via de la plata

[banjaxed]

Hi All
I plan to do the via de la plata Gijon to Cadiz very soon and will be arriving at santander by boat. I'm torn between getting to Gijon by train to start the route or alternatively cycling directly from santander and joining the route at some point between Leon and Salamanca. Daft as it may sound when heading south from northern Spain, but my priority is to keep the climbing to a minimum! Words of wisdom welcomed please.

[b1ke]

Tricky to avoid climbing in Spain, as I'm sure you know. Did the Via de la Plata two years ago from Santander to Seville. Didn't know it went to Cadiz?

We followed the Camino del Norte as far as Ribadesella and then the valley route to Cangos (also looking for an easy ride). From there it climbed reasonably gently to a 1300 metre pass before dropping about 300 metres before Mancilla.

We picked up the de la Plata in Benevente and followed the N630 down to Seville. The N630 is very quiet after Zamora because they've built a motorway alongside it. Great riding surface as well.

Lots of hills en route - nothing back breaking though. We also had a headwind all the way to Seville, just to add to the fun.

[b1ke]

... just to add, there are a fair few climbs between Santander and Gijon. Pleasant enough ride though.

[borisface]

I did the via de la plata from Seville to Santiago de Compostella 8 years ago. The worst section in terms of hills was the final bit into Galicia which you aren't doing. TBH I can't recall anything too difficult, there was a section of Roman Calcada which was very steep but you'll be going the opposite way to me. My recollection is that it tends to run along plateaus and so the main challenge is to get up onto the various plateaus in the first place. I did mine in September and around Salamanca is pretty high. I wasn't expecting the mornings to be so cold - just a couple of degrees above freezing, so cold in fact that I had to pop into Decathlon and buy a pair of gloves and a top. This was a complete contract to Seville where just a few days earlier it had been 40 degrees.

The track up from Seville north was very well signed, not so sure about coming back the other way, you may have to be a bit creative and follow the signs backwards, so to speak.

[S1h]

If you haven't allready booked the ferry, I'm sure there is one that goes straight to gijon?