Welcome to CYCLEPATHS, Bike Spain tours’
newsletter for people who love travelling by
bike and Spain.
In this section, you’ll find articles,
the latest news on Bike Spain’s doings,
and, for subscribers, the chance to take advantage
of our web-based deals. We welcome any comments
and suggestions that you might have!
Feel free to send them along to us at info@bikespain.info
Welcome to CYCLEPATHS, BikeSpain’s official
newsletter for biking fans, Spain fanatics and
everyone in between. In this edition, we’ll
meet two intrepid bikers who are travelling
Europe to teach people tennis, give you a quick
and easy anti-bonk recipe that you can prepare
on the road, and tell you about a new initiative
to get more cyclists (and hikers and horseback
riders) to travel to certain places of La Mancha…
CYCLETOURING: NOT JUST PLAYING AROUND
Imagine the scene: 8:30 AM on a rainy, blustery
Sunday and you’ve got to get the bike
packed. You’ve got the rain covers for
your panniers in place, the rain jacket is out,
and the sleeping bags are packed. What do you
do about the two guitars, the tennis rackets,
two dozen balls and a tennis net?
THE
SPIRIT OF ALOHA GOODWILL TOUR was the
brainchild of Hawaii-based tennis professional
Ron Cardoso and his son, Enrique. For
the next few months, the Cardosos are
touring around Spain, France and other
places throughout Europe, holding tennis
workshops and making people aware of the
health and social benefits of sports.
After spending a couple of weeks teaching
sports in an intensive English program
near Madrid, the team headed off to Santiago
de Compostela via the Madrid Camino de
Santiago. From there, they’ll backtrack
along the French Camino, cross into France
at Irún and travel across Europe
to the Balkans, where they’re scheduled
to deliver a wheelchair tennis workshop
at the beginning of the summer.
The last we heard from them, they were safe
and sound in León and still on their
way to Santiago. “We’ve had to ditch
about a third of the stuff,” Ron told
us in a recent e-mail. “But we’re
still playing the guitars!.
Photo gallery at http://www.bikespain.info/mytrip/casados
QUIJOTE ON TWO WHEELS
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the
publication of Miguel de Cervantes´ Don
Quijote. To mark the event, the regional government
of Castilla-La Mancha recently launched LA RUTA
DEL QUIJOTE, a 2,500 kilometre-long system of
trails spread throughout the region. Broken
down into ten routes, the Quijote Trail is an
attempt to connect most of the major towns and
sites connected with the novel. It’s also
a intensive effort to attract more tourism into
one of Spain’s most under-visited regions.
Each trail is broken down into several sections,
most of which can be done on foot, by bike or
on horseback. A series of markers outlines the
trails (a lot of which are back country roads
or old footpaths) and each section has at least
one “descansadero”, or rest stop,
which has fountains, troughs for horses, shelter
to escape the sun or rain, and picnic tables.
Not only do travellers get a chance to discover
some of the most unfairly neglected areas of
Spain, it allows you to get close, personal
contact with Spaniards in a way that’s
just not possible in major cities.
We
had the chance to explore Route 10 (in
the eastern part of the region, near the
border with Aragón) and were impressed
by the signage and the design of the route.
There are some kinks to work out, however:
outside of larger towns, accommodation
is generally limited to pricey country
inns. Some of the “cyclable”
paths are questionably safe, and it’s
not unusual to go through towns which
don’t have any kind of facilities,
except for water fountains. That said,
the initiative is still in its infancy,
and if the popularity of the route catches
on, it might be a serious rival to the
Camino de Santiago for popularity among
cyclists.
Spain is famous for its tapas, and these “garnished
potatoes” are a specialty of Cádiz
province, home of one of Europe’s largest
tuna-fishing fleets. The great thing about this
recipe is that it doesn’t require refrigeration
or a lot of preparation: you simply open the
tins, dice the vegetables, throw all the ingredients
into a plastic container and shake hard.
