What type of Camino Cyclist are you?

There are many ways to plan a Camino bicycle tour, but our assumption is that you’ll be interested in being self-supported (carrying your gear on the bike), given that you’ll be packing light and staying in albergues & guesthouses (no camping or cooking gear required), and either ride solo or in a small group. To reduce physical effort and simplify planning, options abound for full tour/car support, bike & gear rental, luggage transfer, booking services, etc. The following Camino Cyclist options below will help you focus where to get started.

Casual, Recreational Rider

You enjoy cycling and get out a few times per month in good weather. You’ve completed rides of 20-40 miles once in a while, mostly on bike paths, rail trails, paved roads and sometimes dirt roads. You are fit and enjoy cycling, and feel up for the challenge of your first longer, multi-day ride. You’d rather try the Camino by bike instead of walking (which takes longer and requires a heavy load on your back).

Your bike

A bike that is reasonably comfortable and fits well. You’ll likely want to rent a reliable mountain bike with front suspension in Spain just for the Camino experience, making logistics simple and minimizing the need for repairs.

Your Camino Ride

Daily distance: 25-40 miles/day

Riding pace: 8-10 mph

Riding surface: walking path or roads without heavy traffic

Walking your bike: 10-15% of the time is better than sharing the road with cars

Days to ride Camino Francés: 13-20

Start Preparing by

  • Get out riding as much as you can! Develop strength, experience and confidence before arriving in Spain.
  • Choose your Camino bike, and what logistics may be required to get it there.
  • Decide how you want to carry your gear and what you will take along.
  • Learn basic bike maintenance tasks such as changing a flat tire and adjusting brakes.
  • Research how the Camino works for cyclists, and which sections you might want to take the road or walk your bike when the trail gets rough.

Experienced Touring Cyclist

You’ve completed at least one multi-day tour averaging at least 40 miles/day while carrying gear on your bike, or 60+ miles/day with a support vehicle. You ride multiple times/week for most of the year and are strong on flat and hilly terrain. You feel confident on a variety of surface types and confident to taking care of basic bike maintenance on a tour. Sharing the road with cars doesn’t stress you out. Most of your experience is on paved and dirt roads, with your bike of choice as a road touring setup with racks and panniers.

Your bike

Ideally you prefer to stick with your own touring bike and setup, or get a rear rack and panniers (or bikepacking bags) to carry gear on your road bike (with beefier tires). You may prefer to box your own bike and get it to Spain rather than take your chances with an unknown rental bike. If mountain biking is new to you but you don’t have a trail bike, maybe you’d like to consider trying the route on a MTB rental.

Your Camino Ride

Daily distance: 40-60 miles/day

Riding pace: 10-15 mph

Riding surface: smooth dirt walking path or road detours where trail is rough and rocky

Walking your bike: you prefer to take roads if path is too rough or crowded even if car traffic is heavy occasionally

Days to ride Camino Francés: 10-13

Start Preparing by

  • Ride regularly!
  • Refine your packing list and test an overnight loaded tour with camino gear
  • Figure out how to get your bike to Spain
  • Decide on pace: if you want it to be slow & leisurely pace or you’d prefer to push it
  • Consider lengthening your trip beyond the Camino Francés by connecting it to other routes or destinations.

Mountain Biker / Backpacker

You love leaving paved surfaces, and have experience on single track, hilly terrain, and bumpy descents. You feel confident that you could ride 50 miles of trails daily for multiple days, and don’t fear adding the weight of overnight gear to your bike setup. Your bike of choice has fat tires or front suspension to enable you to ride anywhere, even if pavement takes extra energy. Your ideal ride is a mountain bike with a bike packing setup or nimble rack/pannier system.

Your bike

Your best setup is a hard tail mountain bike and are don’t mind boxing it bring it with you to the Camino. A full suspension bike wouldn’t add much to your ride, just slow you down. Given frame geometry, front suspension and tire clearance, you’d want to consider a bikepacking setup over racks and panniers.

Your Camino Ride

Daily distance: 30-50 miles/day

Riding pace: 6-13 mph

Riding surface: prefer dirt walking path and rough and rocky trails

Walking your bike: mountain bikers don’t walk their bikes (but they do warn walking pilgrims!)

Days to ride Camino Francés: 10-17

Start Preparing by

  • Getting out on the trail as much as you can! Ride some longer days with your camino gear, maybe even an overnighter.
  • Decide if you want to use a bike packing setup or racks/panniers.
  • Figure out how to get your bike to Spain.
  • Determine your preferred pace and if you’d like to extend your trip with any additional trails or bike packing routes nearby.