After a one week guided trip with Andalusian Cycling Experience in January 2024, Dan and I talked about how much we love this part of Spain. We’re both jubilado (“retired” in Spanish, which I use as being jubilant, freed from the shackles of stressful management jobs- both of us, is muy accurate). I ski,  Nordic, Dan does not. Both of us look for escapes from the dreary Pacific Northwest winter. The drizzle didn’t bother us when we were working since you’re focused on…work. Once that ends, triangulating the daily dry weather slot to get a decent ride in becomes tiresome.

I love to travel. I travelled internationally for work 75-100 days each year, and I still have the bug. We’d initially thought of February as a good time, decided on March after considering big picture- more daylight in particular.

I have done several tours, both self supported with friends, and with groups in Europe. We also bought out two tours with friends in Japan in September and October 2024. One would think then that getting organized for this Anda-Alga trip would be…easy. It is not. I think one simply has to constantly tour to make this second nature. Coming into this genre from backpacking and mountaineering definitely helps. One knows how to make a list, think about weight and space (I love the mini wooden hairbrush our Tokyo hotel had in the freebie toiletries kit, bonus!)

First aid kit? Definitely but since we’ll be near cities can leave the splint stuff at home.

No need, we’re planning on this, for more than one water bottle. All Spanish bars will give you water.

We did decide to bring a pair of sandals with us post-ride, even though our bike shoes would be fine for walking (spd. I’m using the Adidas vélo samba, Dan has Specialized). But you know, rain, and squishy shoes while eating jamon iberico is just not ok..

 Next routes: I like the cycle.travel app a lot. The algorithm finds the least traveled roads, paths, preferentially choose cycle tracks, if available. I learned in France that “least travelled roads” does not mean the flattest. I love climbing, but a gratuitous 18% hill to avoid a short section of a busier road, no mas. One needs to scrub the routes. Cycle.travel also lists hotels, restaurants, bike shops, even toilets. I know many like ride with gps, but I’ve been hosed several times by that app, and the elevation and amount of climbing are over est, compared to reality by 25-30%. Komoot is also very good. So, I built some routes with cycle.travel and scrubbed them with Komoot. While I am a stravaholic, I don’t recommend the app to build a route, as I’ve been put on very busy roads a few times when there’s a quieter option nearby. So, to me, the route building and scrubbing is the crux step.

We’re trying to keep the days to about 50 miles. Even though we’re both riding with Ti bikes (Moots and Lynskey, respectively), my experience is that 11 mph/18 kph is about what you can expect to average when you’re hauling 15-20 lbs/ 7-9 kg of stuff. That pace translates to five hours of riding, allowing time to stop for the morning cortado, lunch, and afternoon cortado ( see recent research on the benefits of caffeine while cycling).  Neither of us are into or do gels ( see research on triglyceride levels from folks, like mountain guides, who consume gels daily…) Hey, I mean we’re jubilado. We got all day.

The rain in Spain is something we're watching. It has been epic, and the forecast as of this writing shows it staying moist, as in 12-25 mm per day up to and including our starting day of 18 March. The NY Times (and I think LeMonde too) had recent articles about how the Mediterranean is experiencing extended periods of wet. Valencia was an extreme example, but the warming world is resulting in less certainty for planning trips to get "good weather". We of course will have rain gear, but hoping not to have to ride all day in wet conditions.