Al Qudra and Nad Al Sheba Cycle Tracks in Dubai

With the bike all set up in my hotel room at the Hilton Al Habtoor City, I was ready for some rides on the margins of my participation in the World Government Summit in Dubai from 8-13 February 2019.

Over the last fifteen years, Dubai’s cycling infrastructure has grown steadily, from nothing when I first started riding here back in 2006, to some decent bike paths and some extraordinary dedicated bicycle tracks. On my first day of riding, I grabbed a taxi, put my bike in the back seat and went out to the Al Qudra bicycle track, about a half an hour outside of Dubai.

Got started at dawn and, surprisingly, it was pretty chilly. I’ve ridden many times in the mornings in the UAE, but the temperature had never gotten down to 15-16C, like this morning. They say that you are perfectly dressed if you are riding cold for the first twenty minutes. Well, I ended up being just right as the sun cleared the dunes.

[embedded widget removed: ./Messages from the Pale Blue Dot_ March 2019_files/e2d7df404d3cf7c205e901a39998f7ebe22ffa70.html]

I’d planned on doing about 80 km and somehow made the right choices at a couple of splits in the track as it crossed the desert. I’d certainly recommend taking along a hard copy map to avoid doing extra distance. But, I made it back to the parking lot where I had started and called a Careem car service, and was back at the hotel in no time.

The photo above pretty much captures the Al Qudra track… a good two-lane dedicated bike track with excellent surface out in the desert with minimal services. But, if you just want to ride your bike and you are in Dubai, this is the place to go. No hills.. just fast, flat track.

Over the days I got in three additional rides, all leaving from the Hilton Hotel and riding a short distance to the Nad Al Sheba (NAS) track, in the middle of Dubai in a rapidly developing area (lots of building cranes.) The city had recently finished the local bike path that connects the Dubai Creek and Business Bay areas of Dubai to the NAS, including a very cool bicycle bridge across a major highway.

This is a pretty representative shot of the NAS track, with cranes on the horizon, lots of greenery and flowers and about an 8 km loop with excellent pavement.

[embedded widget removed: ./Messages from the Pale Blue Dot_ March 2019_files/7cc9ae9f0f4a23c28c2a811f78ff31e3627c126a.html]

[embedded widget removed: ./Messages from the Pale Blue Dot_ March 2019_files/f9332628fda02abd1c38f3f03112cf156bf90877.html]

[embedded widget removed: ./Messages from the Pale Blue Dot_ March 2019_files/bf1684ff534cc44755e4c4024a8ebd45db3f0b5f.html]

[embedded widget removed: ./Messages from the Pale Blue Dot_ March 2019_files/JvA_qGIOTgg.html]