‘Every challenge, every thrill, every vista’
Everyone should have a biking holiday in Southern Spain and ride the A-397, says RIDE editor Matt
THE SURROUNDING PAGES are packed with roads and destinations that exhaust every superlative but when it comes to riding — and I mean really riding — the A-397 to Ronda could well be the best road in the world.
It might be just 30 miles in length but it packs every tarmac-riding challenge, every thrill, every type of Andalusian vista into a road that twists with serpentine intensity. If you’re a hunter of that feeling of glorious equilibrium, of a bike banked over, loadedup and flooding with feedback as tyres key into the grippiest of tarmac, then the A-397 offers everything you’re after and more.
For ten years I earned my living on this road as a magazine road tester. Each winter, the world’s manufacturers use southern Spain as a playground to launch their latest and greatest models and this road is among their favourites. But the reason they choose it (weather, grip, hotels) also mean it is a great place for a biking holiday.
Heading north, the joy starts as soon as you leave San Pedro de Alcántara and the urbanisation of greater Marbella. In high summer, the first few miles are clogged but in spring and autumn, the road is clear and that inexorable climb has already started. The A-397 heads for the clouds, flowing, twisting and turning, relentless in its gradient. The further you go from civilisation, the better it gets.
Mild most of the year, the A-397 isn’t subject to the frostbite and destruction of a northern European mountain road, so the tarmac stays smooth and the bedrock it is built on means it never shifts. The corners come fast and flow wonderfully. Speeds can be high: you’re never below third gear but that means there’s always heat in the tyres and warmth in your heart. Confidence abounds.
Heading for pine-clad peaks, threading between rock and sky, the A-397 is
widescreen motorcycling. One minute you’re a tiny spec in a panorama of arid mountain ranges, pine forests and ancient rivers that meander below; the next you’re breathing in as you thread yourself between towering cliff faces and Armco.
Sometimes the A-397 works with the topography, sometimes it smashes through. Blasted from the rock in the 1970s, it climbs from sea level, peaking at 3800ft before descending slightly as it crosses the Serrainía de Ronda. It’s a tribute to man’s engineering fortitude.
It’s over quickly and an hour after you’ve started, you can be sipping coffee in Ronda’s many lovely cafés. Just like the A-397, Ronda has its own battles with geography. Bisected by the 100m-deep El Tajo canyon, houses and shops gamely hang onto the cliff faces, the city joined by three spectacular bridges. It’s a fitting end.