Sierra de Gredos cycling holidays
Our Spain cycling Holidays
Catalonia family self guided cycling holiday, Spain
Customised road cycling tour in Girona, Catalonia
Cycling holiday in Valencia region, Spain
Experience Valencia's best on this self guided tour
Cycling tour in Catalonia for food lovers, Spain
A taste of Catalonia on a cycle tour
Self guided cycling holiday Catalonia, Spain
Discover the many aspects of northern Catalonia by bike
Budget cycling holiday in Spain
Self guided cycling holiday as you live like a local
Gredos self guided cycling holiday in Spain
Pristine mountain cycling in Central Spain
Segovia cycling tour in Spain
Cycle Historic Segovia's spectacular plains and mountains
Catalonia holiday, cycling and relaxation
Cycle holiday based from self catering accommodation Palamos
Family cycling and water sports holiday in Spain
sea kayaking, padel boarding, snorkelling and a sailing trip
Cycling The Camino De Santiago holiday
Self-guided cycling through the ancient pilgrim route
Self guided cycling holiday in Valencia, Spain
Self guided cycling in Valencia, land of contrasts
Catalonia self guided cycling tour, Spain
Customised self guided tour in beautiful Girona, Costa Brava
Andalucia self guided cycling holiday, Spain
Cycling in the surrounding hills of almond and olive groves
Learn Spanish and mountain bike in Sierra Nevada, Spain
Combine a Spanish course with mountain bike tours in Granada
Catalonia self guided cycling holiday, Spain
Self guided cycling holiday
Catalonia cycling holiday
Discover Catalonia´s inland and coastal beautiful sceneries
Cycling The Camino de Santiago tour
Self-guided cycling through the entire Camino
Cycling tours in Catalonia, Girona to Barcelona
Discover the art, culture & scenery of Catalonia
Cycling holiday in Catalonia, Spain
Discover pretty medieval villages and coastal paths
Cycling and yoga training weeks in Spain
Yoga and cycling to increase fitness and wellbeing. All ages
Murcia cycling holiday in Southern Spain
Discover Murcia's whitewashed villages and Moorish towers
Catalonia road biking tour, Spain
Discover Girona province by bike - A cyclists paradise!
Cycling on the Costa Brava, Catalonia
Exploring Costa Brava on edge of the Mediterranean Sea.
La Rioja cycling holiday in Spain
Self-guided cycling tour through the vineyards of La Rioja.
Camino de Santiago cycling holiday
Ride the passage of the pilgrims
Catalonia guided road cycling tour, Spain
One of the best places in the world for road cycling!
Marseille to Barcelona cycling holiday
Camargue, Canal du Midi and Catalonia
Sierra de Gredos cycling tour in Spain
Cycle Pro-Vuelta routes and discover Wild & Wonderful Gredos
Challenging road cycling holiday in Spain
Bespoke road cycling holidays in Almeria, Southern Spain.
Southern Spain road cycling holiday, 6 days
Bespoke road cycling holidays in Almeria, Southern Spain.
“Empty” Gredos
The year Sastre won the Tour, Sierra de Gredos didn’t have much to celebrate. It’s one of the three most depopulated provinces of the country, and is essentially still in post-war decline. Young people, and especially women, leave; there’s no industry for them here. Villages shrink every year. In 2019, one village lost four – or 20 percent – of its handful of remaining inhabitants.The area is a prime example of what has been labelled 'La España Vacía' – ‘empty’ Spain, a national crisis of rural degeneration which has sparked a social movement, and waves of protest in Madrid. Madrid is, after all, just a couple of hours down the road from Gredos. Traditionally, the Sierra de Gredos was a weekend jaunt for Madrid hikers, but they mostly come in the summer holidays, leaving the area struggling out of season.
Aside from the broom, there aren’t many living things that can tough it out on the high slopes of the Sierra de Gredos year round. It’s bitter in winter, its cities characterised by forbidding walls, its slopes snowbound. “The barren plains, the rugged mountains of Castile,” says Marlene, who is on the board of directors for the region’s Chamber of Commerce. To the average Spaniard, this area is traditionally seen as “cold and hostile”. But it’s also “the real Spain, because this is where Castilian comes from”.
But in the last five or ten years, the perception has started to change. And it’s all thanks to Gredos’s yellow jersey – its gorgeous mountain bloom.
Broom with a view
New hope
Change is slow to come, but Marlene, who visits the area frequently from her nearby home, often returns with anecdotes about new developments. There’s the hotel that, inspired by patronage from Go Cycle Tours, started creating special packages, and now finds its weekdays booked out with adventure travellers. Then there’s the woman in her 70s, living in the smallest village, who is convincing local shepherds to revive merino wool production. “She’s convinced a number of shepherds to put coats on their sheep to protect the wool... She’s a force of nature.” Young people are coming back “to make cheese”, and politicians are starting to sit up and take notice. “They signed a political pact in Gredos for repopulation, and a political commitment to repopulation in the area a couple of weeks ago,” Marlene says.This year, Marlene’s preparing for the next Piorno Festival bike ride. “We call it the leg breaker,” she says – of course, it sounds better in Spanish: the ‘rompe piernas’ in the ‘piorno’; Carlos Sastre would be proud.
Our top Spain cycling Holiday
Catalonia family self guided cycling holiday, Spain
Customised road cycling tour in Girona, Catalonia
This trip can be tailor made throughout the year to suit your requirements