BIKES

Mountain high
Can any cyclist climb Mount Teide, the pro’s favourite training
ground? CA’s Rebecca Charlton heads to Tenerife to find out
Words Rebecca Charlton Photos Daniel Gould
I’
ve covered more than twice the
distance I’ve ever climbed before,
I’m high above the clouds and I’m
counting. It’s the only thing keeping
me going as I resist the urge to give in to my
burning leg muscles, hours from the foot of
the climb, yet hours from the summit. All I
want to do is lay down by the roadside. I stare
at the small board on the verge which
displays each kilometre passed, blink again
and wonder how it can possibly have only
been one kilometre since we last saw one.
“Have I missed a couple?” I ask
photographer Daniel in desperation, thinking
perhaps the heat exhaustion has affected my
counting. The reality was that a combination
of altitude, gradient and fatigue in my legs
meant that it was a long time between
kilometre counters. I was half way up
Tenerife’s infamous Mount Teide wiping
sweat from my eyes, and I had the hardest
part to come.
What am I letting myself in for?
Any hint of an incline and I think I’m
climbing. I’m not the lightest of riders and
let’s be honest, although we have some steep
gradients in the UK, it’s not often you’re
scaling hills at home for the duration that you
find abroad.
Any more than about 10 minutes of
climbing in and around London and I think
I’m doing well. I know northern readers will
scoff at my southern softness, but anything
that makes me puff, I consider to be a hill.
When I was invited to the holiday island to
sample the riding with Tenerife Bike Training
all I heard was ‘sun’. Company founders
Marcos and Alberto Delgado, two brothers
who grew up on the island, explained that it’s
not just the professionals that ‘train’ here, but
also everyday cyclists like me. That was