Hi, I returned from Lanzarote this morning. I rode 3 rides over 10 days to keep the wife happy. My worries were. No1. my heart rate was very high, maybe due to the beer or the wind! No2. the amount of fluid to consume. I had 2 bottles, 1.5 litre total in high temperatures, which I don't think is enough and not always a shop around when you want one and No3. the wind, which should n't be a problem in Northern Spain. The roads were great as were the drivers, I slowed down on the roundabouts or stopped to keep an eye on the traffic but the roads were very quiet anyway.
Cycling in Spain - anything I should know?
- Thread starter Lien Sdrawde
- Start date
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Standoff
Active Member
Much needed cash for more state workers to go around persecuting people!
betty swollocks
large member
Sorry, not sure where exactly where it was. About a day's ride north of Puertollano......... near the Parque Nacional de Cabaneros, I would think.
Here's the view a few seconds later: weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
...and that's me.
Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
Shouldn't this thread be in the Touring forum?
lulubel
Über Member
- Location
- Malaga, Spain
Your heart rate was high due to the heat. It's normal. My average heart rate is 10-15bpm higher in summer than in winter for the same perceived effort.
I've toured in Andalucia, Catalonia, Galicia, Asturias and have just come back from a coast to coast Bilbao - Malaga.
Roads are pretty much deserted, even the northern N coastal roads, the vast % of traffic is on the autovias and the authorities have taken to taping over (hiding) destinations on road signs hoping to to funnel even more folk onto them, really they have!
In one 25-30km journey only one vehicle passed me, a Google Earth car.
Drivers are very friendly and very aware, often they'll give a little toot to let you know of their approach from behind and always give plenty of room. In 3 weeks I didn't have one "incident", nearly every day in the UK I have one.
Helmets, I don't wear one and having to would spoil my touring enjoyment. In the 3 weeks I must have asked the Guardia Civil for directions upwards of 30 times (I did it all the time on previous tours too), not once was my helmetless bonce commented on. It's a convoluted law and IMO you'd have to meet a right niggardly cop to fall foul of it, unless they have been specifically told to enforce it, however, that was not the case in my trip, I talked to them from north to south and was of course, passed and seen by many more.
Average Spanish "B" road traffic. Very enjoyable.
Roads are pretty much deserted, even the northern N coastal roads, the vast % of traffic is on the autovias and the authorities have taken to taping over (hiding) destinations on road signs hoping to to funnel even more folk onto them, really they have!
In one 25-30km journey only one vehicle passed me, a Google Earth car.Drivers are very friendly and very aware, often they'll give a little toot to let you know of their approach from behind and always give plenty of room. In 3 weeks I didn't have one "incident", nearly every day in the UK I have one.
Helmets, I don't wear one and having to would spoil my touring enjoyment. In the 3 weeks I must have asked the Guardia Civil for directions upwards of 30 times (I did it all the time on previous tours too), not once was my helmetless bonce commented on. It's a convoluted law and IMO you'd have to meet a right niggardly cop to fall foul of it, unless they have been specifically told to enforce it, however, that was not the case in my trip, I talked to them from north to south and was of course, passed and seen by many more.
Average Spanish "B" road traffic. Very enjoyable.
Globalti
Legendary Member
There are motorways in Spain? Wow! You'll be telling me there are supermarkets next!
Back in the mid 60s my Dad converted an old Comma bus to a camper and we set off on three tours of Spain, camping all the way. We carried water and diesel as there weren't any facilities on the road, I remember having to refill the tank with a funnel a few times and worrying about fuel supplies, even daft conversations trying to ask locals where we could get diesel. There were no motorways and I remember deserted roads, huge landscapes and empty villages and the poor old bus breaking down and spewing oil. I remember near Bilbao getting stuck behind very smoky trucks on long climbs; they had a green and a red light on the back, which they used to signal to following vehicles if it was clear to overtake. I have an old photo of our bus parked in the shade in a village square, which was empty of any other vehicle. I also remember the Guardia Civil who were feared as an emblem of the fascist state, we were terrified even to look at them. We used to drive all morning stopping at a village to buy bread, cheese, tomatoes, sausage and wine then stop for lunch and a siesta under an olive tree, I will never forget the deafening sss sss sss of the cicadas, the constant battle to find a spot free of wood ants and my younger sister wetting herself when she squatted behind a bush, turned a stone over and found a striped snake underneath it!
I lived in Spain in the late seventies and it was changing fast; one boring winter weekend a pal and I decided to go and see every film showing in every cinema in Huelva and almost every one of them was a crap porn movie.
Back in the mid 60s my Dad converted an old Comma bus to a camper and we set off on three tours of Spain, camping all the way. We carried water and diesel as there weren't any facilities on the road, I remember having to refill the tank with a funnel a few times and worrying about fuel supplies, even daft conversations trying to ask locals where we could get diesel. There were no motorways and I remember deserted roads, huge landscapes and empty villages and the poor old bus breaking down and spewing oil. I remember near Bilbao getting stuck behind very smoky trucks on long climbs; they had a green and a red light on the back, which they used to signal to following vehicles if it was clear to overtake. I have an old photo of our bus parked in the shade in a village square, which was empty of any other vehicle. I also remember the Guardia Civil who were feared as an emblem of the fascist state, we were terrified even to look at them. We used to drive all morning stopping at a village to buy bread, cheese, tomatoes, sausage and wine then stop for lunch and a siesta under an olive tree, I will never forget the deafening sss sss sss of the cicadas, the constant battle to find a spot free of wood ants and my younger sister wetting herself when she squatted behind a bush, turned a stone over and found a striped snake underneath it!
I lived in Spain in the late seventies and it was changing fast; one boring winter weekend a pal and I decided to go and see every film showing in every cinema in Huelva and almost every one of them was a crap porn movie.
Off topic, but there is a very funny film about those times and the porn explosion in Spain. Torremolinos 73.
Thanks for that, I have never had that problem before living in the uk !
The upside is that in 3 weeks I only passed through one village where the font was broken, I never ran out of water and I never bought any. Went from top to bottom, through very hot Extremadura and Seville on 2 standard water bottles.
