Long distance rides through Spain.

gspod said:
We usually go for 3 or 4 weeks and it’s never enough.
I suspect you already know about this place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Encantada
as it’s on your route - worth a stop I think.

The route is fantastic, I assume you’re going over the top on the 9161 :okay

There is a lovely campsite just outside Las Majadas, it’s a great road up there and you’re truly getting into wilderness. The roads from there heading into the mountains are amazing and many are unpaved - although that was changing last time we were there - before the economic crisis so hopefully that’s come to a halt.

We had a 3.5 week trip planned to that area this year :(. This thread is making me want To go next year instead of our planned trip to Greece and the Balkans.

PS Simon100 is the man for campsite advice around Albarracin - well all advice about Spain really ��
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Great info, thanks.

I had no idea about it so much appreciated. Waypoint added. A quick look reminds a little of Joshua Tree's Jumbo Rocks.

You've got me on the 916. Where is it? My interest is piqued. Thanks for the camp site info.

I've been to Croatia/Bosnia/Montenegro (though no off-road) and had a great time. I took the train from Dusseldorf to Koper but don't think it runs any more (though I believe you can get to Verona). All that said, Spain seems to offer more great riding for me - though you have to do them both :). If you do decide to go be sure to ride the E-65 from Senj to Starigrad. Absolutely beautiful road that hugs the Adriatic with the islands in the background. The 35KMs south of Karlobag are phenomenal.
 
Davisonstuff said:
Great info, thanks.

I had no idea about it so much appreciated. Waypoint added. A quick look reminds a little of Joshua Tree's Jumbo Rocks.

You've got me on the 916. Where is it? My interest is piqued. Thanks for the camp site info.

I've been to Croatia/Bosnia/Montenegro (though no off-road) and had a great time. I took the train from Dusseldorf to Koper but don't think it runs any more (though I believe you can get to Verona). All that said, Spain seems to offer more great riding for me - though you have to do them both :). If you do decide to go be sure to ride the E-65 from Senj to Starigrad. Absolutely beautiful road that hugs the Adriatic with the islands in the background. The 35KMs south of Karlobag are phenomenal.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the E-65 tip - I'll add to my list for next summer.
 
gspod said:
CU-V-9161
Cuenca, Spain
https://goo.gl/maps/qAeydh3RP1Mfs65K6
Hopefully that’ll work.

Thanks for the tip about Croatia. We’ve done the Balkans before but missed out Montenegro and Croatia so this will go on the list.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes. That's on the route. Thank you.

I'll PM you about some stuff for Croatia and Montenegro that may be useful.
 
Further to previous posts I’ve had to change my route/plans to accommodate a slightly shorter holiday period. Instead of a full 2 weeks to ride a loop via Andalucía I’ve settled on 1 day on the ferry to Santander and 11 days in the saddle to get me home via Calais. With that in mind (and the fact that I’ve had a ton of time over the holidays) I’ve come up with 3 options for the tour. As it stands option 3 is my favourite though I’d very much welcome any and all advice concerning this or any of the routes. Please pile in.

Many of the days planned are upwards of 250-300 miles or so. I appreciate that this is not for everyone but because I ride so little during the year my primary goal on a tour is to ride as many great roads as possible in the short time available to me. I’m used to doing long days – and Santa recently brought me an Air-Hawk :). The routes are primarily based on the quality of the roads, i.e. surfaces, visibility, twistiness and views. I have to confess that the latter was usually an afterthought to the first 3 though that doesn’t mean they don’t go through some really lovely places, I think they do as I tried to route in areas of altitude. That said I appreciate my standards may not meet those of others. I’ve attached an example of what I was going for – a segment of 55 miles very close to Prades and Tarragona - https://goo.gl/maps/a3RQfGZcykmeZUbQ8 - click anywhere on the route for the street view. Amazingly, this quality of road is not an isolated experience. There are absolutely fantastic roads everywhere. Praise be the EU.

I’ve tried to include some interesting towns on each of the routes but exposure to these will be limited to short walks in the evenings and coffee breaks during the day due to the heavy schedule. I’m happy to get my culture fix via weekend breaks with the wife every now and then.

