Stage 5 - Belorado - Hontanas

ByTravesía Pirenaica
French Way / Photo: Jynus_ (CC BY-SA 2.5)
French Way / Photo: Jynus_ (CC BY-SA 2.5)
  • Distance Stage: 82.69 km
  • Maximum height: 1154.59 m
  • Minimum height: 761.45 m
  • Positive difference in altitude: 938.41 m
  • Negative difference in altitude: 869.44 m

The Way of St. James Fifth Stage

The stage starts out on tracks surrounded by cereal fields, which will accompany us through different villages (Tosantos, Villambistia and Espinosa del Camino) until we reach Villafranca Montes de Oca (km 11.7), where we begin the ascent to the aforementioned mountains.

The passage through these mountains is a succession of 12 km of climbing up and down, crossing tracks and passing through oaks, junipers and ferns: the initial ramp just after crossing the village is quite steep, and to finish a nice and pleasant descent to San Juan de Ortega (km 23).

Passing through the goose mountains can be an experience or it can be a choking experience from the start and, although it is not one of the hardest parts of the route, it can become very tiring.

We leave San Juan de Ortega, continue straight on and take the path that goes through a wild pine forest towards Agés (km 27); the next town we come across is Atapuerca (km 30), which we reach via a local road.

The next one is Villalval, 7 km away; this is undoubtedly the hardest 7 km of the stage. We first climb up hard ramps on a stony road (sometimes not very cyclable), always close to military terrain, until we reach a wooden cross, from where we also descend on a very stony road (with great caution).

From this point to Burgos (km 50) we pass through a number of towns very close to each other that let us glimpse that we are approaching a large city (Cardeñuela, Riopico, Orbaneja Riopico, Villafría and Gamonal). The access to Burgos is not beautiful until we find ourselves in front of its imposing Cathedral that does not leave the pilgrim indifferent).

Leaving Burgos the road is not very nice, we are still accompanied by large fields of cereal, just after passing under the railway track we take a bike path and turns into a dirt track that gives us access to Villalbia de Burgos (we do not access the town) but we continue until we reach Tardajos (km 60). We are now left with a monotonous road surrounded by cereal fields until we reach Hornillos del Camino (km 78) after a slight ascent and then a descent. This stretch is an experience to experience silence and tranquillity).

Now we only have one more ascent and descent to today's resting place, Hontanas (passing through Arroyo San Bol km 80). (km 82.69).

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