Day 9 Cuenca to Ona

Saturday August 14th dawned with dull skies and drizzle, not a bright prospect for a hard day in the saddle.  It took us almost 1 hour to clear the town negotiating road works that bikes could get though as well as general traffic.
Soon we started climbing up to the highest point of the day, at 3279 metres.  As we gained height so we gained rain, mist and cold!! Reaching the summit after about 4 hours I was wet with sweat and rain.  I put on my waterproof cape before starting the descent to the lunch stop which was about 6K down.  I was getting colder and colder as the road passed under my wheels, eventually reaching the lunch stop where Filip, our mechanic, helped me off my bike!  My fingers were numb with cold and I just sat shaking, too cold to really hold the plastic cup of coffee Filip got me.  All around there were other riders in similar states of cold.  Soon the lunch truck returned, which I had seen going in the opposite direction a few K earlier.  It had been to pick up Jasper, a Dutch rider, who had had 2 punctures and I had seen walking along the roadside.  Once his bike was out of the truck a number of us got in it for warmth.  I eventually managed to drink the coffee!! We stayed in the truck as Didier decided to go back and find the remaining riders on the road, and like me none of them wanted to give up and got to the lunch stop before or just after we returned.
I was now much warmer, still in wet clothes, but with some others decided to carry on to Ona.  We were soon descending down out of the mist and into warmer temperatures and with most of the remaining distance being downhill we all got to the hostal where we could get into a warm shower and dry clothes.  Many stories were told that night over dinner before getting to bed ready for the longer harder day to follow this one of just 107K and 1771 metres of climbing!