Destination Guide
Cycling in Quito & Northern Highlands
Quito cycling: UNESCO World Heritage old town at 2,850m, Sunday Ciclopaseo, equator crossing, TelefériQo to 4,050m, and Papallacta Pass on the descent to the Amazon.
Quito is the world's second-highest capital city at 2,850m — Sucre, Bolivia's constitutional capital, holds the record — and it operates as the cycling hub of Ecuador with an infrastructure that has grown rapidly in the decade since Carapaz's Giro victory changed the country's relationship with the sport. Positioned in a north-south valley between the Pichincha volcano to the west (4,784m) and the eastern Andes ridgeline to the right, the city is bounded on three sides by cycling objectives: the TelefériQo cable car gains to 4,050m on the Pichincha flank for an accessible high-altitude descent, the road north to the equator monument at Mitad del Mundo rolls through Calderón valley at 2,400m, and the eastern road over Papallacta Pass descends toward the Amazon basin in one of the most spectacular day rides in the Americas. The old town — a UNESCO World Heritage site of extraordinary colonial baroque architecture — is car-free on Sundays during the Ciclopaseo and provides a cycling backdrop of a visual quality that no Alpine or Pyrenean city can match.
Last updated: 15 Mar 2026
- Terrain
- Road, Climbing, Gravel
- Difficulty
- Easy — Expert
- Road Quality
- Good
- Cycling Culture
- Developing
- Traffic
- Moderate
Best Time to Cycle in Quito & Northern Highlands
The Quito area is most reliably dry from June through September, with July and August the most consistently clear months for the TelefériQo descent and the Papallacta Pass — both benefit enormously from clear conditions, as their primary appeal is vi...
Temperature: 5°C (winter) to 20°C (summer)
Best Cycling Climbs in Quito & Northern Highlands
Laguna Cuicocha Crater Loop
7.2km · 380m · 5.3% · CAT3
Laguna Cuicocha sits at 3,070m in a volcanic caldera on the southern flank of the extinct Cotacachi volcano — a 3km-diameter crater lake of extraordinary deep blue, the colour produced by the mineral-rich volcanic water and the high-altitude sky reflected in the undisturbed surface. The Category 3 climb access road rises 7.2km from the town of Quiroga at 2,866m to the crater rim at 3,246m, gaining 380m at 5.3% average with a maximum of 10% on the final switchback approach to the rim viewpoint. The road is paved throughout and in good condition; traffic is minimal on weekdays (the site is a popular weekend day trip from Quito and Otavalo but quiet during the week). The crater rim at 3,246m provides a 360-degree view of Cotacachi's caldera with the lake filling the entire crater below — one of the most visually complete volcanic landscape views accessible by bicycle in South America. The Cotacachi volcano (4,944m) rises directly above the crater rim to the northwest, and on clear mornings the summit snowfield is visible above the caldera wall. The Imbabura province surrounding the site is the heartland of Andean textile culture; the indigenous Kichwa communities near Otavalo and Cotacachi are visible from the crater rim road in the form of their distinctive white-walled buildings across the valley.
El Angel Ecological Reserve
16km · 850m · 5.3% · CAT1
El Angel Ecological Reserve in the Carchi province of Ecuador's far northern highlands contains the most extraordinary cycling landscape in the country that most cyclists never ride. The reserve encompasses 16,541 hectares of high-altitude páramo at 3,400–4,768m — the highest protected páramo ecosystem in Ecuador — and the road climbing to the reserve heart from El Angel town at 3,150m covers 16km at 5.3% average, gaining 850m to the deep-páramo plateau at approximately 4,000m. The maximum gradient of 10% is modest by Ecuadorian standards, but the sustained altitude — the entire climb operates between 3,150m and 4,000m — makes this a physically demanding Category 1 ascent. The defining characteristic of El Angel is the frailejón. The giant groundsel plant (Espeletia pycnophylla) grows in concentrations at El Angel that are unmatched in Ecuador — the reserve is home to the densest stands of frailejón in the country, covering the hillsides in silver-green rosettes that can reach 5m in height on mature specimens. Riding through the reserve on a clear morning with mist in the valleys and the frailejón covering every slope to the horizon is an experience without equivalent in South American cycling. The climb from El Angel town begins at 3,150m through the town's agricultural outskirts — small potato farms, quinoa cultivation, and the low-lying buildings of a Carchi highland community at 3,100-3,200m. Above km 4 the road enters the buffer zone of the reserve and the gradient settles at 5-6% through the transition from agricultural land to pre-páramo grassland. The frailejón plants appear in quantity from approximately km 7 at 3,500m, and above km 10 at 3,700m the full reserve landscape is established: the road runs through open páramo with frailejón in every direction, the wind is consistent and cold at 4-8°C, and the silence of the high plateau is absolute. The upper section from km 12 to the 4,000m plateau at km 16 is at 5-7% through the deepest páramo environment on the climb — an extended high-altitude traverse that requires proper pacing at altitude and full winter cycling clothing. The border with Colombia lies only 30km north, and the northern Andes' geology means the landscape bears strong similarities to Colombia's paramos at comparable altitudes. Ecuador's equatorial position means that this altitude is experienced year-round without the seasonal variation that characterises Andean climbing elsewhere.
