Spanish cycle tracks

Spain has certainly delivered and we have absolutely loved cycling here. One of the best things has been the vast range of cycle infrastructure we’ve experienced that has allowed us to explore the country both on road and off road. If you’re thinking of a European cycle trip, we’d certainly recommend it and have included some of our highlights (and occasional lowlight) from the last couple of months.

Farm tracks

These are a fantastic network for those who want to travel by gravel through Spain. Unlike the broken and disconnected bridleways of the UK, the tracks provide access to vast swathes of farmland and traversing these can lead you through the countryside for days at a time, occasionally arriving at small farming villages. We found these particularly useful in the northern parts of Spain and the interior. If you take the time to map it, you can go for hundreds of kilometres barely riding on road.

It was useful to use satellite layers alongside Cycle.Travel to try and gauge whether the tracks were wide enough for vehicles (which usually meant that it would be quite accessible) or whether they were narrow and looked more like a walking trail. We would expect that the condition of these tracks would be more inaccessible on a fully loaded bike.

Due to a lack of rain and the dry climate of Spain the tracks were generally in good condition - a mixture of compacted mud, gravel and stone. There were technical sections and some were rocky with large stones but they tended to be infrequent. If it does rain, it absolutely throws it down and conditions can deteriorate quite quickly. Logging machinery can also cause a bit of a problem which we discovered in Cantabria.

Via Verdes

Like some places in the UK, old railway lines have been converted to cycle and walking routes. The good thing about these is that the gradient is predictable and you can make good progress on them. The surfacing was generally good too. Yes, some were sandy, others a bit stoney and others tarmacked but it was relatively consistent. Because they were wide and quiet, we could comfortably cycle next to each other and chat.

Bridges and tunnels were in good condition with some relatively new improvements in sections to make them fully accessible. The only downside is that these routes tend to be quite straight so you can be cycling for a long time with the route stretching out endlessly in front of you with little diversity in the landscape. For us, this meant it was time for music or a podcast to keep us entertained.

Camino el Cid

Spain is famous for the Camino de Santiago but there are lots of other routes through Spain. Our route kept crossing and using the Camino el Cid as we travelled south. A mix of road riding and Via Verdes made it a really interesting ride. It was designed to be good for cyclists and take in some historic features and culture, so the towns it passed through were always interesting and lively.

EV1 and EV8 - both good and bad

The Eurovelo routes cross the continent with varying degrees of success! Spain’s EV1 we used in northern Spain and the section we rode from Sunbilla to Hendaye was largely off road tracks. Generally they were ridable but were sometimes in frustratingly poor condition, though often with an adjacent quiet road which we would use instead.

The EV8 is called the Mediterranean route and since Valencia we have used this on and off. For us with large tyres, confident riding and no real time pressures, the route has been acceptable but in places we’ve diverted elsewhere due to the poor infrastructure and the incredible unpredictability in what you’re going to get.

In urban areas and approaching settlements, parts of the EV8 were excellent. Fully segregated from walkers and drivers meant that cycling was easy and you could appreciate the views.

Other sections were unridable for us, and would just about be managable by confident riders on mountain bikes. A section near to Almería was thick sand on the beach and not something that we enjoyed late in the day.

We met some tourists on standard/commuter e-bikes who found sections of the EV8 stressful and impassable which was disappointing to see. A recent Streets Ahead episode (Active Travel podcast) highlighted the issues of unpredictability in cycle infrastructure in a recent episode. You know what you’re getting when you drive on a road (tarmac, standardised signage, familiar infrastructure) but a cycle route can be anything from fully accessible to wheelers, to inaccessible to all but the very best riders on the most appropriate bikes.

To be fair, creating these routes must be seriously hard work and EuroVelo do colour code them to indicate the standard to expect. Thanks EuroVelo!

Minor roads

Due to the lower population density of Spain compared to the UK, we’ve found the smaller roads to be really enjoyable to ride. There has been very little traffic and we’ve found especially in the north, that larger capacity motorways have been built following the same routes making smaller roads almost redundant.

Considerate drivers

The driving standards in Spain have really impacted our experience. Although gravel is often our preference, cycling on minor roads can help us make progress, pass through towns to pick up groceries and we do use them too. We have found Spanish drivers to be really excellent in how they pass us on bikes. They are patient, cautious and give us a really wide berth. Other than a few closer passes in busy urban areas on the Mediterranean Coast, we have felt really safe on the roads which has been quite a change from how we found the UK roads.

Maybe the constant signage has something to do with this. We saw these signs regularly when we were riding on the roads, so people were seeing frequent reminders of their responsibility towards other road users - and it showed. We also loved the fact that there are two cyclists riding next to each other on the sign.

All in all we loved riding in Spain. Highly recommended!