Travellers’ tales: Three days cycling in Spain

Where: Spain
Who: Colin Farnworth
When: September 2025

When I read an account in Travellers’ tales about riding C2C from Valencia to Santander on Spain’s Vías Verdes, I thought: “I could do that!”

I persuaded my friend Nigel to join me and booked the plane and ferry tickets. But then life threw me a curve ball: aged 69, I became a carer. The retiree’s freedom to disappear on the bike was gone.

Nigel understood. He didn’t fuss about the new trekking bike he’d bought for the trip, nor that our flights to Valencia were non-refundable. But it nagged at us both.

So we decided to book return flights and to plan an adventure that I had time for: we would still ride C2C but both coasts would be the Med. By flying in and out of Valencia, we could cycle the Vía Verde Ojos Negros, a greenway that once carried iron ore from the hills to the coast by rail.

Three uphill hours later we were on our way. In three days of cycling, we almost had the path to ourselves Colin Farnworth, Cycling UK member

Our ride would start in Teruel, which has a train station but, at that time, no train. The bus replacement wouldn’t take bikes. The local bus company would if we paid the driver cash.

Our bagged bikes went in the luggage hold. Three uphill hours later we were on our way. In three days of cycling, we almost had the path to ourselves. It was downhill most of the way and easy riding.

The surface varies between smooth tarmac and rough gravel, so we were glad of our wide tyres. On many occasions we found our way blocked and signs telling us to go no further. We ignored all of these and always found a way through.

We were glad of the time to divert to hostelries along the way, and to be able to return to the Hotel Olympia where our bike boxes were waiting. Back in Bristol we could reflect on all the things that could have gone wrong but didn’t. We had grabbed an adventure!