When people think about cycling in Spain, the destination that usually comes to mind is the Pyrenees.  So when a group of us talked about arranging an offroad cycling holiday in Spain in May, no-one quite knew where the Picos de Europa were, or what to expect when we got there. The tour company bumph said it all: “Blessed with all the ingredients for a truly memorable mountain biking holiday, and surrounded by a panorama of majestic, snow-capped peaks, the Picos de Europa remains Europe’s best kept secret”. Lovely, evocative words on paper, but what would it really be like?

This superb desert biking adventure focuses on the deep south of Morocco, a land of big skies and stark mountain ranges where mud-brick kasbahs appear to rise up out of the desert, sitting in tranquil palm oases and framed by dramatic backdrops of snowcapped mountains. We ride along Morocco’s dirt roads, taking us from Marrakech to the Tichka Pass, the highest in the High Atlas, and then southward, descending along the Draa Valley to the fringes of the Sahara Desert.