Cycling along VDLP and beyond

bananarama · May 5, 2022

Hello everyone,

Not that interesting a post, just to say that I've accumulated a lot of holiday over the last 2 years. My body and mind need to vent and recover, so in a few weeks I'll be cycling along the VDLP. Never done this route, and because I'll be taking panniers and 35mm tires, I plan to stick to tarmac, unless I know the actual path is doable.

After that I'll jump on the Frances to SJPDP, and after that I'll head north to Cherbourg. I've already cycled the Frances twice, so I'm pretty sure which route to take, and to spice things up a bit, I'll look to stay at different albergues. As for France, there are plenty of campsites to stay at, unless if the weather is atrocious, in which case I'll hit the hostels.

Aside from physical and mental health, I'm looking forward to the Spanish landscape, fresh fruit every day, chocolate flavoured Yop, and chocolate eclairs

Buen camino

Xali1970 · May 6, 2022

You can stick to the N630 - which is very very quiet traffic wise with often very wide emergency stop lanes along most of it's length all the way to Benavente. From there you can either go to Astorga or to Leon.

the Peregrino online Via de la Plata app has detailed route/gpx files that allows you to stick to the "trail" if you choose to and gives alternate routes for bicycles.

I wouldn't try the walking section between Guillena and Castilblanco without 50mm tyres, the soil is clay and gets very vrey sticky when whet... it's deeply rutted a well. For the rest I cannot recall any particular challenges re terrain other than the national park before Almaden. It's a wonderful cycle on packed earth, but the last mountain is impassable with a bike other than by pushing it up and walking down the other side , or going west on the last dirt road before the mountain, to get back to the SE-5405 (it's detailed on google maps). It will involve climbing over a rather high gate though (i.e. chucking panniers over, gently hoisting and lowering the bike with whatever straps you have. Worth it though.

bananarama · May 6, 2022

Thanks for the advice, really good to know, it seems like I'll be able to use a lot of the "trail". I had also considered using some minor roads in case I got bored of the N630.

Skinnybiker · May 6, 2022

Here's a journal of some guys riding the Via Plata from North to South which may be of interest. A lot of road cos the lads were on road-bikes but the old fella on an MTB managed some off-road; just shows what's possible. FWIW try using Komoot to escape the N630. Buen Camino Richard

bananarama · May 9, 2022

I totally forgot about crazyguyonabike! Thanks for the heads-up, I'll look to mirror roughly what they did.

bananarama · Jun 6, 2022

UPDATE: all done!

Well not quite because although I did cycle to SJPDP, my knee had began complaining a lot by then. I did SJPDP > Dax by train hoping a days rest would be enough, but the following day I knew the adventure had ended. I had to stick around Dax for 5 days waiting for the first available bike slot on the train to Paris. After that it was a train to Dieppe, ferry across, and then wife and dog waiting at Newhaven to pick me up.

A few things I took away from this trip:

Is the N-630 Spain's equivalent of Route 66? I had it mostly to my self, some sections were really nice, others boring, but all in all I really enjoyed it.
Despite having 35mm tires, I did manage to do some segments of actual camino and they were really good fun. The section between Casar de Cáceres > Tagus River was awesome. I ended up on a sandy tracks surrounded by sheep in what felt like the middle of nowhere.
Spain's "cafe con leche" and France's "Pain au chocolat" are incredible. I regret not having more of them.
Spanish cities are not fun when its hot. Staying in Salamanca and Zamora was (in a way) a waste, and in hindsight I should have stayed at small villages throughout, for example, Aljucén was really nice.
One of my favourite days was the "transition" day between Zamora > Sahagun, because despite not been on the camino, the route was very quiet and beautiful.

klimmo · Sep 4, 2022

bananarama said:
UPDATE: all done!

Well not quite because although I did cycle to SJPDP, my knee had began complaining a lot by then. I did SJPDP > Dax by train hoping a days rest would be enough, but the following day I knew the adventure had ended. I had to stick around Dax for 5 days waiting for the first available bike slot on the train to Paris. After that it was a train to Dieppe, ferry across, and then wife and dog waiting at Newhaven to pick me up.

A few things I took away from this trip:

Is the N-630 Spain's equivalent of Route 66? I had it mostly to my self, some sections were really nice, others boring, but all in all I really enjoyed it.

Despite having 35mm tires, I did manage to do some segments of actual camino and they were really good fun. The section between Casar de Cáceres > Tagus River was awesome. I ended up on a sandy tracks surrounded by sheep in what felt like the middle of nowhere.

Spain's "cafe con leche" and France's "Pain au chocolat" are incredible. I regret not having more of them.

