Saintes to Santiago de Compostela

I've decided to ride to Santiago de Compostela from Pons, France this June. The main purpose of this thread is to keep track of info, but as it will be my first tour, any info advice is welcome.

Useful Links:

http://www.caminoadventures.com

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/cycling-el-frances-in-june.30893/

http://www.bicigreen.com

Route:

I found a walking tour website so have blagged their itinerary for the route to the start of the Camino Francés at St Jean Pied de Port. The route and allocating time are my first hurdles, especially as I'm having to do everything on a phone or 7" tablet. I'm trying not to get side tracked on 'kit' at this stage

• Pons to St Jean Pied de Port
  
  

Pons to Arcachon (via Blaye) - 100km
Arcachon to Mimizan - 70km
Mimizan to Dax ?km maybe 85km after getting lost
Dax to St Jean Pied de Port 80km

*St Jean Pied de Port (start point for El Camino Francés)

• Camino Francés
  
  

St Jean Pied de Port to Pamplona 75km
Pamplona to Logroño 100k.
Logroño to Burgos 120km
Burgos to Itero de la Vegan 75km
Itero de la Vegan to Santa Cristina de Valmadrigal 100km
Santa Cristina de V. to León 50km
León to Astoraga 30-50km
Astoraga to Pontaferra 50km
Pontaferra to Sarria 100km
Sarria to Melide 63km
Melide to Santiago de Compostela 55km

So I started...

The route has changed a little. It is now Pons to Santiago.

Extremely under prepared for the whole thing. I pretty much had no time to sort anything out until the last minute. Breaking my right hand shifter the day before I left didn't make things any easier.

I did c.100k the first day as I needed to get down to around Arcachon. It totally destroyed me. Mainly my arse. I think I may have underestimated how much not cycling for a year has softened my bum. My TCRs massive wedge of a seatpost and slightly too much tyre pressure didn't help.

After day 3 I now seem to be getting into the swing of things (famous last words). But I'm dreading the coming climbs. So far it's all been flat.

Excellent I hope you find your rythm and enjoy the ride, I have aspirations of doing it in a couple of years with my wife, so keen to hear how you get on.

Cheers. It is a bit lonely doing it on my jays. But I've been so flat out the last two weeks it's strangely giving me a break. On reflection I may have been a bit ambitious and the pace I need to keep up means it's hard to enjoy the locations. I also go for larger roads to save time and avoid getting lost....

.... basically all that to say if you can take longer you should. I only have a limited time and travelling to Santiago de Compostela is something I've wanted to do for a long time.

Ferry across the estuary and my set up. It's works out OK so far.

I'd definitely say if you want to go touring just take whatever bike you have and don't get too hung up on kit.

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Final kit list

Clothes:

• zip off trekking trouser/shorts
  
• x1 T-shirt
  
• x1 base layer (can pass for a t-shirt)
  
• x2 boxers
  
• x1 spedos (wishful thinking as I was too knackered/busy to swim in the lakes, rivers or sea)
  
• x2 cycling socks
  
• x2 jersey
  
• rapha wind jacket
  
• gloves
  
• sun glasses
  
• arm warmers
  
• Merino leg warmers
  
• fake Super U crocs
  
• helmet
  
• cycling cap
  
  

Electrics:

• iphone
  
• galaxy ace
  
• Sony Ericsson dumb phone
  
• nexus 7 mini tablet
  
• Kindle
  
• wahoo rflkt
  
• cateye cycle computer
  
• go pro
  
• ipod shuffle
  
• assortment of cables
  
  

Misc:

• drink mix with protene
  
• x6 gels
  
• Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Daypack (amazing, one of the best things I've got)
  
• LOOK cleat covers (100% worth bringing)
  
• note pad
  
• old vague map of France without most of the small roads I need
  
• French phrase book (unneeded in the end, as I've remembered enough and now all French people seem to willingly speak English!)
  
• wash kit (toothbrush, paste, ½ bar of Dove, face wash, roll-on)
  
• P20 sunscreen plus a factor 50 stick
  
  

Tools/spares:

• quick link
  
• x2 co²
  
• x2 inner tubes
  
• leyzen pressure drive (unscrewed my valve cores)
  
• x1 veloflex master as a back up tyre
  
• leyzen carbon multitool
  
• leatherman squirt
  
• opinel no.6
  
  

forgotten

• jersey bottle (which I've survived without but really could have used)
  

Looks very light touring.

