It’s fair to say February is a good month to escape the British winter and head to warmer climes. No better motivation too than when that escape is to spend some time photographing and riding your bike around Gran Canaria’s amazing climbs.

It was my first visit to this island in the Canaries, only having visited Tenerife before when I photographed Mt Teide and Masca. Many consider Gran Canaria the jewel in the crown when it comes to cycling in the Canaries with its numerous climbs and epic landscapes. It was a destination I had wanted to photograph for Mountains: Epic Cycling Climbs but simply ran out of time before going to press.

One notorious route known affectionately as the Valley of the Tears (VOTT for short) is a beast with numerous 25% ramps along its 33km route which cuts up from the coast through a narrow gorge to the central caldera. It’s a real leg breaker for anyone attempting to ride it, which proved true for two exhausted cyclists I encountered halfway up, who were broken by its severity and gladly accepted a lift in the car to the summit.

All mountain regions have a character and personality which makes them distinct from other regions. Gran Canaria is very much in the class, “Out of this World”.  It feels like a pre-historic land that has been thrust up out of the sea and is still waiting to be inhabited. The reddish rocks and mountains are jagged and sparsely inhabited by plants. When the wind blows from the Sahara it creates a weather phenomenon known as Calima which envelops the island in dust and sand, turning the sky and landscape yellow much like scene from Blade Runner 2049. As a photographer, these are the things we get excited about.

Balancing the photography and cycling is always a tricky one. I prefer either to cycle or dedicate the whole day to photography. Certainly, being up before sunrise to capture first light and being on the mountain at sundown makes for a long day but I get as much satisfaction trekking and exploring with a camera as I do cycling up mountains. This trip was the perfect balance, as I came away with some great images for prints and I know this will make another great series of climbs for the next edition of the book.

To purchase prints from Gran Canaria and the Mountains Project, visit the category page here.