Spanish cities are not fun when its hot. Staying in Salamanca and Zamora was (in a way) a waste, and in hindsight I should have stayed at small villages throughout, for example, Aljucén was really nice.

One of my favourite days was the "transition" day between Zamora > Sahagun, because despite not been on the camino, the route was very quiet and beautiful.

Hi, well done! and thank you for sharing with us.

I'm planning to do this in october, first time as a bicigrina (rolled my ankle badly in spring and still recovering, so walking is out).

Would you mind sharing some of your experiences? I'm a complete newbie on the bike! some of my questions (I have loads!).

1 did you bring your own bike? or rented one? what kind of bike did you have?
2 which route did you do? on the via de la plata app they have two, one for road bike and one for mtb). is it signed? easy to follow?
3 places to stay (or not?) and visit?
4 trying to go lightweight, what to bring etc
5 any random thing that you would have liked to know beforehand?

Thanks so much already!
Cheers,
Mon

Jesnat · Sep 7, 2022

klimmo said:
Hi, well done! and thank you for sharing with us.

I'm planning to do this in october, first time as a bicigrina (rolled my ankle badly in spring and still recovering, so walking is out).

Would you mind sharing some of your experiences? I'm a complete newbie on the bike! some of my questions (I have loads!).

1 did you bring your own bike? or rented one? what kind of bike did you have?
2 which route did you do? on the via de la plata app they have two, one for road bike and one for mtb). is it signed? easy to follow?
3 places to stay (or not?) and visit?
4 trying to go lightweight, what to bring etc
5 any random thing that you would have liked to know beforehand?

Thanks so much already!
Cheers,
Mon

I'm a first time bicigrino too, spending a week or so on the VDLP starting later this month. You probably have found it already but here's a link to a couple of great sites: https://www.cyclingspain.com/via-de-la-plata-cycling/, https://www.larutaenbici.com/en

There is also a great guidebook written by John Hayes https://www.cicerone.co.uk/cycling-the-via-de-la-plata. It shows both on and off road routes and combination of the two. You can combine it with the fantastic Spanish website https://www.gronze.com/ which lists Alberques along the route.

Buen Camino

klimmo · Sep 7, 2022

Jesnat said:
I'm a first time bicigrino too, spending a week or so on the VDLP starting later this month. You probably have found it already but here's a link to a couple of great sites: https://www.cyclingspain.com/via-de-la-plata-cycling/, https://www.larutaenbici.com/en

There is also a great guidebook written by John Hayes https://www.cicerone.co.uk/cycling-the-via-de-la-plata. It shows both on and off road routes and combination of the two. You can combine it with the fantastic Spanish website https://www.gronze.com/ which lists Alberques along the route.

Buen Camino

Hi Thank you! found the guide book and hesitating to buy it as it is hard to get stuff to Europe after Brexit and delivery time through swiss bookstore is over two weeks.
CyclingSpain is amazing, thank you! I have decided to just hire a bike, to avoid alot of hassle.

Hope you'll have a great time. So looking forward to it!

Jesnat · Sep 7, 2022

klimmo said:
Hi Thank you! found the guide book and hesitating to buy it as it is hard to get stuff to Europe after Brexit and delivery time through swiss bookstore is over two weeks.
CyclingSpain is amazing, thank you! I have decided to just hire a bike, to avoid alot of hassle.

Hope you'll have a great time. So looking forward to it!

You too. I downloaded the book to my ipad. Planning my route on my phone screen is just too hard and as weight is less of a problem on the bike the ipad should be very handy.

bananarama · Sep 21, 2022

klimmo said:
Hi, well done! and thank you for sharing with us.

I'm planning to do this in october, first time as a bicigrina (rolled my ankle badly in spring and still recovering, so walking is out).

Would you mind sharing some of your experiences? I'm a complete newbie on the bike! some of my questions (I have loads!).

1 did you bring your own bike? or rented one? what kind of bike did you have?
2 which route did you do? on the via de la plata app they have two, one for road bike and one for mtb). is it signed? easy to follow?
3 places to stay (or not?) and visit?
4 trying to go lightweight, what to bring etc
5 any random thing that you would have liked to know beforehand?

Thanks so much already!
Cheers,
Mon

So sorry I didn't see this until now...

