Saturday 7 July 2012

Live To Ride, Ride To Live

Leaving Seville after a day to remember, I fire up my trusty steed and we aim for Cordoba, about 180 kms NE. A previous consultation of the terrain feature in Google Maps (which I use constantly and is brilliant) reveals that the most direct route is flat so I set the GPS to head straight for the hills to the north and my first real encounter this trip of winding roads (and peculiar road signs).

When I say winding, they're not quite the switch-backs and hairpins of the Alps or Romania's Transfargasan but very enjoyable nonetheless with the edges of my Continental Trail Attacks regularly kissing tarmac.
A coffee stop at El Pedrosa, a small, almost deserted village gives me a chance to catch up with messages, one of which reminds that it's the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend. I check the kilometres to go and realise I can easily get to Cordoba, find a place with a TV and watch today's Qualifying over lunch.And that's exactly what I did.
As the 'Quali's' only last about an hour, I immediately ordered a dish of incredibly tasty large prawns, described as langoustinos on the menu, that were so yummy I needed all the bread in the basket to polish the plate to its last micron layer of garlic and herb butter. Deeeeelicious!
Oh look, it's raining at Silverstone and the Qualifying has been temporarily halted by a rainstorm that's going to last longer than 10 minutes.

"SeƱor, muchos grande gambas, por favor."

Well, had to be done and I did. Outstanding! ... even the second time around and another plate left clean enough to bypass the dishwasher. Won't mention the results other than what's happened to Jenson and thank you to Jennie Gow (BBC F1 5Live Team) for the ReTweet.

Prawned and Qualified, I continue my journey NE is search of a campsite that takes me over 100 kms to find, but the end result is a worthy hillside view of the classically, deep red and orange terrain that I've been weaving through all day.

I set my tent in the shade, its front door facing the desirable breeze and I'm ready for an early night. Tomorrow, I shall head for Valencia on the coast, another motor racing venue, which is a good 400 k's from here, Santa Elena.

The heat has been relentless today that had me open-jacketed and in jeans for the latter part of the route; it was still 37 degrees as I pulled into the campsite and that was at 7pm!

Great riding, great day xc

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