Lost Horizons

Lost Horizons is a self-supported gravel ultra through the province of Soria, the thinly populated corner of Castilla y León that its organisers call Spanish Lapland. The route links high plateaus, pine forests, canyons and walled medieval villages, mostly on hard-packed, fast forest tracks with enough rocky climbs in the Iberian mountains to keep it honest. Riders follow a fixed track on their own means, refilling at village fountains and bars along the way.

It is not a race. The organisers present it as a personal challenge ridden as a community: some riders chase the clock, others simply aim to finish. Local food is part of the idea, with a food truck stop at the event hostel on the first day, and the route keeps crossing traces of the old transhumance economy, from the Cañadas Reales drove roads to the stone mansions that sheep-owning families built in villages such as Oncala and Yanguas.

Three riders run it: Max, a bikepacker who lives out of his camper van between challenges; Sergio, a former triathlete who runs the bike shop MadChain; and Enrico, a trail builder rooted in Tierras Altas who leads trips through his outfit Bike In Tierras Altas. The first edition was ridden through a summer heatwave, and the team says it proved that a remote territory can host an international bikepacking event without losing what makes it special.