Up and down all the way

On the 12th day of his ‘Once to the end of the world – and back’ tour Sigi Grabner sat on his bike for eight hours and 50 minutes. What the snowboard overall World Cup winner 2009 experienced on the 205 kilometers from Comillas to Etxebarria he tells in the following blog.

After today, I’ve now got 2152 kilometers – and as many euros – on my Wings for Life account. Tomorrow I’ll be crossing the border into France. Otherwise, today I took the route along the Atlantic coast and don’t have any particular incidents to write about ... Except that I bought half a kilo of extremely juicy-looking pears as provisions, thus improving my digestion – and had to stop a few times involuntarily ... But during the day I always stop to eat, or at particular places to enjoy the scenic beauty. The Atlantic bay of Laredo is such a place. Fantastic! Next time I’ll have to take more time for the famous Altamira caves near here. But today I wanted to make the most of the good cycling weather – not too much sun – in order to cover a lot of distance.

That’s why I chose the coastal route, but I had to forget about the smooth coasting! Because the route has its pitfalls. There are hills, one after the other, going up and down. There’ll be a small hill 200 meters up then down again; then another one, 300 meters up and so on. And then, when I calculate 2457 meters in altitude at the end of the day (without the inclusion of an actual real mountain), it turns out not to have been the easy day of freely coasting along the way I had planned, but intensive interval training ... Despite that, though, it’s a beautiful cycling route on the Atlantic with a dream view of the ocean. But not to be underestimated! What I mean is that today was a really tough day!

Around Bilbao there was a lot of traffic. The region is very industrialized and populated. I detoured over Guernica (THE famous Guernica) and Markina-Xemein in the north. At the end I got lost for about 15 kilometers because my map had different names on it to the local signs. In the meantime, I’ve arrived from Cantabria in the autonomous Basque province of Euskadi. The diversity of language here (some town signs are in Basque, others in Basque/Castilian, some only in Castilian) makes orientation difficult at times and is a bit confusing for a cyclist unfamiliar with the area …

As usual, at the latest in the evening, the regional cuisine gives me strength again. I take a room in a traditional stone country hotel that used to be a blacksmiths in the middle of the landscape. I’m up until almost midnight enjoying amazingly fresh fish grilled especially for me. Now that’s how I like it!