I left the hostel in Logroño at 6, and was almost straight out of the door and on to a hill. That set things up for the day, as hill followed hill. The problem is that of course what goes up also goes down, but you can easily spend an hour grinding up in a low gear, only to get 10 minutes relief descending the other side.
Breakfast was in a fantastic bakery in a picturesque town called Viana, which of course was on top of a hill.
After that was a long ascent to Bargota and another break in Sansol. In the latter the pilgrims were out in force!
I rode through many little towns and villages, which were all pretty, but Puente la Reina was probably the most interesting.
From there came the longest and hardest climb of the day, over El Perdon, before dropping down in to Pamplona. I've been here before, so just wanted to get through and out the other side this time. It seems like there's an awful lot of building going on though, houses and apartment blocks.
From Pamplona to Irurtzun it seems as if the authorities were having a competition to build the most difficult bike paths possible. Some parts were great, on an old railway line, but on the parts where the Autopista has been built the bike path has diverted up some very steep mountains. On several occasions the grade was too much and I had to walk.
Tomorrow will hopefully be a better day, but having said that the route climbs to 2,700' in the first 20 miles, but it must be downhill after that, right?
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