Walkers and cyclists: the two speeds of the Camino

The Camino has two speeds. And they don't always get along.

Cyclists — known on the trail as bicigrinos — have been riding the Camino since long before it became famous. The route is certified for bicycles on most sections, the Compostela is available to anyone who completes at least 200km by bike, and thousands of people choose two wheels every year. For them the Camino is a different kind of journey: covering in ten days what a walker does in thirty, pushing through passes that take a walker a morning in under an hour, arriving in towns while the morning pilgrims are still on the trail.

The relationship between cyclists and walkers is genuinely complicated. Walkers who've been on the trail for three weeks sometimes resent the cyclist who has covered the same distance in a week and will claim the same Compostela. Cyclists sometimes find walkers frustratingly slow on narrow paths. Neither view is entirely wrong. They're just doing different things on the same road.

What cyclists often say, when asked: the physical challenge is real, the scenery is extraordinary, and the speed means you process it differently. You can't linger at a bar for two hours. You don't get delayed by a blister. The conversations are shorter. The communities are smaller, because there are fewer of you and your paths don't cross as long.

What walkers sometimes realise only after the fact: the cyclist who flew past them outside Burgos on day ten was probably in Santiago by day twelve. That too is a kind of Camino. It just asks different things of you.

The trail is long enough for both.