Day 8. Mora de Rubielos to Segorbe

The group with Carlos

Julie and Christine volunteered to escort Keith's damaged bike on the train so they loitered on at La Casa until after lunch. The rest of us set out mid morning with Keith on Julie's bike. Today's ride was pleasantly downhill for the most part. One intriguing section of the route took as winding through a large wind power generation facility. The loud noise and deep humming from the turbines was almost deafening. Also there was the terrible stench of the hundreds of dead birds scattered around. Can you spell irony? On our train trip from Barcelona to Valencia and our later return we passed one of Spain's eight nuclear power plants at Vandellòs on the Med. I know which one I would prefer to live next to. Spain is one of the largest producers of wind-powered electricity and every where you go you will see turbines on the ridgelines.

Albentosa.
If you cross the viaduct and go through the tunnel,
you'll come to a very nice patch of blackberries.

Tunnel coming into Caudiel.

The route today included several charming small towns including Albentosa, Barracas, Caudiel where I stopped for a quick lunch and there was some sort of local festival going on and Jerica where for a few kilometers the route left the old railway line and diverted through the streets of the town. There were many nice looking bars and restaurants. I stopped at one for a quick beer (it was pretty hot by then).

Actually I was doing a fair bit of stopping as my rear tyre had developed a slow leak and I was waiting for Keith to catch up with the special security tool that was needed to remove the wheel. He never did, so I had to make a stop every couple of kilometers to put more air in the tyre. Very tedious.

The last part of the route into Segorbe used a section of dirt road into Altura and then I "followed my nose" to Segorbe. Hotel Maria de Luna wasn't hard to find and was a nicely appointed city hotel. All the riders turned up, and Christine and Julie arrived on the train. We tried in vain to get Keith's bike fixed. The two bike shops did not have a mechanic working on the day, so Julie and Christine kindly volunteered to take the train again the next day to Valencia. In fact all of us decided to ride and then take the train from down near the coast.

Keith and  I repaired the flat tube only to have the valve stem break off. We fixed another punctured tube and it appeared to be holding air OK.

For dinner Christine and I went to the restaurant associated with the hotel, which was actually about a block away at another hotel property. We we pleasantly surprised: decor, table settings and service all at a high quality and food to match. The winelist was many times longer than the menu and we settled on a Ribiera del Duero which went down well.