Stage Burgos to Boadilla del Camino (by bike)

At 40 kilometres, this stage marks the passage from the Burgos highlands to the meseta. The profile is deceptively comfortable: there is barely any accumulated ascent, but you ride almost always up high, exposed to the wind and without a scrap of shade, and the compacted earth surface calls for keeping an eye on tyre pressure.

Leaving Burgos goes by the Parral park and the Arlanzón meadows, putting behind you the Gothic cathedral, a World Heritage Site, and the monastery of Las Huelgas. After Tardajos and Rabé de las Calzadas the climb to the plateau begins, and with it the landscape that will accompany you for days: flat horizon, cereal and sky.

Hornillos del Camino and Hontanas are two villages of golden stone that appear all at once, sunk in hollows that hide them until the last moment. Between them and Castrojeriz lies one of the most evocative places on the route: the ruins of the convent of San Antón, whose Gothic arch spans the road from side to side, with the niches where the Antonine monks left bread for pilgrims arriving by night.

Castrojeriz stretches out at the foot of its hill, crowned by a ruined castle, with the collegiate church of Nuestra Señora del Manzano at the entrance. Right after comes the Alto de Mostelares: a short, very steep concrete ramp climbing to 900 metres, the high point of the day, with an equally abrupt drop on the far side.

The final section crosses the Pisuerga by the bridge of Itero, of medieval origin, marking the entry into the province of Palencia. Past Itero de la Vega, the way reaches Boadilla del Camino, an adobe village that preserves a notable fifteenth-century pillory, symbol of the jurisdiction it held as a royal town.

Supplies call for some forethought: Hornillos and Hontanas have a bar and a fountain, but long stretches with nothing lie between them, and in summer the plateau punishes. An early start from Burgos lets you cover the high ground before the sun bites and reach Castrojeriz while the morning is still cool.