• 2 tins canned potatoes, drained and
cut into halves
• 2 tins of canned tuna in olive oil (not
brine – escabeche in Spanish)
• 1 diced Italian green pepper
• ½ cup diced red pepper
• ½ diced onion
• pinch of thyme
• pinch of dried garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
Put the cut potatoes and tuna (but don’t
drain the oil!) into 1.5-litre plastic container
and add the other ingredients. Put the top of
the container on, shake hard and let sit for
half an hour to allow the flavours to mix. Goes
great with fresh-baked bread.
(Many thanks to the staff of La Lechuguita
restaurant in Ronda for the recipe and idea!)
WHAT’S NEW AT Bike Spain
• On Thursday, April 14th, Bike Spain
hosted approximately 75 cyclists from the Netherlands
on a guided ride throughout the centre of old
Madrid.
Photo gallery at http://www.bikespain.info/bouwfonds
• Ever wanted to ride through central
Madrid but didn’t know where to go? Our
Saturday tours take you through Madrid’s
historic neighbourhoods and show you some of
the prettiest parts of the city. For just €9
(including bike and helmet rental), we’ll
show you the city as you’ve never seen
it before.
More info at http://www.bikespain.info/en/t_madridCITY_en.asp
• Summer will soon be here – got
your vacation plans yet? We’ve still got
spaces on our Camino de Santiago and Andalusia
tours, but time is running out – book
your place today using our handy online form.
WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Feel free to drop us a line with any questions,
suggestions or requests that you may have –
we always love to hear from people who love
bikes, and we’ll do our best to answer
your questions and give you any help you need.
When
I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair
for the future of the human race.
~H.G. Wells
Everybody at Bike Spain has been really busy this
summer with all kinds of bike-related activities;
in this edition of CYCLEPATHS, we’ll give
you a rundown of the latest news about bikes in
and around Spain.
MADRID 2012: An Olympic Effort
Although the city of Madrid lost out to London,
the bid committee worked hard to show that Madrid’s
“green games” could incorporate bicycles.
On Sunday, June 5th, BIKE SPAIN (with the invaluable
help of the PedaLibre bike advocacy group) organized
¡¡UN MADRID EN BICI!!, a fifteen-kilometre
tour through the city’s west end. Over 700
cyclists took part in the event, which went from
the Dehesa de la Villa park, through the grounds
of the Complutense University and down to the
Plaza de Cibeles, in the centre of the city. http://en.olympic.cn/news/world/2005-06-04/580626.html
Owing to the success
of the June event, 450 people (more than half
of them kids) took part in Bike Day in the suburb
of Aravaca. This event, which also helped promote
BIKE SPAIN’S Bike School for Kids.
We also had the pleasure
of meeting Julio Jiménez, an retired engineer
from Aravaca, who has taken his bike one step
further by adding another cog wheel to his bike,
thereby giving him the most versatile set of gears
in the world: 126 gears!
New for 2006!
Want to discover Andalusia on your own, or go
“Sideways” through La Rioja? Bike
Spain is currently putting the finishing touches
on new self-guided and guided routes for 2006.
The ever-popular CAMINO
DE SANTIAGO TOUR is now available in a self-guided
tour. Our BIKE SPAIN CAMINO ROAD BOOK is the newest
and most up-to-date guide on how to discover the
Camino from León to Santiago, taking you
off the beaten path (and away from the hordes)
to discover some of the prettiest parts of León
and Galicia. Filled with cultural and historical
information, the CAMINO ROAD BOOK will be a valuable
companion for anyone who’s headed to Santiago.
We’ve expanded
our ANDALUSIA TOUR to include the golden beaches
of the Cádiz coast – a real treat
for swimmers, bikers and history fans. Starting
from the Cádiz coast, cyclists work their
way along golden beaches before moving inland
to the Sierra de Grazalema. After visiting the
famous White Towns - including historic Ronda,
a favourite of Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles
- we move east to the Torcal Gorge and the Guadalhorce
Reservoir, where water and wind have created a
whimsical landscape out of the mountain. Then
we head north to the Sierras Subbéitcas
Park, where the Via Verde del Aceite Rail trail
takes us to the Moorish towns of Zuheros and Priego
de Córdoba. To finish the tour, cyclists
head along the Sierra's picturesque eastern flank
to the city of Granada, home of the world-famous
Alhambra Palace, unforgettable flamenco and the
Sierra Nevada mountain range.
