Alcala del Jucar Ride Out

The May Second Sunday Ride Out has got to go down as a classic. It was our first all day Ride Out and we chose to visit Alcalá del Júcar, the spectacularly beautiful town carved in to the valley walls of the Júcar River.

Is that Bruce on the road in the background?

12 bikes of varying power, ridden by 12 riders of varying skills, with 4 pillions, set of from the Meson El Jardin, in Castalla, led by me, Lol, in the direction of Biar, Villena, Yecla, Almansa and finally Alcalá del Júcar – or at least so I thought. Ray was to bring up the rear. Oh, I shouldn’t forget to mention Bruce who set of a short time before us on his 500 cc quad, map in hand – well not literally but you know what I mean.

On the autovia from Castalla, heading towards the Biar turn off, we came across another group of riders. Our group was mainly sports/tourers, theirs were mainly Harley style cruisers. I waited behind the other group to see if they would turn towards Biar which they did – uh-oh. As the other group was going relatively slowly and they were moving over to let us pass I took the opportunity to lead our group past them. What do you think happened next?

Well I came out the other side of Biar, heading towards Villena, with five bikes following behind. The other group of cruisers left Biar, heading towards Bocairente, the opposite direction, with 5 more bikes than they set off with! I won’t mention names but Ray was still bringing up the tail but this time for another group of bikers.

Suffice to say that we all eventually met up, after lot’s of phone calls, at Almansa where we added Will, from the Ayora Valley, to our group. The weather was great, fantastic roads, beautiful views and great food taken at a restaurant overlooking the town.

And Bruce on his quad? Apart from catching a glimpse of him leaving Yecla for Almansa we never saw him for the rest of the day. On Monday he told us that he had arrived in Alcalá about 20 minutes after us but never found the restaurant and spent most of his time looking in the bars for us. Good excuse Bruce.

The next Second Sunday Ride Out is on the 10th of June, 9:30 am, from the Meson El Jardin in Castalla. Come along and join us – you never know where you’ll end up.