Six must-ride roads in the Picos
- Simon Weir
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
The year's first full tour is complete – a six-day canter through the Picos de Europa with Bruce "Teapot One" Smart for Chickenstrips Tours. Last year we ran two trips to these mountains in Northern Spain – my route and Bruce's route. This year we mashed the two together to produce an "Ultimate Picos" tour.
Designed to suit the big group we run (15 bikes) it's similar to my Pure Picos self-guided tour, but doesn't go so far west and instead adds one or two of Bruce's favourite roads into the mix.
For this tour I was on the powerful, agile new Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX SE Tourer. It's perfectly suited to these smooth, twisty mountain roads – and it made me see some of them in a fresh light. Here's my pick of the roads we rode each day.
Day one: CA281
We were on the Plymouth-Santander ferry that docks in the afternoon. The crossing had been relatively quiet so getting through immigration – which can take almost an hour when it's busy – was really fast and efficient, so after our briefing we were soon on the road.
This is still, by necessity, a short day. A brief burst of motorway got us clear of Santander but, coming off the motorway after Torrelavega, we found a huge queue heading into the services. Strange. You don't see that very often. Trickling through the first few villages, we stopped for coffee… "No. No coffee," the café owner told us. "No power. All of Europe. Cyber attack. No power – no coffee." Well, everyone was happy with cold drinks… but never mind the espresso machine, no power also meant no internet and no petrol as all the pumps were dead. Everyone had enough juice to get to the hotel, so we carried on.
This really was the start of the riding. Up into the mountains on some sublime twisty roads, in Puentenansa picking up the CA218. The initial run is broad, perfect tarmac snaking up through a tight gorge to a dam – though with occasional rocks fallen on the road, but no traffic. Then it's on past the reservoir and over the hills where the surface is great, but with the addition in places of manure – though without the free-range cattle on it, this time. It finishes in a wicked hard-right turn: easy to fight your way round it and ride off on the left.
When we got to Potes, there was still no power. I had a cold shower in a dark bathroom, got changed and went out… to find the lights on in the hall. Power was back. That meant the petrol stations were back. Phew…
Day two: LE2711
First job of the day: get fuel. With that done, the next job was to hit the mountains. We began with one of the most famous roads in the Picos, the N621 from Potes to Riaño, over the San Glorio Pass. It's the one with the deer statue…
At the top of the pass we turned right onto the dead-end road that leads to the Collado de Llesba viewpoint, with the Prado Bear statue a slight (steep) walk away. Skies were blue, the roads were quiet: perfect conditions for a near-perfect road. The N621 is broad and relentlessly twisty. The first half from Potes to the top of the pass is immaculately surfaced, though it's a little rougher nearer Riaño (not British-back-road rough – just not as amazing as the earlier stretch).
The thing is, we turned off the N621 before even getting to Riaño, heading into the very heart of the Picos on the dead-end road to Cain de Valdeón. It's single-track narrow but (mostly) beautifully surfaced, sneaking through a glorious gorge to the village for a coffee stop – and the best bit is, as it's a dead end, we got to ride it a second time to get out and pick up the short but divine LE2711.
This lead us back to the more-well-known Picos roads, heading through Cangas de Onís and out to the coast over the Alto de Fitu (though the viewpoint had been closed for repairs). It was relentlessly hot and I missed a turn, keeping us on a bumpy road for five miles too many. By the time we reached our hotel in a town south of Gijon, I was definitely ready for a hot shower and a cold drink.
Day three: AS228/LE418 (Ventana Pass)
Day three saw us heading deeper into the heart of the mountains, zig-zagging up quiet roads, climbing over a series of crests that revealed epic view after epic view. The sky provided a perfect blue backdrop but the temperature was a few degrees cooler than the day before: ideal riding conditions. To call these roads quiet is an understatement… most of them are practically deserted. It's hard to pick a favourite on a day like this. At least, that's what I always say... but of course I have a favourite.
