This would have been a modest 63km cycle across Cantabria were it not for the state of my brakes which had escalated to a ‘hmmm the pads really are wearing out’. Normally I’d get far over 2000km from a set of brake pads but this Spain trip has not been normal as Ive now been up and down the equivalent height of Everest almost 6 times in 3 weeks. And apart from the meters of climbing a lot of that has been on rough roads with tight bends and quite often crazy 20%, 30% and even one thankfully brief 40% incline. You come down those with your brakes on.
They hadn’t stopped working but they were making the sort of noises that said all was not well. Initially today was fine, a long stretch of relatively flat cycling by a river and then motorway. The initial climb into the hills was also fine, nothing too ridiculous slope wise.
However after Entrambasaguas there was a steeper climb on rough roads into the hills (and another LGD encounter) leading to a very steep descent into a valley. The very steep descents in the older rural roads frequently feature a road surface which is parallel bars of concrete running across the road. I presume this is to provide traction in winter or heavy rain but it doesn’t improve the experience of cycling them.
Having come down I stopped for a coffee in Solorzano and checked the intended route ahead. Sure enough there was what looked like another of those descents do I decided to divert onto a main road, the CA 267 which although it climbed higher then made the descent via s-bends over a longer distance.
In fact this was another of these main roads withalmost no traffic on it, it wasn’t until I was back on my intended route and approaching Ampuero that the traffic picked up to occasionally unpleasant levels. But I got there confident my brakes would still function tomorrow on that all important final 52km to the ferry at Bilbao
Route
Map at https://cycle.travel/map/journey/575262
Is this case I’ve linked to the original intended route as my diversion was only because of my brakes plus it would be very easy to reproduce from the map itself as its on a major road.
leaving Puente Viesgo - 63km to go
Pomaluenga - 3km
La Penilla - 9km
Saron -11km
Cabarceno - 16km
Somarriba - 19km
Lierganes - 24km
La Cavada -28km
Entrambasagus - 31km
Solorzano -41km
San Mames de Aras - 50km
Limpias - 59km
Ampuero - 63km