Paella and Coll de Rates

It's the night before Lisa's last ride, so we head to a traditional Spanish restaurant for some Tapas and Paella, glorious evening in the old part of town.  Our booking was for 6pm, happy hour in Spanish terms, so there is not many eating yet, some restaurants opening as we finish our meal.  But we have an early start tomorrow to ride the most famous, talked about ride in this region.

We had four tapas, meatballs, baked potatoes, tempura cod and roasted young green peppers (capsicum) delicious... All eaten with fabulous local red wine, though I don't drink wine I can recommend the beer.

Followed by two paella's, one of vegetables with different meats and the other, a seafood combo, without prawns, as Bob is allergic.  So the dish is a little odd to look at, but we don't want to have to use his EpiPen. The paella's are wonderful, perfectly cooked with the crusted bottoms. Really good local food.

We wake to another perfect day and head to Parcent, the town at the base of the towering road that curves its way up and stands out across the valley as a commanding invitation, come and conquer me. Another great climb, super smooth, steady gradient, even those who don't climb, would love this one.  

So enjoyable, no cars at this early hour (9am) we have it to ourselves with other riders, a beautiful steely rides past, we yell 'nice bike' and Tour de Femme stage winner, rider Justine Ghekiere is doing intervals up and down the climb, in preparation of this year's Tour de Femmes. Dave tells me, she did three to our one!!

But it's really what greets you, once you ride around the mound and over the other side, that is really mind blowing.  

The views, of the mountains are out of this world.  

jagged peaks, lush valleys with small farm houses dot the landscapes, all covered in vineyards or orchards. 

And no traffic, just cyclists from either direction. We are away from the coast and the route is not on a main artery road, so its fabulous riding. 

Our climbing is far from over, but the descent down the other side is superb, beautiful sweeping bends, even I feel like a pro, as the bike easily leans into the open corners and does her thing, with little resistance.  I am sure you can imagine the grins from ear to ear, as the 'can you believe this?'' is constantly repeated

I am so happy for Dave, his first ride in a few days as he hasn't been well enough to ride.

We have a super long downhill, almost all the way back to Denia, we stop though, for a lunch break

choosing a 'what looked like' a nondescript town along the way, the ol' 'this'll do'

What a surprise.  

Get off the main road and ride into a clean, neat and colourful, proud town, fabulous tapas for lunch, really good home made food, of potatoes and meatballs (we shared) crusty bread to soak up the sauces.  We devour every little morsel.

                                                                                                                                   

A fantastic day of riding, 95km, our best day yet. This area is just stunning, has everything a cyclist wants, good roads, good food, great friendly people and a huge variety of riding, mind you the riders we see are all a lot younger than us, its like its undiscovered or perhaps daunting for our age, but we love it.