Las Palmas Gran Canaria

londoncommuter

ppp

sloppyschleckonds

Prevailing wind is North/ North Easterly so climbing with a tailwind.
Some of the valleys get hot and humid 30 degrees plus
Ive only done Pico De Nieves from the south, 25 degrees at the bottom, 2 degrees at the top.
Ive never found a flat ride there, don't take deep section wheels.

hjghg5

There is some lovely riding in the north but getting out of the city can be challenging. It's a big city and the road system isn't the most intuitive. If you head along the north coast the default route is along the motorway because there's no sensible alternative. When i'm.riding in the north I tend to borrow a car (my dad lives out there) to avoid the city bit.

hjghg5

And you won't be the only person riding down the gc2 - it is a motorway but locals will expect to see bikes on it

bikes`n`guns

But the cops will bollock you for riding on the motorway.

I`d be tempted to sort out some way out of the city and start my riding from there.

londoncommuter

Thanks everyone for the comments so far.

The wind hadn't occurred to me at all so inadvertently I've been a genius as all my rides will go southwards uphill with the wind behind me. Brilliant. Will pack a gillet then with what's been said about temperature differences.

On getting out of the city, my routes on the link are from where I'm staying and it's fairly out of town so should be fine.

Any lovely bits I'm missing? I'm not really going on the coast south of Las Palmas (not great?) but am also not quite making it to the north west tip (Amagro).

I was aiming for 6 hour rides so over here that would be 100 miles or so but guessing I should tone that down a lot with getting lost / heat / small mountain.

sloppyschleckonds

VoTT but could be a stretch from where you are staying

https://www.strava.com/segments/632996

bikes`n`guns

South of the Island has awsome riding.
Freemotion run groups from Playa del Ingles and some of the routes are spectacular.

londoncommuter

Bikes`n`guns wrote:

South of the Island has awsome riding.
Freemotion run groups from Playa del Ingles and some of the routes are spectacular.

That was the point of my question really. I was hoping for great routes from the north.

First.Aspect

londoncommuter wrote:

Bikes`n`guns wrote:

South of the Island has awsome riding.
Freemotion run groups from Playa del Ingles and some of the routes are spectacular.

That was the point of my question really. I was hoping for great routes from the north.

There's a Freemotion in Las Palmas as well. The might be able to give you some route advice.

I definitely wouldn't want to be on that main road south of Las Palmas. The road itself is fairly benign in places, but it is the only route available for the big coaches.

I stayed in Agate once and the coast road to the south from there is wonderful. I also did the GC70 climb out of Galdar, which is a steady way to get up to the road that loops around the caldera. It is easy enough to find a back route between Galdar and Agate, either side of the main road, but I can't really help you when it comes to the bit from Las Palmas to Galdar. It isn't as busy, and like others I did see cyclists on there - essentially because there's no other choice. I wouldn't myself, I have to say.


If you don't like climbing, you are going to the wrong place. Even the "flat" routes in Gran Canaria are up and down the whole way, and a short climb there is about the length of the longest climb in the south east of the UK.

But don't be put off. Even though the climbs are long, but the bigger routes are better engineered and so nice and steady, so if you don't have a car to get you to Galdar, Agate or Maspolamas, it is safer just to head to upwards rather than go around. It is quiet, warm and extremely scenic.

60 miles is a long way. For some guidance, I'm an okay climber -top 10% on Strava climbs, much higher on some of the "offical100" climbs I have done. I can pound out 27-28kph for 4 hours. In Gran Canaria I did 120km with about 3000m of climbing, including the VOTT, and it nearly killed me. I had a 34x28. I really needed a 34x32 I think. I normally use a 34x25, if that puts it in context. I'd love to go back!!

DavidJB

in GC you're going up or down.

vortice

DavidJB wrote:

in GC you're going up or down.

And my favouretest place in the world to ride - so far.