Cycling in the UAE
Biking in the UAE couldn't be any more different than India or Kathmandu. Aside from the obvious differences between the desert, the tropics or the mountains it is the the biking facilities that make the UAE amazing.
A 10 minute drive from where I live is the Al Qudra cycle path. A dedicated, butter smooth 85 km bike path shaped like a lollipop with a 18 km stick and a 49 km loop at the top of the stick. At the bottom of the stick there is a car park, showers and change room and at the intersection between the stick and the loop is another large car park, change rooms, first aid facilities, coffee shop and bike store!
The terrain is pretty flat through the desert but the nature of the desert changes from sand dunes to rockier areas. There are shaded rest stations every 10 km for those who get a little weary but at this time of year it is cool enough for long time residents to don cold weather gear.
Early on Friday and Saturday mornings the car park is full and there is a second car park is created by the overflow on the flat sand near the bike shop. Needless to say, it is popular with the local expat community. The people you see on the track range slow recreational riders to committed time triallers on 7,000 dollars of aerodynamic carbon to large cycling clubs imitating a peloton for a major tour. I truck around in my 17 year old mountain bike with some slick road tyres and I do ok!
The day after my first trip around Al Qudra, I decided to try out the one of the local mountain bike areas. Showka is about an hour from Dubai where the sand dunes change into the rocky hills on the UAE Oman border.
Just outside a little township there is a network of single track trails running along the hills and dropping down through Wadis. There is no map that I know of so I just started exploring. Most of the single track was fine on my short travel front suspension hardtail. There were a couple of descents that made me dismount and would have been a real challenge without rear suspension.
A local club had done a lot of work clearing the single track and constructing the occasional wooden bridges. It was scenic, fun and a great way to spend 90 minutes on a bike.
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| They say you should never get the photographers shadow in a photo! |
A 10 minute drive from where I live is the Al Qudra cycle path. A dedicated, butter smooth 85 km bike path shaped like a lollipop with a 18 km stick and a 49 km loop at the top of the stick. At the bottom of the stick there is a car park, showers and change room and at the intersection between the stick and the loop is another large car park, change rooms, first aid facilities, coffee shop and bike store!
The terrain is pretty flat through the desert but the nature of the desert changes from sand dunes to rockier areas. There are shaded rest stations every 10 km for those who get a little weary but at this time of year it is cool enough for long time residents to don cold weather gear.
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| The desert in morning sounds boring but the light makes it spectacular |
Early on Friday and Saturday mornings the car park is full and there is a second car park is created by the overflow on the flat sand near the bike shop. Needless to say, it is popular with the local expat community. The people you see on the track range slow recreational riders to committed time triallers on 7,000 dollars of aerodynamic carbon to large cycling clubs imitating a peloton for a major tour. I truck around in my 17 year old mountain bike with some slick road tyres and I do ok!
The day after my first trip around Al Qudra, I decided to try out the one of the local mountain bike areas. Showka is about an hour from Dubai where the sand dunes change into the rocky hills on the UAE Oman border.
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| Sunrise on the rocky terrain of the foothills at Showka |
Just outside a little township there is a network of single track trails running along the hills and dropping down through Wadis. There is no map that I know of so I just started exploring. Most of the single track was fine on my short travel front suspension hardtail. There were a couple of descents that made me dismount and would have been a real challenge without rear suspension.
 |
| Nice fast flowing single track |
A local club had done a lot of work clearing the single track and constructing the occasional wooden bridges. It was scenic, fun and a great way to spend 90 minutes on a bike.
