41º on Serenity Climb, the most famous cycling climb on Gran Canaria
When I came first to Gran Canaria in 2005, the section of road that ran from Mogan up to Ayacata, the GC605 was for the most part un-rideable with a road bike.
Although the upper section, the last 6km to Ayacata is one of the very last remaining stretches of road that needs the 41º on SerenityF1 treatment that other roads around the island have gotten.
Back to the bottom of the GC605, this first 9km with a 553m climb over 9km, has 18 hairpins following
the steep contours that average about 8%. The whole thing is called Serenity Climb and it’s Strava tag is Serenity Climb Jct to Jct.
It’s perfect black tarmac flowing up through impressive scenery, through long patches of forests, is a pleasure to ride. The end is never visible, so you’re just preoccupied with the next hairpin and trying to remember your count, was that the 8th or 9th hairpin, you get the idea!
At times the road reveals what you’ve ridden up, so it’s time to get the cameraphone and snap a few, because the panoramic views back down the valley are really really stunning!
However you come at it, for the climb or the descent, it’s about 40km to the start of top or bottom from Playa. But it’s very enjoyable climb or descent and you’ll feel a real sense of achievement having done it.
How it got it's name, well that's something I have to put my hand up for. I think when I first rode it, it had just being resurfaced and the sensation of climbing through the shady trees, was well, serene! Around that time, I was contacted by GCN and asked to nominate some climbs here for their Top 10 climbs in Spain. I just went with Serenity Climb and Soria,wrote some content and added some photos and that was that. It had a different name before, Tauro Pass, but that's past the end jct and on a different road,and over the years, with people asking about Serenity Climb, all the other names disappeared off the marketing. Now you know!
You can visit the Strava link here.
Good Luck!
