Tremp to El Pont de Suert

September 23, 2022

Every hotel has it's distinct character. For a change, we are in a business hotel so this morning we came down to breakfast at 8:10am to find the dining room already busy with smartly dressed people getting ready to go to a meeting or make sales calls, or whatever they had come to Tremp to do. We were the only cyclists.

Today's route started on main roads and we were concerned about the volume of trafic, especially big trucks and busses. Fortunately, these were few and the shoulders were wide so we made good time to Pobla de Segur. Here, Rides wGPS had us turn off onto a smaller road, which took us right through town, so we stopped in the square for coffee and a chance to sit back and observe the pace of life as evidenced by our fellow patrons: a group about six older ladies, drinking coffee, eating pastries and chatting enthusiastically; a quiet couple, two young dudes looking at their phones and a solitary, elderly gentleman, smoking and sipping a morning beer. I wonder what they would have said about us?

The side road led us for 10km up past small olive groves and pastures and around a tunnel before rejoining the main road. Ever more traffic turned off at Senterada so the rest of the ride up was on smooth pavement with little traffic and almost no trucks. The climb was relentless and got quite steep going up to the Col de Perves so we were glad for the cloud cover keeping the temperature down. After taking the obligatory col photos, then dropping down and back up to the second, smaller Port de Viu pass, we layered up for what was now a much easier and cooler ride, 12km all downhill.

Pulling into El Pont de Suert we felt the first raindrops and, fortunately, our apartment-hotel was close by so we were in the reception before it started really coming down. Later, it let up enough for us to make a run to the grocery store to get food for the next two days.

The reservoir near Tremp looked nice enough for a swim.

Some serious roadside reinforcement to control landslides.

Coffee in El Pobla Segur. This encapsulates a mix of street front that we often see in Spanish towns: the Bastus is a beautifully new upscale meat shop, the Bar Nou Esport, where our coffees are coming from, is a bit run-down but has lovely big umbrellas and tables across the street on the square and Miquel's Drogueria appears to be in abandoned building and maybe closed at that time of day, or forever.

Checking the map and yes, this is where we turn onto that small side road to be away from traffic for a few km.

Looking back down to the village of Perves

Stats at the pass for the main, uphill part of the day. We had climbed 1100metres by day's end.

Down and then up again to the second pass of the day

Fresh picked Niscalos mushrooms bought at a roadside stall coming into El Pont de Suert

Delicious, home-made, wild mushroom tagliatelle. Served with local red wine. A perfect ending to a great day of cycling.

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Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 626 km (389 miles)

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