Canary Islands

The Three-Island Shortbike Trail

trail part 3: North Fuerteventura

“Mountain biking in Fuerteventura is a revelation,” says bike magazine Grinta which describes the island as “beautiful, ever-changing and suprisingly untouched by mass tourism."

PICTURE THE JOURNEY

The trail

Fuerteventura lies just 100km from the Moroccan coast, and there are striking similarities with the African landscape: never-ending golden sand dunes bathed by a turquoise sea beside an ochre cliff landscape. In other ways, Fuerteventura emulates its neighbour Lanzarote, only with more colours. Its volcanoes resemble piles of saffron, chilli and coriander, towering over the landscape like surreal triangles of exotic spices.

Fuerteventra’s coastline also offers some off the best watersports in Europe. Kite and windsurfing is big business here. For tourists, mountain biking still feels fairly ‘new’ on Fuerte – although locals have been doing it years. Your day biking in Fuerte will give you a bit of a taste of everything the island has to offer: you will bike along the chain of volcanoes from Corralejo to Lajares and you’ll do some great coastal biking on the west coast around El Cotillo surfer’s beach.

Riding surface

The track surface is changeable: you ride over everything from gravel to dirt track to soft sandy trails, hard rocky trails and a bit of tarmac for good measure. Apart for some rocky sections (mostly canyons taking you to the beach), the trails are not technical. If you like solitude, and don’t mind a bit of wind, it’s a great place to ride.

As the name Fuerteventura loosely translates as “strong winds”, you can’t say you haven’t been warned. It does get very windy at times, but frankly, this is more of a blessing than a curse, keeping you cool even when the sun is at its fiercest.

Average mileage

Fuerteventura is the flattest of all the Canary Islands, but still, you will tackle long-stretched climbs. The stage in the north is 60km with 500 metres of elevation gain. But this Beyond Biking stage is flexible – we can make it as long or as short as you like.

CANARY ISLAND HOPPING?

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© BEYOND BIKING, 2015