Followed the final five stages of La Vuelta 2026 (Seville → Jerez ITT → Peñas Blancas → Alguacil → Granada) with my partner. We did it self-guided, brought our own bikes, drove the whole Andalucían arc in a rental car, and watched the race from the road as opposed to a VIP setup. Spent a lot of time researching this trip before leaving — including on this sub — so I wanted to pay it back with some honest learnings.
TL;DR Would absolutely do it again. Our one rule for the trip was “if either of us isn’t feeling it, we can raise our hand” — and that rule is why we had a great time.
1. Traveling with a bike is stressful. I probably won’t do it again.
Quick route setup for context: we flew into Madrid, took the AVE from Madrid to Seville, picked up our rental car there, and followed the race to Granada before training back. Two AVE legs with bikes bookended the drive.
Glad I did it this time — now I know. Next time I’ll save the extra cash pre-trip and rent nice bikes at the destination. A few things I’d pass on to anyone considering it for the first time:
- Read multiple threads on this before you commit. There’s no single answer and the devil is in the small stuff.
- If you rent bike cases from your local shop, check them before you leave the shop. Our rental cases were missing some of the internal pieces needed to secure the bike properly. Zip ties will be your best friend. Bring lots.
- Pack enough stuffing around the frame to keep it stable, but not so much that you go over the airline weight limit. We both have status with Delta and one case went over — they would not check it in until we got it down. Weigh at home.
- Your bikes may or may not arrive unscathed. Scout a local bike shop for when you get to your first destination and put your bike together. We spent a good part of our first day on this when we could've been walking around Seville.
- If flying, then getting on a train - you need somewhere to stow your bike boxes. This was a HUGE pain. The AVE won’t take hard bike cases that big — you need to break the bikes down into soft cases/bags for the train, which means you’re stuck with two empty hard cases you need to leave somewhere for a week. We hadn’t fully planned for this and it ate up time in Madrid where, again, we would’ve rather spent wandering the city. HUGE SHOUTOUT TO JAVIER AT ATOCHA BIKES, located directly next to Madrid Atocha station. If you need bike rentals or a place to store bike cases, he's the guy. (Ask him about his career as a pro cyclist and some of the climbs he’s done.) Factor the storage cost and the transfer time into your overall trip budget.
- Trains in Europe are not as bike-friendly as you’d think. At least in Spain. This surprised me. Iryo (one of the two Madrid–Seville high-speed operators) is strict on luggage dimensions and effectively doesn’t accommodate a real bike bag in first class — I switched all our tickets to Renfe for this reason. Renfe is more permissive on paper (bagged dismantled bike up to 140x90x40, with a free Bicycle Add-on at booking), but in practice when I boarded with two bike bags on my shoulder and asked where to put them, I got a shrug and a “buenas suerte.” I eventually found a cycling-friendly staff who helped us put them in an empty stowage car near the front — but this was decided after the train started moving, so I walked the length of the train with two bike bags. Add buffer. Bring patience.
- One honest cost note on the alternative: we looked seriously at renting bikes locally, and the deal-breaker for us was that we started in Seville and ended in Granada. The delivery and one-way pickup fees from rental shops added up fast enough that it tipped us back toward bringing our own. If you’re basing yourselves in one city for the whole trip, local rental is a no-brainer.
2. Rental cars are small. I repeat: rental cars in Europe are SMALL.
North Americans, hear me. We rented a “mid size SUV” and it was still tight with two bikes (wheels off) and our luggage. European rental companies are also strict about any damage, even small scratches (they made this muy claro) so the stress of repacking the bikes every time we moved towns became an, ahem, challenging moment for us. In hindsight, I believe there are companies that rent bike racks, but another learning.
3. If you can, stay on or near the route. Big win.
This was the single best logistical decision we made and I’ll do it again on any race-chase trip. We based ourselves near the bottom of the Peñas Blancas climb for Stage 19 (Estepona Holiday Hills — amazing, affordable, highly recommend) and in Güéjar Sierra outside Granada for the Alguacil Queen Stage. Highly recommend Güéjar Sierra for any cycling or leisure trip — beautiful place, beautiful people, and well-positioned for Sierra Nevada riding. We found an incredible VRBO there who ended up putting us in El Torre (“the tower”) at the top of their property, overlooking the mountains. DM me for a direct contact if interested (amazing people and location) — I’d go back for a week just to ride ride ride.
For food, we mostly shopped at local supermarkets — jamón, prepared foods, water, bread, cheese, local wine. Shoutout to Restaurant Las Olivillas in Güéjar for the hospitality and the goat stew.
