Ronda/Malaga cycling advice

bobmcstuff

I did post this in sportives/audax/training rides but got no response:

I'm going to Ronda for a few days (3 full days) after spending a few days in Malaga at the start of June. I've got some big rides planned at the end of June at home, and the roads there look nice, so I would quite like to hire a bike in Ronda. There is one place I can see which hires out decent bikes (andaluciacyclingexperience) but they bring them up from Marbella so it has to be a full week hire. The only place in Ronda (cycleronda) does not appear to hire out fantastic bikes, I'm sure it would be fine but I'd like something nicer really?

Looking at the average temperatures it looks fairly manageable provided I get home before lunch (?), average highs of 26ish but it's up to 32 in the afternoons at the moment which is a bit warm for me, I don't deal so well with heat... I'd plan to get out in the morning when it's cooler and then spend the afternoon with the misses, assuming I can get to bed in reasonable time.

Also any good recommendations for 2-4 hour loops from Ronda would be appreciated - there's a good climb I can see in the area https://www.strava.com/segments/1049112 which makes about an 85km route from Ronda if you take the smaller road by the lake, if that was any good I could maybe do that and a couple of 2 hour routes on the other days.

nferrar

Hi,

I've stayed a few times with ACE over there and highly recommend them however they are very much geared up for providing cycling holidays/camps rather than bike hire. Not sure what the 'bikes come up from Marbella' thing is about though, they have bikes at their base in Montecorto but obviously holiday guests get first dibs on hiring these so possibly they're all allocated for the dates you requested (if you didn't give them a date at the time it might be worth checking again as the closer to the time you need a bike the better idea they'll have if any are available). It might be worth you asking if you can pat a bit extra and also get their route pack from them which has details of some nice rides in the area (starting from Montecorto but that's only 15-20km from Ronda), again though that's not their business model so they may say no thanks...

As for rides in the area, I would just look for more on Strava. Las Palomas (the one you've linked) is the most well-known in the area (and the descent the other side is my favourite). 'The Beast' is another of the biggies there http://www.strava.com/activities/131928502 but outside of the big mountains there's plenty of amazing rides

bobmcstuff

What times of year have you been roughly? Just wondering about temperatures etc. for cycling in June.

That beast one looks good, little bit further than the other one from Ronda. Had thought to do one ~80km and a couple ~50km on the 3 days I'm there.

nferrar wrote:

Not sure what the 'bikes come up from Marbella' thing is about though

Hmm, I can't remember where I read that, must have been a different company as I can't find it now - I was looking at a few websites at the time. I'll message them anyway, thanks!

nferrar

I go late March/early April, so much cooler than June will be. I went MTBing in July in Granada (not that far away) once in the summer and it was crazy hot (I actually started feeling cold and shivering on one long climb, figured early stages of heatstroke...).
I'd still give it a go in June but like you say you may need to ride earlier in the morning than usual to avoid the worst of it. The long climbs also don't have much (if any) shade on them so unless that's what you're specifically looking to do I'd stay more in the valley areas where you can keep up a quicker pace for the cooling effect. Look for rides over to Setenil or head to Lake Zahara where you can do a half-loop at lake level on quiet roads or do a full loop that takes in a main road (but it's generally still pretty quiet), if doing the full loop I'd do it anti-clockwise so main road bit first.

bobmcstuff

Thanks again - I figure I'll have to do at least one of the big climbs in the area but apart from that I'm pretty relaxed.

I'll keep an eye on the weather forecast as well, apparently the average June high in Ronda is 26c, which sounds manageable, but looking at the forecast for tomorrow as an example it's going to be up to 34c, which does not

Later this week it's meant to be highs of 24-26 and looks generally very pleasant for cycling so I'll keep my fingers crossed for something like that...