Now the dust has settled from the awesome BNC, I thought I would do a little write up on my early spring training break. The Company my wife so graciously bought me a trip with is
http://tenerifebiketraining.com/
I hired a bike box and packed my newly built Tripster. You can hire BMC bikes there and everyone said they were very comfy with excellent brakes(you certainly need them) The Hotel was excellent with decent rooms and facilities, food was buffet breakfast and evening meal, which is a good job because you will eat second portions and even thirds. Starts are early and you need to be up at 7am for breakfast to ride for 8.30 or be collected to drop off points. I and my BIL did the 'New Riders tour', shorter version of the Volcano which most riders do. In hindsight I probably could of done it, but wasn't sure if my ankle(did I tell you about me ankle-Bob
) would stand upto the distance. First day was a bit of a shock with a quick climb out from Los Christianos. a very windy 58 miles with a 4.5 mile descent and return climb with 8-11% gradients in the middle. I was dropped, but eventually shepherded back to the pack.
As the week went on my fitness improved, with 3 rides into the top of the crater which were great fun. The climbs on some mornings were simply beautiful in the cool mist riding switchback hairpins. The weather in the crater was pretty good despite being quite cool. I and others found the lack of oxygen were sapping in power, with an odd sensation of not being able to pedal fast. The crater roads are very misleading with them looking pretty flat but actually have a 8% gradient, like an optical illusion. The descents were very long, some taking nearly an hour, the weather playing a big part with thick fog, damp roads and dozens of hairpins, temperatures dropping to 4 Deg C. On a couple of occasions it rained on the descent partly making cornering a bit nervous. There were some demon descender s on our tour, but they had the benefit of coming on a tour before so were familiar with the hills. The roads are mixed in quality from super smooth to down right dangerous broken surfaces so caution is needed in places.
Gearing,normal compact crank and 32t on the back will do for guys who are less than 80KG, but you will have to grind it out if heavier and slightly unfit. I was so glad of my MTB setup. My BIL struggled on the long climbs and abandoned parts of the rides, but rejoined when he recovered. I would thoroughly recommend the trip for an spring tune up, with my strength improving over the week. The group leaders suggesting performance improvements after a week or so
Im going again, as many of the riders there were on their 2nd or 3rd trip. I met a great bunch of riders and had a great time socially as well as riding.
If Cyclechat wants to organise a group tour I would jump at it.