The Anillo Verde ring, the vega's rail-trails and the climbs the pros train on
Madrid cycling splits into three honest products: the Anillo Verde Ciclista, a 64-km signed green ring around the whole city; the vías verdes, disused railways surfaced for bikes through the Tajuña vega and the southeast; and the sierra road climbs — Navacerrada, Morcuera, Cotos — where half the professional peloton trains in spring. All three are covered in the stage-by-stage routes section; this hub is the planning layer.
Rental is easy (city fleets plus road-bike shops around Chamberí and the sierra towns), bikes travel free on Cercanías off-peak, and the region's drivers give famously wide berth on the classic climbs.
Madrid's signed green belt — parks, forest and river path stitched into a full circumnavigation. Ride it in halves; Casa de Campo is the scenic west quarter.
The old sugar-beet railway from Arganda through the Tajuña valley — tarmac-smooth, family-flat, and pointing at Chinchón for lunch.
Follow the Manzanares south out of the city and pick up farm roads down the vega to the royal gardens — train back on the C-3 with the bike.
The region's Alpe d'Huez — steady gradients through pines to 1,858 m. Descend to Cercedilla or over to the Lozoya valley.
The M-505 climb every Madrid club rides on Sunday, looping the monastery, La Herrería and the Abantos slopes.
Bikes ride Cercanías free outside rush hours; the C-9 mountain line takes them to 1,800 m. City e-bike share covers the centre; proper road rentals cluster in Chamberí and the sierra towns.