Bike tour Terra Alta: Nonaspe – Arnes

In Adventure, Cycling tour, Europe, Cycling & Diving in Catalonia 2003 On 27/04/2003 No comments

Friday we got a train from Barcelona to Nonaspe where a part of the group stayed camping. As i didn’t have a tend I continued with two more friends to sleep in a hostel in Caspe (Aragon). Next morning we got the first train back. We got together with the group at Nonaspe train station to start the tour organized by Abert (Gata and amics de la bici). We biked towards Batea where we stopped to visit the village, the small streets, the church… We had a break, a snack before lunch. From there we continued to Caseres. We stopped a few times. Once to fix the chain of a girl’s bike. Then to look at the map, we were a little lost. Since we had to go up many times, my knee started hurting. I had already felt some pain on my last bike tour…

When we get to Caseres stated raining so we had a long lunch break. The way from there was beautiful, many fruit trees. By then, I couldn’t enjoy the tour anymore, my knee was hurting a lot. I couldn’t move it. The group stopped to wait for me, I was going really slow because of the pain. I realized that I couldn’t continue, I couldn’t fold my left knee. I still had about 20km to go. We continued slowly to the nearest village. Arens de Lledó. It looked like a ghost town, there was nobody on the streets. Two of the guys (Albert and Juanjo) went to get a possible cab. They came back with the good news. A cab was coming from another village to take me to the refugee in Arnes, where we were going to sleep that night. When I saw the car arriving I was totally happy, I couldn’t move my knee anymore. We put the bike in the car and the cab driver took me to Arnes. Since there was no pharmacy open in Arenes neither in Arend de Lledó, Albert and Juanjo biked to another village to get a medicine for me.

By the evening I was feeling better but the idea of having to bike more 60km next day scared me. They all calm me down saying it was only descending way.

I woke up feeling good. I carried the bike on a way up to leave the village and then I continued biking. The beginning it was ok, it didn’t hurt much. But as much I pedaled, the pain was increasing. Sometimes the leg stopped, as if I couldn’t move, even if I wanted. In on of the ways up Albert towed me. He biked on my site and I hold his shoulder without pedaling. I felt really bad because I’m not small, I’m big, and to tow my weight on a bike shouldn’t be an easy task.

Soon there was many descending, that was wonderful for me because I didn’t have to pedal. I had reached a point that any pedaling movement hurt me a lot. The way was pretty, full of tunnels. They say it is about 30. There was also some beautiful bridges from an old train track. We stopped at Fontcald, a interesting place with rocks, thermal water and a sanctuary.

When I couldn’t bear the pain anymore there was still 30km to go. I was despaired, looking at the kilometers counter of my bike every 2 minutes. It wasn’t changing much, I was going really slow. Since I was using only the right leg to do all the movement, it started to hurt also… To conclude: the last kilometers were of lots of pain. I was the whole time thinking I wouldn’t make it, I couldn’t move my two knees well.

I arrived, I don’t know how. And I thank all the people in the group for their great patience in waiting for me. I know I delayed the whole tour on a few hours…

[After that I had to do a knee surgery, take out my broken menisci.]