Camino de Santiago- trail or road?

blorg

Doing the Camino de Santiago Saturday, starting in Biarritz. Have done the coastal route before but this time planning on the traditional.

Is it possible to do _parts_ of this on the trail on a touring bike? On 700x25s?

Tourist Tony

Hve you seen this guidebook?
http://www.cicerone.co.uk/product/detai ... f-st-james

boleary

I did the Camino on a light touring bike and rode mostly on the road. There were a few short stretches of the Camino I rode on but not many. You would really need a mountain bike to tackle it.
I took nine days to ride from St. Jean de Port to Santiago. An Italian group on mountain bikes did it on the Camino in the same time but it looked much tougher.
Anyway whatever way you choose just enjoy the experience.

blorg

Tony- book looks great and it appears on the website of a local bookstore so potentially may be a winner. I'll check round in the morning. Failing that any idea of the likelihood of my getting it at St Jean Pied-de-Port or Roncesvalles?

boleary- thanks for the good wishes. I've heard mixed reports on whether the route is partially navigable without a mountain bike. Last time (1999) resulted in a very quick puncture about 100m after leaving the road. But that was before I discovered kevlar!

HarryDd

Doing the Camino itself is more enjoyable & rewarding than paralleling it on road. It is harder going but far more interesting.

A mountain bike with semi-slicks is ideal. A hybrid would be ok. 700x25 tyres are a bit risky but this would largely depend on your bike handling skills to avoid pinch punctures. You may want to try puncture proof 28s.

Any problems you have will be more than compensated for by doing "the way"

culverwood

There are sections of the Camino Frances you can do on the path on a touring bike especially on the meseta. Do not try any of the sections in the mountains on a touring bike except perhaps the climb up from SJPP to the Ibanata Pass on the Napoleon route.

The Higginson book will not be available at SJPP or Roncesvalles so if you want it get it now. It is touring bike based so may suit you.

Spanish Border


Cirauqui


Los Arcos


Meseta


More Meseta

blorg

Those photos do look very appealing and maybe somewhat manageable. Nice avatar BTW. My girlfriend's frame has clearance for wider tyres but according to the LBS her back wheel is limited to a max of 25 for some reason, so we are stuck with that. I have 25 on the back, 28 on the front, both kevlar but presumably that's not going to help against pinch flats. GF is worried about the panniers popping off if we go over a bump, hers attach using a simple metal clip which is not super secure but can be assisted with bungees at the bottom.

I got the Higginson book today together with the Rough Guide map to Northern Spain which is 1:350,000, plastic paper, covers the whole of the route, and looked at least as good as the 1:400,000 Michelins (of which I would have needed three.) I read in another book a suggstion that there is a custom map floating around of the camino- any ideas? I have found the Michelins of somewhat eh limited use in the past and this Rough Guide one looks pretty identical (e.g. no really small roads or paths marked.)

andymiller

Thanks for posting the photos I definitely need to research this.

Blorg - if you already have a guidebook then this may be information you already have but there is a really useful-looking free guide (unfortunately in Spanish only[edit correction it's in Galician!] to the Camiño Francés - the one you're doing. There are fairly detailed maps of each stage and elevation profiles.

I thought I'd post it for other people whose curiosity may have been whetted.

http://www.xacobeo.es/2006/adjuntos/des ... icleta.pdf

(I don't think it's a very big download)

Oh and the website it comes form may be useful. That is in English:

http://www.xacobeo.es/2006/index.asp?id ... idIdioma=3

blorg

andy- I had not seen that before. Many thanks. Very useful, but some of those grades look scary, never mind loaded! We are aiming for 9-10 days, with a little time in Galicia at the end if possible.

Pete Beer

Try getting a copy of "Spanish Steps" by Tim Moore. He did the route, OK he did it with Shinto, a donkey but it does give an alternative view to a guide book and it made me laugh.

Pete Beer

A question. How do you get yourselves and bikes to the start and finish

blorg

I'm flying direct to Biarritz and out of Santiago. Will either cycle from Biarritz to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port or get the local train.

