Sangarcía is a small village on the high meseta of Segovia province, in the stretch of pine and farmland that locals call the Tierra de Pinares. At roughly a thousand metres above sea level, the land is flat to gently rolling, with wide fields of cereals, stands of resin pine and big, clear skies. To the south, the Sierra de Guadarrama forms a blue wall on the horizon, often snow-capped in winter and spring.
Villages like Sangarcía are typical of rural Castile: a church with a stork's nest on its tower, a handful of brick and stone houses around a square, and a population that has dwindled over the decades as young people moved to the cities. The pine forests around here were tapped for resin for generations, and you can still see trees with the old scars of the cuts. The silence on a weekday morning can be almost total.
The riding is about space and light rather than corners. Roads run straight or in long, lazy curves across the plateau, with excellent visibility and very little traffic. The surface is generally good. Heading south, the roads climb into the Sierra de Guadarrama, with passes like the Alto del León and the Puerto de Navacerrada offering more challenging riding. To the west, Ávila and the Sierra de Gredos beckon.
There are no services to speak of in Sangarcía, so fill up in Villacastín, close to the A-6, or in Segovia. Segovia, with its Roman aqueduct, cathedral and Alcázar, is a magnificent place to end the day, and its roast suckling pig is famous across Spain. As a photo stop, the village offers a quintessential image of Castile: vast fields, a lonely church and the mountains on the horizon.