Orbea Gain Vs Pyrenees – Part 2

#cyclingvlog #orbea #bikepacking #cyclingvlog

Day 2 of cycling home on my Orbea Gain from Andorra. Refreshed from a night in a hostal where the aircon packed up and left me awake, sweltering all night, it’s time for a 123km ride across morraines left from the last ice age, and up a really, really long hill, seeing some of the most artistic ‘graffiti’ ever along the way!

Thanks as always to Altura; today for the excellent Vortex 2 Bar and frame bags, Progel Plus bib shorts, Icon socks and mitts https://www.altura.co.uk/ The less I say about the seat post pack the better though…why was it constructed so differently from the other bags?

And to D2D Cycling Clothing for the excellent summer weight jersey at an amazing price:

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This stuff fits big people. Ask away if you have any questions about kit.

Thanks too to Coospo, for keeping me safe with their heart rate monitor: https://www.coospo.com/products/h9z-chest-heart-rate-monitor

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morning we’re um we’re off it’s about um 20 to 7 something like that just need to get my bearings and figure out where I’m going uh I don’t even know if I’m going to where are you there you are uh I don’t even know oh Cy that sun that’s quite impressive I don’t altogether know where I’m going today only that it’s desolate it’s also windy which is a surprise I thought today first thing getting up like this was going to be quite an easy start but uh no behind me up there on the hill is rather lovely uh kubes I’m on the main road but not for long it’s not a main road day today Cy no no there’s going to be a lot of wheat there’s going to be some Marines if you’re into uh if you’re glacial stuff but mostly it’s going to be wheat and then a huge huge huge huge 20 km climb if I can get over that today then even though there’s another 40ish to go I should be able to make it it’s about 125 today the Garmin is saying it’s 2019 m i don’t believe it I think that’s wrong um I’m guess it’s going to be 12 or 1500 still nice uh nice long ride so let’s get cracking [Music] so we’ve done all of uh 100 m 200 M and that’s all the main road we’re going to do and like I said if you’re into Marines that’s one it’s quite a short one this it’s not the terminal Marine that’s out there somewhere this is not a bad way to start a day it’s a lovely descent and we’re already in the uh corn fields a bad surf lovely swoopy feeling for 7 in the morning definitely need to get going this morning though because it’s due to be um oh hold on got a decision here luing that road got to turn off I think lots and lots of rabbits here we need to get going because so I’m just checking if I’m on the right route it’s quite awkward off course beautiful uh road though look at that down through a rabbit Warren for some reason the uh the Garmin is is zoomed right out don’t know if you can zoom in reason why we need to get going is that it’s due to be 37 38 in the bowl that we’re having to uh ride through so I’m trying to get across that and into the mountains really before it starts uh before it starts really really heating up I just like the look of that farm it’s abandoned it’s absolutely gorgeous around here it’s uh partly because it’s downhill still rabbits absolutely everywhere really I can’t remember seeing quite so many but it’s a lovely lovely lovely place I’d imagine it’d be pretty hot later just climbing another Hill it’s just going to be a lot of Moaning isn’t it I’m sorry it’s another Hill that the Garmin doesn’t see I’m in first it’s definitely a hill I have no idea what it’s called find out in a minute this is where we’ve come from sort of dead center about there by my finger is where we come from uh whatever it was called kubel kuas not far I just thought i’ show you it because uh views back we’re not going to have many of those no idea what it’s called I do know this some Civil War stuff up there I was just about to say that we need to keep our eyes peeled in penes because it’s full of um Mosaic not mosaics what they called murals much as I come in it’s a galgo Spanish Greyhound but they just call it graffiti right some of it is graffiti oh my it’s everywhere I thought I was going to have to cycle about a bit to find everywhere like that one it’s a chimp put in a face it says progress in English in the unlikely event of you coming here you have to look absolutely everywhere for it because it is absolutely [Music] everywhere must be loads of different artists cuz the styles are so different world weird wey snail see it’s a house on its back it’s a very small town cuz we’re outside of it or or of it already there’s still bits of uh graffiti on the farm buildings though that one is stunning wow that one is a wedding photo is it amazing that one was actually a um a mosaic very impressive some egg grits bobbing about in the they seen me didn’t like me [Music] it’s another Marine that we’re going over it’s completely covered in peirs [Music] it’s very hard this is just climbing up into Castell Dan so it’s the B is according to the me this is Hill number one I’ve done how many I’ve done about 400 MERS of climbing so far which isn’t much but this isn’t the first Hill it’s about the sixth but uh I think there’s 22 km of climbing now to get right to the top of beautiful mountain range that overlooks uh well really where I live it’s about 40 km from the top 45 but if I can get there I’m home albeit 40 45 km from home but it’s a flat or downhill just a couple of small climbs I don’t know if I can do it yet I’m just having a a Wei break in Castel Dan cast Dans I’ve been here before I’m sure of it but I don’t know when I don’t know if we’ve been or whether it’s just me it’s quite nice as little flat here I’m just going to stop take the uh weight off off my feet and off my bum and uh have a bit of a drink [Music] I’ve just uh checked it only 12 km to the topot might why I’m doing this nice chat behind me don’t know if you can see him hanging around in the road hi VI is just told me that this road is completely cut it’s completely cut he’s let me through I think what he said is that his colleagues will see if they can find a way through as I’m only on a bike there was no sign to say this road is cut it’s a massive distance to go around there isn’t No Way Around we’re in the middle of nowhere look absolute middle of nowhere well let’s see what what the problem is when we get there eh I bet it’s nothing can safely say that was a Cut Road one of the guys there handed me I I got down into the trench pass me my bike I poed it back up on the other side CL up it’s quite deep about 3T deep I suppose not easy all them M cleats wow it really was cut so much climbing and descending [Music] this is the actual top you can see why now I was struggling to climb up it anyway I live out there somewhere it’s downhill for about 20 km now and I’m really sorry I can’t show you the road’s not it gets a bit flaky in places so it’s not like it show you really high speed [Music] descent so there we are that’s the eow we’re down got a little bit of uh flat to do now it’s all over V the lovely cup of celebratory tea which is just waiting for me I hope so uh that was a really tough ride really tough I can’t honestly say I enjoyed the last half cuz my feet were really hurting another one in the bag so uh thanks for watching and I’ll see you on the next one