Stage Terradillos de los Templarios to León (by bike)

At 68.5 kilometres, this is one of the longest stages of the Camino by bicycle, and also one of the fastest: the profile descends gently throughout the day and the surface, mostly compacted gravel beside the road, allows a good pace. The difficulty comes from the distance, the lack of shade and the meseta wind.

The first kilometres pass through Moratinos, with its cellars dug into a mound, and San Nicolás del Real Camino, before crossing into the province of León and entering Sahagún. It was the most powerful town on the medieval Camino, seat of a Cluniac monastery that came to dominate half the kingdom; today there remain the arch of San Benito, the Mudéjar churches of San Tirso and San Lorenzo, of brick and blind arcading, and the hermitage of the Virgen del Puente.

After Calzada del Coto, the Camino stretches into the famous straight linking Bercianos del Real Camino, El Burgo Ranero and Reliegos, more than thirty kilometres of almost curveless route among cornfields, accompanied by rows of poplars planted for shade and by adobe dovecotes and cellars, the most characteristic vernacular architecture of the district.

Mansilla de las Mulas, whose medieval wall still stands along much of its perimeter, announces the end of the plateau. From there the route crosses the Esla, passes through Puente Villarente over the Porma and tackles the rise at Arcahueja, the last before looking out over the city.

Entering León by the Puente Castro district amply repays the crossing of the meseta. The cathedral, with its 1,800 square metres of stained glass, is the masterpiece of Spanish Gothic; the basilica of San Isidoro holds the Royal Pantheon and its Romanesque frescoes, called the Sistine Chapel of the Romanesque; and in the city stand side by side Gaudí's Casa Botines and the Hostal de San Marcos, with its Plateresque façade.