Cycling the Via Verde Girona

We had a great nights sleep in our free aire and even though we had the roof open all night it was still pretty warm.
I woke early at 6:30am but didn’t get out of bed to make coffee until 7am and with the blinds open we watched an amazing sunrise due to all the red sand still hanging around.
We were here for me to ride the Girona greenway and just after 9am I set off on my own heading for Girona which was just over 50km away.
99% of the route was off road on gravel which seemed hard packed most of the way there as I steamed all the way there at 30kph. Even with a stop for a quick breakfast I had made it within 2.5hrs. All of the old stations on route are now play parks and have bench’s, fresh water taps and bike maintenance stations in. All along the route there are bench’s to take a break and there are bins, with bin liners in that are obviously collected as most were empty. Unlike England that in the unlikely event of having a bin it would probably be over flowing on any of our trails.
I reached the centre of Girona city and rode straight into a market and had to walk the very end of the route before turning around walking back through the market and then starting the journey back.
Coming home was a much more arduous task. I knew I must have been going downhill on the way but as it was a railway line I didn’t really pay too much attention, however the actual gradient on the way home was a constant 2% with 2 sections rising to 4%. In most cases I’d laugh at those gradients but over 50km this takes it toll big time and I ended up climbing 755meters over that 50km. It was a real slog and the gravel didn’t feel hard packed anymore, it now felt like treacle.
I got back to Wanda just before 3pm to knackered and had a cold shower to cool off, then Ellie and I just chilled for the rest of the afternoon as it was now trying to rain.Read more