Good tips, Simon, thank you. Great that the forum can create advice like this, to fine tune bod’s holidays. Great also that Davisonstuff had created a lot of his own work, too.
Te section through the Valdepeñas region is very flat and boring. I don't know the region well but my instinct would take be south along the road you can see there, roughly from Elche to Almaden and I'd be very tempted to continue to Mérida, which was one of two Roman capital cities back in the day - I have a home in the other one, Tarragona, and have always wanted to make the pair!
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I wouldn’t bother with Asturias or Galicia . Absolutely nothing to see there
Te section through the Valdepeñas region is very flat and boring. I don't know the region well but my instinct would take be south along the road you can see there, roughly from Elche to Almaden and I'd be very tempted to continue to Mérida, which was one of two Roman capital cities back in the day - I have a home in the other one, Tarragona, and have always wanted to make the pair!
This summer I had a great back-road ride up to the Pyrenees from a friends house north-west of Madrid on the CM-1001 which continues east from the M-102/CM-1002 from Torrelaguna. If you aim to get there from the west you ride through the Sierra de Gradarrama region, where you canpt go wr9mg for scenery/roads ...
Well worth it in my view, Extramadura is one of our favourite parts of Spain. Merida, Caceres and Trujillo are all UNESCO heritage cities and form a small triangle. Inside this triangle is a granite land of iron oaks and it’s very atmospheric - it also produces the world’s finest ham.
Yeah it’s shit there. Move along.
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Ah, I get it. That's one of those 'keep the tourists out' things, right?
Extremadura is the only part of Spain I haven't ridden in. Would have been there this year in different circumstances. The only slight drawback for me is a friend who rode there a few years ago and spent all day at 45 degrees, desperately looking for shade. That sounds like no fun at all.
The more I look at it the more I like the area. I think I'm leaning towards cutting across from Alicante to Guadalupe/Caceres etc to spend more time discovering Extremadura. Does this mean I have to read the book (DQ)
Simon - you posted a pic a while back of you and your bike with the backdrop of a statue and windmill. Was that in Extremadura? If so, exactly where?
Your friend probably went at the height of summer. Don’t be like your friend.
No, not in Extremadura. As it's Don Quixote it has ti be in 'La Mancha', Mota del Cuervo, Cuenca to be exact
Looking back at the map I see that the route I suggested passes through Yeste and the several natural parks there: Rio Mundo, Rio Seguro and the Sierra de Cazorla. I spent several days there staying at Riopar and found lots of amazing riding and fantastic scenery ...
Casares is famously beautiful and more famous lateky as some of Game of Thrones was filmed there ...
Yeah, 45 degrees would not be good ��. I was thinking of going early June. The thinking is that it will afford a good balance of avoiding the heat of high summer but still possibly allow me to see some remnants of Spring. I’d go in May if I thought I could get away with it but from what I read there’s a much higher chance of rain. Any thoughts anyone?
Look forward to seeing Davidsonstuff’s final route.
Simon mentioned another of our favourite places - Cuenca and specifically, for us, the Cuenca mountains.
Lots of unofficial off-road, wild swimming and wooded mountains as far as the eye can see - there’s also bears there.
That’s the trouble with Spain - you need time in each place to discover the hidden gems.
The route takes me through Cuenca and Valdecabras and onto Albarracin from there. It looks an amazing place and the road is fantastic. I have an official campsite in Albarracin in mind so that should be good in terms of bears. Definitely don't want any of that
I'd love to spend a couple of months riding it rather then the 2 week flying visit it'll be, but you know how it is.