Jérica / Xèrica

October 20, 2023

We’re finally leaving the high country we’ve been in for most of the last month, beginning our final drop to the sea. The drop only comes at the end of today’s ride though when we drop to the Palencia River, losing nearly two thousand feet in eight miles. Before that we face about twenty miles of fairly low contour riding, fluctuating at an elevation close to 3,000’. There aren’t any significant climbs or descents in those twenty miles, so that’s not the problem. It’s the weather. Today is the coldest day of the tour, and it’s very windy. There’s a steady 20 mph wind blowing down out of the mountains all day; so between the cold and the wind it’s quite an elemental ride, one that forces us to layer up from the start and stay that way most of the day.

Breakfast isn’t served until 8:30 at our hotel so it’s around ten by the time we leave, on a mission to make it to Jérica in time for lunch. The ride begins with a gradual two mile drop to the west before slowly climbing out the other side of a valley and bending south. They’re the hardest, coldest miles of the day, more or less straight into the wind.

Even though we’re losing elevation we’re biking to keep momentum in the face of the wind.

At the end of this modest initial descent. As I’d hoped, we get a break from the wind as we start climbing - first from the ridge ahead, and then from our change of direction.

Did you ever wonder where old milestones go when their tour of duty is up?

On our left are the remains from old mining activity,

They’ve left more than a scared landscape behind as their legacy.

About four miles in, my hopes for the day are realized when we turn south and this monster wind proves to be our friend for the rest of the day. It wavers between being an angling tailwind that is helpful but a challenge to bike against, and one that’s more directly blowing up our backs and blasts us down the road.

Turning to the south, we get a big boost from the wind that sticks with us the rest of the day. We also start to see some real drama in the sky.

The most scenic part of the day comes when we drop to and then climb away from the Mijares River.

The graceful old bridge across the Mijares.

For the first ten miles we’ve been on an Aragonse provincial road. It’s been very quiet, and we’ve pretty much had the road to ourselves. After that though we merge onto the national road N-234, our old friend we’ve followed off and on for the last few weeks. And, the ride is still very quiet, and we pretty much still have the road to ourselves - and when there’s the occasional traffic overtaking us we have a generous shoulder to cut over to.

At least it’s quiet from a traffic perspective. It’s actually pretty loud though - from the traffic noise of the autovia were paralleling, and the roar of our tailwind, and eventually from the rhythmic humming of wind turbines spinning away furiously as we approach and bike beneath them.

One of a twin pair of unusual sculptures as we cross the autovia just before merging onto the N-234.

At about the point where we cross over from Teruel to Valencia the nature of the ride changes. We’re going nearly straight south now, the wind is almost directly at our backs, and we really fly as we gain elevation toward the divide that separates us from the deep Palencia valley. Ahead is a broad line of wind turbines lining the ridge, their blades spinning furiously. They come into sight about eight miles in the distance, and even though we’re flying in front of the wind we’re staring at the generators for about a half hour, watching them gradually enlarge as we near them.

Racing south toward the sea, under a dramatic sky.

A fantastic sky. I don’t recall seeing one quite like it.

To the right, the sky is equally dramatic but in a different way. It reminds me of the day we biked past El Torcal in Andalucia under a sky like that. The wind was blowing so fiercely then that Rachael’s pony tail blew straight sideways and we had to walk our bicycles downhill to keep them on the road.

After watching them draw near for the last half hour, we’re finally close enough to hear the blades hum.

Shooting the gap. Just past the summit there we begin our fast eight mile downwind descent.

Video sound track: Music for Weather Elements: II. Clouds. the Mind on the (Re)Wind, by Ezio Bosso and Giacomo Agazzini

We make it to Jérica right about two and head straight to the restaurant Rachael’s targeted for us. We’re the only customers when we arrive, and we’re relieved to be seated in a place that looks like it could easily be closed. Lunch is great, but what I remember best is an exchange with our server on the way out. He speaks a bit of English, more than I’d realized at first, and as we go he asks where we’re from and then haltingly explains where he got his language. He’s from Cuba, and spent some time in Miami. He left there about eight years ago though, emigrating to the Ukraine. And he was chased out of that by the Russian invasion, coming to Spain not long after the war started.

We’re staying in a quite comfortable and appealing hotel in Jérica, comfortable enough that we’re really pretty content to just hang out in our room for the rest of the day rather than venture out in the cold and wind. And we have a nice view of the town’s prominent Mudejar tower, so we can do some leisurely sightseeing without really stirring.

Toward sunset Rachael finally goes out to look around the hotel and comes back a few minutes later telling to put my shoes on, grab the camera and follow her. The view from our window is nice enough, but the patio gives us the most dramatic sunset of the tour.

And later, when I’m returning from the bathroom after brushing my teeth and turning out the light for the night I’m shocked to look out the window at the golden, illuminated tower. I tell Rachael to open her eyes and look out too, and it’s her that points out that she’s seeing double with the tower reflected off the open window. Good catch, I congratulate her, but she’s already closed her eyes again.

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Ride stats today: 31 miles, 1,500’; for the tour: 1,275 miles, 51,300’

Today's ride: 31 miles (50 km)
Total: 1,265 miles (2,036 km)

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