Yesterday was a simple day, get lunch, collect my hire bike and go for a ride later. The bike hire shop was about a 30 min walk the other end of town so we were ready for something to eat when we got there. We enjoyed a club sandwich sat in the courtyard of the Campanario Centre, a small shopping complex that hosts markets and live music.
Food done, Sally and I parted ways and I went over to the bike shop which was temporarily shut according to a sign on the door. 5 mins later the guy that was running it rocked up and said he’d had to fix the rear derailleur on a customers bike.
Initially the guy didn’t seem to know what was going on, like I’d caught him by surprise, but he did eventually wheel me out my Cube Reaction Pro for the week. Looking around at some returned bikes, they were covered in mud. The resort had suffered quite a bad rainstorm in the days prior to arriving which had caused some localised flooding which was evident on the bikes.
I took a slow ride back to the hotel and popped the bike in the bike store. It was a bit soon after my lunch to go out so I chilled for a bit and waited for Sally to return before I mustered the enthusiasm to get changed and go.
I pulled the bike out of the bike store and removed the saddlebag to check the contents and found the straps were so worn they were hanging by a thread. Pockets it was then, however the bike was in better shape than the last bag of nails I had. The next size up felt better too.
I had some issues getting my GPS to work again. Seems to record but showing a route is proving difficult recently despite me clearing all the offline maps off and starting again. I lost my rag with it in the end. I knew the route so I just let it be and rode around the back of town to pick up the gravel coastal road. Initially it was fine, the usual potholes and washboard service gave way to some puddles which I had to scoot around.
Then I came across one big one which had engulfed the entire width of the road. A guy was standing in it above his ankles, I think, to see if his campervan could get through it. I bit the bullet and rode through it to the amusement of his girlfriend. It came up to my shoes and muddied the bike a little but it was fine and I carried on into the cross headwind which was making the ride a little hard at times. So much indoor riding recently made it harder on my arms and shoulders.
At Majanicho, I turned south and began the long, straight, draggy road climb towards Lajeres with the Hondo Volcano on my left. It was a nice tailwind a long this section. I caught and passed a couple on bikes and saw a few cars but on the whole, it’s a quiet stretch of road.
I dropped into Lajares and the my GPS said left. It seemed to be routing me correctly, just not showing the route on my display, only where I’d been. From here I left the village and picked up a gravel trail I’d never done this way before. It was quite knarly in places with sharp volanic rocks on the trails to pick your line through
This then joined the main route which climbs around the back of of the Hondo Volcano via a short sharp climb which was really tough up and over the top into a nasty headwind but I was rewarded with a lengthy descent with great views of the coast, where I’d ridden earlier.
From here there were some short, steep kickers to cope with. I did stop at the Bayuyo volcano to see if any chipmunks were about, no joy so I dropped back into the outskirts of Corralejo and rode around the back of town again to the ferry port entrance to complete a nice 30km ride, and open my account for the week.
