Bilbao to lleida

Ricc

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Hi, i'm planning to ride solo (at the moment) down to lleida from Blbao next month to attend a track day event on my "other bike" which will be there.

I have a whole day to get there and was wondering if anyone can suggest a route for 7-8 hours, avoiding a blast down the motorway.

I have heard of the N260 being really 'interesting', is this worth a shot in one day ?
 
That is 450 kms direct, call it 300 miles.

Do you own a map? If not, there is still time to get one.

Start with easy cheating option number 2; easiest cheating option 1 was coming here and you've used that one up. Pump lleida from Blbao into Kurviger (check the preference setting) and see what it spits out in two seconds....

85462666eefc790c0720e5f4e4f1af61.jpg


That’s given you a start at 350 miles, door to door. Now it’s your turn.
 
That is 450 kms direct, call it 300 miles.

Do you own a map? If not, there is still time to get one.

Start with easy cheating option number 2; easiest cheating option 1 was coming here and you've used that one up. Pump lleida from Blbao into Kurviger (check the preference setting) and see what it spits out in two seconds....

That’s given you a start at 350 miles, door to door. Now it’s your turn.

Possibly spitting it out in disgust Wapping! IMHO nothing worth doing is 'easy', although I love the region of the Ebro basin, which is the 'cream' bit that most of the route traverses. This region is largely flat, often developed with huge irrigation schemes and most of the roads are either in terrible condition and/or dead straight for miles and it is also prone to prolonged high winds heading down the valley from the northwest - OK going out horrible heading back and lethal crossing from side to side ...

So the only answer is to do the 'homework' with a maps and joining together various recommendations. A good start from the OP would be to clarigy where in Lleida he's heading, the city itself or somewhere in the province, which is huge and extends over the main ridge of the Pyrenees to an area on the normally 'French' north face of the range!

Regs

Simon
 
From what I recall after the mountains the road to Lleida is pretty dull. Much like the town itself.


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From what I recall after the mountains the road to Lleida is pretty dull. Much like the town itself.

That more or less sums it up. Although the countryside and mountains just to the south are quite nice and the city centre has some interesting nooks and crannies I guess the area would be 'not worth a detour' according to M. Michelin.

I have to change trains there to journey down to my gaff on the coast or if I'm on my bike I also ride through the city and into the mountains, making a round trip on the way home by coming back well to the east.

It's also worth noting that with its prolonged freezing fogs in winter and ferocious heat in summer (over 40º is not uncommon) it's not what most people expect of 'sunny' Spain!

Regs

Simon
 
So, from the above it’s reasonably easy to guess that a route north of Kurviger’s blue line, up into and along the Pyrenees and then down might be the answer. But can he do it in eight hours? If only he’d had his ‘other bike’ :green gri
 
So, from the above it’s reasonably easy to guess that a route north of Kurviger’s blue line, up into and along the Pyrenees and then down might be the answer. But can he do it in eight hours? If only he’d had his ‘other bike’ :green gri

And as an aside, as I cannot help answer the original question, but I had never heard of Kurviger before I looked at this thread.

Thank you Mr. Wapping, most appreciated.
 
The N260 is indeed a great route but west of Jaca I remember it being mostly wide, straight, upgraded. East of Jaca twisty and scenic. But lots of fab roads in the area. You won't "go wrong". Could be a long day though.
Be sure to check out the Moto Museum at Bassella. Amazing selection of bikes in concours condition.
 
The N260 is indeed a great route but west of Jaca I remember it being mostly wide, straight, upgraded. East of Jaca twisty and scenic. But lots of fab roads in the area. You won't "go wrong". Could be a long day though.
Be sure to check out the Moto Museum at Bassella. Amazing selection of bikes in concours condition.

Yes, the road west of Jaca is pants. But if it were me with that time constraint I'd forget the N-260, ride into France from Bilbao and back over one of he great passes, e.g. Port de Larreu after doing the Irati run from St. Jean Pied do Port, ride to the N-176 from Roncal to Anso, then the A-132 to Huesca from Puente de la Reina, i.e. missing Jaca altogether for once (otherwise it's a nice place), and from there blast along and down the A-22 to Lleida.