Apologies for those who don’t have MyRouteApp but I couldn’t come up with a better way of sharing. Note that the Route Information section contains a daily breakdown which includes the relevant links to the day’s route in Google Maps. I’m happy to forward the .GPX files should anyone be interested. Also note that MyRouteApp also includes a tool button to show you the street view which I like a lot.

All trips start from Santander and end in the Pyrenees (from where I’ll do a 2 day blast back to Calais). The waypoints highlighted in red are the stop-overs. Accommodation will be primarily camping with the odd booking.com hotel thrown in. I’m booked on the Plymouth-Santander ferry on June 13 so have plenty of time to decide. Here are the links:

Option 1 - 11 days (+ 1-way ferry) – Molina de Aragon | Cuenca | Albarracin | Valencia Cd | Alicante | Prades | Fanlo
https://www.myrouteapp.com/en/social/route/4078860?mode=share

Option 2 - 11 days (+ 1-way ferry) – Molina de Aragon | Cuenca | Albarracin | Valencia Cd | Consuegra | Riopar | Prades | Fanlo
https://www.myrouteapp.com/en/social/route/4099059?mode=share

Option 3 - 11 days (+ 1-way ferry) - Picos | Madrid | Guadalupe | Consuegra | Valencia Cd | Albarracin |Cuenca | Prades | Fanlo
https://www.myrouteapp.com/en/social/route/4128333?mode=share
 
OK, they will now load but very very slow over the internet and 4G. It might be my phone or the weather or Mymaps’ servers, though everything else is quick.
 
I opened up MyRoute on my iPad and logged in. That sped it up a bit but not hugely. I suspect the problem lies at MyRoute’s end of the tunnel.
 
Maybe to do with the number of waypoints, 115 on the one I opened. Maybe split into day or half day chunks.

My Zumo 390 won’t accept routes with more than 29? Waypoints, so may have to be split down anyway to be useful on the road
 
Davisonstuff said:
Further to previous posts I’ve had to change my route/plans to accommodate a slightly shorter holiday period. Instead of a full 2 weeks to ride a loop via Andalucía I’ve settled on 1 day on the ferry to Santander and 11 days in the saddle to get me home via Calais. With that in mind (and the fact that I’ve had a ton of time over the holidays) I’ve come up with 3 options for the tour. As it stands option 3 is my favourite though I’d very much welcome any and all advice concerning this or any of the routes. Please pile in.

Many of the days planned are upwards of 250-300 miles or so. I appreciate that this is not for everyone but because I ride so little during the year my primary goal on a tour is to ride as many great roads as possible in the short time available to me. I’m used to doing long days – and Santa recently brought me an Air-Hawk :). The routes are primarily based on the quality of the roads, i.e. surfaces, visibility, twistiness and views. I have to confess that the latter was usually an afterthought to the first 3 though that doesn’t mean they don’t go through some really lovely places, I think they do as I tried to route in areas of altitude. That said I appreciate my standards may not meet those of others. I’ve attached an example of what I was going for – a segment of 55 miles very close to Prades and Tarragona - https://goo.gl/maps/a3RQfGZcykmeZUbQ8 - click anywhere on the route for the street view. Amazingly, this quality of road is not an isolated experience. There are absolutely fantastic roads everywhere. Praise be the EU.
Click to expand...

No desire to dampen your ardour but those roads are seriously narrow and full of blind corners, zero visibility, and also lots and lots of cyclists ... I have a home in Tarragona but rarely ride that way for this reason although the TP-7402road is quite possibly the best road in Spain, so don't pass it by ...
 
That's absolutely fine, it's exactly the sort of feedback I'm looking for. Just had a look at the 7402 - you're right, what a road. Consider it added. Thanks.
 
Your routes open just fine in Pocket Earth - but of course like any cross application (‘cept maybe Basecamp) it will be as a track. Mind you in PE it is just a matter of establishing the start and end points then opening a route option on the same screen and “elastic band” the proffered new route to exactly match the imported track. Robert is now a close relative ...
 

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Davisonstuff said:
That's absolutely fine, it's exactly the sort of feedback I'm looking for. Just had a look at the 7402 - you're right, what a road. Consider it added. Thanks.
Click to expand...

There's always a Youtube of the best routes, but this is the only one I0ve found, the rider is a bit laid back - as is the music! - but you get the drift. As you can see the roads in this regiin are narow, and visibility poor, as I said this is one of the better ones!

 
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