eBiking Spain - out of the mountains to Burgos on the Via Verde Santander - Mediterneo

The second day on my eBike tour of Spain saw me cycle almost 100km to Burgos with 60km of that being on the Via Verde Santander - Mediterneo - a long distance greenway that follows the abandoned railway line built to link Santander to Valencia. This was part of my 2000km cycle tour of North Spain in May & June 2024

I started that morning from the town of Quioncoces de Yuso. A little used rural road the Calle El Molino runs south from here through Calzada and Villaluenga before joining the BU-550- just after Rio de Losa. The BU-550 runs through a gorge and on to the town of Trespaderne -where I stopped at the Cafeteria de Zaguan for breakfast and get a tortilla, bread & lomo roll packed for lunch.

Just outside the town is an access point to the Via Verde Santander - Mediterneo which I followed for the next 60km through spectacular gorges along the Ebro, bright red badlands, woods and farms past the town of Ono and Arconda, through a second set of gorges and tunnels at La Polera before the descent to Sotopalacios and from there into Burgos via the industrial estate at Poligono industrial de Villalonquejar

In Burgos I stayed at the Hotel Via Gothic, had a super kebab meal at Burgos Doner Kebabs and visited the huge cathedral wihich overloaded me with gold leaf.

My route map for day 2 can be found at https://cycle.travel/map/journey/575243

My 10 best photos from the day are at https://www.instagram.com/p/C7I3OaCib...

Some additional information
"About 60km of the 96km today was on a #ViaVerde or #Greenway the quality of whose surface is been wondering about. Unsurfaced ‘gravel’ tracks can be almost like road or they can be very rough and slow so 60km of the first is grand, of the second very tough

The first 30km were on rural roads and then a massive road through a gorge but again one with very little traffic on it. I’m calling a road a main n road if it has a good surface and an 70+ speed limit, the equivalent of National or better Regional roads in Ireland.

I knew good night be an issue so when I stopped for breakfast at #Trespaderne I got them to ack a second tortilla (omelette) and ham roll to take away. This was where the greenway started and it immediately did not disappoint as a pretty decent surface ran through the Ebro gorge.

It continued like that for many amazing kilometers but as I emerged from the mountains a problem emerged. The track was a bit rough but the bigger issue was that Rapeseed had self seeded and stretches had it growing over waist high either side of a narrow vehicle track so it was hitting my knees & the panniers as I went through it.

In my direction of travel this wasn’t as big as an issue as Burgos was downhill for me. The last 6km or so into Burgos goes through an industrial estate and then cycle paths before returning onto the roads near the city centre. It ended with a navigation error where in been routed down the 2-3 story flight of steps into the cathedral square, not really something to attempt on a fully laden bike. I’ll do a dusting ‘off bike’ post about Burgos"