Cycling the Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Mixed terrain with endless climbing, sweeping descends & epic switchbacks in heat, altitude & dryness. 5 great days on the bike! Have you ridden in Morocco?! I hope I inspire you to do so!
The last post covered my exploration of Marrakesh, on the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. After a few days of walking all over town, it was time to start the main event of the trip - 5 days of riding around the Atlas Mountain!
Read all about my time in Marrakesh here ⬇️
Okay, onto bikes!
I booked the trip last minute and was super excited to both visit Morroco and ride my bike there, even though I had no idea what to expect… I knew there will be heat, altitude and dryness, plus some road and gravel and hills, but I wasn’t sure about the terrain itself. I think what surprised me the most, in a good way, was the amount of switchbacks! As someone with a very short attention span, I love switchbacks because they keep me entertained and focused.
The trip was organized by Eat, Sleep, Cycle - A Girona based company whose co-owner I met while visiting Girona in the fall of 2018, with local guides MTB Morocco, who were absolutely fantastic and gracious hosts. The trip was supported, point to point and at a self selected pace with some regrouping breaks for lots of mint tea / snacks and lunch. The ability levels varied, and a few people had e-bikes, which evened things out.
I should have taken more photos, that’s for sure! Here are a few of my favorites: Click on each photo to see it in full…
I shared words, maps, Strava links and a heck of a lot more photos from each day on my website. Click below to check it all out.
Thanks for being here! Next week, we will move to another country and another topic… I am thinking it’s finally time to start editing my photos from Japan… And because I want to post something in the ‘food & coffee’ category, this might be good timing to share my impressions of the coffee culture in Kyoto, Japan!
You might have seen my other publication, Endurance Collective, which is all about my work, sharing my thoughts about endurance sports, cycling, coaching, women in cycling, bike fitting & sports nutrition. Noa is my new publication, and as you can imagine based on the name, it is my personal newsletter where I share my travels, photography, food + coffee finds and cycling adventures. There is a fair bit of crossover with my work, but I wanted to keep things somewhat separate. I appreciate you being here, reading this and checkout out the full articles on my website. I would really appreciate it if you could share this publication with friends who love travel, bikes, (celiac friendly) food and coffee!