Picking a Route

Logistically, picking a route that goes from the north of Spain to the extreme south should be a piece of cake; it should be a straight shot right down the middle of the peninsula, from one end to the other. When I originally envisioned the route, I thought about what the easiest way would be to get from north to south without having to deal with too much traffic.

In fact, it hasn't been that easy. I call it the Moncho Test; Moncho Dávila(pictured right), the designer responsible for the Spanish Cyclepaths (http://www.spanishcyclepaths.com/) website, just had a baby. His girlfriend, Marta, isn't as avid a cyclist as he is, so going on a biking trip for them posing several challenges. They need to find a route which isn't too hilly or too hard to ride; after all, only one of the three of them is an experienced cyclist who likes hills. Infrastructure is important: they can't be that far away from hotels and places to eat. And it's gotta be fun. Dedicated cycle tourists don't mind kilometres and kilometres of boring sights, since they know that, eventually, something cool will come up. Not everyone is that patient.

So when it came to deciding on the route, I decided that it would be much more appealing to set a route that followed simple guidelines:

a) Does it keep you away from major roads? After all, a ride isn't enjoyable if you're worried that you're going to get dinged from behind.

b) Is it going to take you to places that you wouldn't normally go to if you were travelling by car? Sure, the supposed advantage of having a car means that you should be able to go where you want. But many times, we focus so much on reaching our destinations that we don't think about the fun stuff to see along the way. The Trans-Iberian goes through and by some of the most important - and least visited - sights in Spain. That doesn't mean that the route goes through the middle of nowhere - but it's a great way to get away from the tourist trail and see some beautiful art, architecture and areas.

c) Can you use public transit to get there and back? There are two reasons for this: first of all, relatively few people are going to have five weeks to do the entire route - they're much more likely to do a weekend here, a week there. The second reason: taking a bike in a car is a lot more hassle than taking a bike on public transit. That's not to say that taking a bike on a bus or train in Spain is easy. It's a lot nicer than having to plan a circular route that takes you back to your car (which could get broken into while you're away) or having to worry about whether your bike(s) will fit into your vehicle.

d) Does it use already-existing green tourism infrastructure and facilities? I love rail trails, the Camino de Santiago and transhumance routes, but it's always surprised me that no one has thought to connect them on a national level and create a national system. Until I win the lottery and can afford to put up signage all over the nation (and that's going to be a long time coming, I suppose) there's no reason why the route can't incorporate infrastructure that's already there.

So those were the four criteria I used when thinking about the route. Stay tuned to find out how the route's evolving and where we'll eventually go in March of 2008.

NOW THE WORK BEGINS!

I remember the first moment when the thought of doing a Trans-Iberian route came up.

Two years ago, my buddy Scott and I were biking along the Via Verde de la Sierra, east of Seville and north of Málaga, and we were marvelling at how great it was to use a bicycle route where there were no cars, no traffic, no noise – just the sound of the Guadalete River and the wind in the trees. And I said to Scott: Wouldn’t it be great to have a national system of routes like this one, routes where you could get across the country and be able to ride like this, not having to continually look over you shoulder to make sure you’re not going to get hit from behind or honked at, a system of routes that would allow you to spend days on end riding without a care, where you could just pedal and think about your next meal and where you were going to sleep, and not have to worry about anything else.

The idea never really went away, especially as I watched the system of different nature routes grow and develop, but never really connect. Sometimes they would incorporate different parts of other systems – the Ruta del Quijote has a chunk or two of rail trails, for example – but there didn’t seem to be any willingness or initiative to tie all of the systems together so that people could use them to take longer trips.

Well, it’s happening now. I got the call this morning from the wonderful people at Salomon Sports Spain, who told me that I’m the national winner of the Spring-Summer 2007 edition of Salomon Women Will – Live Your Dream competition. The dream is now a reality: To the best of my knowledge, this effort – called the Trans-Iberian Express – is the first effort to tie together several existing systems to create the first route that can take cycle tourists across the Iberian peninsula. At the end of the process, Spain will have its first north-south route, fully marked and documented route that will allow people who want to travel by bike to head directly from north to south. Better yet, this route doesn’t require you to use a car to get there or back: the route has been specifically designed so that you can make the most of the good public transit connections that exist throughout the country.

So stay tuned and join us on the Trans-Iberian express!