Valladolid
First task of the day: repressurize the rear tire which was almost completey deflated in the morning. Not a good sign. I decided against replacing the inner tube and observe what will happen during the day. It seems to hold air just fine so maybe it’s a glacially slow puncture. No need to worry about that just yet.
Riding that central Spanish plateau is a strange experience. The lowest point I reached during the day was just over 700 m but from how flat it all looks it should be close to sea level. No real climbs today, just the odd ramp up a mesa here and there. For a while I followed the itinerary of the Vuelta a España which had today’s stage starting near the place I spent the night.
I reached Valladolid around noon. The town is markedly more industrial than Léon and its outskirts are riddled with high rise apartment buildings. The historical center was however magnificent. As a culinary highlight I grabbed a durum near the Plaza Mayor; the price was comparable to a German doener but the contents were definitely Spanish as inside the wrap I found pretty much 100 % meat. It was delicious neverthless (or exactly because!) and complemented the short siesta I had as soon as I was out of town again.
Íscar
The plan was to camp out a couple kilometers to the east of Valladolid but it was still only early afternoon so to not let this perfectly good half day go to waste I booked a room 70 km away in Carbonero el Mayor instead. A few kilometers into that distance I was suddenly back on a road with distinct Vuelta signage! Serendipity. Turns out the stage finished in Íscar which was only 15 km away and where I was passing through on my freshly revised itinerary. I had no idea this was the case, perhaps I should have studied those flat Vuelta stages a bit more. Or at all, really.
The finale was expected to happen within the hour so I hasted to Íscar and set myself up about 500 m to go. As the profile suggests the race ended in a bunch sprint which was a quick affair. I’ve been wondering if the Vuelta has a caravane like the Tour and sure enough, half an hour before the action started that silly procession toured along the route like an embarrassing celebration of consumerism. I guess they don’t send it to the climbs for fear of blocking the race.
Soon after all riders had finished I slalomed my way through the crowds to leave Íscar to the south. From there it was another 40-odd kilometers through pine forests which I thoroughly enjoyed. Less fun was discovering the USB connector of the transformer that I’m using with the generator has been rendered useless by the terrible corrosion it suffered during the rainy past couple days. Again. It survived only one day longer that on my last trip. I’m going to have to be more economic with power some more from now on.
190 km distance and a respectable 1200 meters of climbing. What a ride!
gps tracks
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