Being on the route meant we could get up at a reasonable hour, have coffee and breakfast, watch the many amateur riders making their way to the climb, and then set off ourselves. My partner is only a couple of years into her cycling journey and wasn’t fully confident on some descents and busy-ness on the roads, so staying put let us ride locally without big transits. We also got to experience the festival atmosphere that overtook the town.
One tip most people miss: on some big mountain-top finishes, the pros often have to descend the climb afterward to get back to the team buses or hotels. If you’re positioned right, you see them twice — once going up full-gas, once coming back down. Underrated.
4. Guided tour vs. DIY — I researched the hell out of this.
Spoke at length with Maggi at Cycling Country (highly recommend reaching out to her if you are considering a tour — she was patient with my many, many questions and genuinely helpful). The all-in tour quote was around €3,400/person for our dates. For financial reasons, and because we wanted the freedom to roll with the body and not be on a schedule, we chose DIY. For us, it was the right call. Not having to coordinate with a group or stick to a daily itinerary was a plus — we could linger over a long lunch, decide not to ride on a morning if the legs weren’t there, or stop to explore. That said, I’d absolutely consider a tour on a future trip. If you want to ride more and plan less, a tour is probably better value than people give it credit for.
Also, if you've never done this recommend checking out Seek Travel Ride's YT Channel and vid where she covers spectating at the TDF.
5. Spectating in Spanish September heat — easier than I expected.
Not bad at all. We didn’t climb all the way to the summit at either Alguacil or Peñas Blancas, which helped — chilling on the side of the road partway up for a couple of hours was more relaxing and peaceful than I expected...
One tip from a previous poster that paid off: always choose SHADE. Scout the sun before committing to a spot.
Our kit for roadside spectating:
- Helinox Chair Zero collapsible chairs (one each). Light enough to carry up a climb, saves your back on a long day.
- EVOC Ride 16L backpacks with water bladder (one each). These were MVPs. They held extra water on the climb, they fit our helmets so we didn’t have to pack them in suitcases (we used them as carry-ons on the flights), and they had room for roadside vino/sparkling water/jamón/queso and pan. Highly recommend.
- Bring some low-profile slides/flip flops to slip in your backpack or jersey pocket. We didn't do this, but saw many riders who did. Especially if you're headed up hours before the race arrives.
6. Don’t skip the ride-the-climb-yourself part.
My partner wasn’t comfortable with all the climbs, but I was — so we'd climb as far as she felt comfortable and then she’d camp out and I’d climb as far as my middle-aged legs would take me and then come back down. Don’t miss out on this. The crowd encouragement is real and absurdly fun. From the Scots (“Dig, son! Dig!”) to the Spaniards (“¡Venga vamos campeón!”), getting that treatment as an amateur on a Vuelta climb is one of the highlights of the trip. Those who have done this probably already know what I'm talking about...
7. La Vuelta app was invaluable. We used it constantly for positioning and timing. Pre-trip I used Komoot to plan where we stayed.
8. Stage 20 — Alguacil Queen Stage, watched from Güéjar Sierra.
This was the stage of the trip and I’d set it up the same way again. We watched Wout’s intermediate sprint right in the middle of Güéjar Sierra, then hustled to the significant climb through the town just before the start of the Alguacil proper. This was amazing — crowd was packed, riders were about a foot away from us, and I got a wink and a smile from Eddie Dunbar (pre-crash) after giving him my best Irish (still working on the language) encouragement. Ever seen a grown man giddy with excitement?
With Mas in red going into the Queen Stage, the energy in Güéjar Sierra was something else — a home-nation GC leader changes the atmosphere.
The genius of this setup was that we were both able to ride that same stretch earlier in the day on our own bikes, then go back to our room, change, and come back out to stake our spots.
9. Stage 21 — Granada.
Granada was incredible, but by this point we were pretty cooked. We opted to watch the race from outside our hotel on the first pass, then walked over to catch it one more time as it rounded the corner for the final climb. Not the most intense spectating of the trip, but exactly right for how we were feeling. The “if either of us isn’t feeling it, raise your hand” rule proved its worth on the final day. We then went and had some amazing churros + chocolate.
10. The small moments are the whole thing.
Walking back to our hotel after the Seville sprint finish, we rounded a corner onto a side street and there’s the Movistar bus — the usual post-stage scene. A minute later Enric himself cruises past us on his bike, feet away, red jersey, fresh from his presser.
Those are the things that made the trip. The accidental brush with the race between the scheduled parts.
Would I do it again? Absolutely.
The people we met along the way were amazing, the atmosphere was electric, and it was just cycling heaven. We’re already planning the final week of the Giro.
Happy to answer questions in the comments.