{"id":4916,"date":"2026-10-03T15:41:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/?p=4916"},"modified":"2026-10-04T06:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T06:30:23","slug":"iberian-divide-day-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/?p=4916","title":{"rendered":"Iberian divide day 9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Le fin, Vitoria Gasteiz to Bilbao <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well. I will be penning a long missive to the ceo of Komoot this very day. Another massive misdirection. More later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting on a more pleasant note Victoria Gasteiz was absolutely buzzing last night. We had difficulty finding anywhere to eat but eventually got some fine pinchxos (? Spelling )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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a big political rally in progress also. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Earlyish start as we had asked Komoot to recommend a gravel route which was longer and higher than the road alternative. On the map all was fine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day started well with coffee and a lovely run out of town on the greenway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lovely mist as the sun rose <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All way going well with several coffee stops and lovely scenery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first issue of the day was thanks to these guys <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was hunting day. And we entered a forest , passed two men with large guns who said nothing , but the third man sent us packing. So we had to find a re route. I won\u2019t blame Komoot for that one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next a fine climb <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Met some biker lads at the top getting some air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A treacherous descent to lunch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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@John Harty CLS \u2026 these are rough stones! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Then the fun started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very steep 18% climb. Road at first then gravel. So far so good. But at the top we were directed down a muddy track obviously frequented by wild boar. It was tricky but passable although there was some bleeding. , opened out to three options with Komoot recommending the central one. NO WAY , it was impassable. Left one went the wrong way and didn\u2019t seem to link with route so we went right and prayed hard. There were some disco lights at this stage. \ud83d\udea6. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However we survived with an extra layer of mud all round and proceeded to the next climb which was to drop us seamlessly into town \ud83e\uddd0. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After about 300 m of climbing a car raced up behind us and a man jumped out waving at us. Apparently Antonio was a mountain biker ( a comfortable looking one I would have to say ) and insisted our route was impassable, if he had only seen what we had just survived \ud83d\ude33. However he was having none of it and directed us back to a gravel path which we failed to find. So it was was road for the last 10 km to Bilbao , unpleasant but traffic was light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now ensconced in a lovely apartment, perusing the local restaurants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another adventure over. Biggest lesson learnt\u2026. Do not trust Komoot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do not pass ! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great trip with all sorts of surfaces , climbs , flats , wonderful views , lovely people , cheap accommodation. Great food but please some veg \u2026.886 KM THIS TRIP WITH ABOUT 10000m climbing \ud83e\udd2a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BOG remains at zero , I will have to seek out the BBC ( Bilbao Bentley club) or big plate will be dissatisfied with me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASS = 0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MDT \ud83d\udea6 a lot of dangerous red today at various points on the mountain and again on the run into Bilbao \ud83e\udd2a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Le fin, Vitoria Gasteiz to Bilbao Well. I will be penning a long missive to the ceo of Komoot this very day. Another massive misdirection. More later. Starting on a more pleasant note Victoria Gasteiz was absolutely buzzing last night. We had difficulty finding anywhere to eat but eventually got some fine pinchxos (? Spelling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4916"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4920,"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916\/revisions\/4920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notthesundayrun.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}