Gran Canaria, where to stay and where to ride?

Actually the chap is now being quite friendly and is removing my jaunty spacer hat and fitting a longer stem

Which is taking forever to fit

Oh, so not trouble as in 'lying on the side of the road trying to stretch out fucked glutes' trouble?

No, cross German mechanic trouble.

Did you mention the war?

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It's really very beautiful here, which is making up for the Mrs dropping me like a stone on every climb.

Image upload is proving to be extremely difficult, hence the posts with full-stops in them.

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Short one today.

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Looks like you've got a particularly cloudy couple of days, nice empty roads as well

Just at the end of a week in Gran Canaria. Having done similar things in the south of Spain, the Alps, and Mallorca, I would say that GC is really up there in terms of places to ride - both on-road and off. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to do we stayed towards the centre of the island (in the dubiously named but actually lovely town of Teror). The big upside to this was a less package-holiday feel to the place, particularly at this time of year, although Spanish opening hours during the off-season can leave one guessing somewhat. It did however mean that pretty much every ride started with a significant climb or descent.

In terms of the riding we managed to climb Pico De Las Nieves from each of the three major routes up. My personal favourite was the quieter Eastern ascent from Ingenio, but others found this a bit attritional particularly the lower, steeper slopes. Valley of the Tears was another eye-opener. We climbed it in heavy cloud and only saw what we were missing out on view-wise when we descended the GC210 to the Pressa Del Parralillo lake. A screamingly good descent and with a road surface you could eat your dinner off. On that note it's worth mentioning that road surfaces are very hit and miss on the island - some perfect, some abismal. I was riding 28mm tyres and would recommend this, along with a compact groupset, to anyone considering a visit. That said, we managed 30 hours of riding (x6 people) without a single puncture, mechanical, or crash. Something that would be less likely in the UK, I think.

The weather was quite changeable - we came through two cloud inversions, with the associated wetness - but consistently warm through the week. Around 20deg average most days but getting up to just below 30 at peak temps. Definitely worth bringing both suncream and gilet/arm warmers, particularly if lingering at the summits. We had no issues with the wind, but the day we landed the island was on high wind alert which made the landing quite interesting. IMO, perfect place to ride especially if you like climbing; from what I have seen there is no such thing as a flat ride in Gran Canaria.

Some pics or it didn't happen

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Looks pretty amazing compared to London right now.

Is one of those Soria? And that coast road is a must avoid!

Nope, from top to bottom you've got: GC-210 heading west to the Pressa del Parrallilo damn (x2), Serenity climb, view from the GC-600 heading up to Pico de las Nieves, and the coastal road around Agaete somewhere.

To be honest I think the coastal road is fine. Even the tunnel itself is wide (2 lanes with a decent hard shoulder) and the cars are all courteous. It's not super busy, but neither is it as quiet as the coast road up the Tramantura in Mallorca. I do think the views are pretty spectacular though

I must have had a bad week, too many motorbikes buzzing past on the coast road.