And for those of you
who’d like to go “Sideways”
through Spain (though maybe not literally!), why
not consider a tour through the Ribera del Duero
or La Rioja wine regions? It’s true that
wine tourism isn’t as well-developed as
in other wine producing regions like Bordeaux,
California or Niagara, but that makes it even
better for travelling backroads from winery to
winery, sampling the wares in historic towns like
Laguardia and Haro. And that’s not forgetting
great biking along the Camino de Santiago, or
on the increasing number of rail trails throughout
the region. More information to follow in the
Winter edition of Cyclepaths.
24 Hour Spoke
Folk? Almost....!
In cooperation with PedaLibre, Madrid’s
cyclists’ rights organization, Bike Spain
Tours helped with the coordination of the 24 HORAS
EN MADRID EN BICI (24 Hours Around Madrid), an
annual event that, in the words of the organization,
“revindicates” the rights of cyclists
and gives them a fun way to discover new sides
of the city. On the first tour, we were fortunate
to have been joined by Trinidad Jiménez,
Pedro Zerolo and Oscar Iglesias, municipal counsellors
with the Socialist Party, who took part in the
inaugural tour on Friday, September 16th. There
were 8 tours in total (including a midnight ride
through the “Barrio de las Letras”
section of Habsburg Madrid. Congratulations to
PedaLibre on a job well done!
Discover Madrid
Bike Tours
It just keeps getting more and more popular! Whether
you’re a visitor, living in Madrid on a
short-term basis or a full-fledged “gato”,
you can take part in the Town Council´s
“DESCUBRE MADRID” (Discover Madrid)
tours of the city, which take place every Sunday
morning. For €9 (€3 if you bring your
own bike), you get to learn about the city’s
most important monuments and learn new things
about its history. Tours take approximately three
hours and participants go through the Templo de
Debod, the Sabatini Gardens, the old Moorish quarter,
Habsburg Madrid and (time and traffic permitting),
the grounds of the Prado Museum and the Retiro
Gardens. If you live in Madrid, it’s a great
way to learn more about your own hometown. If
you’re new here, there’s no better
way to discover the city! Each tour has a limit
of 20 people; register today by stopping by the
Tourism Office located in the Casa de la Panaderia
in the Plaza Mayor.
For more information,
check out the Madrid City Council´s website:
http:/www.esmadrid.com or (locally) call the Municipal
Information line on 010.
TAPAS
In Madrid as in all Spain, the tapa is a vague
gastronomic term subject to a gradual evolution.
If in accordance with the definition of the Real
Academia Española de la Lengua, a tapa
is any portion of solid food able to accompany
a drink, it is clear that the concept is as broad
as one wants.
It turns out peculiar to establish that, once
in a great while, the local custom, with all its
traditionalism and without trying, connects with
modernism. This form of eating called “tapear”
that consists of picking at diverse portions of
different dishes, varying and combining solid
an liquid tastes, supposes a gastronomical exercise
that in reality is one that can be done in a small
or large time period depending on one’s
needs at that precise moment. It can be said,
that this very old Spanish custom of “tapear”
is equivalent to a healthy and fun “fast-food”.
Like in almost all parts, the practice of consuming
tapas in Madrid is inseparable from the agglomeration
of masses in small spaces; an experience that
is fun or pleasant although one that is not always
comfortable or cheap.
In order to “tapear” well it is necessary
to know how to choose. The place is just as important
as the company: it is not enough just having a
group of friends gathered, nor to resign oneself
to the specialities that one bar has no matter
how good their offers are. The route must be confronted
with the disposition to sample the best of one
bar, to take turns paying a new round and to leave
thinking about the next bar; for each participant,
a point of landfall, that is the rule.
If you come to Madrid, ask for advice of how to
“tapear” well. By bike we can discover
the best tapas bars and have a funny experience.
WE’D
LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Got any questions about biking in Madrid? Need
some information about travelling on two wheels
in the country, and don’t know who to ask?
