I Hope I Don’t Repeat Myself!

I look longingly at those in the restaurant sitting at the tables around me, all seem to have chosen either a medium rare steak, or some other instantly recognisable meat to accompany their chips, whilst I stare down into my bowl of chorizo. Now I like chorizo, hence why I chose this from the tapas board, however I expected a little variety other than some bread to mop up the inevitable greasy soup it floated in. To my credit I managed to consume the entire helping, albeit by pacing myself, but I fear the consequences of such an ingestion.

My glimmer of hope is how my body coped with last night’s meal. A couple of days ago I met two young Spanish bikers up at the monastery at Covadonga, the Rocket seems to instigate conversation, to which I always have to reply in Spanish “I’m sorry but I can’t speak Spanish”. They usually then start talking to me in English, as these guys did, and after chatting about bikes we got onto the subject of local food delicacies. They recommended Fabada, an Asturian (not Austrian) bean stew. I searched all the restaurants in Potes but without luck, but to my surprise it was on the menu at this hotel/bar, so that what I had. Beans…..mmmmm, I was thinking that it’s probably a good job that I’m only sharing my room with mosquitos, but even they daren’t enter! To be fair my insides coped remarkably well with that assault, fingers crossed this time!

Today’s ride was going to be a leisurely 60 miler but ended up being twice that and not so leisurely at times, I gave myself a slap for being too enthusiastic at times, not dangerous (in my humble opinion) just a bit too enthusiastic. This next bit is for my biker followers so if you dare read it you may immediately conjure up the image of me next to that village sign ‘Bore’ (which was actually ‘Bores’), you’ve been warned!

It was brass monkey weather before sunrise and I really had no intention of layering up to start my day trip as I knew it would get toasty once down from this altitude, so I phaffed about until mid morning by which time the cloud had cleared, but it was still a refreshing 14c, a good reason to keep the wind chill to a minimum. Hence a leisurely hour’s ride out down the LE331 to Bonar past Embalse (reservoir) de Pomar. If I was taking it easy then the BMW GS I caught (and overtook) was positively pedestrian. The first section of the road to Puebla de Lillo isn’t the best surface but as usual the Rocket never gave the slightest twitch, it’s been so sure footed throughout the trip, which is understandable considering the wheels are wrapped in enough black stuff to fill Pirelli’s factory!

Bonar was a bit of a pain to be honest, a nice enough place with plenty of bars but none selling food, it seems it was a local holiday and was rammed, the only items being consumed seemed to be beer and ice cream, neither of which appealed to me. It was now in the high twenties and I headed west on the CL626 towards La Robla completely missing my turn right up a minor road which would’ve taken a good 40 miles off my trip. The CL626 is boring, like much of the A6 in Cumbria, not even an equivalent Shap to Kendal section, just fairly straight and wide road which entices a rider of a powerful motorbike to break speed limits.

Heading north up the N630 towards Pola was much of the same and just as I was starting to find this type of riding a little tiresome when I noticed that, despite it still being a cloudless sky, the temperature was getting decidedly chilly. I stopped to put my inner jacket on under my vented one as the temperature dropped to a positively freezing +18c and within a few miles some proper bends started to materialise approaching the summit known as Puerto de Pajares (4,500’). What followed was one of the most amazing sections of road I’ve ridden, two lanes (one either direction), wide with stunning views and very tight bends which, due to the width of the road give ample scope to explore one’s cornering technique. This road needs to be treated with respect, there are some surprisingly, almost corkscrew-esque corners which could easily get seriously messy, but don’t be deterred, it’s most enjoyable and with enough practice even I could make a half decent job of it!

The AS253 southeast back home to San Isidro was yet another joy to behold, more mountain climbing with bends aplenty on a good road surface, I will be returning down this road in the next couple of days, but at a tourist’s pace!