Cycle touring in central Spain
marcusinbristol
Posts: 3
I recently rode with a friend from Malaga to Bilbao, trying to find a route that avoided Madrid and most of the other large cities. it was a fantastic experience, cheap Easy Jet flights made it affordable and I would really recommend this part of Spain if you are looking for somewhere challenging and a little bit remote to ride in.
Most of the roads are in great condition, far better than the UK and many of them particularly in the south have a small hard shoulder almost made for bikes. The villages you pass through rarely see Cycle tourists but were friendly and supportive of what we were trying to do. We completed the journey in a week, but in hindsight taking a little longer would have been better. I've written the trip up here.
www.realadventurefilm.co.uk/category/cycling
I've added a map from "Mapmyride" at the end of each day which shows our exact route. If anyone is thinking of riding this route or parts of it i would be happy to help with any information.
Marcus
Most of the roads are in great condition, far better than the UK and many of them particularly in the south have a small hard shoulder almost made for bikes. The villages you pass through rarely see Cycle tourists but were friendly and supportive of what we were trying to do. We completed the journey in a week, but in hindsight taking a little longer would have been better. I've written the trip up here.
www.realadventurefilm.co.uk/category/cycling
I've added a map from "Mapmyride" at the end of each day which shows our exact route. If anyone is thinking of riding this route or parts of it i would be happy to help with any information.
Marcus
0
Comments
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Thanks for posting that. Very good and the pictures are brilliant. However I'm not sold on doing that mileage in 6 days. Looks like a good trip in the Spring without and time or mileage pressure. You did well on those bikes that to me look a bit heavy for the job. I'd be tempted to do it on lighter road bikes making good use of that superb road surface. I never saw a pothole. May come back with questions.
Jim.Nothing to prove. http://adenough1.blogspot.co.uk/0 -
I think it would be a lot more fun over maybe 10 days. The road surface really was superb and although hilly the gradient was always very reasonable, I walked for a little bit but that was mainly to do with the weight of the bike and to give my legs a rest.
The route we took I think works well if you want to explore the wilderness of central Spain and you are happy to be self sufficient ( To a degree). We had contemplated doing it with a credit card and jumping from city to city to guarantee somewhere to stay but I don't think that would have been half as fun.
If you do think about following this route let me know, their is one point, i talk about it on my blog, where the road ran out and we ended up on a gravel track, possibly the only time we needed those fat mountain bike tyres!
Marcus0
