Buenos Aires - THE RR Round

Road biking in Buenos Aires is a difficult undertaking. The city is beautifull but huge. It is impossible to escape the traffic as someone easily has to drive for at least 50 km in any direction from the center to "get out". This course is one of few Buenos Aires' bike courses. It features a ca. 5km long loop around a park with relativly few car traffic. Still it has several traffic lights and crossings.

The good news is that this is THE road biking hot spot! You will never be alone. At almost any time during the week (I heard the round should not be done alone long after dark) you can find some bikers at least with up to several hundreds pedaling in big pelotons on saturday and especially sunday morning (10:00 AM to lunch ist THE busyiest time!). If you want to have a taste of "tour de France" be sure to not miss that! As argentines are often competitive folks you usually will find people willing "to go pain".

Myself I did up to 100km on the course. My advice would be to carry and use an MP3 player especially at weekdays to better handle the many rounds you will do.

So in a nutshell: This round is not a cycling paradies, but rather the the-best-there-is in Buenos Aires. You can meet riders of all levels and get a feel of what I call the "NY-bike-courier-style". It is still fun though and I enjoy coming back each year.

If you manage to ride there extend my greetings to the argentinos. Ask them for "el locco alleman".