Duruelo de la Sierra – Aranda de Duero
If it hadn’t been for the wind, this stage might have been one of the most enjoyable of the whole trip. There was a decent amount of climbing early on and a long descent 50-60 km into today’s destination—Aranda de Duero. The roads were in excellent shape, mostly smooth surface, little to no traffic in most parts. On one of the climbs, I thought back to the first mountains I had to go over on my route—the Apennine Mountains—and how hard it was for me to ride anything and how much I pushed my bike. Granted that there are no 16-21% slopes where I’m currently riding, I have greatly increased my climbing tolerance and found better ways to approach a long climb with this much added weight.
Even though, I carried as much liquid as I could in the morning, I ran out of water; there was one option to refill the bottles early on and then nothing for a long time—I might have missed one gas station. I tried multiple fountains in village squares, unfortunately, none of them worked. When I finally got into a slightly bigger village with a supermarket, it was already siesta, and they were closed as well. Luckily, there was a Bar around the corner and I could replenish.
I got into Aranda de Duero fairly early and was able to take a walk around the town in the evening.
