Cycling towards Mount Catedral

This adventure may be enjoyed by hiring the services of any of the agencies renting bikes or organizing group outings. Whatever the agency, in all cases, cyclists must be provided with safety helmets and be accompanied by a specialized guide who will be in charge of providing advice and information all along the circuit so that everything goes on well and we just need to worry about having a good time.

Our group left the Bariloche city center along V.A. O’Connor Street towards the south and then turned into Bustillo Avenue. 9.5 kilometers of winding slopes around the Nahuel Huapi stood ahead of us.

The advantage of riding a bicycle is that it lets us stop almost anywhere at any time in order to admire the incredible views on the way. It is always recommended that each person should search for their own pedaling rhythm so as not to get tired and to enjoy the tour, which is quite long.

Once we started to climb, the guide did not take long to give us some recommendations. He taught us the best way to take advantage of the different gears so as to save effort.

One of the secrets is to combine the small sprocket wheel with the small ring and the large sprocket wheel with the large ring. This is highly recommended in order to avoid any interruption in the transmission. Another recommendation is to drink enough water in small amounts every ten or fifteen minutes.

We entered the area known as Playa Bonita (Pretty Beach), which features a view of the particular pebble shore and sportsmen practicing kayaking, windsurfing and SCUBA diving.

One and a half kilometers ahead, we turned left into the road leading to Mount Catedral. Cyclists must get ready both mentally and physically, as they must cover 6 kilometers uphill. It is essential to start using the mountain bike gears properly.

Before we could even think about it, we were already at the base of Mount Catedral and we all felt huge satisfaction for having accomplished our mission. By then, we had covered 18 kilometers.

After some celebration and a well-deserved rest, the guide gave out some energizing cereal bars and, once we had a look at the facilities, we started our way back.

We pedaled from the parking lot at Catedral to downtown Bariloche, but one kilometer after we set out, we took a detour along a mountain trail and got deep into the forest downhill.

‘You should lean backwards and lower your bottom as far as possible so that the gravity center is lowered. Besides, you should stand on the pedals, always with both feet at the same height’, said the guide once and again and we all obeyed.

We resumed our march amidst beautiful sceneries and panoramic views and we soon reached the shore of Lake Gutiérrez. Once there, we had a short break and then continued our tour towards Virgen de las Nieves, a place where rock climbing and rapelling are practiced.

Some meters ahead, we crossed a small wooden bridge and then we got on the road again, and headed downhill for the center of Bariloche, following Mitre Street.

At this point, we took the last well-deserved rest after having covered 45 kilometers in three and a half hours, according to the computer on our bicycles. We had reached an average speed of 15 km/h with peaks of 55 km/h maximum speed downhill.

And then the moment came to stretch out our muscles so as not to suffer the consequences the following day.