Few cities give you a finish line like this one. You roll into central Cape Town with Table Mountain standing over the whole bowl of the city, flat-topped and close enough to feel personal, Devil's Peak on one side and Lion's Head and Signal Hill on the other. The point on the map sits in the old centre near the Company's Garden, the patch of land the Dutch East India Company planted in the seventeenth century to supply its ships with vegetables on the way to the East.
The rides that end here, over Bainskloof and Du Toitskloof or up the West Coast to see the spring flowers, are long days, and the approach back into town is usually the N1 or N7, busy and fast. Bainskloof Pass deserves a word: it was built by Andrew Geddes Bain in the 1850s and still runs on his stone walls, a narrow, slow, beautiful road above a river gorge where you should expect gravel on the inside of bends and baboons on the parapet. Du Toitskloof is the wide modern alternative over the same mountains, with a long tunnel option for when the weather turns.
Weather is the local obsession, and for good reason. In summer the south-easter, known as the Cape Doctor, can blow with startling force, especially around the mountain and on the False Bay side, and a laden bike on an exposed stretch will feel it. When the wind is up, the tablecloth of cloud pours over the top of Table Mountain. Winter brings rain from the north-west. The best riding months for most people are spring and autumn, roughly from September to November and from March to May.
If you have a little left in you, the short climb up Kloof Nek and along Signal Hill gives the classic view over the city and harbour at sunset. Fuel in South Africa is attendant-served, and a small tip is customary. Use attended or secure parking for the bike overnight and do not leave gear on it; that is simply standard city sense here. Then go and eat: the city is full of good food, from Cape Malay curries in the Bo-Kaap to seafood by the harbour.