Spain seems to be one of the best places in Europe for cycling. One of the things I adore about cycling in Spain is the way the towns are located: very far from each other and the roads are mainly with low traffic and very very straight. This is truly perfect for cycling on the roads!
One thing you should be aware of the traffic in Spain, though is the roundabouts: the drivers will not enter the roundabout if there is any other car on any of the lane and will go directly in the inner lane. For the exit, they will exit from the inner lane, crossing the path of everybody and cutting your way. So be very cautious about this! They are usually careful with bikers, though.
If you ever get the chance to travel or establish yourself in Seville and would like some ideas of very nice cycling routes accessible without cars, I would like to give you a couple of ideas. They are aimed at beginner and intermediate cyclists and are mostly “Sunday” rides.
1. Las Pajanosas – the gate to the mountains
- Distance: 59 km
- Difficulty: easy to medium
- Estimated time: 3-4 hours
- Elevation gain: 408 m
This route is categorized as easy to medium since both the distance and elevation gain are achievable for a cyclist that has an experience of at least 2 months:
Highlights of the route: this route is taste of a mountain pass, but at a smaller scale – the way to Las Pajanosas is almost exclusively uphill (though very gentle) and the return is downhill. The route is very straight, perfect for training or doing an FTP test with a very low car traffic. Next to this road a new highway was built, therefore all the traffic was redirected there, so this route is reserved for motorcycles and bicycles.
Another attraction of this route is the high number of cyclists: the community in Seville is quite big and every cyclists will say “hi” to you and you can always rely on some help or a pump in case you run into trouble.
Downsides: it is not a circular route, but I can reassure you that the return downhill will not be boring. The downhill is not visible, so not abrupt but you will feel like flying. Just make sure you won’t have a day with S-N wind 🙂
Suggested coffee stop: km 31– Las Pajanosas – Félix Crespo Carretero . Just at the entrance in the town, first restaurant. It has a nice terrace, nice cheap coffee: Calle Concepción Soto, 4, 41219 Las Pajanosas.
2. Pinares de Aznalcazar – riding through the forest
- Distance: 70 km
- Difficulty: medium
- Estimated time: 3-4 hours
- Elevation gain: 421 m
This route is categorized as medium only because of the distance, otherwise it doesn’t have any big slopes, as you can see on the profile of the route:
Highlights of the route: the ride through the forest Pinares de Aznalcazar is gorgeous. There are almost no cars, there is no noise, you can only hear the wind through the tall trees and the birds. A complete escape in the nature!
The return route is just as nice, the road towards Bollullos de la Mitacion is easy, straight, it is true that there is more traffic, but it still has the impressive big trees and very good visibility for the cars to overtake you.
Downsides: sobre elevados (road bumps)…. as always in Spain. There are quite a few that are interrupting an otherwise perfectly calm, straight, good quality road. Not a deal breaker, but good to prepare yourself with biking gloves and thick handlebar tape.
Suggested coffee stop: km 42 – Aznalcazar – Zona zero. It’s a perfect stop for avoiding any detour or going in the town, it is located just at the roundabout before you need to turn right towards Bollullos de la Mitacion: Av. Garcia Lorca, 37, 41849 Aznalcázar.
3. Castilleja del Campo – the route of the first solar power plant in the world
- Distance: 71 km
- Difficulty: medium
- Estimated time: 3-4.5 hours
- Elevation gain: 721 m
This route is categorized as medium because of the distance, but also because of the higher elevation gain. Nothing impossible, just two more significant slopes of ~100 m each:
Highlights of the route: the solar power plants are definitely the highlight of this trip. They seem to be taken out of a Sci-Fi book, very impressive when the sun is shining through the heliostats. Even though this technology turned out to be less efficient than solar panels, they will never get as impressive as this “virtual rays bridges”.
The incredible straight road is another attraction of this route, even if it is not a circular route, it can be very entertaining to ride hard on the very straight parts of the roads, practice drafting and riding fast on flat. This makes it again very safe for the cyclists, since the few passing cars have enough visibility to overtake correctly.
Downsides: it is not a circular route, so it can get a bit monotonous at times. It can be done circularly if you are up for more kilometers, of course.
Suggested coffee stop: km 36.5 – Castilleja del Campo – La Pra Era. It is one of the few restaurants around, decent coffee, cheap as always (1.1 euro) and just in the middle of your ride: Av. Andalucía, 35, 41810 Castilleja del Campo.
4. Los Depositos in Salteras – train descending and climbing
- Distance: 43+ km
- Difficulty: medium to hard
- Estimated time: 2-3+ hours
- Elevation gain: 564+ m
This route offers you one of the few hills in Sevilla region that are not very far. At the end of this route there is a very nice segment “Subida a los depositos” of 1.32 km with a more technical descent and a pretty difficult ascent:
Highlights of the route: this route is perfect for training purposes. Bring as many gels as you can, lots of water and go up and down this hill as much as your legs can. There are almost no cars going around, but still keep an eye on it and be careful.
Another good point is that this route is almost only on bike roads, though in Salteras it is going to cross from one side to the other quite a few times and it is an interesting experience (it will get to be annoying :D).
Downsides: the segment is not in perfect shape, on the descent there are a few cracks in the road as you can see on Google street view, but after a reconnaissance descent you should be fine.
Suggested coffee stops: km 30 – Salteras – Bar La Venta. It is on your way, next to the bike road, it has a very nice terrace and enough place for your bikes: Av. de Sevilla, 4, 41909 Salteras.
5. El Pedroso – the taste of the mountains
- Distance: 70 km or 105 km
- Difficulty: hard
- Estimated time: 3-4 hours or 5-6 hours
- Elevation gain: 773 m or 1042 m
This route can be done in few ways:
- The first possibility is to only climb to El Pedroso in Sierra del Norte for only 70 km and 773 elevation gain. In El Pedroso you can take a train back to Sevilla http://www.renfe.com/GA/viajeros/cercanias/sevilla/index.html).
- The second option is to descend from El Pedroso to Cantillana. The good part of this is that you can have a lot of fun downhill and that from Cantillana there are a lot more trains, since two Renfe lines are meeting there. The disadvantage is that this will add 35 km to your route and that the Cantillana station is a bit out of the way:
Highlights of the route: this route will take you through La Algaba, Alcala del Rio, Villaverde del Rio and Cantillana. The route is gorgeous, looks quite Andalusian until Cantillana, but starts to become hilly and with a lot more vegetation after that. Mountain views with cows, red rocks, lots of trees, lakes and a looooong uphill. A perfect training in a beautiful regions.
Another very good advantage of this route is that you can have your bike in the train for no additional costs.
Downsides: it is not a circular route, but if you decide to continue with the downhill part too, you will transform this part in a highlight too!
Suggested coffee stops: Besides some serious planning for fueling, you will need two or more coffee breaks, because… coffee.
- For the first one I suggest a lovely cafeteria, it has very good coffee and even cakes, in case you realize your gels won’t be enough! km 32.5 – Villaverde del Rio – El Cafetal del Xino, Calle Luis Braille, 165, 41318 Villaverde del Río.
- km 70 – Pedroso – Los Monteros “CASA ARIAS C.B”, Calle la Concordia, 57, 41360 El Pedroso, just across the train station.