http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/338584167
Well Day 1 did not go as planned ... at all
I cycled along the river and stopped at tbe Guggenheim to take some early morning pictures and then it was off along the river trying to follow my Garmin which is quite tricky at the best of times as most roads are coloured purple on the maps and when you plot a route guess waht colour those kjnd people at Garmin make the route .... yes purple ! It's crazy they even give you an option to change to a different colour so I chose lime green but as soon as you start to navigate it goes ... purple aaaargh
Anyway I headed up the river zig zagging side to side following Bilbaos crazy road system and stopping to take lots of pics so I was already an hour behind schedule.
When I got to Basauri after 5 miles it went wrong - the rain started heavy and I missed a turn and well 7 miles later I was heading to the mountains I checked a very wet screen and realised I was on the wrong purple and there was no way across so it was a full 14 miles additional riding !
I was back on route after 2 hours by which time I was only 6 miles from the start so I set offwith Duarngo at 28 miles I
in mind and arrived very sodden and managed to find a shop to buy a sandwich as I had nobreakfast as there was nothing open at 8am in Bilbao.
Next I had a 1000 feet climb up past Zandibar and once at the summit it was smoothe riding diwn through Eibar to the coast at Deba
The waves were crashung the shore and the road hung on the edge of a huge rock where the sediments and strata could be seen wearing and hanging precariously over the road parts of which were single file due to collapses.
Unfortunately from Beba the road turns inland over another 800 feet climb before heading back down to the coast and when I reached Orio there was a regatta going on with lots of boats on the river
Next my problems started again ... my garmin had been indicating low battery for a while and it finally died so I was left to get the last 12 miles into San Sebastian on my instincts which proved prtty good albeit when I cae to a huge motorway interchange even finding a road I could use was difficult and at one stage I was sure I was about to join the motorway to Irun anyway there were no signs for San Sebastian only lots of suburbs none of which I knew and I couldnt even fix a direction on the sun as it was well and truly out of sight behind a monster raincloud which I was now sick of.
I remebered a route in past the Unversity and saw a sign with a word that looked like university but had lots of xs in in true basque style
Eventually I reached the coast and headed along the bay to the headland where my hotel was on San Juan which was another nightmare eventually after about an hour I found a tiny sign on a door indicated reception was on the second floor
So that was it ... until I came to upload my ride and discovered when it powered down it didnt save the data ... Not a good day -Tomorrow I take on the pyrenees and the forecast is RAIN ... Not Impressed
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