My tardy replies:

1) I have my own "CX" bike, with 2 panniers at the back, and 2 big bottles on the forks (see picture). I boxed it in the UK, it flew with me to Seville as checked-in baggage, and at Seville airport I put it together and cycled into the city centre using Google maps.
2) I winged it when it came to the route. The N-630 was my go to option but I did include some non-asphalt sections when I felt like it which I really enjoyed. Lots of signs, and if you have something like Google maps it is impossible to get lost.
3) For me it was more about been outside in the countryside so I was pretty happy regardless, but Salamanca was quite impressive. You can see the city 10km out and it feels like going back in time when you enter the centre. The (only) albergue has ~13 beds and opens at 4pm I think; it's very nice.
4) Keep it simple. You'll need one kit for cycling which you'll need to wash at the end of everyday, and one kit for chilling in the afternoon/evening/night. Plus a sleeping bag. Some toiletries, plus bum cream to stop the chafing.
5) Not really, this is my 3rd camino on the bike, so I knew roughly what to take and do. My tips would be factor 50 no matter how tanned you are, and enjoy the caffeine boost from the cafe con leche.

P.S. Bare in mind I cycle to work every day, 2 hours a day, even during winter, so I may not be the best person to give advice. Either way keep asking questions and I'll answer.

klimmo · Sep 22, 2022

bananarama said:
So sorry I didn't see this until now...

My tardy replies:

1) I have my own "CX" bike, with 2 panniers at the back, and 2 big bottles on the forks (see picture). I boxed it in the UK, it flew with me to Seville as checked-in baggage, and at Seville airport I put it together and cycled into the city centre using Google maps.
2) I winged it when it came to the route. The N-630 was my go to option but I did include some non-asphalt sections when I felt like it which I really enjoyed. Lots of signs, and if you have something like Google maps it is impossible to get lost.
3) For me it was more about been outside in the countryside so I was pretty happy regardless, but Salamanca was quite impressive. You can see the city 10km out and it feels like going back in time when you enter the centre. The (only) albergue has ~13 beds and opens at 4pm I think; it's very nice.
4) Keep it simple. You'll need one kit for cycling which you'll need to wash at the end of everyday, and one kit for chilling in the afternoon/evening/night. Plus a sleeping bag. Some toiletries, plus bum cream to stop the chafing.
5) Not really, this is my 3rd camino on the bike, so I knew roughly what to take and do. My tips would be factor 50 no matter how tanned you are, and enjoy the caffeine boost from the cafe con leche.

P.S. Bare in mind I cycle to work every day, 2 hours a day, even during winter, so I may not be the best person to give advice. Either way keep asking questions and I'll answer.

Hi! Thank you for your replies (and taking the time to reply).

Love the bottles on the front fork. How do you attach those?

I finally settled on renting a bike, mostly as I didn't want to ride on my made for speed roadbike. I want to enjoy the countryside and be a bit more comfortable on gravel roads.
Happy to hear the route is straightforward enough and that mixing and matching the mtb track with the N630 is feasible. Did you use a specific guidebook, app, map?

Cheers!
mon

bananarama · Sep 23, 2022

klimmo said:
Hi! Thank you for your replies (and taking the time to reply).

Love the bottles on the front fork. How do you attach those?

I finally settled on renting a bike, mostly as I didn't want to ride on my made for speed roadbike. I want to enjoy the countryside and be a bit more comfortable on gravel roads.
Happy to hear the route is straightforward enough and that mixing and matching the mtb track with the N630 is feasible. Did you use a specific guidebook, app, map?

Cheers!
mon

They're 1.9L bottles mounted to Salsa Anything Cages. The cages are held by 3 screws onto the fork (think of a normal bottle cage but bigger with 3 screws instead of 2).

I had a general idea of the route, so only needed Google maps to not get lost, and gronze.com/via-plata to figure out where to stay the night. Because I pretty much winged it, I imagine I missed out some really interesting gravel sections, so if you plan yours a bit more than I did, you should get some interesting stuff. The most memorable for me was the section between Casar de Cáceres and the Viaducto del Almonte. I don't have pictures at hand, it was like going out into the wild west. Careful with the sandy sections! Also, EuroVelo1 between Baños de Montemayor and Salamanca was very nice and welcome change to the N-630.

So a rental bike from Seville all the way to SDC? Do you have to take the bike back to Seville?

klimmo · Sep 28, 2022

Thanks!!

I've got no fixed plans yet, either Gijon or Santiago, or somethings else. I've got the better part of two weeks, we'll see.

The rental company will drop the bike in Seville at my hostel, and then will either pick it up in Gijon or I can bring it back to Santiago. They were recommended, so hopefully it all works out.

JohnMcK · Feb 23, 2023

klimmo said:
Thanks!!

I've got no fixed plans yet, either Gijon or Santiago, or somethings else. I've got the better part of two weeks, we'll see.

The rental company will drop the bike in Seville at my hostel, and then will either pick it up in Gijon or I can bring it back to Santiago. They were recommended, so hopefully it all works out.

Hi how did your trip go?

klimmo · Feb 24, 2023

Hi John, thanks for asking. I ended up having to cancel my trip two days before departure for urgent neck surgery. It's back on the agenda for october '23 (fingers crossed)