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 Summary: Length 27 km Max height 1700 m Min height sea level. Superb single track, great views and a technical downhill section. It may not be the longest ride but it’s a peach that can’t be improved upon!
We begin at the highest point on the outer crater at 1700 m where we start the first 5 kms of the trail on broken tarmac road through cool pine forests, this changes to jeep track and ultimately singletrack and takes us along the ridge top with superb views of the crater and on a clear day down to the sea. The ridge top singletrack is mainly hard packed red mud. Don’t be fooled by the rather smooth looking profile — this section actually contains quite a few cheeky uphill sections.
As we turn away from the ridge we head around a steep sided valley and out onto the flanks of the volcano where we negotiate a rather unique mountain biking surface; powder on rock. Sections of the path give way to powder upto 6” deep which is underlain sometimes by hardpacked red mud and sometimes by loose rock. It is always encountered on the steepest section of the path and until you ride it you don’t know what lies beneath. Not a good section to try out your new SPD’s — take it from me! As the gradient reduces so the surface becomes more forgiving until a couple of km’s from the sea where it turn into tarmac.
The alternative route is more direct and turns to tarmac further up the hill.
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