Cantabria by bike - route 9 - Alsa

Last sunday I decided to do the route number 9 from Cantabria by bike (http://www.cantabriaenbici.com/) which starts and ends at Bárcena de Pié de Concha. I did it with a sligth variation so I put here a kmz file to see it in google earth: bárcena-alsa-peakJano kmz google earth.

I took the train that leaves Santander at 8:18 and in an hour or so I was in Bárcena. This time I made sure I was not going to commit the same mistakes as in my previous BTT route.

For example:

1. I put a lot of points in my GPS so I didn't get lost easily
2. I put my GPS on the handlebars with a bit of McGiver's style (hehe)
3. I took a bottle of 1,5 litres of water (next time I'll took 2 litres)
4. My bike's wheels were in good condition (I bought a Michelin tube)

The route was very hard compared to the last one. I did 43 Kilometers starting at9:30 and finishing at 17:30 (be careful with the duration of the routes on the website, those are for trained people!!). I made a slitght variation of the route at the end were I decided to, first, climb the peak Jano and then I used another path to go back to Bárcena that I learned in a previous route.

The first part of the route was very tough for my legs, always uphill, ugh!! There was a funny story though (well, NOW is funny). I was riding my bike and suddenly I heard a dog barking at me and running towards me. Maybe it was just a German shepherd but at the moment it was like a mixture of a Doberman and Godzilla!! I started to run faster and faster while I saw how the damn dog managed to get through a fence. It wasn't going to stop until it bit me!! So there I was, escaping from the dog when suddenly, like in the movies, I saw a stream in the middle of the path. Oh my god! On one hand, I wanted to stop cause the stream was depth and I thought I would fall down, but on the other hand I had the dog's jaw 3 seconds behind me!! Finally, I went through the damn "river" like a WARRIOR!! knife in mouth!! the dog stayed there (coward!! XD). Of course, I have no pictures to illustrate the story :D

I'd like to invent a gadget that could do the following :)


The rest of the path in the forest was quiet and nice.

When I got to the hill of Paguenzo I decided to rest and eat something. Then, after some more slopes I started to go down (at last!). The way down was a real pleasure but very short, because in no time I was going up again to the village of Santa María de Aguallo. It was hard going up that road after so many kilometers but once you get there you have a beautiful way down until you get to the Alsa reservoir (hey, the one in the picture is not tintin, it's me!!).

From the Alsa reservoir there was still a long long long eternal road to the dam of mediajo frío that I had to do on foot because all my energies were gone. I had to rest and eat very often.. I didn't have too much water left in the bottle.. It was going to get dark... but... I went up and up like a WARRIOR until I reached the peak!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!!!!

I was thinking that the rest of the route was going to be a piece of cake when I started going down the mountain to discover that I was going toooooooooo fast!!! Oh my god, I had to press my brakes HARD all the way down and my hands were really painful. The path wasn't easy at all, lots of stones that I had to avoid at a great speed and I was screaming and shouting "I'm gonna dieee!!" haha!

Eventually I got to Bárcena alive and just in time to take the train back to Santander at 17:50. Uf!