Your legs won’t notice it until a while in. At first you stroll out of Pontevedra, your head still half in the city and half on this morning’s coffee. Then the route starts to pull upwards, and you realise: this is no easy warm-up day.
The Variante Espiritual shows you what it’s made of straight away. You climb almost 360 metres over 5 kilometres, and you’ll feel it. Find your rhythm, stop where you can and look around you. It gets quieter as you go up. Then the descent asks a bit more of your knees.
Armenteira is a small village with an old monastery. It’s peaceful here, and you’ve earned that peace. Take your time to settle in.
Don’t go too enthusiastically in the first few kilometres, the best is still to come.