Open-road riding by the coast, gravel in the hills.
Inland Maldonado folds into low sierras where a gravel race — three editions run so far — sets off from Laguna del Sauce, reaching Pueblo Garzón and Aiguá on rural lanes before dipping into neighbouring Lavalleja: proof the department's riding doesn't end at the beach.
The coast is where the road bikes come out. A documented network of six linked rides covers some hundred kilometres between Piriápolis and Laguna Garzón, on well-kept tarmac with drivers who give you room; around Punta del Este, club groups are a common sight. There are no bike lanes here — it's open-road riding, and the local season has a quirk worth knowing: the department's cycling guide points to March, when the sea is still warm, the days still bright, and the summer crowds have thinned.
The stops carry stories — Piriápolis was built by Francisco Piria, castle in 1897, grand hotel in 1904; lighthouses at Punta del Este (1860), José Ignacio (1877) and out on Isla de Lobos (1858) mark the shoreline; and La Mano, by the Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal, has been rising from Playa Brava's sand since 1982. At the department's eastern edge, the ring-shaped Laguna Garzón bridge — Rafael Viñoly, 2015, with room for bikes — carries you over into Rocha. Pueblo Garzón — the detour that same guide points to first — sits just this side. Three pages carry the rest of it: the full Atlantic ride, the directory, the operators.
