Best riding in northwest Spain

Hi folks,

I’ve got a couple days with my teenage boys in northwest Spain at the end of May between arriving on the ferry at Santander Sunday morning and meeting my wife’s family in Santiago de Compostela Monday evening. Where should we go for a couple days of enduro-biased riding? Uplift would be nice for my younger son, but I have a tow rope. Ideas very much appreciated!

Best wishes,

Paul

Drive into the Picos de Europa, take the cable car up from Fuente De and ride down. Lots of options on wikiloc.

Look at BasqueMTB for inspiration/guiding?

Apart from that above and the trails Basque MtB maintain further East to be completely overgrown and fall line up fall line down…

Ah. Okay. We’re heading to a Corona from Santander in summer. More motivated by surf but taking a bike as I’ve an Alps trip right after I’ll need some fitness for.

Not done any research to speak of, but was hoping some of the graded trails linked from the locations on this link might be okay https://www.turismo.gal/que-facer/centros-btt

… and there seem to be some pretty well ridden Strava mtb segments. Someone must know more?

There were riders out both in the Picos and Ondarroa area. They were very much of the long XC ride persuasion. That said, we found some good trails, they were just very overgrown in places by some really nasty thorns.

Do look closely at ridden dates on Trail Forks. We found/ got lost/ carried through the woods in the Picos, and when we got back and peered the last reviews and images were two years previously. This may have been pandemic related.

We did enjoy the rides – but they are very different to UK rides.

A fair bit of this

Lots of trails were concrete farm tracks

Lovely. But not single-track which it was marked as!

Big climbs

‘exit’ of a apparently well used trail!

Some of the climbs were better trimmed back than the descents!

Yeah I’ve ridden in the picos with similar impressions… But we’re heading to the west this time which looks pretty different. Picos pic going slightly beyond what’s sensible on a cross bike. Good prep for Yorks 3 peaks.

Not been there, but Manzaneda bike park looks good. Has an uplift and loads of enduro/bike park stuff. Probably a couple of hours from Santiago though. Kevin Broda on YouTube is from this area and has loads of good videos for inspiration.

Picos are a 4 hour drive from Santiago de Compostela, not exactly close.  I’d just pay for Strava for a month, and use their route planner.

@johnx2 – that’s a stunning place.

In fact OP, the walking in the Picos and surrounding area was much much better than the riding…

I went to Manzaneda bike park in 2011 whilst staying in Galicia for a triathlon. It was pretty good for a days uplifted biking. Very dusty is what I remember! Also it had a section of northshore that got higher and higher – maybe I should have checked it out pre getting onto it lol! I wanted to visit Vigo and try the DH track there, which was used for a worldcup a long while back. Never got the opportunity though. The rest of my time was spent riding XC made up stuff from our villa, which was biking, but not great.

Picos are a 4 hour drive from Santiago de Compostela, not exactly close

But close to Santander where the op is arriving Sunday morning. Reading the post might be useful

Thanks everyone for your help — I’m thinking a day in Picos and then a day in Manzaneda. Does anyone know how to confirm that the Picos cable car is running? Thanks, Paul

A guy in a bike shop in La Coruña told me there was amazing riding around there but I’m afraid I don’t know where!

https://www.lafugacycling.com/

That’s the shop if you end up nearby

We found wikilok good for route finding in Spain

Oh yes, Wikiloc is good.

Oh and Angel Suarez is from Vigo. His Instagram is always full of him in a bike park.