent trying to round up toddlers. John Andrews is drawn toward every tat shop he sees, whilst Angry John has realised he’s missing his wife Christine enough to want to buy her a gift. It takes some time for me to convince him that a cast iron teapot set is not the way to go when gift shopping on a bikepacking trip.
Rhys’ Bonus Climb
Words: Rhys
We were in Granada with John and Jandy for a couple of nights; which meant either a bonus rest day or a bonus day riding without all the bikepacking clobber. Being in close proximity to the longest, highest road climb in Europe, who was I to spend the day wasted on rest. I loaded up my front rack with jackets and gloves for the descent and set off for the Sierra Nevada and Pico Veleta. Topping out at ~3392m beyond the top of a ski resort I knew I wasn’t going to make the summit in early March but I sure was committed until I reached the snow line.
The route I chose was naturally the hardest one available; via the savagery that is the Haza Llanas climb. A brute in its own right with 7km averaging 10% gradient, let alone in the middle of a much larger climb to the snow barrier at Hoya de la Mora. I breathed, sweated, struggled and churned my way up Hanza Llanas, topping out at 2200m where the air was getting cold and thin. Things were easier from here, 7% feeling flat compared to the brutality below. I rejoined the main road and shared the sunshine with daytripping families and their cars decorated with skis…
I managed to get past the snow barrier at 2500m and had brief dreams of making it to the top on the off chance the road was clear. Luckily for my sanity (and fingers) snow enveloped the road at 2700m. After a quick photo shoot at the ski piste map I donned all of my layers, including down jacket, double buffs and two pairs of gloves.
If you’ve ever descended from high altitude by bike you’ll know the sensation of the thin air barely exhibiting any drag on your body as you accelerate through your sea level terminal velocity and reach scary unfamiliar speeds. Exciting but not without its risks. Frostbite in this particular case. The multiple gloves weren’t enough and I had to stop every 5 minutes on the descent to save freezing my fingers and losing the ability to brake entirely.
As I made my way down the main road back to Granada I was greeted by numerous World Tour pro’s on their team training camps. The descent seemed to go on forever. It was in fact over an hour of high speed road descending. Not a bad exchange for a rest day.
