Cycling Iberia, Spain: Sagovia to Pelayos de la Presa
My latest bicycle touring update: cycling in Iberia, Spain. Sagovia to Pelayos de la Presa. 80 miles. What a day to decide to do my usual mileage. I certainly didn’t intend to. I was all set to stop after 40 miles. I’d looked at the map and saw that there was a campsite in Avila, which is where I was, and the next campsite was another 20 miles further on. Not much in the scheme of things; the only trouble was that I saw a big climb between me and the campsite, so I thought I’d have a short day and stop here in Avila.
As I came into town, I stopped off at a supermarket to stock up for the night (mainly beer). Once I’d stocked up, I went to find the campsite only to find that there wasn’t one. As I said earlier, the next campsite was 30km away up that big climb, which was only 1300m. But at least the campsite was only just over the summit. So once I’d done the climb, it would be downhill, and I could rest afterwards.
A Tough Day
It was a fairly hard climb but very scenic. Once at the top, it was a nice downhill, as predicted, into the small town of Barraco, where the campsite was. Unfortunately, I once again found out that there wasn’t a campsite. But there was in the next town, another 30km away. So off I set once more with more big climbs; surely it’s got to be third time lucky. Unbelievably, again, there was no campsite; however, there was one about 7km away in the wrong direction. With no hotels about, and if I stuck with my route, it would have meant another big climb. I took the rare decision to detour. Thankfully, it was all downhill to the campsite. The only trouble is I’ve got to go up it again tomorrow!
Tour Information
It’s been years since I took this ride, but the memories (and the data) are all archived:
- Photos: See my photos on Flickr
- The route: View my route across Iberia
- Videos: Check out my YouTube videos
- Tour page: Ride overview
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