Even if you’re not a Bike Spain client,
don’t hesitate to drop us a line with your
questions. If we don’t know ourselves, we’ll
do our best to find the information that you need.
We always love to hear from people who love bikes.
Artist Anniversaries
The year 2006 marks the anniversary of the births
of two important artists – Pablo Ruiz Picasso
and Rembrandt van Rijn. While Málaga city
is in the middle of coordinating events to celebrate
the “younger” artist’s birth,
the Dutch have hit 2006 running, and have planned
celebrations nationwide – and we’re
with them, offering cyclists a chance to explore
the land which inspired one of the world's greatest
artists.
¡Vuelve
la Vuelta!
The Vuelta de España’s back! This
year’s route, slightly controversial by
Vuelta standards because of its lack of any Pyrenees
stages, is an interesting one for cycle tourists
because many of Spain’s most popular leisure
cycling routes will also be covered by the Vuelta.
The route doesn’t become official until
at least three months before the start date, but
here are some of the more interesting legs which
have been planned – and which might just
coincide with your cycling holiday if you’re
here in late August and early September.
- Camino de Santiago: Stage 7 of the Vuelta, which
is scheduled for September 1st, will start in
León, go through Astorga and then head
north towards the mountains in Ponferrada. If
you’re planning to ride the Camino around
that time, this is a good day to schedule a rest
day and take in the atmosphere.
- Stage 17 will link Adra with Granada. Unlike
last year’s Vuelta, this year’s race
doesn’t feature the time-honoured race up
to the top of the peak of Veleta, in the Sierra
Nevada. But it still has a first, second and third-category
mountain climb as it heads north, skirting alongside
the whitewashed villages of the Alpujarras. Stage
18 heads through Triki Beltrán country,
heading north from Granada to Jaén and
the Sierra de la Pandera.
- Stage 20, the penultimate ride of the Vuelta,
is a 28-km time trial going through the southern
suburbs of Madrid. You wouldn’t think of
suburbs as being great places to ride, but the
area around Rivas – Vaciamadrid, where the
Henares and Manzanares Rivers meet, has always
been a favourite of local mountain bikers, who
enjoy riding through the chalk-cliff valleys.
This is a great option for people who’d
to take part in the Vuelta experience, but don’t
have a vehicle to get out of the city.
New for 2006
Things have been moving and changing here during
the winter months, and we’re proud to announce
that we’re renovating and redoing some of
our tours, and
-WINE
COUNTRY IN LA RIOJA: Back before Christmas,
we spent a week up in the La Rioja region, working
out the route for our new La Rioja Self-Guided
tour.
If you’ve always
wanted to try bike touring but worry that distances
or geography might be a problem, this is a great
trip for learning about the pleasures of cycle
touring. It combines all the elements that make
travelling by bike a pleasure: great food, charming
country inns, amazing wines and scenic routes
that ramble along the Ebro River, going alongside
the Sierra de la Demanda and the Cantabria mountain
ranges. You can see the route descriptions and
a summary of the trip online at http://www.bikespain.info/en/t_vinoSELF_en.asp
- REMBRANDT
COUNTRY: This year marks the 400th anniversary
of the birth of Rembrandt van Rijn, one of Holland’s
most famous artists. If you’ve ever thought
about biking one of Europe’s most cycle-friendly
countries, this year’s the year to do it.
For €619, Bike Spain Tours is offering cyclists
an 8-day, 7 night trip that connects the most
emblematic towns linked with the artist’s
life, taking advantage of the extensive network
of bike paths that connect the major cities nationwide.
You can see the Spanish description of the tour
online at http://www.bikespain.info/es/t_holandaNS.asp
- DORDOGNE
and FRENCH WINE COUNTRY: This is one
of the most popular destinations worldwide to
travel on a bike, and it’s traditionally
been a favourite with our Spanish cycle touring
clients, who like having the feel of a foreign
country so close to home.
This year, we’re
opening the Dordogne trip up to our current Bike
Spain clients as a way of saying “thank
you.” If you’ve travelled with Bike
Spain Tours in the past two years and think that
you would like to take part in the France trips
this August, drop us a line at info@bikespain.info.
