Distance 32.2 miles

Ascent 627 metres Descent 352 metres

Temperature 36 degrees

Not our finest performance today.

We arrived in Santa Domingo de la Calzada at 8.30am. Christophe predicted we would be at Belorado, our final destination at 10.35. We were excited, the Hostal has a pool.

As we left Santa Domingo the guide book was telling us to go in one direction and Christophe was dancing around telling us to go in the opposite direction. We followed the guide book. Big mistake. There are roadworks with a new motorway being built. We cycled down a slip road to the motorway and had to turn round at the last moment. A lot of unhappy vocal motorists and two chastened pilgrims.

Once again we didn’t listen to Christophe and devised our own route. We knew things were going badly wrong when Christophe told us we had 27km to go and an hour earlier it had been only 21km.

It was getting hotter and hotter. A lot of pushing the bikes on rough tracks and stopping to cool down but we made it finally by 4.40pm. Only 6 hours late.

We are contrite and in the future we will listen to Christophe.

Alison doing well and devising all sorts of alternatives from our present kit to do the same job.

We have had a dip in the pool (very refreshing) followed by dinner and drinks on the terrace.

Tomorrow we really will arrive at our destination before the afternoon heat.