What are the chances of me cycling the camino de santiago?

[Tomolia]

Hi there,

I need some opinions from people who have previously cycled the full duration of the Camino de Santiago.

Basically im 28 years old (in decent shape generally, but not in terms of cardio) and im wanting to cycle the full thing in 2 months but I fear that it might be out of reach until later this year. Basically ive not ridden a bike for knocking on 13 years now and ive just decided to get back into mountain biking as I used to really enjoy it throughout my youth. Due to not riding for so long my endurance and fitness levels are not on par, so I have 2 months to get on a high level of fitness. The objective is for me and my friend to do it in 13 days of cycling so roughly around 40miles/65km per day. Its a brand new bike so im not broke in yet on the saddle either.

Would you say this is at all possible for me to do or would you say im really pushing my luck hoping to get on a good enough endurance level within 2 months?

Im considering possibly waiting till oct/nov 2010 but my mate may not be able to join me at that time so ideally I want to do it at the beginning of this coming April.

Any opinions from ones who have previously completed the journey on a bike would be priceless

Many thanks

tom

[Covey]

Not being a cyclist, here is a walkers perspective on your plan.

There are two routes for the cyclist on the Camino Frances. There is the cyclists route, and the walkers route. A great many cyclists prefer to ride the walkers route because they feel it is the "genuine" camino route, rather than the road based cyclists route. To ride the walkers route, most cyclists use mountain bikes as opposed to the road racing type bikes.

The walkers aim to cover 25-30kms a day usually starting at dawn and finishing around 2-3pm, so your 65kms on a bike does not appear to be too extreme.

The downside of riding the walkers route is that the trail surface is much rougher and punctures more of a problem.

Last year I was passed by a lady and her young daughter and they both had "normal" street bikes with a wicker basket on the front and 4 speed hub gears. The Lycra clad "serious" cyclists are all connected up to their heart rate monitors and GPS whilst the walkers happily plod along just following the little yellow arrows.

I should not worry too much about fitness. You will be very fit at the end of the first week!!

[cmozer]

Hi
My wife and I rode the Camino Frances from Roncesvalles 2 years ago. I'm 60 and a pretty serious cyclist, ~2500 miles a year. We did the tour with ExperiencePlus bike tours in 2 weeks. Our tour was fully supported - they carried our gear.

We saw lots of people riding carrying gear. I thing this is very doable. You'd need some bad weather gear, a light bag to sleep in at the alberga, some toilet stuff, and some light weight clothes that would be easy to wash by hand. If I did it, I'd ride a touring bike, but most bikes I saw carrying gear were mountain type bikes.

As far as fitness goes, 50 miles a day if you have all day to do it is not that tough. It will wear you down, however. You should work your way up to ~150 miles a week comfortably. This will get your rear in shape as well as getting used to riding a bunch. You should throw in a 50-60 mile (4-5 hour) ride once a week.

The Camino was one of the most memorable trips I've ever done on a bike - one of the highlights of my cycling experience.

Good luck

[jimbo]

was wondering how many days biking did you do

[cmozer]

We rode 13 out of 14 days. We had a day off in Leon.

[robin]

I'm not sure about days off.
Whenever I've done this on a long tour the next day has always been hard work.
I've never been sure why i was put on this planet at all,but i'm certain it was never to endure hard work!
Just keep turning the pedals,however gently,every day.Stop when you've had enough or fancy looking around somewhere.
Otherwise the whole tour becomes a battle between you and your cycle computer,and this really is not what its all about.
I'm doing a Vezelay start then down the Loire to another start at le Puy next year,then on through Portugal and spain.
Under petticoat pressure i'm taking a mobile and the nice people think i'm coming back 13 weeks later to a birthday celebration in newbury.
What they don't know is that the mobile will be mainly turned off,only my wife will know when its on,and she's had more than enough grumpy chats with me whilst on a long tour to want to endure any more.
You need your own space and time on these things,being asked whether the dog should be taken to the vets, and for the last time, destroys the whole concept of getting away from irrelevence and just soaking up the spirit of the camino.
its not a race,its an experience,the world is going to manage perfectly well without you one day,so the Compostella run is just good training for that inevitable day when it jolly well has no option.
Robin