“With The Bike You Integrate Into Nature”
Paco Tortosa is one of the people who knows the most about traveling by bike. He not only proposes it as a sustainable means of transport but as a deeply human way of living.
Doctor in Geography, he chose to live his specialty traveling, with an environmental perspective and dedicated to social causes. He has published 30 books on Valencian cultural and natural heritage, and numerous articles, as well as participating in reports on regional, state and European cycling infrastructure.
It has been 36 years since his emblematic work Spain by bike inspired thousands of travelers (published by Edicions96, it was updated in 2016). Its routes propose “a saddlebag bicycle touring, calm, poetic and sensual”. Paco Tortosa is today an influential voice on sustainability issues within Valencian society. He is the author of numerous articles and participates in reports on regional, state and European cycling infrastructure.
Paco Tortosa: “On the bike everything looks different”
– What defines the cyclist?
-It is someone who in the 21st century decides to travel the world by bicycle, in a sustainable way, on their own, experiencing integration with nature and enjoying the heritages that appear daily on their journey: the historical, the geological, the cultural, the environmental and the gastronomic. You can do it for a weekend in your region or for months around the world.
– What are the values that guide the bicycle traveler?
– Never complain about anything: it is a good thing to travel with certain money and certain information. Connect with people and nature. Take cartography on paper, despite the trackings and gps, because it is the one that never fails. Prepare the route, but leaving room for the adventure of the unexpected. Do not travel more than 30 km a day. Travel leisurely, with baths in the waters of the road, adding your own or someone else’s poetry, sharing it with colleagues and locals.
–Finally, what cycling infrastructures would you highlight?
–The Greenways: they are safe and with more and more services. And those of EuroVelo: more than 75,000 km throughout Europe. I participated in part in the design of the North Atlantic route. What a pedal stroke!
– What routes through Spain do you recommend in each season of the year?
–The Iberian Peninsula is a miniature continent from the deserts of Almería to the humid forests of the north. I recommend the southern routes in winter and in summer the north, the most humid Spain. Spring calls to the vast plateaus, both north and south, and in autumn the supreme thing is to pedal through the great Atlantic, deciduous forests.
How to relax traveling by bike
- Disconnect. Do not turn on the mobile except at dawn and at the end of the day. The goal is to savor and enrich the personal or group experience by being open to connecting with people and not with machines. Being hyper-connected often means not really being in the here and now.
- Travel accompanied. At least with one person and if possible in a group. The important thing is the friends you travel with and not the kilometers you do.
- Don’t challenge yourself. Leaving home on an adventure is wonderful enough, whether it’s a 3-day long weekend, a month’s vacation, or 3 years. When you travel by bike, no matter where you do it, everything looks different and can become an incredible experience.
- No hurry. Do not do more than 30 km a day. Do not miss a good beach or the backwater of a river to take a bath. Stop to eat calmly. Talk to the people you meet.
