By contrast to my rolling around the hills and beaches of Rio for fun at the weekend Monday was an urban day with our annual cycle tour for city officials from members of the ECF’s Cities and Regions for Cyclists Network.

But this is no ordinary urban environment. Our Rio hosts organised a trip that took in areas of urban regeneration in the centre of Rio, then across the bay by a commuter ferry for stunning views of the Rio skyline and a chance to cycle the coastal roads of Niteroi, the smaller city across the water, including an iconic landmark designed by Brazil’s most celebrated architect Oscar Niemeyer.

The gallery below isn’t a report on the event, just a few of my images from the day that capture some of the impressions from our day.

We began in the regenerated port area of Pier Maua, turned into the Olympic Boulevard in 2016, burying a main road in a tunnel to create an urban meeting place.

Along the walls were amazing murals of indigenous faces and other graffit style images and the boulevard ends at the impressive Museum of the Future.

Across on the ferry to Nitteroi, theoretically to test the cycling capacity that carrys over 2000 cyclists per day on their daily trips, but in reality getting some stunning views of he city skyline and the Niteroi Bridge.

On the Niteroi side we heard about some of their ambitions for cycling, but as a tourist as well as a cyclist the icing on the cake was to visit the MAC, Museum of Contemorary Arts which was designed by Brazil’s most famous architect Oscar Neimeyer and opened on a headland overlooking the sea in 1996.

It has a certain quality of the Starship Enterprise in my view – and a stunning setting.

Rio is certainly delivering something amazing every day.