27 March, 2015
The N-403 has to be one of the best motorcycle roads in Spain. It was near perfect this glorious spring afternoon – for me and the Family Truckster anyway.
It even has it’s own Wikipedia page – pretty brief really. Just the practicalities of where it is – it doesn’t reveal much about it and certainly wouldn’t inspire a motorcyclist to venture onto it. I’m not sure what I would have written if asked to contribute but it would have probably been something like this – based on the the section south of Ávila that I experienced on a sunny Friday afternoon.
The N-403 is what every road should aspire to be. It is possibly one of the best motorcycle roads in Spain. Not that I’ve ridden them all but I’ve put in a few miles in Spain over the years – and elsewhere in Europe. Start in Ávila and head towards Toledo taking in the scenery of Embalse de El Burguillo on the way. But don’t take your eyes off the road for too long – it’s long sweeping corners can get a little tighter than you might think on occasion, depending on your velocity. Overall though, vision is excellent as is the road surface, resulting in a fast ride if that’s your thing. Very few long straights but they do get more frequent nearer to the junction with the A-5 just after Escalona. Do it on a weekday, ensuring the traffic is sparse, when it is fine and warm but not in the height of Spain’s summer. Even if the time and conditions aren’t perfect – do it anyway. Give the Autovia a miss – this detour off the motorway won’t disappoint or cost you time. The N-403 deserves to be on every motorcycling enthusiasts list of ‘must-ride’ roads in Europe – it’s right up there with the B500.
Still not convinced? They say a picture paints a thousand words – what about a video? Or six of them to be precise.
Unfortunately, the N-403 wasn’t really on my radar as I’d left Segovia that morning and I was further distracted by my police escort out of Ávila. I only have my memory of what was probably the best bit which started a few miles out of Ávila. But it was that good I knew I just had to interrupted my ride prior to arriving at El Barraco to set up my GoPro to capture about 40 mins of my ride on the N-403. These have been edited down to six separate videos each between 5-6 minutes duration. The first three approaching, riding adjacent to and over Embalse de El Burguillo are probably the best.
Congratulations if you made it through all of these – you qualify as a motorcycling enthusiast or you have too much spare time on your hands. Hope you enjoyed these and they provide a better insight to my claim of the N-403 being one of the best motorcycle roads in Spain.
The track highlighted in yellow is my favourite bit of the N-403 – it took me about 50 minutes to cover these 46 miles at an average moving speed of 55 mph (just under the speed limit!).
The rest of the journey to Valdepeñas wasn’t nearly as good – just boring Autovia slog. Here’s the track of the days ride from Segovia to Valdepeñas.
Next post will be all about my time in Valdepeñas and the great tapas I had that evening and the best hotel wifi ever!
