Today we (mistakenly as it turned out) thought would be one of our easiest days.  As things transpired, it turned out to be one of the hardest, which just shows how wrong we can be.  It was a straightforward flat route, and at 72km was not too far; so what could go wrong? The weather was against us – or more specifically the wind was against us (and strongly against us).  Cycling for hours into a strong wind is a touring cyclist’s nightmare.

Leaving Zamora early on a Saturday morning was quiet; even if it involved the steepest hill of the day! Soon we were coasting along in the countryside, when David mentioned that there was very little wind.  Whilst this was true, ten minutes later he was to rue those words. Something in the topography must have been sheltering us because suddenly we were hit by a strong northerly wind.  We were crossing the Meseta, the high open, plain in the centre of the Iberian peninsular. Flat yes, but if there was wind, there was nothing of significance to temper it until the mountains north of Leon 100km away.

The wind had been consistently northerly since we started (and not the predicted westerly prevailing wind) but we had been lucky so far the wind was generally so light as to not be a problem, and usually only getting up in the afternoon.  Today our luck ran out. We were heading due north into the teeth of the wind.  It is difficult to describe to non cyclists how sapping this is. In part,  the issue is level of physical energy required to cycle forward when the wind is trying to blow you backwards.

During an up and down day, you expect to have some hard, uphill sections but there are always the downhills to enjoy and rest your legs. Cycling 70km into the wind is like cycling 70km uphill without any break, and without feeling that you are getting any benefit for doing the hard work. When we are climbing, the views change and vistas open up.  Generally, the tougher the climb, the better the views.  But battling a wind on the flat gives you nothing back.

But it’s also psychologically draining (and we know how important psychology is in any sport). If we have a hilly day, we feel geared up for it. We expect to make slow progress. But we expected a relatively easy day and thought we would be at our destination in a few hours.  Also the wind is largely invisible, and the brain looks at the road ahead and expects you to be going faster than you are so you always feel you should be peddling harder. If you are going gently downhill the brain tells you it should be easy but against a strong headwind you are still having to peddle hard.

I’m making it sound very miserable and we weren’t exactly cheery! A promised coffee stop in a village was non existent – in fact the whole village felt like a ghost town as we didn’t see a single person. We munched our sandwiches on a bench in the shade to gather strength. At least we have learnt over years of touring cycling never to expect sustenance along the way and carry enough food.

The next town though did have an open bar. We have also learnt in Spain not to google ‘cafe’ but ‘bar’, as most such places serve both coffee and alcohol.  In fact a lot of alcohol seems to be drunk in the morning in Spain (and at the rest of the time as well of course)!  But, as well as beer, the bars nearly all have great coffee machines with excellent ‘barrista’ coffee. This one also had a tasty selection of small tapas snacks.

We had planned our route to go through the ‘Reserva Natural de Lagunas de Villafafila’ (many places in Spain are a bit of a mouthful!). We had been telling ourselves that maybe it would be a pleasant wooded section with some protection from the wind;  but no . It was a very open area of flat wetlands and a birders prime destination to see migrating birds in winter and spring.  We saw a few as we battled along but suspected we were out of season for the spectacular sights. We did however soon turn slightly northwest. Even a slight turn away from the direct wind made it a bit easier with more of a side than direct wind. We were now on a tiny road with lots of flowers and patches of red poppies, purple vetch and wafts of wild fennel.  It was rather beautiful but our legs were getting exhausted so it was difficult fully to appreciate the colours as we passed by.

At last it was a turn due west into the town of Benevente. Hooray, we would be out of direct wind. But then we found ourselves on a deserted railway line, repurposed as a gravel bike track.  We usually avoid these because, although we have fairly wide tyres, the heavy panniers make our bikes feel much less stable. However, the alternative route involved at least another 7.5km of busy roads going due north before we could turn towards the town. 

The problem was a combination of pesky rivers which mean you have to find bridges to cross and motorways that are off limits for us on bikes (so motorway bridges are not allowed!  So we set off along the gravel track and it turned out to be very pleasant.  It was a quiet abandoned railway line with the old bridges and signalling still intact.  We were out of the wind and riding alongside a river. It turned out to be the most pleasant part of the day. 

As we started to get into Benevente proper we passed some rather ugly industrial units but were soon into the pleasant modern centre. It was Saturday – which meant the supermarket in the village we were going to closed at lunchtime and we were unlikely to find anything open tomorrow, Sunday. We therefore stocked up on food at a decent supermarket.  Next we wound through another ugly industrial area to get out of town and it was then only a few kilometers on to the village.

I had imagined we would be staying in a pretty little village, like hundreds we had cycled through, but it proved to be a rather non descript modern suburb. Our accommodation was a ‘cosy’ studio apartment – small at least well equipped and good hot water.

This might not have been our most memorable day for good reasons and we needed a rest when we got to the apartment, even though we had not ridden too far or too fast.  But after a rest we felt much better and we will live to fight another cycling day tomorrow!