One of the great pleasures of riding a stage race, particularly in a foreign country, is arriving in a new town and then finding the best café, bakery, bar or churreria. Stage 7 of the Transpyr ride was a vast contrast to the difficult and technical stage 6 that saw many riders finishing just in time for dinner. A picturesque and cool forest start, with some fast and exciting descents made for a relatively quick 100kms. Still close to 3000 metres of climbing brought us to the Basque town of Elizondo. Fiercely independent from the other Spanish provinces Basqueland has a completely different language and culture . Arriving in the town in the early afternoon is like entering a deserted village. Not a soul to be seen. By 5pm the bars open, the shops open and the town comes to life. I wonder what they think of hundreds of hungry bike riders wandering around with very silly looking compression calf socks on.
With one final day of riding to go, I think we can almost smell the Atlantic ocean.
