Several years ago when I was living in Madrid I remember taking a car trip out to the countryside and remarking to a
friend how cool it would be to take a long bike ride along Spain’s country roads. The Spanish countryside is a
beautiful sprawl of gaping fields dotted occasionally with magnificent castles. And then you come upon these little
Spanish towns where it sometimes seems things haven’t changed for 100 years.
Well, the New York Times travel section
had a piece this Sunday about biking in Spain that picked up on the concept. They recommend biking in a few places
like Girona, about an hour’s drive northeast of Barcelona, and the place that Lance Armstrong (mentioned in
another entry today) turned into his training base back in
2001.
The allure if Spain is simple. it is beautiful, but the terrain is also very inviting for bikers. There are trails
leading into the foothills of the Pyrenees to the west and the beaches of the Costa Brava reside to the east. And while
the professionals have made it their own biking haven, there’s no reason you can’t suit up and get out there
too.