To the coast
When I rolled out of the B&B in Lekunberri it had barely dawned. The road to Tolosa consisted in a downhill through a gorge so it took quite a while before I actually saw the sun. Lots of cyclists riding up that valley at an early hour and they kept coming for the entire time I rode down there. Same for the climb out of Tolosa – almost as though every single person living in that area was out for a saturday morning ride. With my quite heavy load I could barely follow the others uphill on that ever rolling terrain; admittedly it sucks getting dropped by Basque grandpas in orange Euskaltel jerseys.
Tolosa is the first town I visited in Basque Country proper in the province of Gipuzkoa. There’s Ikurrinas everywhere, Basque dudes walking around with txapelas on, graffiti calling for the repatriation of ETA terrorists – no stereotype was left out. From Tolosa it’s not far to the sea but one has to earn it, in my case the route to Zarrautz involved numerous steep climbs in short succession on abysmal roads (concrete, not tarmac ...) that are in a state of concerning disrepair. Then, complete the symbolic Basque picture I was rolling through today, the whole town of Zarrautz was out in the streets wearing traditional costumes. I didn’t find out what the occasion was, but the txapela density reached epic proportions.
Biscay coast
Down at the beaches the dresscode was a bit less formal. Since there’s not that many of them in the first place among the rocks, beaches tend to announce themselves kilometers away by way of endless columns of parked cars. In between them there’s a gazillion of short climbs that make one accumulate altitude as quickly as in the Alps despite never reaching 300 m above sea level. Less cylicsts down here, which is a shame as the coastal road is a joy to ride in little traffic and the panorama of the sea is breathtaking.
Another long day in the saddle with 166 km distance covered and an unreal 2050 m of climbing despite hugging zero altitude for the better part of the day.
gps tracks
gallery
