La Toba to Genave

We had a wonderful nights sleep, the temperature was just right inside, there wasn’t a sound outside and despite Ellie’s reservations, we didn’t have any vanlifers turn up at stupid hour. We both woke up just after 7am feeling refreshed. Which was good because I had spent last night looking at local rides and I had found one. It wasn’t very far but it was a huge climb up a mountain, the biggest real world climb I have done, if I completed it.
I didn’t bother with breakfast as it was still early but took a couple of yoghurt bars and some sweet nuts for energy later on and just before 9am I set off. Straight away I started climbing on a 4% gradient, this was the shallowest gradient it would be until my return journey. After 20 minutes of climbing I had already done just over 300 meters of climbing with an average gradient of 7% and as I rounded one of the switchbacks I could see Wanda and Ellie far below me. I thought I must be slightly mad, it was cold because it was so early so I luckily I’d put my winter cycling clothes on, the climb was ahead of me was massive but the gradient looked manageable and as I pushed on passing through a wooded area some deers were just standing in the road.
50 mins in my breathing was all over the place, the air was unbelievably thin. I was over 1000 meters in elevation now and I just couldn’t catch a full breath so after a steep 10% gradient of a couple of kilometres I had to stop. Even when I had stopped my breathing felt laboured, I can normally recover in a couple of minutes but this was taking a lot longer. I did check my heart rate and it was actually lower than a normal ride so it wasn’t my fitness that was letting me down it was the altitude.
5 minutes later I pushed on and I was glad I had stopped because as I rounded a 180° bend the gradient just veered up. I dropped to my lowest gear and just held a steady pace, it was 12% now and as I came to the very top of the gradients it was a leg breaking 25%.
12 kilometres of climbing later I was finally at the summit, I had 5 kilometres of cycling left but I thought I was done with the climbing and I was just cycling across a summit now to the viewpoint. As the tarmac ran out the surface changed first to a fine gravel and then to stones and then to brick like rocks. I passed through some more woods and this time there were hundreds of deer. Vultures circled just above me willing for me to mess up or go off the edge and I cycled on more hills appeared. From a distance they looked doable but as I neared them they were just a wall of brick, gravel and rocks. I just had 2km to go to the real summit and even though I couldn’t breathe and I was cold I gave my last bit of energy and climbed the 25% gradient to the summit.
I was knackered but really pleased with my achievement. I had climbed 1054 meters and tackled gradients I never thought possible. A year ago they wouldn’t have been.
I was level with the Vultures now but it was blowing a gale, it was really exposed and I could see rain coming in the distance so I stopped for just 5 minutes before starting my return journey.
Just as I was leaving I messaged Ellie to say I’d be back soon. That was a big mistake. Cycling back down the 25% rocks was probably slower than coming up and when I reached the bottom of them I had one hill to climb. I decided I’d push the back up that one as I needed a change in motion on my legs and I hadn’t stopped long at the summit so I thought I might catch my breath. I didn’t.
Reaching the top of this hill my job was done, it was all downhill from here but I still had 2 kilometres of rocks and gravel to get across before I could really pick speed up on the tarmac, and that’s when disaster struck. As I started descending on the rocks my front tyre which did already have a slow puncture completely popped. I wasn’t worried as I had 2 spare inner tubes so I layer the bike down. Removed the front wheel and then the inner tube and it started raining. I put the second inner tube in and normally I put it in place, put a little air into it to give it some shape then let the air back out and fit the tube and tyre. Try as I might I could not get air into the inner tube. I started off with the hand pump and after 10 minutes gave up then went onto the CO2 pump. I just couldn’t get it to go up and by now it was throwing it down with rain and I was getting cold and pissed off. I completely removed the inner tube and tried pumping it up completely out of the wheel and then I noticed a 3mm hole in the side of it. Now I was really pissed off because it was a new tube, and I was cold and wet. I got my second spare tube and put it in the wheel and put the tyre back on but the last bit of the tyre took me about 15 minutes because my hands were wet and cold. Finally after 40 minutes it was done and I was moving again and for the next 1.5km of gravel and rock I was riding very cautiously as I had no spare inner tubes now. Once I reached the tarmac the rain was so hard it was bouncing off the road so I took shelter under a small pine tree to eat and drink something and let myself calm down before starting the descent which would be tricky now with all this water on the road. Just as I was getting my snacks out a young guy stopped in his little car to check on me, I told him I was fine but he asked me which way I was going and offered to put the bike in the car. He was so kind.
Obviously I refused the help, I didn’t cycle all the way up here and fix a puncture just to get a lift back down and once the rain started to ease I kicked off from the summit. I travelled at an average of 50kph on the way down, gliding around the hairpins and then picking up speed again on the straights. It was a really sketchy descent and it took me all of 10 minutes. I couldn’t believe it when I reached Wanda so quickly. Ellie saw me coming and had put the kettle on which was great because I was soaked through and freezing.
It was now 2pm and the ride had taken 2 hours longer than I had planned. Partly because of the puncture but I think mainly it was the altitude.
My plan now was to chill out for the rest of the day but Ellie had cleaned everything, listened to everything in her phone and was bored. And it was rainy so our beautiful views had turned to low cloud.
I had something to eat and then we prepped Wanda and by 3pm we were back in the road driving through the woods leaving La Toba. I found a nice little airè with 5 star reviews and we headed for that and after 35 miles we had reached the town of Genave. The airè was just as we came into town but it was up a steep gravel hill and Wanda didn’t think to much of that in the wet and after stopping halfway up we just slipped all the way back down and into the main road. Luckily there was no traffic.
Ellie immediately started looking for somewhere else but I drove into the village centre turned Wanda around and said let’s give it a go from this direction with a little more speed. This time Wanda made it up first go and didn’t even struggle and we found ourselves at a beautifully made airè that looks new. It has 10 motorhome spaces with fresh hedges planted inbetween and each space has it’s own tap and picnic bench, it also has a toilet dump and grey waste and we have a mountain view to our left and a view of the town to our right. For a town if just 600 inhabitants this is a remarkable airè.
As the sun disappeared tiny lights came on in the town and now it looks like it’s glowing, tomorrow we will have to go down and investigate it further.Read more