I have previously had the pleasure of dealing with the Spanish night-train under-the-bunk fiasco. Never again! I believe the regionals are OK. Experience with buses is mixed, some don't like to take bikes and the potential for damage is a lot higher as the bike is horizontal.

andymiller

Looks like you could get the night train from Paris to Bayonne and then from there to St Jean Pied de Port. both trains have a bike symbol against them on the sncf website.

Coming back looks a bit more problematic!

culverwood

Ryanair does a flight back to Stansted, but looking at your post I see you are needing to get to Ireland.

Another site to look at for maps and elevations is http://www.mundicamino.com/ on each route each stage is under "lines & outlines. Also look at http://www.caminolinks.co.uk

blorg

Oh, I'm well sorted for all of that, Dublin-Biarritz with Ryanair and then Santiago-Dublin with Aer Lingus.

andymiller

It was Pete Beer who wanted information about getting to and from (presumably to the UK).

I found this link via the mundicomino site (thanks culverwood):

http://www.santiagoturismo.com/sccb/portada/santiago/

blorg

Where are you coming from Pete? The key thing to be wary of in the whole procedure in my experience is the Spanish train system. www.bikeaccess.net is a very good source for anecdotes on people's experiences with different airlines, etc.

Iberia reportedly may give discounts if you have the "compestela" (official pilgrimage certification) although I don't know if that is still current.

Pete Beer

Bristol.

blorg

You could consider flying Easyjet Bristol to Bordeaux, it is very flat indeed between Bordeaux and the Spanish border so you could get some very cheap miles in (or if you didn't want to cycle you could take the train.)

Going back might be a bit more difficult, I suspect a flight to London might be easiest. Ryanair are starting service from Porto direct to Bristol but the train connection between Galicia and Porto is not good at all.

blorg

I've switched my tyres to Schwalbe Marathon 700x35s so hopefully will be able to tackle some of this on the trail. Thanks for all the advice guys (those photos swung it for me!)

Pete Beer

I have to say the photos are brilliant. It does make me think I should do it. I wouldn't mind getting a singlespeed mtb, or possibly use my 1940's Path fixed, it's suppose to be a challenge.

culverwood

These are the types of track I do not like to cycle down with panniers, especially as there will be plenty of walkers about. There are road alternatives in all cases.

Both taken just after Cruz de Ferro:



On the other hand if you do not mind walking a bit going up is safer.

blorg

Pete Beer wrote:

I have to say the photos are brilliant. It does make me think I should do it. I wouldn't mind getting a singlespeed mtb, or possibly use my 1940's Path fixed, it's suppose to be a challenge.

I'd be wary of doing it on a singlespeed, it's an extremely hilly route!

pneumatic

We did it by on touring bikes by road (with a few diversions onto Camino paths for variety). The Camino paths are much more challenging to ride on, but the bits we did were navigable on the excellent Schwalbe Marathon 700x35's on my Super Galaxy.

One factor to bear in mind iis that most of the relevant road route (N125?) has been upgraded to carry trucks (and all Spaniards seem to own at least one truck!) and there are very few, if any, alternative country routes. Consequently, we spent a lot of time riding on the hard shoulder of quite busy roads. This was in stark contrast to the French route to SJPP (from Vezelay), where minor roads were the norm and very pleasant to cycle on.

However you do it, do it! It was a great experience.

blorg

Just back, great time was had. 867k in 12 days, mostly on the road but with maybe 20-25% on the track, including almost all of La Rioja where the N120 is horrendously busy (later found that many cyclists had taken the as yet unopened new motorway.) Generally as a rule the N roads were fine IF there was a parallel motorway, although there was a bad bit before Astorga where the motorway was toll and therefore empty, while the N road was very busy. Used 700x35 Marathons myself which coped well with the track where we used it. The track was very picturesque but also a hell of a lot tougher and slower, so we rationed it ;-) First week was very hot, up into the 40s.

Some photos of the track for anyone who is interested (culverwood- note that a small and very quiet tarmac road has been created beside the camino now for much of the Meseta.)

Navarra (Cirauqui)


La Rioja


Castilla y León (Meseta / leaving Rabanal)


Galicia (note "No Bici" graffiti on the 100k marker)


Santiago!

culverwood

Lovely pictures Blorg.