The Pico de Veleta is a 3400m peak in Spain. Cycling from Gibraltar it is a 2700m climb (over 40kms) which is considered one of the hardest in the world. It sounded like a great climb to do near the end of my tour.
The only forecast I could find said it would be a maximum of 3 degrees at the top so I packed all my warm clothes and even worked out how to use my travel towel as a face mask. I was also a little concerned about being let through a checkpoint at 2700m and about the road surface from that point.
The first 500m were tough going - not that it was steep but my knee was sore from falling the day before (I soon had blood coming through the bandage and trickling down to my sock). Once I got into a rhythm I could enjoy the cycling and the the views which became more and more impressive. I tried not to think about how much climbing I had in front of me - even half way up it was daunting to think about.
At the checkpoint they were happy for me to push my bike under the barrier. From there the road became patchy - mostly it was good but there were sections that had eroded. I only saw a couple of other cyclists (on mountain bikes) and there were a number of hikers - I had been worried how isolated it would be so this was very reassuring.
I noticed the air becoming a little thinner but cycling slower was enough to counteract it. The temperature was much warmer than the forecast I had seen - above 10 degrees.
The last 300m took a full hour. I was off and on the bike as most of the road was too badly eroded to cycle on. Large sections of the road were covered in snow. By the top I was really just pushing my bike and ended up leaving it in view of the peak and scrambling up the last few metres. The view was spectacular but I unfortunately didn't have much time to enjoy it.
The descent started slowly through the rough terrain and snow. Once I reached the checkpoint I realised I had a 30km descent in front of me on nice roads with very little traffic. I had been so focused on the climb that it hadn't crossed my mind. It was great fun. The views were also spectacular looking out over Granada.
