Route 2: Urbasa y Lizarraga

Type: Road

This is one of the most classic routes in the area where we will climb two mythical mountain passes in the cycling world, Lizarraga and Urbasa. We will climb both of them by their hardest faces, Lizarraga from Sakana and Urbasa from Zudaire. Between both passes, at the height of Abárzuza and to avoid passing through Estella/Lizarra, we will turn right to take a concrete track that will take us to Eraul. This is another typical mountain pass but its hard slope is precisely the one we are going to descend. At the top we will find the Oak of Eraul and wonderful views of the valleys and mountains of this region of Navarra.

Technical data sheet

Type: ROAD

Distance: 85.4 km.

Accumulated positive elevation gain (according to IBP index): 1503 m.

Difficulty (IBP index): 85

Physical difficulty: HARD

To define the physical difficulty of the routes we have used the IBP index.IBP index is an automatic rating system that scores the physical difficulty of a route ridden on a mountain bike, road bike or gravel bike. This index is very useful to know the degree of physical difficulty of different routes by comparing them with each other.It is important not to confuse the degree of physical difficulty of a route with the effort it will take to complete it: an IBP index of 60 will be a very hard route for an uninitiated person, normal for someone with average preparation and very easy for a professional.In our case, we have taken as a reference a normal physical preparation to assess the physical difficulty of the routes.

Technical difficulty: EASY

For this section there is no mathematical formula that gives us a number, so the assessment is based on knowledge gained from experience.

We have defined the technical difficulty in 3 levels:

– Green color: simple. There is no notable technical difficulty on the route.

– Blue color: medium. We can find areas that present some technical difficulties. In the case of gravel routes, these will be areas with steep uphill or downhill slopes on non-compacted soil, sections of trail or soil in poor condition. In the case of MTB routes, they may be uphill or downhill sections of trail with some complicated passages, due to the state of the terrain or because they are natural trails with a very damaged floor. In both cases, these sections represent a small percentage of the total length of the route.

– Red color: difficult. In both gravel and MTB we find complicated areas such as those defined in the blue color, but with greater frequency and intensity.On road routes the technical difficulty will always be green, but if the ground is wet or there are ice slabs present, the situation will change completely.