Mojanda Lakes Road
11km · 650m · 5.9% · CAT2
The Mojanda Lakes Road is the classic cycling ascent from Otavalo — Ecuador's famous indigenous market town in the northern highlands — to the ancient volcanic crater lakes at 3,714m, a 11km Category 2 climb gaining 650m at 5.9% average that delivers one of the most visually spectacular summit environments in the country and connects Quito's cycling visitors to a stretch of road that Richard Carapaz has referenced as a formative training ground during his junior development years. Otavalo at 2,531m is one of the most visited towns in Ecuador, famous internationally for its Saturday artisan market and culturally important as the centre of the Otavaleño indigenous community — a community that has maintained its distinctive dress, language (Kichwa), and commercial traditions into the twenty-first century with remarkable continuity. The cycling ascent to Mojanda begins 3km north of the Otavalo market square, rising from the town's upper residential zone at approximately 3,064m (the climb effectively starts at 2,531m from the plaza, with the first 4km being a more gradual approach through town). The described 11km from 3,064m begins at the paved road junction above the town and climbs at 5-7% through the eucalyptus-forested hillside above Otavalo. Above km 4 at approximately 3,300m the eucalyptus forest gives way to open páramo and the views expand dramatically: the Otavalo valley basin, the Cotacachi volcano (4,944m) to the northwest, the Imbabura volcano (4,630m) directly east, and — on clear mornings — the distant white dome of Cayambe (5,790m) to the southeast. Maximum gradients of 11% occur at km 7-8 on the steepest approach ramp to the crater rim above the main lake. The summit at 3,714m opens onto the Mojanda crater complex: three ancient volcanic lakes — Caricocha (the largest), Huarmicocha, and Yanacocha — sitting in a broad caldera at nearly identical altitudes, surrounded by the grassy rim of the old volcanic cone. The cycling objective and the landscape reward are coextensive here: the summit is not a road junction or a mountain pass but an ancient crater plateau with direct views down to the lakes, making Mojanda one of the most satisfying summit experiences in Ecuadorian cycling.
Papallacta Pass
34km · 1250m · 3.7% · HC
Papallacta Pass at 4,064m is the eastern Andes gateway from Quito to the Amazon basin — a 34km HC ascent from Quito's eastern outskirts at 2,814m through the high-altitude Papallacta valley to the pass summit at 4,064m, followed by one of the most spectacular descents in South American cycling into the Amazonian cloud forest zone. The climb averages 3.7% over its full 34km length — gentle by single-pass standards, but this reflects the rolling terrain of the Papallacta valley through which the E45 highway travels: the upper 12km from the hot springs town of Papallacta (3,300m) to the summit at 4,064m average 6.2% with ramps to 8%, significantly more demanding than the valley approach sections suggest. The road surface throughout is good — the E45 is a major international highway and the primary land connection between Quito and the Amazonian lowlands — but traffic is consistent and includes heavy trucks, buses, and tankers serving the oil infrastructure east of the Andes. Riding on a weekday morning, before the truck traffic builds from 08:00, significantly improves the experience. The summit at 4,064m marks the continental divide between Pacific and Amazonian watersheds; the descent on the eastern side drops into the cloud forest within 3km of the pass, the temperature rising and the vegetation closing in as altitude falls rapidly on the eastern Amazonian slope.