But then again I'm a f***ing nutter! :)

Regs

Simon
 
A thread that, once again, proves that there is not always any guarantee of great roads A to B (twisties, no motorways) just because someone thinks there must be.

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and / or build in a lot more than eight hours to do the best alternatives. The other thing to have in mind is that the real purpose of the jaunt is sometimes not the actual roads ridden, it’s the destination. In this case, a track day in Spain on ‘the other’ bike.
 
That is 450 kms direct, call it 300 miles.

Do you own a map? If not, there is still time to get one.

Start with easy cheating option number 2; easiest cheating option 1 was coming here and you've used that one up. Pump lleida from Blbao into Kurviger (check the preference setting) and see what it spits out in two seconds....

85462666eefc790c0720e5f4e4f1af61.jpg


That’s given you a start at 350 miles, door to door. Now it’s your turn.

I looked at few routes on 'base camp' and found some that looked interesting, but they don't always turn out as you think as am sure you know? Which is why I was asking here for an insight from people who have been there before.

The kerviger site ie excellent,, think I might be using that more than the Garmin for planning purpose.
 
Great info from everyone. I had intended to just 'blat' to the Alcarass track but then started reading (on this site) about the N260. Now having looked on the map (paper one), and as some have said it's probably beyond a days trip to get to see any of it properly, so I'll give the main Pyrenees passes a miss this time.

I was considering heading towards Pamplona and heading south from there, it must be better than motorway ?

i'm going to ride onto Andorra and over into France Montpellier/Verdon over a couple of days following the track and then to Monaco after that before heading north again a few days later.
 
BaseCamp doesn’t tell you what the roads A to B wil be like, it will only ever chose them based on your preferences and the algorithms / choices are limited

You can though get an idea through using a bit of imagination. For example:

1. Lots of town and villages very close together; slow going

2. Long straight empty roads; fast but dull

3. Hairpins like snakes; uphill and downhill, twisty, possibly with views

4. A road running exactly parallel to a motorway / alongside it; they built that expensive motorway for a purpose. Probably a very good one, too

5. A road running alongside a large lake, bordered on the other side by rock or nothing to drive on, at the height of summer; slow going

What you need to do is marry what you see on Basecamp to a half decent map or GoogleEarth or Streetview to fill in the gaps.

Kurvegiver’s algorithms are arguably better and it does its best. However, as this thread shows, unless it is pulled into the Pyrenees, it’s best is maybe not that exciting.
 
Heading SE along Pyrenees on French side (mainly) and back on Spanish Side in a couple of months, we will be taking a similar route to the Op to our final stopover at Pamplona.

My research also concluded it it pretty crap after Jaca, but plan to take the N260 all the way there, then break the boring bit up with a short detour to the Puerto de Iso viewing platform - found during my research using this very site :)

Managed to put a fairly good route from Pamplona to Billbao together, but I am starting a bit closer than Lleida and my routes combined show as about 8:30 ride time, so do-able in a day, and my routes include going into the centre of Pamplona and back out, so probably no more than 8 hours ride if you dodge around Pamplona.
 
Heading SE along Pyrenees on French side (mainly) and back on Spanish Side in a couple of months, we will be taking a similar route to the Op to our final stopover at Pamplona.

My research also concluded it it pretty crap after Jaca, but plan to take the N260 all the way there, then break the boring bit up with a short detour to the Puerto de Iso viewing platform - found during my research using this very site :)

Managed to put a fairly good route from Pamplona to Billbao together, but I am starting a bit closer than Lleida and my routes combined show as about 8:30 ride time, so do-able in a day, and my routes include going into the centre of Pamplona and back out, so probably no more than 8 hours ride if you dodge around Pamplona.

"crap after Jaca" heading SE, are you sure?

Pamplona is a big place. Allow lots of time.
 
We rode a similar route for the last two summers, though taking three easy days to do it and calling in at nice hotels on the way. The drag on the main roads down the Ebro valley is not particularly exciting. As the road network in Spain has been "improved" over the years, lots of these roads have been widened and straightened which doesn't make for exciting biking. High average speeds though, so another option is to knuckle down on the fast roads, get to were you're going earlier, then have time to explore roads when you get there.
 


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