Adrian Tritschler wrote:
> Scatterbunny wrote:
> > Hi. This is my first post on this newsgroup.
> >
> > Three of us from Canterbury Cycle Club will be cycling from Canterbury to Gibraltar at Easter
> > (1400 miles in 16 days) on three 1960s Cottingham road bikes.
>
> > I last cycled up the Mediterranean coast road from Cadiz to Barcelona in 1977 on a tandem. Since
> > then, I understand much of the coast road has been made into fast dual-carriageway.
>
> > Two questions: 1. Does anyone have any experience of this route on a bike in recent times? 2. We
> > have heard rumours that bikes are not permitted on Spanish dual-carriageway routes: can anyone
> > confirm this?
>
> No experience of 1.
>
> 2. I was touring in Spain in Sep/Oct 1998 and there *are* signs prohibiting bicycles from specific
> freeways, I don't know if it applies to dual-carriageway routes in general. You probably
> wouldn't want to ride on the freeway anyway, and usually there is a parallel "local access"
> road that dips in and out of the villages. *But* I found one section of about 5 or 10km where
> the road had been recently upgraded to a freeway (dual carriageway, three lanes each way) and
> bikes prohibited, but there was no alternative route. I rode on the freeway.
>
> I also met a group of four Americans who had been caught riding on a similar freeway and had been
> escorted off it by the Spanish police. This involved a
>
> long lecture on not riding where prohibited, and then them having to ride 5km back the way
> they'd come, chaperoned by a rather grumpy motorcycle cop. Then a further 20km of side roads to
> finally get to where they were going. They were not in a good mood that evening, which was when
> I met them.
>
> Careful examination of some decent (1:200 000 or 1:300 000) maps might help with plotting
> alternate routes.
>
> Adrian
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Adrian Tritschler
mailto:[email protected] Latitude 38°S, Longitude 145°E,
> Altitude 50m, Shoe size 44
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
The bridge from Puerto Real to Cadiz is also 'no cycles' (various other prohibitions too, I think),
the alternative via San Fernando _much_ longer. OTOH there are always people to be seen fishing from
it who have clearly ignored the freeway signs.
I travelled from Cadiz to Ronda, then Ronda to Malaga, by bus, and noted for future reference
that the hills look like fantastic cycling country. Not much traffic, and some of the roads are
very good.
Incidentally, mid winter looks like being a very good time for cycling in Andalucia to me - not too
hot, pleasant in fact, fresh and green, unlike the summer.
((matt)))
