Lava from an erupting volcano can flow up to sixty kilometers an hour. That’s faster than the average bike-rider can reach trying to negotiate the rock-hewn, moonscape slopes of an angry mountain.

“Don’t worry,” says Biking Dutchman guide Jorgen, “Cotapaxi hasn’t fully erupted in over one hundred years and monitoring scientists tell us everything is still stable.” 

So I don’t have to worry that during the afternoon’s ride down the world’s highest active volcano - located a few hours’ drive from the Ecuadorian capital of Quito - we won’t be trying to out-run a stream of red-hot molten rock? Or dodging falling stones and acidic ash which once fell as far away as the Pacific coast from this very same volcano?

“Well, no. Mind you last time Cotapaxi erupted, there was no warning at all and scientists had been saying the same thing. So you never know, maybe we could get lucky and have an eruption.”

Lucky? Lucky? I had visions of a future excavation Pompeii-style: geologists unearthing a pack of mountain-bike riders frozen in time, crouched in Tour de France racing position over bike frames, terror on faces, legs mid-pedal…

I took comfort that The Biking Dutchman has been operating bike trips down Cotapaxi, and all over volcano-dotted Ecuador, for more than twelve years with no recorded deaths from temperamental mountains on venting rampages. 

“Apart from a few cows, sheep and a dog that found tyre marks on its back after an unfortunate roadside incident, there have been very few injuries,” says Jorgen alluding to some folklore-ish farmside collisions. 

As the original and best-known bike tour operator in Latin America, The Biking Dutchman has remained a firm favourite with two-wheel travellers touring through Ecuador. On offer are some of the most exotic biking routes in the world; from one day downhill excursions to twelve day adventures that cover nearly every highlight in Ecuador, from snow capped peaks to lush Amazonian jungle. 

“We began in 1991 with six bikes, an old jeep and a great idea for people to see Ecuador from a different perspective,” says Dutch owner and travelling legend, Jan.

The synergy between a well-travelled Dutchman, mountain biking and the exotic country of Ecuador may not at first seem obvious. Jan’s Ecuadorian wife and business partner, Ana, elaborates: “The Dutch are born with a bike under their arm,” she laughs. “Have you ever been to Amsterdam? Bikes are a way of life. Combine that with some of the most dramatic biking scenery in the world and The Biking Dutchman was only a matter of a little leg work.”

The combination worked: The Biking Dutchman now has 100 bikes and runs up to 15 trips a week in high season. Groups number from four up to 100 for charity rides, challenges that conquer the Andes from east to west. Most groups, however, opt for the popular gravity assisted tours: four-wheel drive up, bike down.

Being no Lance Armstrong myself, I opted for two days of roll, brake, roll. 

First up, the wintry climes of Cotapaxi, a peak described by eminent 19th century scholar Alexander von Humbolt as “the most beautiful mountain to ever be seen, one of the eternal monuments with which nature has marked the great divisions of the globe.” 

The drive to our spectacular launching point quickly turned to an ecological education of which Humbolt would have been proud, guide Jorgen exploding with facts on a region early volcanologists dubbed the ‘avenue of volcanoes’. 

“In this part of the Andes, every peak you see is a volcano and the western range is the most active,” he explained “And we’re on a major fault line, one they expect will crack within the next thirty years.” Not before our confidence in a safe ride if this kind of commentary continues, I mused.

Arriving at the 4500m drop-off, the scenery takes your breath away, literally. A hike up to a climbers’ refuge at 4800m makes the head spin and heart pound as the body struggles to cope with thinning oxygen. Below is the day’s trail, snaking back down the volcano’s south western slope, passing through volcanic ash and paramo landscape. In the distance are eight more volcanoes, threateningly beautiful in their centuries-old silence. The insanity of riding down one of these geological monsters was beginning to make sense. 

Jan was right when he told me: “you don’t bike down Cotapaxi, you fly.” It’s a constant fight between concentrating on speeding wheels as they negotiate the rubble track, massaging your brakes careful not to slam down on the front – an action that would have you headfirst over the handlebars – and the urge to just sit back on the saddle and admire the view as you sink into it. It’s an enjoyable battle of the senses.

One hour, twenty kilometres and a one thousand metre drop in altitude later, it’s time to rest the vibrating hands and tenderised behind while hooking into a hearty home-cooked lunch. A few steps from the bike and I realise my legs are still full of energy: I haven’t pedalled but a few strokes. ‘Gravity’s great’ is the general consensus.

From the support vehicle is pulled a mountaineering feast: quiche, fresh tuna salad rolls, yoghurt, chocolate brownies and ginger tea, the last apparently an elixir of sorts to cope with the affects of altitude. 

The remainder of the ride passes gently through paramo and pine forest, dropping another few hundred metres over twenty more kilometres before reaching the Cotapaxi park entrance and an exhilarating day’s end.

Another early morning rise and it’s back in the saddle, this time beginning our ride from 3000 metres, and not a volcano in sight. “Ahhh…well, apart from the one we’re on,” says our second guide - another Dutchman - Mark. Apparently we’re about to take off down the west slope of the ‘still very active’ Volcano Pichincha. 

I pretend not to hear and concentrate instead on the lush farmland and forests rising up dramatic valleys in blankets of placid green patchwork. Described by Jan as the company’s ‘dessert ride’, the trip winds its way down the valley passing through quaint Ecuadorian villages and three distinct climate zones as the vegetation changes from paramo to cloud foreast to low montane jungle forest. As we negotiate the traffic-free dirt road, a soundtrack of parrots, hummingbirds, toucans and caiques rises above a chorus of small waterfalls and giant palm leaves provide shade for the occasional rest. 

While the previous day’s Cotapaxi ride delivered adrenalin to an already thumping heart, this ride, from Nono to Tandayapa, was the sun-drenched relaxant with not a volcanic rumble to be heard or felt. Yes Jan, dessert indeed. And the legs still aren’t complaining. 

Roll on, Biking Dutchman, roll on (but don’t forget to break, the views are superb).