We’ll send you a translated description
of the trip (the original is available online,
in Spanish, at http://www.bikespain.info/es/t_franciaGUIADO.asp).
Departure dates are scheduled for the 7th, 14th
and 21st of August, at a bargain price of €790
(double occupancy; €120 single supplement.)
Viens avec nous à France cette été!
WEEKEND GETAWAYS:
A lot of our clients who live in Spain love the
idea of being able to get away for a biking holiday,
but don’t want to commit a whole week to
being on a bike. The solution? Our biking weekend
getaways. We’re currently working to develop
a series of weekend trips to special corners of
the country that many people either can’t
visit (no car) or have never heard about –
all for less than €250
Incentive and
fundraising trips
Now that good biking weather is just around the
corner (and it looks like Madrid’s in for
another hot, dry summer), why not plan your company
event around a bike trip in the city or out in
the Sierra? When it comes to events planning,
Bike Spain Tours is one of the most experienced
companies in Madrid. We can plan and coordinate
all kinds of events: stag and hen days, corporate
team-building events and day-long and weekend
fundraisers for your charity or NGO.
Coming up on March 11th
and 12th: The Democrats Abroad, Madrid Chapter,
will be hosting a wine and biking weekend in Sotillo
de la Ribera, just west of Aranda del Duero. It’s
a good chance to escape the city and take a spin
through one of Spain’s most popular wine
areas.
ANTI-BONK RECIPE
OF THE MONTH
I love couscous. Not only is it extremely easy
to cook, its high carbohydrate count makes it
a great food for cycling, and since the “unreal”
stuff (made from pasta dough rather than extracted
from the bran kernel of wheat) is light when it’s
uncooked, it’s an ideal food to carry when
you’re cycle touring, and makes a great
base for salads – especially if you’d
like to make something before you leave home and
take it on the road with you.
Rather than using water
to cook the couscous, try using broth (caldo,
in Spanish), which is now available in Spanish
supermarkets in one-litre Tetra-Briks. It gives
the couscous a richer flavour, and the leftover
broth makes a great pre-bed drink when you’re
all bundled up in your sleeping bag.
- 2 cups (500 mL) chicken
broth
- ¾ cup (175 mL) couscous
- 2 slices of red onion, chopped
- ½ red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, chopped
- two handfuls of cooked chickpeas (garbanzos)
- 1/3 cup (100 mL) olive oil
- pinch of thyme
- juice of ¼ lemon
- pinch of salt
- pepper to taste.
Directions: Heat the
chicken broth over a low flame. If you’re
counting calories, skim the fat off the top of
the broth as it heats up. Once it start to emit
steam (don’t let it boil), take it off the
flame and add in the dried couscous. Cover the
mixture and let sit for ten minutes. Meanwhile,
cut the onion and bell pepper into smallish chunks.
Once the couscous has
absorbed all the broth, take the lid off the pot
and allow it to cool. Before mixing in the remaining
ingredients, coat your fingers with the olive
oil and take the clumps of cooked couscous between
your hands, rubbing the clumps out with your greased
fingers. Getting the olive oil onto the grains
this way will keep them from sticking together.
Try to work as much olive oil in as you can without
making the couscous overly greasy.
Once the grains are
separated and coated with olive oil, stir in the
remaining ingredients. This is a great salad to
take on the road, since it won’t spoil easily,
and the lemon juice is acidic enough to keep the
bacteria content down. This salad goes great with
wood oven-baked bread (pan de leña) or
pita bread.
And remember, don’t
hesitate to drop us a line at info@bikespain.info
if you have any questions about cycling or travelling
in Spain. Even if you’re not a Bike Spain
client, we’re more than glad to give you
a hand and share our knowledge.
As Autumn descends upon
us, we reflect on yet another busy season of tours,
city events and bike rentals here at Bike Spain.
In the following edition of the Cyclepaths we will
review the comings and goings of the past few months…
La Vuelta
La Vuelta: One of the most anticipated cycling
races of 2006 has been and gone for another year.
With over 150 cyclists from all over the world
competing in this years event, it certainly lived
up to the hype and kept the cycling enthusiasts
entertained during the 3 week long event.
