Jens Sverdrup, CCO, Czinger
Photos: Jens Sverdrup
Jens Sverdrup, Chief Commercial officer for hypercar maker Czinger Vehicles, likes to travel solo. That’s why a motorcycle ride through Spain is his Favourite Detour.
“I don’t think there can be a purer, more satisfying road trip than when travelling by motorcycle.”
“I have been into road trips for as long as I can remember. For example, before becoming joining Czinger I used to work for with Gran Turismo Events, a Swedish company that specialises in driving tours.
What I have learnt over the many years of organising road trips, whether for a living or for myself and friends, is that I really like going alone, or with just one friend. In my experience, that gives you the freedom of choice to do exactly what you want to do, when you want to do it.
You get into a groove, relax and it feels somehow more soulful. You don’t need to follow a set route, always. If you want to stop for lunch for pull up for the night at a nice looking hotel, you can. And I don’t think there can be a purer, more satisfying road trip than when travelling by motorcycle.
Okay, I admit it is absolutely the wrong tool for the job, it might be slower than a car, less comfortable, harder to take much with you, but what the hell. I have a Ducati Panigale and have done my favourite road trip ever on that bike – a route through Spain that was filled with roads so fantastic that there’d come a point where you physically couldn’t take any more corners in a day’s riding.
I travelled with a friend and we caught the ferry from Plymouth to Santander. Our bikes had a tank bag and we strapped on a backpack each, took a credit card and had a loose plan to ride to the south of Spain, over two weeks, tackling a different region every few days – quite a different approach to a formal, organised event.
We started in the Picos de Europa national park, which was fantastic. Then we moved across, east, into Basque territory, before heading south east to Aragon, and then Zaragoza. It meant we’d tackle mountain roads as well as some flatter, more arid-looking areas that seemed almost desert-like. The ultimate destination was Andalucia.
The amazing thing in this day and age is we could do so much using our phones; we could see which hotels had a good rating, then at each night’s stop we’d google the best biking roads for the following day’s ride. It really was that relaxed.
And I have to say, I’m happiest when I'm flexible, because flexibility is freedom. There was no stress, no deadline, and if we found somewhere – a hotel – we particularly liked, we would simply stay there an extra night.
The wonderful thing about Spain, compared with say, England, is that you have such good visibility on the roads. So, as long as you kept an eye out for gravel on bends, and were cautious around dusk, which is when the animals move about and tend to cross roads, you’d have a truly special ride every day.
And travelling by bike is, in some ways, a social experience. On a motorbike you attract more interest from people, they come up to you at the gas stations, chat at cafes, ask where you’re going, where you’ve come from, and generally get enthused about your road trip. I think that’s because on a bike you could be anyone, it’s a great leveller, a classless way of travelling. Whereas if you were in a supercar, like a Ferrari, people have preconceived opinions about you.
The funny thing that the trip taught me is to be mindful of your own limitations and those of your travelling companions. We were wearing full leathers, helmet, gloves and boots, as you can imagine, and my friend was suffering in the heat. We had an intercom system and I could hear him huffing and puffing away on the winding roads.
He was a wonderful eccentric, but that meant every night, he’d drink a lot, smoke a pipe and then during the day he wouldn’t drink much water. It got to the point that he was tired and struggling to get out of bed, which meant he would miss the coolest part of the day which, ironically, was the ideal time for him to ride.
By the end of the trip, the plan changed. Instead of riding up the west side of Spain and nudging into Portugal, we had to just take the motorway home, because he simply wasn’t up to any more strenuous riding.
Even so, it remains a memorable road trip, one that gave me beautiful memories and taught me some valuable lessons.”
