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Riding the Tapas T rail Cheap beer, free food, and perfect roads in southern Spain from Córdoba to Granada over the next STORY & PHOTOS BY ALEX STRICKLAND five days. We took a backroad away from town and quickly found ourselves alone e awoke to the sound of rain. on a perfect ribbon of one-and-a-half-lane This was odd because the arid road with almost no traffic and olive trees W south of Spain hadn’t seen rain, stretching out as far as we could see. we’d heard, in five months, and locals Though we were on our own during had seemingly given up on the prospect. the days, self-guided tours like ours The orchards — which stretched to the from Cycling Country offer a number tops of every rise in every direction and of advantages, not the least of which is gave the land the appearance of a comic luggage service to haul bags from one book viewed too closely — were parched, night’s accommodation to the next. Since despite their irrigation. Under a hard late- we had another week of sightseeing after summer rain strafing the small town of the bike trip ended, that relieved us of an Baena, Spain, the ground itself seemed to entire layer of packing logistics. Not to be sighing with relief, and the exhalation mention the company booked hotel rooms saturated the air with an earthy smell of for us, which would otherwise have been olives that crawled up into your sinuses a considerable challenge, especially in the and wouldn’t leave, strong enough to off-the-beaten-path towns we visited with activate your tastebuds from behind. Too their finicky websites and few English bad — I hate olives. speakers. My wife Keriann and I had arrived Another American couple, David in Córdoba the day before, fresh off an and Karen, happened to be on the same overnight flight to Madrid and the blur of itinerary as us. They were an entirely game the country’s AVE high-speed train to the pair from Boston who, it was revealed by capital city of Andalusia, an autonomous the end of the trip, had never been on a region comprising the southern portion bike tour before. We’d run into each other of the country. After sightseeing in a in lobbies and at breakfast, and more jet-lagged stupor and crashing hard after than once the pair judged the previous barely a glass of good Spanish wine, we day’s riding to be the hardest they’d started our second day in country by ever tackled. They confessed that they’d meeting up with Dean, a British expat originally signed up for the ride thinking and guide with the Andalusian outfitter they’d be on eBikes, but when none were Cycling Country. He handed over a pair available they decided they’d do the whole of Trek hybrids and cue sheets for a 180- thing under their own power. We admired mile self-guided tour that would take us their attitudes. After all, they weren’t the 14 ADVENTURE CYCLIST FEBRUARY 2017 Riding the Tapas T rail ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 15 only ones surprised by the terrain. featuring ruins from the Romans, the “ocean blue” was of great interest here There’s a certain hubris that can Moors, and the Catholic kings of Spain in Andalusia, as 1492 was also the year develop among mountain-town were built on high points) one thing Ferdinand and Isabella completed their residents. We simply look at elevations became immediately apparent: there expulsion of the Moors, the Muslims and scoff, secure in the knowledge that would be no final coast into town, nor responsible for some of the region’s most our regular riding in real mountains flat walks to dinner. Tempted by the fort spectacular architecture, including the is more than adequate training for up the hill, we quickly decamped from Alhambra, the great Moorish palace that mere hills. Here’s the thing about hills, our hotel and trudged to a recommended awaited us at the tour’s end in Granada. though: there tend to be a lot of them. restaurant. The other thing about We set off during a gap in the So while the prospect of 40-mile days ancient towns is they’re not easy to downpour, thankful that the day’s on tarmac didn’t cause any alarm, after navigate, especially since the Spanish route called for a circuitous path to the a few hours of riding on the first day, we seem to have an aversion to street signs, tiny town of Zuheros, which lay only took a closer look at the cue sheet. 4,200 opting instead to place street names on 12 kilometers away along the main feet. Hills, indeed. an out-of-the-way tile when listed at all. road. With the gray skies seeming to As we rode into Baena, Dinner — a mountain of fried eggplant lighten, we tackled the first small pass a town of 20,000 and a cod-and-orange salad that on of the prescribed route secure in the Córdoba capped with hilltop paper sounds horrific but in reality was knowledge that another bail-out point fortifications sublime — was delayed but worth the on the other side would offer shortened (ancient wait. mileage if the weather turned. And towns Morning brought rain and the turn it did. As we crested the final few suffocating smell of olives, along with switchbacks, the rain pelted down with Baena “closed” signs as the country celebrated increasing violence until it became a full- Hispanic Day to commemorate on deluge. Wrapped in rain gear, we took Doña Mencía Christopher Columbus’s landing shelter under the only non-olive tree we Zuheros in the New World. The year could find, determined to, if not wait out of his fateful voyage the rain, at least let some of the five- Parque Natural de las across the months-worth of accumulated oil and G Sierras Subbéticas Priego de Córdoba e n dirt wash off the road before descending. il Our patience ran out before the rain R L U S iv A I did, and with cue sheets bleeding ink and e r Iznájar D Granada A cameras becoming concerningly damp, N we covered the brake levers and pointed Loja our bikes to Doña Mencia, a blip on the N A map that promised a connection to the S Alhama de Via Verde (“Green Way,” a converted Granada railway corridor) toward Zuheros and a railway station-cum-café that we 0 10 20 mi S P A I N 0 15 30 km hoped would be open on the holiday. MADRID Author’s Route We weren’t disappointed, and we found AREA A ENLARGED ourselves in the company of a few other F R I C A M S cyclists taking shelter from the rain as we warmed up at the cozy bar alongside MAP: JAMIE ROBERTSON JAMIE MAP: 16 ADVENTURE CYCLIST FEBRUARY 2017 Olive trees as far as the eye can see beyond the ruins of a Moorish castle in Zuheros. a batch of locals and drank cold beers. cheese, maybe something even better. bikes up a steep and slippery street to Ahh, the beer. There is no appreciable Considering the bargain-priced beer, it’s get to the hotel, we took a tour of the craft beer culture in Spain (though we entirely conceivable that a few rounds, castle and adjacent museum where we did come across one small brewery combined with the accompanying tapas learned that even the ancient tower was in Barcelona the following week) so and the country’s custom to tip lightly a relative newcomer, as natural caves you’re drinking whatever unremarkable if at all, could deliver a satisfying meal in the cliffs above town have produced regional brew is on tap. But the best for something like 5€. Cheap drinks and artifacts dating well before the Romans’ part of drinking in Spain isn’t drinking free food? Rain be damned, this could be brief occupation back to the Neolithic at all, it’s tapas. And southern Spain is bike-touring heaven. period. We were soaked again post- the epicenter of tapas culture, where Extremities re-warmed, we opted to castle and looking for an early dinner a small plate arrives alongside every cut the day’s riding short and beelined in the town of less than 1,000. It was drink, gratis. Maybe olives, maybe a for Zuheros along the Via Verde, then that we learned the tapas-fueled miniature bocadillo (a simple sandwich), marveling at the village’s Moorish castle bike-travel paradise had a dark side as maybe some local thin-sliced jamón and parting the low clouds. After hiking our well: Spaniards, especially those in small ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 17 From left: The remnants of tapas; incredibly ornate walls inside the Alhambra; grinning through the pain up switchbacks on the road to Iznájar; Spanish olives. southern villages, take their siestas very the border of the Sierras Subbéticas and the morning delivered a crushing seriously. That means from 2:00 to 5:00 Natural Park for a challenging ride to climb from the shore of the reservoir pm you’re often limited to grocery stores Iznájar, a hilltop fortress and church that along one of the only main highways or cafés and bars serving just drinks and looked straight out of the Middle Ages we’d ride during the week. After a brief pre-packaged chips. And since dinner in surrounded by a reservoir.

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