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.

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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.

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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)

We are riding a gravel bike friendly version of the Cape Loop of the Baja Divide right now - my rerouting has worked a treat so far. Crossing the Sierra La Laguna was amazing and the beach camp spots have been very restful. Recommended.

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Looks amazing. Is that a Da Brim in photo #3?

Funny, we were talking about the Baja Divide last night. I didn't know there was a gravel version of the route.

How have you been finding Mexico in general? Half the country seems to be covered in "do not travel" advisories which is a bit of an issue if you're trying to explore and be covered by travel insurance.

@RonnieOatmilk Yes! I love the Dabrim - really takes the edge off the heat. I used it everyday on the main Baja Divide. It doesn’t fit my Kask Caipi MTB helmet - only my partner’s Kask Rapido which is a source of struggle between us now she is back on route (she didn’t fancy the main Baja Divide route and flew from LA to Cabo).

@hippy The Baja Divide Cape Loop ‘gravel friendly’ version is just something I’ve cobbled together from the actual route and the RWGPS global heatmap/advice from locals. Been mostly off tarmac and almost all rideable for my partner on 2.1 650b mezcals.

Safety wise - Baja seems safer than the US to me. Haven’t felt in danger at all at any point.

We were initially planning to take the ferry and ride the Trans Mexico route from Mazatlán. We have scrapped that as Sinoloa is apparently a full blown war zone right now. Flying to Guadalajara then riding the route to Oaxaca from there. We have been told not to go certain places and warned against the trip as a whole by a number of concerned Baja locals. I have faith that it will be fine - Emily thankfully speaks good Spanish which is a bonus. I’ll keep this thread updated as best I can.

Without trying to minimise the situation in Mexico - all Mexicans will warn against going to the next village/town/city/state. Given the history it’s not surprising people are cautious but also you need to read between the lines a bit.

Enjoy the mainland, it’s amazing. If you don’t fancy the Trans Mex route between CDMX and Oaxaca (which is hilly af) a friend from CDMX gave us an alternative route. PM me and I can share the .gpx

Thanks for the reply and advice (we have had many a Chilaquiles breakfast!) and I agree with your sentiment about the next town etc. it’s a similar mindset to people in Seattle warning against Oregon drivers and the Oregon drivers warning against the California drivers etc. I think we’ll be fine.

Just re: my last response, I've just checked and our version of the Cape Loop is roughly 50/50 tarmac/off road. Happy to share a gpx if anyone is interested. Also, to qualify, I have been slightly fearful of some dogs/bulls but people have been great.

@moog PM incoming. Thanks for the offer of the amended route!

lol, we didn’t even realise about travel advisories and insurance validity until someone told us just before we left Mexico. I’m glad we were ignorant…

I'm the same - I've rarely looked unless there's a specific thing that's happened (like the airport bombing before TCR or SARS when I was in Singapore) but it was just because someone recently was telling us about their friend or something that had gone back and kidnappings of tourists or some shit and it's my partner's birthday and we've always wanted to go... but I also don't fancy dealing with gang violence and shit like that but on the flip side, resorts can get to fuck too.

I was speaking to Alan, one of the racers at AMR couple of years ago. He was living in Mexico City and basically said it was fine if you keep your wits about you. Same as any big city. So, as with most things it depends who you talk to and what they know.

We hung out with Alan in Mexico City, he had a good perspective on safety and risk.

In general tourists aren’t a target in rural Mexico but unfortunately if things go bad they can get very bad. When we were there the risk felt very very low and we had no issues.

Yeah, I guess being on bikes probably helps too, because everyone assumes you're poor or something.

My view is that you're probably still more likely to be killed by some cunt in a Range Rover a few kay from your house than involved in some cartel ransom plot.

Might be too late now but if you're able to go on the Copper Canyon railway after you take the ferry to the mainland I would highly advise it. I went (~20 years ago) and it was incredible.

Wow that looks incredible!