Day 5: Thur 28th June 2007

 

Ride: Sorede to Urdos - 314 miles

 

Pete, Kyle and Cat had about a 5 hour ride in front of them and they were going to take the most direct route from Sorede to Urdos. This meant that most of the day would be spent on motorways. Picking up the A9/E15 and the A61/E80 they would head towards Toulouse for approximately 135 miles, before picking up the A64/E80 and heading towards Pau for the best part of another 100 miles. However, from Pau they would pick up the N134/E7 for the final run up to Urdos - a very pleasant 40 miles or so. The E7 is a spectacular biking road and the run from Pau, through Oloron Ste. Marie, and up to Urdos would be their reward. For Pete though - who was suffering with a hangover from hell - it was going to be a long painful day.

Ride: Santander to Urdos - 262 miles

 

Meanwhile Chris B, Phil, Chris P, Gaz and Mark were making their way from the ferry in Santander. After disembarking the ferry they hopped onto the E70 for about 10 miles, heading towards Valdecilla, and then turned onto the CA161/CA261 and over the Puerto de Alisas. From there they rode through Arredondo to Ramales de la Victoria picking up the N269/Bi-630 to Balmaseda.

 

 

The scenery on the Bi-630 was very pretty and the road surface good, but on the hilly bits traffic tended to build up behind slower drivers - not really a problem on a bike though. From Balmaseda they headed for Arceniega on the N624 - although listed as an N road the surface was very poor. From Arceniega they continued on the N624 through Amurrio and joined the AP-68 at Urquillo. This road was an improvement on the N624 and was excellent, with fast sweepers and a good surface.

 

They then took the motorway, and then dual carriageways N622/N1 and A2134/N104 to bypass Gasteiz Vitoria and get on the A132 riding through Campezo and Acedo to Estella. This was a terrific road with very little traffic. From Estella they took the N111/Na-601/N121/Na-234 to join the N240 a couple of miles north of Monreal, heading south-east. The first 24 miles of the N240 are nondescript but at Yesa the road runs around the Embalse de Yesa - a reservoir - and then to Jaca 38 miles away, a great bit of road. From Jaca they turned north and up the N330/E7 to Canfranc.

 

Avoiding the tunnel you pass through Canfranc Estacion and then up and over the Col du Somport rejoining the main road, which on the French side becomes the N134, a few miles from Urdos. The road up from Jaca is good but the pass road going up on the Spanish side is spectacular with wide, well surfaced, constant radius corners.

 

 

We all met up in Urdos late at Hotel des Voyageurs late in the afternoon with the "Millau" group arriving first and the "Santander" group arriving an hour or so later.

 

 

 

Urdos is the proverbial one horse town with nothing to do or nowhere to go outside of the hotel, however the hotel itself is fine. It is reasonably priced, with reasonable food, and the staff are friendly and helpful.