Abu Dhabi (CNN) — Biking holidays often conjure up photos of pedaling throughout the French countryside, a baguette lashed to the handlebars, or maybe a breezy journey alongside the flat and pleasant bike paths that weave their manner by means of cities like Copenhagen or Amsterdam.
They do not often contain the Arabian desert, the place summer time temperatures and intense noon sunshine could make it scorching sufficient to blow up bike tires.
However that would quickly be altering.
A two-wheeled revolution is starting to collect tempo in Abu Dhabi, with enormous funding propelling each residents and guests into the saddle for biking experiences which can be like nowhere else on Earth.
Final 12 months it was designated by sport biking’s governing physique, Union Cycliste Internationale, or UCI, as an official “Bike Metropolis” — the primary within the Center East and Asia to earn the accolade. These searing temperatures imply it may actually be the world’s hottest biking metropolis.
At first look, Abu Dhabi’s biking credentials aren’t instantly apparent. Constructed utilizing oil wealth, the UAE’s capital metropolis and surrounding terrain are the area of the auto. Gasoline costs are low-cost, roads are extensive, velocity limits — exterior of city areas — are very quick.
Look nearer and it is a completely different story. The previous few years have seen miles of devoted bike paths spring up beside new highways because the emirate has steadily established itself because the UAE’s gateway to biking, introducing worldwide races and nurturing homegrown expertise.
Alongside the way in which it is cooked up some exhilarating biking experiences that, when added to Abu Dhabi’s intensive roster of different sights, could possibly be a significant draw for each biking fanatics and anybody trying to attempt one thing very completely different.
Unsociable hours
Ricky Bautista, far proper, and a workforce from Dubai’s Past the Bike cycle store on the Al Hudayriyat cycle observe.
Barry Neild/CNN
Participating can contain some unsociable hours although. In winter, milder climates are excellent for daylong using, however from Could to September, with temperatures generally peaking round 48 C (118 F), the perfect time for using is earlier than solar up or after sunset.
Which is why mates Andy Coleman and Dan Baltrusaitis will be discovered shortly after 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning pulling on their biking footwear in a parking zone on Al Hudayriyat, an island south of town that is residence to seaside resorts and an exquisite purpose-built cycle observe.
“Why I do it, I do not know,” laughs Coleman because the pair wheel off onto the sleek asphalt to begin their session.
Regardless of the early hour, they are not alone. Dozens of different cyclists are flying across the community of circuits, which vary from three to 10 kilometers and embrace an exhilarating over-water observe. It is principally flat, however ferocious onshore headwinds can add to the problem.
“It is a fantastic expertise,” says Ricky Bautista, one among a gang of uniformed riders who’ve been blasting out laps because the first glimmer of daylight. Bautista’s workforce all work at a cycle store in Dubai and have ventured over the border to check out the free services at Al Hudayriyat.
“I am a newbie, however all of my coworkers are cyclists and so they advised me, ‘attempt it and you will have enjoyable’,” he says. “It is actually difficult right now due to the wind, however you then change path and you’re feeling such as you’re flying and it is extra pleasing.”
Quite a few different golf equipment are additionally out chasing one another’s wheels on the circuit. Women and men of all ages will be seen blurring previous the distant skyscraper skyline of town’s monetary zone. Some arrive by automobile and a few journey from residence. There’s additionally a motorbike bus.
Wholesome life-style
The Abu Dhabi Biking Membership coordinates bike-related exercise in Abu Dhabi.
Barry Neild/CNN
Established in 2017, the ADCC says about 1.7 billion dirhams ($460 million) has been poured into biking with 445 kilometers (277 miles) of cycle observe beneath development. On the way in which are a brand new indoor velodrome and a motorbike path that can hyperlink up Abu Dhabi with Dubai.
The purpose is to get as many locals as attainable to take up biking as a part of a wholesome life-style, but in addition to lure guests. “One of many fundamental targets is to have extra vacationers come and have a motorbike trip in Abu Dhabi,” ADCC Govt Director Al Nukhaira Allkhyeli tells CNN.
A eager bike owner himself, Allkhyeli can typically be discovered coaching round one of many largest highlights of the Abu Dhabi biking scene — the Yas Marina Circuit. The racetrack loop that hosts System One occasions is recurrently opened as much as the general public for night or morning biking.
Even for non-F1 followers, tackling the Marina circuit is a thrill, with gigantic grandstands looming up on both aspect of the seven-kilometer loop, plus the occasional superyacht moored with a view of the observe. The roar of the absent crowds can nonetheless be felt echoing over the venue.
First-time riders will probably be torn between the necessity for velocity or selfies as they swerve across the blacktop (avoiding unintentional turns into the pit lane).
Surreal and satisfying
The Al Hudayriyat observe consists of an overwater part.
Departure of Tradition and Tourism – Abu Dhabi
There are extra sedate — and certainly extra excessive — biking experiences available in Abu Dhabi.
Hardcore cyclists will wish to head to Jebel Hafit, Abu Dhabi’s solely actual mountain, the place a brutal switchback highway to nowhere provides superb views over the emirate and the possibility to show legs into jelly.
One other spotlight within the desert is the Al Wathba cycle observe, a easy, purpose-built cycleway in the course of nowhere that maybe provides some of the surreal and satisfying bike adventures in Abu Dhabi.
Biking the Yas Marina F1 circuit is a thrill.
Barry Neild/CNN
About an hour drive from downtown, the doorway to the observe sits in slightly huddle of buildings that embrace a bathe and bathroom block, a small grocery store and a motorbike store that rents out drained however serviceable carbon racing bikes by the hour.
It is a common daytime race venue in cooler months however in summer time, the observe comes alive because the solar sinks into the horizon. Photo voltaic-powered avenue lamps dimly illuminate loops of as much as 30 kilometers which stretch away into the desert evening.
Driving it solo is an thrilling if barely unnerving expertise. It is quiet on the market among the many dunes and, regardless of small swimming pools of electrical mild, very darkish.
There’s nothing to cease you blasting at most velocity besides the occasional drift of sentimental sand throughout the observe. Right here and there a blown bulb creates a mini-blackout that riders might want to maintain their nerve to journey by means of with out slamming on the brakes.
All-year using
The UCI has awarded Abu Dhabi Bike Metropolis standing.
Barry Neild/CNN
Biking headlong into the inky unknown of a scorching desert evening may seem to be an excellent metaphor for Abu Dhabi’s big-spending pursuit of a sport seemingly at odds with its local weather.
However says Isabella Burczak, UCI’s advocacy and improvement supervisor, the emirate is on a clearly lit path to success having demonstrated a dedication and powerful political will behind its imaginative and prescient to encourage and develop biking for leisure, transport and sport.
Its Bike Metropolis standing, she says, ought to assist encourage it to maintain reaching these targets in addition to sharing information and expertise with a community of 20 different Bike Cities from Bergen in Norway to Wollongong in Australia.
And — if cyclists adapt by using early or late, and provisions are made like employers offering showers for sweaty commuters — that warmth will not damage it a bit.
“In all circumstances, scorching climate, chilly climate, I feel options will be discovered to make sure that folks can nonetheless make the most of biking for no matter cause,” she tells CNN.
And may it actually rival the basic biking locations like France, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands?
Because of that relentless desert sunshine, it already does, says Aditya Bhiwandkar, a biking fanatic and gross sales assistant at Wolfi’s.
“In Europe you may have snow and rain,” he says. “However in Abu Dhabi you actually can journey 12 months a 12 months.”