That was my aim. Once you scrap camping it gets easier.

... Asides from the ridiculous amount of electronics! Which there is a simple reason for... They all have faults so I pretty much had to. One decent size smart phone would have replaced the tablet and 2 smart phones.

Helpfully the rflkt doesn't work with the Galaxy Ace and the sensor on my cateye broke today after the fake crocs took a tumble into the spokes.

I'm not really doing a great job of keeping this updated am I...

Dax to St. Jean Pied Port

The first hills I encountered, which made me remember that when you go up (usually) you also get to come down :) It was also the first overcast day (well actually it pissed it down until noon). Which was a nice change. Too much getting lost though.

The end stretch was pretty grueling. Duel carriage way in the pouring rain. Long up and down hills. Luckily French hard shoulders are better tarmaced than our smoothest roads. Most annoying was my front mech's adjustment had gone earlier in the day and couldn't be bothered to sort it. Which meant I had to stay on the inner the whole last stretch.

Would recommend (###) to eat.

St. Jean Pied Port to Pamplona

Originally I planned to stop at Zubiri, but it was only 25km of more or less flat to get to Pamplona, so I thought I'd go the whole way and have a rest day in Pamplona.

I made it up the mountains better than I expected... until my Achilles tendon started to feel funny (a first). It pissed it down as I came into Roncevalles so cold and wet I thought I'd stop for lunch. As I walked into the restaurant my Achilles just went! So I couldn't pull up with my left leg :(

However, inspired my the label inside my Rapha wind jacket I bravely solidered on.

On a serious note though, the ride most of the way to Pamplona down the other side of the Pyrenees was awesome. I was gutted that it was so wet, as that, coupled with not being used to descending on my loaded bike meant I had to be quite cautious. Even so it was brilliant.

Ride into Pamplona seriously sucked balls. It absolutely poured it down - I mean like a tropical storm. Plus it was rush hour. Definitely a note - don't enter a city during rush hour if you can help it. Eventually I got to the centre and found an nice hostel I would recommend ( Xarma http://www.xarmahostel.com/?lang=en) . Then ate great food and had a rest day the next in Pamplona.

I really, really recommend riding over from France to Pamplona and spending a day or two there.

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Pamplona to Logroño

Meh.

Logroño is a nice looking city from the brief look I got. It was a festival weekend so after trying as well as calling about 8 places I gave up and booked a place online 4km outside.

Logroño to Burgos

I thought I'd push myself as I'd had a rest in Pamplona and do the c.120km in one day rather than splitting it by staying in Santo Domingo de la Catzada.

My God what a shit day. Getting out of Logroño was awful. I'd finally got my Wahoo Rflkt working with my Nexus 7 for GPS and the route I'd copied off someone else was basically the motorway out. So I road partly on the A12 motorway and then on dirt tracks trying to find something that wasn't motorway. Luckily it was a Sunday so traffic was light.

Then it was supposedly just one B Road the rest of the way. Unfortunately the fucker kept playing hide and seek and would magically dis-a-fucking-ppear!

90% of the journey was spent cycling into a headwind plus a few downpours.

The day was saved by a 6km 6% climb (more so the proceeding downhill)... and i guess the sense of satisfaction of boshing it out. At least it was one day rather than two I guess.

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• (just outside) Fromista to León 120km
  
  

Perfect conditions and a fairly flat route meant it just boshed out the miles. Which was a good thing as there was very little of interest.

• León to Astorga 62km
  
  

Took a wrong turn trying to get on a quiet road and ended up on the A road turning into the motorway! No opportunity to turn off, eventually found a place where I could jump the barrier and fence onto a minor road. Took a bit of a detour, but other than a puncture and my Leyzen mini pump unscrewing the cores it was a nice ride.

• Astorga to Pontaferra
  
  

Just had one of those starts to the day where my legs felt heavy and I couldn't get going. After a decent roadside breakfast everything looked up. A decent climb and then an awesome decent. The roads were so rough 40kmph felt more like 60mph, but it was all good fun. Lovely smells from the various flora and fauna... I'm sure Rapha have some soap or chamois cream that puts it more eloquently than I can.

Met a nice chap on a very serious looking Thorn. It was good to have a chat with someone.

A lot of Spain since Pamplona has been pretty unrewarding so it really came at a much needed point.

• Pontaferra to Sarria 100km
  
  

Perfect day. Lovely weather, challenging climb and some wicked decents (+1,764 / -1,877). Stayed in hostel Oasis which was cheap and decent.

