“Crossing Spain the Hard way” should be the title of this trip. The route planner Dan, who is a mountain biker, took the chance to take the route up and across as many mountain ranges as possible. The total distance was around 1620km and about 21,000m of climbing. That’s about 1000 miles and 69,000 ft….
Day 14: Ronda to Tarifa, 132km
Nothing has been easy on this ride, and the last day was no exception! Another 132km to ride, 1830m of climbing and finally more decent than climbing with over 2000m of descent. Though at just 7km to go to the end we were still 340m above sea level! You don’t get to see the sea…
Day 13: El Chorro to Ronda, 60km
A short but beautiful ride today out of the gorge at El Chorro up and over into the Sierras de Nieve, on the way to Ronda. Still a lot of climbing, with 1350m completed including going over the last high pass at 1190 m. At the start of the day we could see the…
Day 12: Zagrilla to El Chorro, 117km
A much better day riding today, all day on my own bike again. And the scenery finally turned more dramatic after 3 days of fairly mundane hills covered in olive trees. We moved back into more mountainous landscape with huge escarpments of rock over looking the route. It was a day of lots of up…
Day 11: Montoro to Zagrilla, 86km
Today was a shorter day on the bike, just 86km but still 1400m of climbing. Still on the spare bike this morning, I had to dig deep and think about The Rules of cycling http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/ and needed to apply Rule 5 and Rule 6 and stop fretting about not being on my own bike. After the…
Day 10: Almaden to Montoro, 139km
Today was the first day on any of the long distance cycle holidays I have done where I suffered a major mechanical failure. I have my own bike here with me, and, despite having had it serviced before the trip, and specifically asking the mechanic to check the bottom bracket, today the bearing in the…
Day 9: Guadeloupe to Almaden 140km
We started early from our Monastery overnight stay to try to beat the heat as we had a long 140km 1500m climbing to do. After a very spartan breakfast as the hotel staff were not up, we headed out into a rolling landscape. The first hour was quite cool, but before long the heat turned…
Day 8: Balcon to Guadalupe 118km
We had a very civilised start to the day with a beautiful breakfast on the terrace of the hotel. Another hot day with the obligatory climb out of the night stop. Then a long flat section over the plains followed by a climb out just before lunch. The temperatures are searing in the day and…
Day 7 Navaluenga to Balcon de la Vera 97km
Today was a fabulous ride where we crossed a mountain range the Sierra de Gredos, to move into the southern half of Spain. We passed the highest point on the tour, the Collado de Serranillos at 1575m and we are also half way there now. The climb was long but gradual going up about 900m…
Day 6 Mirafoles to Navaluenga 129km
A wonderful day on the bike and so different than yesterday. As we approach the outskirts of the Madrid commuter area we have gone thorough towns, seen cars, and seen many other cyclists. Apparently Alberto Contador lives somewhere near where we past though today, but we didn’t see him! We started for once with a…
Day 5: to Miraflores, 135km
Today has been another good day riding, even though it was really hot.135km and 1700m of climbing. The day began with the obligatory climb out of the night stop, and then a rolling ride through some wild remote countryside, with climbs then fast descents, all the way to an early first coffee stop at 25km….
Day 4 San Leonardo de Yogue to Valverde de los Arroyas 135km
Today was a much better day than yesterday. I made a point of eating sensibly in the evening and getting to bed early. So my cycling legs were back again this morning thank goodness. I’ve come to the conclusion that this ride is much harder than LEJOG or Channel to Med (across France) mainly due…
Steph Small 2017 Spain North to South 