The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Camino del Cid 2022

September 2nd to September 17th

Ride Coordinator: Karen Hass
Report by: Holly Miller

Who is El Cid? He was a famous knight in the middle ages (1043-1099). To Spaniards, he is one of the most famous conquerers of Spain and is truly adored. Most of the  time, he fought the Moors from overtaking Spain but sometimes he fought with them. Many of the stories may or may not be true as he is a bit like Robin Hood.  While it’s not as well known as Camino Del Santiago, the Camino El Cid is an amazing route following his footsteps.

Our BAC tour was originally planned to start in Burgos where El Cid is buried but our fearless ride leader had the idea to ride from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and invited any of the group to join her and turns out the entire group did a 17 day tour! Most of the days were in very rural Spain where even most Spanish people have not been so it was amazingly quiet roads with almost no traffic. The history was incredible as every day we’re seeing Roman ruins. Romanesque cathedrals and buildings, and castles and even buildings from the Moors time. The scenery was even better with beautiful canyons and rolling hills with tons of agriculture and mountain passes with stellar views.

It’s definitely a challenging tour with average 52 miles /3200’ climbing per day.  Iberocycle is wonderful though and offered many choices to shorten or lengthen the days. Plus, every evening at Happy Hour we would be given all the details for the next day in order to plan sights we didn’t want to miss or castles we may or may not want to climb to.

The hotels were so unique. From a 12th century monastery in a waterfall park to a medieval castle in an Arab fortress to hotels built in hills that seem to defy gravity to lovely spas. The joke of the group was - as you’re almost done with the daily ride, look around and find the tallest hill with a castle and it’s guaranteed we’re staying there. Shift into your granny gear and hoof it up the cobblestones!

As a whole, this was a grand experience with a wonderful group and truly became a quest that I highly recommend.

The group did have one case of covid but the rider temporarily left the tour but was able to join us later. We also had a gastro-intestinal malady work quickly through about a third of the group for 72 hours. We had a fun and resourceful group though, and toilet paper, Imodium and access to toilets became more important than wifi. 

As a whole, this was a grand experience with a wonderful group and truly became a quest that I highly recommend.