Starting on the 26th of August, La Vuelta left
Malaga in Spain´s south, heading to the
northern coasts of Asturias and Cantabria. The
cyclists then travelled south through Burgos,
passing by Madrid and Cuenca to Valencia on the
east coast of Spain. From there, the cyclists
were transferred to Almeria in the south-east
and cycled through Malaga and Granada to finish
the race in the capital of Madrid. Millions of
spectators were lining the Paseo del Prado and
Plaza de Cibeles to cheer the cyclists on for
the last stage of the race. We were fortunate
enough to ride the final 10 days of La Vuelta
with a group of 14 Australian cyclists who made
the long journey especially for the race. Now
that’s dedication. We met La Vuelta in Cuenca,
climbed to the highest point of La Sierra de Pandera
where we could see the critical attack of Alexandre
Vinokourov which resulted in his victory. We were
privileged enough to be seated in the stands in
front of the Prado Museum to see the last leg
of the race.
You can see full results of La Vuelta at www.lavuelta.com
and some photos at www.bikespain.info/mytrip/vuelta06
Tapas in Old Madrid…
As a tourist you rarely discover the true essence
of a city or integrate with the culture to fully
appreciate the country you are in. In Spain, the
culture is wrapped up in its cuisine, its ´vinos´
and the cheerful way of enjoying them. It would
be a shame to walk away from Madrid without having
sampled the hidden life and simple pleasures that
the Spanish people indulge in everyday.
Our local guides will lead you through the ancient
streets of old Madrid by bicycle, passing by century
old tapas and wine bars to taste the famous Pimientos
de Padron, Queso Curado and Jamon Serrano. You
will soak up the history of the old town and come
to understand how their obsession with food has
evolved over the centuries.
The cost of the tour is 30 euros per person.
It is for a duration of 3 hours starting at 7pm
on a Friday night (minimum of 6 people required).
The cost includes bicycle hire, one drink and
one aperitif. To enquire further or to make a
booking, please contact us on + 34 915 223 899
or after the 15th of December on +34 915 590 653.
Wine Anyone?
Field and fields of vineyards, narrow country
tracks, amazing old villages set high upon the
hills, a landscape of many colours…the colours
of La Rioja…
For lovers of wine, or those who enjoy the tranquillity
of countryside cycling, this carefully designed
trip is the ideal way to spend your vacation.
We start the tour in the tiny village of Abalos
in La Rioja and journey through the villages,
sampling the local wines, learning about the wine
making processes and witnessing life outside of
the big cities. We travel south into the lesser
known wine community of Ribera de Duero and make
our way to Madrid via the charming city of Segovia.
We have recently published our new dates and
prices for 2007 on our website at http://www.bikespain.info/en/calendar_en.asp
so you can start planning your next cycling trip
of Spain! The Camino de Santiago, tour of La Rioja
and the tour of Andalucia proved to be the most
popular trips in 2006, so we have revised these
tours with the feedback given from our clients
to ensure that they are even more memorable in
the coming year. Dates are already starting to
disappear for 2007, particularly during the Easter
break, so get in early to avoid disappointment!
www.bikespain.info
You will notice that our website is slowly starting
to change, we are currently working on improving
the content of the site to provide you with the
essential information you need when planning your
trip away and to make the site more user friendly.
Soon you will be able to view the preferred hotels
for each town that we visit on our tour and the
testimonials of our clients from recent tours.
If you have any suggestions or feedback regarding
our webpage, we would love to hear from you at
info@bikespain.info.
Bike Spain Tours is moving!
As of the 15 of December, Bike Spain will move
from their offices in Calle del Carmen to Calle
de Codo (street of the elbow) in Plaza de La Villa,
located on Calle Mayor. Here we are only a minute
away from Plaza Mayor, the Tourist Information
Centre and the San Miguel Markets and we are right
beside the Casa de la Villa which houses the city
hall and Torre de los Lujanes which is one of
the oldest buildings in Madrid dating back to
the 15th century. We have chosen this new location
as it is more bike-friendly and located in a place
that is easy for visitors of Madrid to find. Our
new phone number will be 915 590 653.
