Flying to Madrid for Raid Pyreneen 2011.....

bikenut13

I'm flying in from the US. This will be my 8th international tour. I'm doing the Raid Pyreneen in August....solo. I've sent in my registration. I haven't finalized my plans yet concerning my arrival in Madrid. I hope to take one rest day then bike to Hendaye for the Raid.
Has anyone landed in Madrid with their bike and cycled out? Is it possible?
Is there a bike club in Madrid that has a member who might assist me? Tell me where the closest hostel is?.....or even put me up for a night?
Last year I did the US, west to east, solo, self contained. I contacted a local bike club in Seattle. told them my plan, and the bike club president picked me up at the airport, put me up for two nights, then led me out of Seattle for the first 20 miles of my ride.
Pretty cool.....
I'm landing in the late afternoon and I'd rather not cycle out.
Any suggestions?
Thanks...
Denis

andymiller

A quick look at Google Maps suggests that there is a route over the motorway/autovía (the Camino del Cuartel). and again using google Maps there seem to be more hotels around Barajas airport than you can shake a stick at.

You might also want to try warmshowers.org if you want to stay with local cyclists.

hdow

Have cycled out of Madrid Barajas airport lots of times & as Andy says there are loads of hotels in Barajas itself.

Have a look at the www.cicerone.co.uk website, go onto the Cycle Touring in Spain book page and download the Update PDF. It includes routes in & out of all the terminals in all directions.

Yours

HarryD

bikenut13

Thanks guys..... Two good answers. I'll follow up on both of them. Yesterday I found a hostel located not to far from the airport. I'll probably just put my bike together in the airport and cycle there...
Denis

blorg

You might also want to look at how you get the bike to Hendaye. It is a LONG time since I last got a train from there to Madrid (1999) but when I did the rule was you could only bring a bike on the night train, and it had to go under the bunk, where it didn't fit, due to the design of the bunk. Basically the ticket office will sell you a ticket, but you will have to have an argument with the inspector on the train... he will threaten to throw you off but if you hold your ground and point to your bike ticket he will eventually give in and put the bike in his own compartment. It was the same deal going to Santiago. There was a bunch of Spanish cyclists on the train from Hendaye and they took the precaution of getting drunk to make it easier to deal with. The ticket inspector had the air of a man who had seen this many times before.

I am not sure if things have changed. This was for the long-distance trains, I am pretty sure you can bring them on most local trains.

andymiller

blorg wrote:

I am not sure if things have changed. This was for the long-distance trains, I am pretty sure you can bring them on most local trains.

The basic rule is that local and regional trains are OK, but there may be ewceptions into and out of Madrid. On the medium-distance trains you need a (free) ticket for the bike.

You can't take bikes on the long-distance trains (although you mught get away with a bike in a bag - but even these, officially, aren't permitted.

The ticket offices are run by a separate division. The people working in the offices don't know the rules - unfortunately you can't rely on what they say (I speak from bitter experience). The only 100 per cent reliable source is to check the departures poster and look for a bike pictogram.

You can only take a bike on a sleeper if you book the whole compartment.

Spain has a very good network of long-distance coaches, but even on these it's best ro assume that the bike will have to be in a bag.

bikenut13

Denis here again....Thanks for the advice. I did read elsewhere about the problem with trains so I've decided to bike to Hendaye. I plan to make it in four days.....it looks to be about 300 miles (500K).
I'll start my 'RAID' on the fifth day.
I haven't conversed with anyone who has done the RAID. The organizers claim to be strict about the start day and time. Though I plan to make it to Hendaye to start on the day and time I've specified, I wonder how forgiving the organizers are when it comes to international participants. Are they so strict that they won't let you start one day early? Or one day late?
Anyone know? I've tried calling the phone number listed on the RAID website to ask that question, but no one answers...
Thanks again....great info here. If any of you guys ever fly into Boston I'll be there to help. You can't cycle out of our international airport.....
Denis

andymiller

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of taking the train for part of the journey either to Hendaye or to Irún. Looking at the RENFE network maps it looks like, if you can get to say Burgos, you could then take the medium distance trains.

Here's the

http://www.renfe.com/docs/norte_MD.pdf

I know it's probably too late to say this, but for the benefit of others, there's an SNCF sleeper service from Paris to Hendaye/Irún which would be a straightforward way of getting there by train (SNCF sleepers SFAIK have bike carriage facilities).

DTH

Hi

We done the raid about 5 years ago. We started about 10am which gave us till 3pm on the 5th day. i thought you could start at anytime, but you only had 100hrs total from your start time. The hotel we stayed at stamped our card for the start.

Its a fantastic ride, great scenery and brilliant food..good luck

bikenut13

Yo DTH....
I plan to start my Raid at noon using the same logic as you...... I'll be able to ride until 4:00 PM on the fifth day. Also, I can ride into the night on the first day if I leave at noon. I might be able to bang out 80-100 miles on day one.
I'm doing this on my touring bike, self contained, with all my gear...tent, sleeping bag, etc. I need to use my time wisely.....
Denis