Lanzarote

I've stayed in La Santa which was fine for what we wanted - but a bit out of the way if you want more choice for dining out of an evening. As you're cyclists you can pretty much do the whole island on your training - so where you stay isn't that important.

I think Femes is something like a 4 mile climb - but as DD says - its not the Alps.

It will be windy though.

i was there in August - based in Yaiza. Was too hot (over 45 degrees at midday), but i had a family to think about with regard to timing the holiday! I made sure i got out early doors and returned home by 10am. Mates of mine live out there - it will be c.25 degrees in Jan/Feb.

Femes (in the south, near Yaiza) is a good climb. It's not long, but does ramp up briefly to over 18% at the top.

The best climb is Tabayesco - towards the North. Out of Arrieta head up past the Yurts and yuo'll be climbing for some time. It's beautiful. Not too hardy - averages abuot 5% for c.6 miles. Or you can take another climb out of Arrieta (off the main roundabout) up towards Haria. Lovely climb too.

Other than that it's fairly rolling. Beautiful rides around the volcanoes and through the vineyards.

There's one major downside - the f'in wind is relentless. I was there for 18 days and the prevailing wind (from the NE) never dropped below 20mph. Some days it was up to 30mph and gusting over 40. Not nice, either as a headwind or a side wind (lethal when gusting). Tailwind though.... :twisted:

The Ironman people don't advise using discs there - thats how windy it is.

TBH there are better places to ride - I'd much rather ride in the rain than the wind.

tbh if you're friends, rent a villa in playa blanca, costa papagayo is a quiet area of it which i prefer but still walking distance to town centre so no car needed, good supermarket is hiperdino in the mini shopping precinct near the bus station, there's also a good greengrocer and great cake shop, faro park is cheaper but way futher out on the border of a property boom wasteland of unfinished villas

pb is at the southern end of the island which gives the bonus of slightly better weather and that you almost always do the first half into the wind so it's really fast home

imho la santa is dull and the road in/out ugly, but you'll find lots of cyclists there

ffs avoid arecife and surroundings on the east coast

generally road surface is very good, but it's eyeball bouncing in a few places like lz-30 exiting teguise south, local drivers are generally extremely bike aware/considerate although watch out for tourists

also beware the picon (lava gravel) on the edges of corners

i'm a roadie but i know the ironman course well, the only steep/twisty bit of the course is the extreme north on lz-10, if it's gusty it can get very unpleasant on descents with deep rims - off the course is the climb to femes from playa blanca which gets steep at the top, otherwise the rest is pretty benign

from where i stay in pb it's c.7 km up to femes, the first 6km ramps up gradually, the last 800m is 14-15% average, much steeper near the top, there's a descent down to uga (nasty if gusty), then you go mostly up into the wind all the way to the north of the island, often the descents feel like climbs due to the wind

the other route out of pb is the much flatter road parallel to lz-2 up towards yaiza, the usual wind makes it feel steeper, the swoopy route out on lz-703-704 is great

jan/feb don't assume it'll be hot, even in may it can be cold or 30s-40s, just luck of the draw, in winter rain/cloud are common, i've seen some real deluges, but if you're lucky you'll get blue skies

headwinds make you stronger

Hi there, well I'd agree with the comments about the climbs from Arrrieta and there's another one to Haria via Teguise. While there are no Alps the sun will make sure you work up a bit of a sweat. The wind can sandblast you too.
I went last month and the weather in Jan/Feb is similar (been then too) - warm sun with the temperature in the low 70s and low to mid 60s overnight and early in the morning. There are some pictures and musings on my blog at http://richardsonkevin.wordpress.com - if you or anyone else wants to take a look.

Spent a week there in October. (In Playa Blanca). Coloradomar Apartments highly recommended.

I found the road surfaces very good, but I live in rural Aberdeenshire and I'm used to some badly frost damaged surfaces.

Had a heavy headwind the first day I was out, but just made you work harder!. Climbed through Femes twice. Its about 6km of steady slog then 1km of heavy stuff. Nice descent on the other side mind ..think I hit 79km/h and I'm a notorious chicken on the downhills.

Loads of options route wise, but as mentioned above, once you have seen one lava field, you've seen them all.

Can highly recommend papagayo bike in PB for hire. Decent enough Trek carbon bike for Euro20 a day. This includes a recovery service if you have a mechanical.