Pasochoa Volcano Road
12km · 720m · 6% · CAT2
Pasochoa is the quiet volcano of the Quito cycling circuit. An extinct shield cone rising to approximately 4,199m in the Metropolitan District of Quito, it sits 30km south of the capital in the inter-Andean valley between the two cordilleras — accessible, spectacular, and largely overlooked by the overseas cyclists who gravitate directly toward Cotopaxi and Chimborazo. The road climb described here ascends the northern flank to the refuge and ecological reserve access zone at approximately 3,750m: 12km from the valley floor at 3,030m, gaining 720m at 6.0% average with maximum gradients of 13% on the steepest hairpin section in the upper third. The lower 4km run through the private hacienda access road corridor at 4-5%, passing cultivated fields at high-altitude agricultural land and the characteristic eucalyptus windbreaks of the Quito basin. Above km 4 the gradient firms to 6-8% as the road enters the páramo buffer zone of the Pasochoa Protected Forest — a 500-hectare remnant of primary Andean cloudforest at 2,800–4,199m that is one of the last intact fragments of its ecosystem type in the Quito metropolitan area. The cloudforest entry at approximately km 5 (3,300m) marks the most visually dramatic transition on the climb: the open hacienda landscape gives way to dense polylepis woodland and the characteristic humid microclimates of the reserve, with the road narrowing under the forest canopy and the gradient settling at 6-7% for the middle section. The maximum 13% gradient arrives at km 8-9 on the steepest hairpin series approaching the reserve entrance zone at 3,600m — a short ramp that at 3,600m altitude requires genuine anaerobic effort for visitors who have not had time to acclimatise to Quito's 2,850m base elevation. Above km 9 the road opens onto the upper páramo approach at 3,600-3,750m: open moorland, frailejón plants, and views north toward Quito and the Pichincha massif. The summit area at 3,750m is the ecological reserve access point. Pasochoa's extinct crater rises a further 450m above this point on foot — the full crater rim at 4,199m is a hiking objective that many Quito visitors combine with the cycling ascent as a two-discipline day, riding to the reserve entrance and then walking the crater trail. The altitude at the cycling summit is real: visitors fresh from sea level will feel the effort clearly, and even those acclimatised to Quito's 2,850m will notice the final 300m of altitude gain on the upper road. Richard Carapaz trained on these roads throughout his junior career before moving to Ineos — the extinct volcanoes of the Quito basin were his first high-altitude cycling environment.
TelefériQo Access Road
8.4km · 680m · 8.1% · CAT1
The TelefériQo Access Road is the hardest short climb available from central Quito and the quickest route to 4,050m elevation in Ecuador — an 8.4km Category 1 ascent from the cable car base station at 3,370m to the Cruz Loma upper station at 4,050m, averaging 8.1% with ramps to 14% on the steepest bends in the middle section. The road winds up the eastern flank of the Pichincha volcano through eucalyptus forest in the lower section and open páramo in the upper approach to Cruz Loma, with expanding views across the Quito valley to the east as altitude increases. At 8.1% average and 680m gain, this is a genuinely hard effort under any conditions; at 3,370m start elevation and a summit at 4,050m, it is a test of altitude adaptation that fairly assesses a rider's acclimatisation status. The cable car operates in parallel with the road, carrying tourists to Cruz Loma from the same base station — the road carries limited vehicle traffic (occasional 4WD access vehicles and the cable car utility vehicles) but is not a public through-road and is best characterised as a semi-private access road with cyclist-friendly low motor-traffic. The grading to 14% on the two steepest bends between kilometres 3 and 5 is the crux of the effort; riders who manage these sections within their aerobic capacity will find the upper páramo section at 7–8% considerably more manageable.
Insider Tips
The Ciclopaseo departs from the north end of the route at Av. Occidental at 08:00 and reaches maximum crowd density around 10:00–11:00 in the historic old town. For the best combin...
The TelefériQo cable car opens at 09:00 on weekdays and 08:00 on weekends; arrive at the base station at opening time to beat the tourist queues that build from 10:30. Bike carriag...
How to Get to Quito & Northern Highlands for Cycling
Getting around: Car Recommended
Central Quito is navigable by bike on the Ciclopaseo route on Sundays; weekday city riding is challenging due to traffic and the urban gradient (Quito is built on steep hillsides). For rides outside t...