Paris Dakar Stage 18 to Villarobledo

Stage 18 of 60, day 22 of 71: 136.6 km, 1261m, 5:17, 401 shifts, ave speed 25.8, max speed 65.6

Our second morning waking up in the campground in Cuenca was almost as cold as the first. We packed up, had a chilly breakfast, then rode out to the main road and along to Cuenca. Dick and Dennis were doing their first stages with us and I stopped at the campground entrance where Dick’s wife, Anke, was videoing to give her a big hug. We didn’t take the taxi route up to the old (high) town, but instead stayed low and cruised to the new town. My bike felt really light and the air was very crisp (three long sleeve jerseys plus two pairs of gloves).

When we rode in the sun it was heavenly but it was cold in the shade. We did a couple of climbs early on that helped and then pretty quickly, we were stopping to shed layers and then it was down to normal clothes. Soon, we let Wytze take the fast crew ahead – Daniel and I just rode along loving it. It felt like an example of why we love to cycle: gorgeous scenery, no wind, everything feeling easy and fast. We all stopped at a café for drinks around 40 km.

The headwinds did pick up for the last 15 km to lunch but it wasn’t that bad. Ype found a typical perfect spot, in a forest with our choice of shade or sun (shade for me of course), and massive amounts of delicious food.

After lunch it was time to ramp it up a little. I left with Wytze and crew and we stayed together the rest of the way. It felt like there was always a headwind and we were always going a little faster than I would’ve liked. But it was scenic and fun. Wytze is so amazing – we finally did stop at the top of a hill to regroup for 30 seconds, then at a café at about 120 km for drinks. But he led all that way, into the wind, holding 36 or sometimes even 38 on flat into the wind.

We ate snacks and had cold drinks and only had 13 km to go. I asked if we could have a “Holiday” for the rest of the way. Wytze said sure. We started out at my speed, 28, but before you knew it it was 32…then 33. Still ok as long as I was drafting. We got stopped by the Policia Local as we entered Villarobledo – they did not like our drafting style which covered the whole lane. We promised to do better and were allowed to proceed. They were checking car driver’s papers for something too but we never found out what.

Soon we arrived at the hotel – for the first time on the tour. It was wonderful to ride in and have a massive amount of snacks to choose from – Emily and Frank and Rob really were putting on a great post-ride feed. I ate first, then chatted with Katie, then took a shower up in our room. It had two things in it called beds, we hardly know what they are.

Downstairs out on the square, we had a few beers each, some more snacks, then I wrote this up. At that point it was 7:30, our dinner reservation time. Google gave directions, “30m away, mostly level”. Six of us took Ype out to dinner and even though it wasn’t a rest day, it was still a massive blow-out. I don’t know how many bottles of wine or courses or desserts, but lots of all of these. By this point we were rating the cheesecakes with the one in Zaragoza being the gold standard of 100. In Cuenca it was an 85 and here we had a 95. This time the final final course was coffee with brandy. Dinner lasted over three hours and was just stellar. “Living like kings” does not really do it justice. This life is hard to beat.