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Maspalomas , Biketours


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Travel time: May 02.

In beginning of May the weather is quite good for biking. Temperature at sea level is mostly between 20 and 25 C° at daytime but it can get too cold for shorts after sunset because of the wind which is blowing mostly form southwest. If you bike into the mountains it can get quite chilly too. Its good to have some windbreaker handy if you do a long downhill especially when its cloudy.

At that time there are less tourists and prices for accommodation are lower. Therefore you will be easily a victim of the touts gathering around popular places but not at the beach. The sea is a little too chilly to stay in the water for longer but good season for whale watching (fat, old sunbather walking along the beach naked).

You easily can survive with most languages spoken in Europe.

Maspalomas
It is located on the most south side of Gran Canaria and it is told to have the most beautiful beaches there. Its white sand is fine and the you will find all you need: rental deck chairs including umbrella, kiosk selling cold drinks and hot snacks, nudist area, gay area and some hidden places in the nearby sand dunes.

In the city restaurants and discos are compete for customers but not with low prices more with their touts trying to get you into. And prices are quite expensive. Dinner in a restaurant start at a minimum of 10 Euro Entrance at disco is mostly free and happy hour all day long but a drink will start with 5 Euro.

Everywhere you can see very ugly and rundown hotels squeezed together in the noisy center or between the beach and highway with little pool areas and no privacy but Mr.CountryJo will play his repertoire of 500 songs at night. Go for it.

We stayed at Green Golf which is 3 km off the center and 15 min. by foot to Playa de Maspalomas. It offers comfortable two-storeyed bungalows with a small terrace, garden, a kitchen with fridge, stove, coffee machine and a living room with pay-TV. At the upper floor you will find two separate beds with hard mattress, a bathroom with bathtub and shower and a small balcony. Once a day the room service will make up your bungalow but do not wash your dishes.
There are two pools with one heated and save for children and the other is long enough for swimming. A restaurant and a small supermarket can be found too. Its quiet here and there were a lot of families with children because the whole area is fenced. So nothing to party but good to relax.
It offers free shuttle bus to the center and to the beach to at daytime. At night a taxi to the center will be 2.5 Euro. A large shopping mall with different restaurants and bars is within 5 min. walking distance.
It is at Avenida de Tjaereborg, 35100 Maspalomas, Tel:0034(9)28773949, Fax:28774038. We paid 375 Euro for 7 days together with the flight from Stuttgart with Condor. The bikes where 30 Euro extra for return flight and 25 Euro from the airport to Maspalomas with large taxi.
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Biketours
The south of Gran Canaria is not the best place for biking because you have to ride on the road at the cost line with partly heavy traffic or you travel on the same road up the mountains again and again. So if you stay only one week and rest one day at the beach as we did it´s nice but I wouldn´t stay for longer.

Because its quite mountainous and downhill are not that difficult I would bring a hardtail with 2.3´´ tires with me even when I came with my fully and had a lot of pleasure too (especially in the canyon).

Most of the island is treeless and sun can be very bright in the mountains so bring good sun cream with you. And keep away from the canyons: It´s murderous.

Best map found: Freytag & Berndt, Grand Canaria, 1:75000, ISBN 3-85084-316-5.

No tour:
The only possibility from Maspalomas to the east is the well used road along the coast line. First we tried the promenade directly on the beach which ended in some stairway towards the main road and because of much and fast traffic we went back to the resort.

Tour 1:
52km, 932HmÝ, 3.45h
Altitude profile

Very good tour with for the first day except the part of the canyon.

From Maspalomas we headed directly towards north to Alto de la Gorra and discovered that it is a dry canyon winding up to Degollada Ancha. After a one hour of terrible rough ride and only four but scenic kilometers we gave up and turned round.

Close by the exit Maspalomas of the highway a paved road leads up to Fataga. A long hillclimb with nice view towards Playa del Ingles and only little traffic. Passing by the ancient village Mundo Aborigen a little later you can stock up at the kiosk at a view point. After passing Arteara, a oasis and a camel farm leave the road left-hand side on dirt track with ends at the dam side of Ayagaures. From here race down on paved road back to Maspalomas.

Tour 2:
91km, 1766HmÝ, 5.28h
Altitude profile

It´s a long ride with lots of up and down even after passing Ayacata.

The road at the cost line to Puerto de Mogan is getting crowded after Parchel. Leave the road to Soria where you can find a nice restaurant at the beginning of Soria village right-hand side. The tour is first quite flat but after Cercados de Espino the road winds up in serpentines.

After Soria follow the dirt track on the west side of the reservoir. A few kilometers later you came to a large and earthy place here the road fork off. Take the right upleading road and after two kilometers you should reach the paved road to Ayacata. There you can refill in nice restaurants before you race down the road to Maspalomas.

Tour 3:
78km, 1790HmÝ, 5.07h
Altitude profile

After a long uphill a speedy track leads down on both dirt and blacktop with very nice view.

The well-known way up towards Ayacata passing by San Bartolome up to Paso Herradura. From here turn left to Chira on paved road. At the end of the reservoir is a restaurant left-hand side serving local food for around 11 Euro.

A short distance later the dirt track starts leading first uphill. Keep left at the junction. Once you reached the top its a long ride down on sometimes rough track. It changes to blacktop short before reservoir Mesa de Mazagar. Now its like roller coaster racing down to Maspalomas.

Tour 4:
98km, 1748HmÝ, 5.48h
Altitude profile

A long ride mostly on paved road but with lots of highlights.

Follow the coast line to Puerto de Mogan. Only the part between Parchel and Punto de la Hondura is dense traffic but its very interesting to see how ugly some resorts can be. At the T-junction follow the road to Puerto de Morgan for around 1 km. Right-hand side is a road going up in serpentines. Its blocked by a barrier marked "Privado". Don´t care about. At the top of the plateau is a huge fenced area which seams to be a kind of park. A sign limits the entrance for hiker but the only problem for biker is to lift the bike over the fence.

Its a very scenic ride on good road without any traffic. On the end of the plateau is a fence too. Now the road runs down to Veneguera where it change to dirt track slightly going up towards Las Casas de Veneguera. On blacktop and some light traffic to El Pie de la Cuesta where a nice road is going into the mountains to the Paso de Ojeda. Half way is a kiosk!!! with terrible expensive prices. Shortly before the road changes into dirt.

After the pass we took the road down towards Soria and further down to Parchel at the coast line following the road to Maspalomas.
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