Leon to Santiago in 5 days?

[ChrisMac]

Hello Camino gang! Hope all is well!

Im planning on cycling the camino next week from Leon to Santiago. Judging by my calculations this is possible. Has anyone had any experience of this?

Have just checked the weather and see that some prolonged rain is forecast for that week!!!!!

AGHHH!!!

C xx

 

[Blintintin]

Did you see these older posts regarding similar Camino?
One at https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...m-leon-to-santiago-may-2014.23595/post-184728

 

[AlwynWellington]

Im planning on cycling the camino

@ChrisMac , kia ora (greetings, good healh)

I sincerly wish you well in your planning and hope you have a very successful camino. I envy your cycling ability and wish I could recover the cycling skill I had many years ago.

You do not mention route selection.

From Leon a large part of the walking route is near or along roads. There were some sections that I found difficult to walk (slippery rock surfaces, for example) and would transfer to the more even surface of the road.

Many will say a camino is a journey and not an exact route.

Now for something that might be useful.

I use Hiking.WaymarkedTrails.org to find walking routes.
There is a parallel Cycling.WaymarkedTrails.org. And here you may care to consider route EV3. This mirrors the walked Camino Frances route and often uses the same trails.

Kia kaha (take care, be strong, get going)

 

[Helen1]

The distance is perfectly doable (I'm assuming you cycle a bit now!) but that could be a very miserable 300km if it rains all the time. Personally I would take the road Leon to Astorga, maybe to Ponferrada. On the whole the roads are pretty good for cycling on and the road often runs next to the walking path so you're not missing anything. You can always switch to the path if things get busy. Leon to Astorga is fairly flat so if it is going to be very wet I would probably do a longer day there although you would end up with a big climb at the end of the day and then do shorter days on the small ups and downs in Galicia.

If you've not seen it: https://godesalco.com/plan/frances is helpful for planning with because it shows the climbs.

Hope you have a great time!

 

[AndrewDavOz]

300 km in 7 days is quite ok for experienced riders, it took me 13.5 days to walk 260km from Astorga, budgeting 20km per day on average. So at twice that rate, 40km per day, quite feasible on a bike and you’d make it by lunch time each day. And on a dry day you could extend it to 60km or more and save yourself from having to ride in the rain too much. There are some climbs that you will still need to walk, eg just before OCebreiro, so make sure your panniers etc don’t create too much imbalance that makes the bike hard to push up hills. I looked at riders several times with some envy and regretted not looking for the hire option in Burgos, which I later found out was feasible. (A one way hire, Burgos to Leon, costing E250 from memory).