Lomax has taken over the blog responsibility as Bowden has once again not prepared for uploading with his out of date phone. Typical. He has been too busy training as is evidenced by his arse disappearing into the clouds whenever a steep climb appears. The title of the blog is very appropriate today as , if you could describe a perfect day cycling , today would be it. 65 miles of climbing and utter magnificent scenery. Imagine the Italian Job or an Aston Marton...

We are seasoned veterans now, adept at getting on and off aeroplanes with bikes, disassembled, packed, scanned, transported and reassembled. All arrangements worked superbly, suddenly we were at Bilbao airport facing a ride in the sunshine. After five previous trips such as this one I tend to believe Alan if he tells me something. Big mistake! He predicted an easy 20 mile bike ride to our first hotel stop. In the early evening heat, with the thought of a pint of...