Generic Touring Thread

Orgiva is lovely. Only stopped a night whilst on tour but would definitely love to spend a winter cycling round the alpujurras or down to the coast.

I know orgiva quite well, riding around there is fantastic. I’m going to be in the area from 15dec all being well, hopefully all the way through til Jan, with road and mtb. get in touch I could show you around. if it was me i wouldn’t stay in orgiva, i’d stay further to the coast in salobrena or motril. the valley rideinto the mountains from these places is totally stunning and in fact you have a few more options direction wise plus you gain the option to see the sea, be a bit warmer on days off, avoid quite so many aging hippies, which orgiva has a lot of. not that i’m saying orgivanis a bad option at all though. it is nicely situated at the top of the lecrin valley and bottom of the valley from which the alpujarras mountains rise to the east.
I don’t know what the other option is like but i just absolutely love this area and can’t fault it really. it’s not just me, i always see pro teams in the area, last year i saw movistar, some trek women’s pro team, and rodriguez on his own (he’s from the area). i also saw the canadian national squad a year before, loads.

2 Attachments

Thank you so much.
Spain is edging ahead as I think it’s also a better option for my partner work wise.
I’ll PM you as I’d definitely be up for a ride.

Just back from a little tour in Turkey.

We set out with a plan to ride 5 days from Istanbul, Riding South-East around Sea of Marmara, to catch a boat from Bandirma. Sadly, I got pretty sick on day 1 of riding and had to spend 24 hours in a shabby hotel in the middle of nowhere, which threw off the schedule. 3 days of riding and 150km later we made it back to Istanbul.

5 Attachments

Looks nice. What temps were you getting? I see shorts but also snow :)

I think the snow had fallen a few days before. Was pretty mild when we were riding through that part. Maybe 10-15

I just got back last weekend from a few days riding around the Alpujurras, was based in Cadiar (on an organised cycle tour by Vamos Cycling - think someone here on LFGSS recommended them and now I would recommend them). I agree with @tmevans riding around the area is fantastic, road surface great, scenery amazing and one 80km ride saw all of about 15 cars.

Thanks.
Any recommendations in the area? Food, drinks, climbs etc?

Besides the Haza del Lino I dont think we did many really named climbs as such. It was great though, views to the Mediterranean one side and to snow capped mountains on the other side. At the top there was a nice restaurant/cafe in a good spot just before it heads back downhill.

Sorry to say I didnt eat out much at all and no drinks, I dont think you can go wrong for routes around there as just even riding in the valleys or on roads through the little villages on the hills was nice. That site looks like it has a few nice routes around Orgiva

sierra nevada cc are serious. I can probably cover most of what they do. from orgiva i’d probably take you off to trevelez via bubion and then back on the other side of the valley until the bridge back into orgiva. with more time or an mtb we could do some awesome other stuff

So, job redundancy means I've got some long service leave to use plus a need to get out and do a decent amount of riding. I'm looking for recommendations for mid winter locations for a week or so riding. Sun, warmth, scenery and nice roads. All I can think of is Canary islands but would be great to be steered to any other places I should be thinking about?

I'm not a massive fan of flying for a variety of reasons but I guess over the course of a life there are times when a flight is OK. So, I could look at pretty much anywhere, as I feel like I'm in one of those life moments.

Canaries (Gran Gaunche have routes) or Malaga (ESC have a rental place there. Dunno what the floods have done though) or Morocco (you could get a ferry there or ride it like Marin https://www.albioncycling.com/log/road-to-marrakech)