Day 9 - Barahona - Algreda

Got up this morning and no one at all in sight. Which made breakfast impossible. However I had supplies which would suit as breakfast, so that was OK. Went down to get the bike, and what do you know? The front tyre is flat again! Arghhhhh!. I pumped it up, got cycling, but barely got 5km down the road. Inspected the tyre, the rim, everything and put yet another new tube in it. 3rd time lucky!

Having had no signal last night, I got to the town of Almazan, stopped at a petrol station there - which had no shop for some needed supplies. But had a signal there, so got the blog and everything up to date. The road I was on lead out of town, but decided to double back and go into town, to see about some supplies and more importantly. Get some money out of a cash machine. Looking ahead there didnt seem to be anymore towns what so ever.

As Im on the road into town, I see some cyclists heading towards me and heard a type of voice I hadnt heard since leaving Gibraltar.. ENGLISH!!! "Hello, Hello Hi!" I shouted to make sure they knew I was english. I had been contacted by some people previously who had said that a team of cyclists are heading down from Winchester to Gibraltar. Sure enough, it was them! Theyre covering over 100 miles per day and doing the whole trip in 13 days. Far faster than I am! However, it is a huge event and they have raised some serious money. It is a supported ride with many riders.

I headed into town and met up with their support van and more of their riders, and had a good chat, and some biscuits :) How fantastic though! To meet up with people who are going the opposite way. Of course I let them know about the horrific steep hills to come :P They are doing a fantastic thing raising a lot of money for Inspired Living and hopefully I've also impressed them as I am solo. Their van was stocked to the gills of water and spare innertubes and tyres and no doubt everything they could need. Whereas I have to carry and find what I need. However whereas I'm trundling on doing 100km a day, they are pushing over double that. Typically today was the first day I wasnt wearing my Gibraltar to Yorkshrie Shirt! As both of them are well and truely ready for a wash!

Trundled off, and that gave me such a high seeing those people. How lucky it was that I actually bumped into them as well. I nearly went straight out of town and would have missed them. Couldnt have gone better! You can find out more about what they are doing at http://www.gibaltarride.co.uk

Headed off, and then high spirits were whisked away by the most incredible head winds I've had to deal with. Even on the downhills, if I didnt pedal, the bike came to a stop. For hours they were just blasting at me, making more than 10kph a struggle. Just sat trundling along in the lowest gears. As trucks went past, the air turbulence was so great I was nearly knocked off into the gutter a few times. Really testing, and really difficult.

Worst still I was severely running out of food and drink. I had previously stopped in a town, which was a complete ghost town. Sundays are just dead in Spain. Took advice of a friend and

headed for the church as theres usually water there. There was, but the tap was broken! So had to make it to Agreda, some 30km with just 1.5litres of water left under heavy winds, high climbing etc. Infact I summeted at 1200m. My highest altitude yet. Then it was downhill which got me into town.

So then what should have been a fine relaxing finishing to the day, just wasnt. Found a hostel. Closed down. Found another one... closed down. Found another one. Door was locked. But the restaurant side was open. So asked in there. Had to wait ages for the woman to finish serving everyone else. Then was asking about the bike and she was rabbiting onto me something I had no idea what. Got a room sorted out, but had no idea where to leave the bike. There was a garage across the car park from the hostal but it looked like it belong to a truck depot or something. But having made a call to my spanish translation service (Thanks Jepcy!) it was indeed this garage she meant! So finally got the bike locked up in there and headed to the room.. .Which was the most dirtiest room ive had to stay in. Infact I dont think it was cleaned since the last person. Urgh. But this is what you get for 25euros a night! This is life on the road!

I was hoping to get further than Agreda today, to give me an easy sail into Pamplona tomorrow. But that head wind plus lack of proper food, just finished me off.

Right, to more positive things. 123km to Pamplona tomorrow! That wind had better have stopped! Im ordering it to. Then I get a much needed rest day before taking on the Pyranese. Then and I'm feeling it already.. FRANCE!!!!

Todays stats
Start	Barahona.10:15
End	Algreda.19:20
Saddle Time	6 hr 10 min 00 sec.
Distance travelled	105.03km
Average Speed	17.0kph
Max speed	60.0km