The Ventana Pass is one of those roads that just keeps giving. We rode if from north to south, shuttling through another excellent gorge then clambering up through a scrubby forest to reach the viewpoint above the treeline from which the road cascades down the side of the mountain in a series of generous curves. "Drone!" shouted Bruce, sending the rest of us down the hill while he grabbed some incredible aerial footage of the bikes.
My usual café-curse struck and not one but two possible lunch stops turned out to be shut (one with a bemused-looking delivery man standing outside, the other clearly closed for good). Even so, nobody minded riding a bit longer on these roads and the late lunch we finally found was absolutely cracking. From there we had an afternoon on almost-as-great roads, before finally dropping down to the coast for a slightly suburban final 15 miles to our overnight stop in the fishing port of Navia.
Day four: AS14 (Palo Pass)
From the coast to the mountains, then out through the foothills to the plains… this was an epic day of ever-changing scenery. Even the warm-up road heading south from Navia was magnificent, twisting and turning, climbing steadily all the way to our morning coffee stop. Then things got serious as we swung onto the AS14.
Now, not all of the surface of this road is perfect. But that doesn't matter. It twists and turns though a pine forest, clinging to the steep sides of a gorge and dropping down to a dam and reservoir. It was perhaps the busiest road of the day – but with walkers rather than traffic, as it's a stretch of the Camino de Santiago: the pilgrimage route.
And from the dam it just got better, climbing higher and higher to the top of the Palo Pass. There's a good viewpoint at the top, where a group of pilgrims were sitting on benches looking bemused as all the bikes arrived. We had a short break then dropped down the other side, which might be an even better ride – certainly the surface on the eastern half of the pass is better.
There was one more relaxed gorge and one more high pass to cross before we edged out of the high peaks. The roads through the foothills are no less entertaining, rapid roller-coasters with the straights getting gradually longer and the corners faster as it hits the plains – like a spring being stretched until the tight coils are finally flattened.
Day five: P210
It had to happen. We were, after all, on the plains… and the rain in Spain was falling when we left the hotel. Heavy, cold: damn. We pressed on bravely to the morning coffee stop back in the foothills of the Picos, but there were some long faces. Most of the group opted to shortcut to the hotel; Pip the mighty Welshman was insistent: "I'm doing the full route, anyway." Well, he's probably used to wet rides…
So while Bruce led the main group on a direct route, I took Pip, Jamie, Piers and Matt higher into the mountains. To be honest, it looked pretty grim at first. The rain had eased, but only because we climbed up into the cloud and visibility fell. I had a bad feeling about this…
Then things changed. We broke out of the cloud and the rain stopped. Swinging south-east, the clouds began to part and by the time we hit Riaño, there were patches of blue sky. We did another stretch of the N621 then turned off, heading for the amazing P210. The clouds did come back, but the rain held off as the road snaked its way past another pair of reservoirs. With hills decked in purple plants (heather?) and grey skies, it was like Scotland… but with even less traffic.
Then, as we picked up the Ebro River, the sun finally came out. Three-quarters of the run beside it is on broad, immaculate tarmac, then as the hills rise higher, pressing the river into a gorge, the road is squeezed down to a single lane, past a filigree of cliffs and crystal-clear waterfalls. Just magical.
Day six: B630
The final-day's ride was a short one, as we had to be in Bilbao by 11:30 to check-in for the ferry home. Even so, there was no need for motorway: into the hills, on a mix of open and slightly more-major roads, then diving off on some twistier stuff. We tried for a coffee in Balmaseda, but it was rammed – there was a cycling race the following day and the town was packed in preparation. There were loads of cyclists on the roads as well, but that didn't spoil the B630 – perhaps the best surface of the tour (honestly: better than Silverstone) with a relentless run of gorgeous corners. But all too soon they were behind us as we dropped down the hill to Bilbao port and the return sailing to Blighty.
Want to ride these roads? The CA281 is on the Picos Hourglass route; the LE2711 and the dead-end road to Cain de Valdeón is on the Picos Dead Ends route; the AS228/LE418 is on the León loop; the AS14 is on Asturias Ways; the P210 is on the Potes Plan B route; and the B630 is on the Cantabria Classic.
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