• Sarria to Melide 63km
  
  

Up early thanks to a farty snory old French couple (and an 8am check out). The result was a very dramatic ride through damp mist and cloud covered rolling green hills. Incredibly beautiful. The rest of the day was great, plenty of up and down with lovely scenery.

I picked up the pace around noon and thought I might be able to bosh out the remaining 60-65km, but the temperature really started to rachet up so in the end I found a place along the route in Melide and spent the afternoon indoors avoiding the Sun.

• Melide to Santiago 55km
  
  

Fairly fast paced day as I just wanted to bosh it out. Lots of big main roads with long sweeping ups and downs which was good as overall it was fairly easy to keep the pace up. Getting to the Cathedral was a bit tricky as I wanted to take the Camino route, but there are one-way sections that get in your way.

Hope it's all going well.

^ thanks.

I realised I never wrapped this up.

Overall I'd recommend anyone to go touring and as so many people say; don't get hung up on having "touring kit". Obviously if money is no object go and buy what you want, but if it is a consideration don't let needing to buy x, y or z stop you. Just do it.

I'll try to only make observations / comments that I think might apply or be useful to others.

The Camino route in general

I read a bit about routes in general but did little to no planning. You have the actual "Camino", where pilgrims walk, which you can cycle with a bike with off-road capabilities, or you can cycle on roads. This is subjective and I only cycled on the "Camino"when I had to (autopistas, where routes merged, etc.), however, I think that anyone who chooses the "Camino" over roads for cycling is wrong.

Why you'd want to ride shit tracks at slow speeds with a bunch of walkers is beyond me. That said I met a nice Brazilian couple who'd do it years earlier and were doing it in reverse with MTBs and a car - just picking the spots they wanted. So I guess you could do a sort of hybrid MTB route, especially as judging by the local riders there must be plenty of off-road tracks, but that's a bit different.

The middle part of the Camino is pretty dull and I think I was correct to grind the miles out quickly to Astorga. If you have time, company, and are very interested in history and religious buildings, then I think you could make the middle section more interesting by planning a varied route to different sites. But from a riding perspective there isn't a great deal going on.

Spain is cheaper than France. Not exactly ground breaking, but if cost is a major factor starting in St Jean Pied Port and only doing Spain will cost less than riding through France. Although riding through France was great and I'd recommend it.

Costs
I've got no idea what I spent and this was a once-in-a-life-time deal for me so I didn't really think about it. That said I did try and "balance" my spending - ie hostel = meal out, hotel = home made meal.

• The Albergues (Spanish hostel/guest houses) can be very cheap (especially with a Pilgirms Passport). €15 for a dorm seemed to be able normal. I think my cheapest was €8 (in a dorm) and my most expensive was €24 or €28 (in Dax, France - private room, sink, shared bathroom).

• Hotels were usually €30-40 for perfectly good hotels - think Premier Inn standards usually inc. breakfast. Booking.com app was a Godsend when the Albergues were fully booked.

• There are "Pigrims menus" everywhere, usually €10 for bread, starter, main, a bottle of wine/ pint of beer/ bottle of water, often a desert. These places are also more likely to serve dinner earlier.

I wanted a lightweight credit card tour for lots of reasons. Regardless, I would not recommend camping because of the availability and cost of the Albergues.

I like camping, but I can't see how it would add. Maybe if you're experienced and have a lightweight setup already nailed. But if you don't already have a tent, etc. then it's probably equal in cost to stay in the Albergues. Plus you have the chance to meet people. I felt blessed every time I passed fully loaded tourers, especially up the mountains.

Would do differently (if I could)

• No.1 is without a doubt planning my exits from cities. Some of the roads I took were basically motorways and particularly hairy.

• More prep.

• If I could have I'd have definitely liked a 28mm tyre on the rear and a c.27.2mm seatpost.

• Chamos cream

• Some training (mainly for my arse after virtually no cycling for 1yr)

That's it really.

Tips

• get a pilgrims passport

• stay in Albergues to save money, but remember perfectly good hotels can be had for €30-40.

• Learn a bit of Spanish - English is widely spoken and although lots of the places don't use Spanish as their first language locals seem to appreciate it.

Best bits of kit

• Sea to Summit tiny keyring backpack.
  
• Torm arm warmers
  
• Rapha Wind Jacket
  
• Leatherman Squirt