BIKES

Fitness Climbing Mount Teide
Determined to take a break
at the 16km mark, Becs is urged
on by those holding the schedule
practically screamed at Daniel that we were
nearly there. It was another solid 4km of
climbing, but the end was in sight. It occurred
to me that I hadn’t uttered a word in a very
long time, only enough to express excitement
that we’d passed through the clouds and were
higher than I’d ever been before.
Passing through a layer of clouds was the
most surreal experience, and emerging above
them felt as if we’d entered another world. A
quiet, remote and idyllic place we’d earned
exclusive entry to through sheer hard work.
For most of the climb, any time Daniel —
who’s a lot fitter than me — asked any
questions, he received short grunts from me in
reply. At one point he even sang a Beyonce
song to me to break the silence. Now that’s
team support.
Up and up we went, passing a beautiful
section of rock that was bright with a
spectrum of red and orange hues. I think I
was in a state of delirium by this point
because there were two tourists who had
hopped out of their car to take a photo at this
vantage point and I just stared at them
through bleary eyes. Not much was going
through my mind until this point apart from
‘pedal, pedal, pedal, wiggle hot toes, wipe
WHAT THE PRO
SAYS…
Hannah Barnes, a professional rider for
UnitedHealthcare serves up her top
climbing tips:
J When people get to the bottom of a climb
they tend to get a little carried away and go full
gas at the bottom. Instead, pace your effort
from the start, especially if it’s a long way up.
J It always pays to go up at your own pace.
You may catch people up later!
J I tend to push a big gear, which isn’t the best
for everybody. Keeping a higher cadence saves
energy so is better.
J If a climb has hairpins people tend to go the
shortest way round, but this will also be the
steepest part of the road, so you have to get
out the saddle and it can upset your rhythm.
It’s actually better to go the long way round
where it’s flatter.
sweat, pedal.’ I wondered if they realised we’d
cycled all the way up. It seemed like a mad
prospect, even as I did it, four hours riding a
bike up a hill, FOUR hours! I kept thinking
how long I’d been climbing for and how these
people had simply jumped out of their car and
probably thought we were insane.
When I saw the top I couldn’t believe it.
We were at the highest point you can climb to
by bike and the view was breathtaking. We
saw Marcos standing at the van and it was a
sight for sore eyes, I was elated to know I’d
climbed the distance of Mount Teide, I
couldn’t believe I’d done it, what a slog.
But it wasn’t over; there was a significant
amount of up and down before the descent
proper, including a six-kilometre ascent of yet
more 10 per cent gradient sections.
The descent
What goes up must come down, and after at
least five hours of climbing, we had the same
distance to drop down on the other side of the
mountain. Similarly to when I was scaling the
distance up, I knew we’d be on a downward
slope for quite some time. I popped on my
wind jacket and rolled off with a grin of
anticipation on my face.
Too hard for words: talking’s
tough but it’s good not to have
to suffer alone
This isn’t something you experience every
day and I can’t recommend it enough. There
were no extremely tight hairpins, and no
nasty surprises, just miles upon miles of
flowing road ahead. Down and down we
went, swooping round each bend and
enjoying every second of our reward. It
was such a relief not to be going up that my
confidence grew and grew, cutting (safely) the
apex of the bend and picking a smooth line to
maintain speed.
It really was down all the way home to the
door of the hotel, and that was a huge
motivating factor.
We certainly slept well that night and I
appreciated the unlimited hotel buffet as I
hobbled round the restaurant.
Oh, and by the way, we got up and did it all
again the next day.
Reflection
Would I do it again? In hindsight, undoubtedly
yes. When I was halfway up the climb, I would
have said I’d never do anything that hard
again. But upon reflection it’s an incredible
way to discover how far you can go with a bit
of encouragement.
102 CYCLING ACTIVE SEPTEMBER 2014