BIKES

WHAT WE DID…
Volcano Tour
J Duration: Eight days/ seven nights
(six routes)
J Accommodation: Paradise Park Hotel,
4* (half board)
J Rental bikes available
J Price: €775 p/p (double occupancy)
seven per cent tax
J €875 p/p (single room) seven per
cent tax
J Eight per cent discount for
returning customers
Tenerife Bike Training:
the Delgado brothers
Alberto, 32, and Marcos, 38, were born in
Tenerife and both are fluent in English,
Swedish and Spanish. Alberto is the team
leader and the ‘boss’ on the road. He knows
the best routes around the island and he
will support you along the way.
Being a local gives Alberto a unique
advantage when it comes to preparing
your trip: the roads you will ride have all
been carefully selected and have been
ridden many times by Alberto on his
training runs. Similarly, his excellent local
knowledge and contacts allow him to
select the top luxury hotels that also reflect
the culture and history of the region.
Marcos and Alberto have both
competed to a high level in triathlon,
completing Iron Man distances, and while
one is on the road for on-bike support, the
other will be on-hand in the van to offer
encouragement and sustenance.
They work as a team to make sure you
have the best advice out on the road. And
you’ll need it for a ride of this scale.
www.tenerifebiketraining.com
It’s not often you clear your mind for that
long and simply focus on the basics, like
moving forward, eating and drinking.
Afterwards it made me appreciate that sense
of achievement and feel confident I could
achieve anything I set my mind to. It may
sound crazy that I’m saying a bike ride can
change your life, but I believe it can to a
certain extent.
Getting away from the mundane and
pushing to your physical and mental limit is a
break from the norm and not only improves
health and fitness but can free your head from
worries and stresses too. It doesn’t have to be
Mount Teide, but if you can plan a big
challenge ride before the end of the year,
you’ll thank yourself for it.
So, the question I set out to answer was:
can anyone climb Mount Teide? And I think
the verdict is yes. I was reasonably fit when I
went out but I’m no mountain goat by any
stretch of the imagination. Having said that,
I would recommend preparing as much as
you can for a trip like this. It would be very
difficult to take on this distance of climbing if
you hadn’t done at least some longer rides at
home first.
I also think you need a realistic plan.
You’ll need to set out early and you’ll need to
have access to plenty of food and drink,
because you may be riding for a very long
time before you see any sign of civilisation.
You also need a get-out plan if you take longer
than you expect. It’s easy to work out your
pace and think you’ll be able to climb at a
predicted speed, but there are so many
variables such as the weather, heat, altitude
and fatigue. It would be far too dangerous to
descend through the clouds if you lost the
daylight; so planning is key.
If you’re doing a ride of this nature it’s a
great idea to do it supported because you’re
then benefitting from the advice of very
experienced guides. The best thing about
Tenerife is you don’t have to scale the entire
mountain in one go. There are plenty of
different routes up, all varying in difficulty,
and you could spend a whole day on one
section, there’s so much to choose from.
If you have the chance to do the route we
did, you should have a go, as there really is
nothing like it when you reach the top —
breathtaking in more ways than one and so
worth it.
The Delgado brothers:
Alberto (l) and Marcos
SEPTEMBER 2014 CYCLING ACTIVE 103