Finally, this Holy Week of 2011 were given the right conditions to go. Being a very late Easter made sure more temperature and to avoid the cold that usually suffer at Easter when it falls in early April. However, one thing is the cold and the other is rain. The rain forecast late questioned some of the steps provided.
Stage 1 Mijares-Serranillos-Peña Negra
To make this point not yet arrived at Bejar, but slept on Mijares, to "hunt down" those three ports that leave some domains Salamanca.
a stage provided with more than 90 miles in a loop that included the legendary Mijares and Serranillos. Who can forget the Tour, 1983 Bernard Hinault shattered the then leader Julián Gorospe in a bestial etapón Serranillos to climb, or the stage of the Tour of 1995 in which Jalabert attacked alone in the absence of 3 ports and won almost 5 minutes on the other favorite.
rain expected throughout the week Santa makes an appearance point to come out in our first stage. So progress vary the route and decided to raise its southern slope Mijares and Serranillos its northern slope, significantly shortening the expected mileage. We also want to raise the port of Black Rock, we came to step on the way to Bejar. We climbed the slope of the Herguijuela and down by Piedrahita, by a spectacular road significantly harder than the slope by which we had climbed. Finally we arrived at Hotel
Cubie, where we settled and it would be our base camp for the following three steps.
Stage 2 Portillo the Batuecas-Peña de France 124 km
Portillo are no less than 22 miles from Las Mestas, by a beautiful road that crowns the 1,240 meters after beating 841 to drop that is not bad. Our journey continues to Peña de Francia, clearly visible as the highest point of the entire mountain. We crossed La Alberca, buses full of tourists. Not in vain La Alberca in 1940 became a Historic-Artistic (It was the first English town to get such a distinction) and is a must see.
Peña de France is another popular tourist destination. Crown rising to 1,702 meters and there are also the splendid view that as anticipated, a shrine which houses the famous Black Madonna.
Stage 3 Jerte Valley: 107 km
Of the various alternatives we had planned to visit the valley of Jerte, we finally decided on a stage rises and falls with the beginning and end of each Jerte. Thus did three ports as Piornal, Honduras and Tornavacas. The alternative "easy" was out of Béjar and make a stage with Honduras, and Tremedal Tornavacas (one way or another), with 120 km, but then we would not have gone Piornal ... Visit
Jerte Valley was one of the attractions of this trip to Sierra de Gredos.
The bad luck was that our visit did not allow us or see the cherry blossoms (they were 15 days before our arrival), nor taste the cherries, which lacked even 15-20 days to be picked ...
The first climb we did was to Piornal, the highest village in Extremadura through a lonely road that surrounded many fields of cherry trees. During the ascent
find another rider with a mountain bike with slicks that we caught quickly, but then there was no way to release it ... It was absolute, heh. A formidable fellow who explained in detail some curiosities like the celebration of the Jarramplás, Piornal held in late January, a character dressed with ribbons of color against which people throw turnips! We also caught up in some of the tough climbs of the area as the rise in El Torno. We also anticipated what would be Honduras, really hard!
The second climb of the day, after returning to Jerte was precisely Honduras. It is the road leading from Jerte to boil. And to top it all up after there was little sign of port! A return to Jerte, the body asked for food and we crack a paellita not soon forget. Then just Tornavacas was by far easier to port a day, but almost ends up in disgust because of a Portuguese truck almost makes holidays ending in tragedy.
the end, 107 miles very BIG completito and 3 ports in the sack.
Stage 4 El Travieso and La Covatilla: 60 km.
After chatting with Lale Cubino the previous evening, we confirm that today was the day D. The day we were going to have the company of one of the greatest climbers of the time of Indurain, who shared the pack. Stage victories in the Giro, the Vuelta and the Tour, making it one of the elect of the cycling world. 14 days in yellow at the Tour of Spain are also the many cyclists ... Lale
would escort us on the climb to the Menace, an output port without really worth knowing. We climbed a working Monday and we came across a single car. There is a first zone extending up to the platform and climbs from there and the last section, more open and less vegetation. Crowned at 1,890 meters after 14 km climb at an average of 7%. As we walked up Lale informs us of other interesting ports in the area, as the Port of Los Olivos, which has also been uploaded in the Tour of Spain. Also talk about the textile history of Béjar, their relationship with Catalonia, the doping ... A real pleasure to share these moments with Lale.
And left us with the icing on the cake: the ascent to La Covatilla. A really stiff climb to arrival at 1,960 meters. A wide road that leads to expire on a ski slope 730 meters by nearly 10 km. Four kilometers to over 10% on average near the top left and very touched. The wind and the rolling hills of the rest of the climb up the arrival convert into a real ordeal. What a climb!
's edition of the Tour of Spain in 2002, rose for the first time at the ski resort of La Covatilla and the stage was very bright for Bejarano, as Santi White won at the summit and Roberto Heras kept his gold jersey . In 2004 and 2006 also rose, and is expected to climb well into 2011, although at one stage without too many incentives, it seems that there will be other ports that will precede ...
After Covatilla and there was only collect and return to Barcelona. In four days we had 10 lords ports, had met a beautiful and ideally suited for hard runs. And, basically, we had met and Lale Cubino hotel, incidentally, is a veritable museum of cycling memorabilia, with historical photos (many of Avila Julio Jiménez) and Lale trophies won in his career.