• This topic has 16 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by hora.
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  • Cheeky days cycling in Tenerife – anyone done it…?
  • stumpy01
    Full Member

    I’m off to Tenerife for a week with the wife – just lounging by the pool and eating/drinking too much type stuff.

    But I have noticed there’s a bike hire place just round the corner from our hotel and I quite fancy spending a few hours out on a bike ride; probably road bike as it will mean less kit/less chance of getting lost/less chance of punctures.

    We’re staying on the edge of Playa de las Americas, so would be heading out from there. Is it worth considering the mountain bike, or just sticking to the road?

    I am hoping the hire place will have some maps and wonder if they’ll have trail maps? Had I thought about it sooner, I should have looked for some routes & programmed my Garmin – but not really got time now.

    Any good routes – road or mtb anyone could recommend?
    I know that Lavatrax and others do guiding, but have left it a bit late to arrange anything and to be honest, I quite fancy just heading out on my tod. Ta.

    cp
    Full Member

    Mtb trails hard tho find without a guide apparently.

    Road riding good enough for team sky 🙂

    teadrinker
    Free Member

    Stick to the road. If you can get over towards El Retamar and then towards Masca there are some nice mountain roads to ride. Otherwise maybe head up towards Vilaflor. Have fun and hope the weather is good.

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    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Yeah…..I am thinking the road will be the safer bet.

    Was thinking of taking the tf-51 road up to Vilaflor, then right back down the tf-21, tf-64 and back along the coast. Not looking for an all dayer, really. Just be nice to get out for a few hours.

    Could always scoot in the other direction along the small road towards Santiago del Tiede & back if it turns out to be a bit of a short ride, although I am wary of the fact that the hills are likely to be a bit more brutal than they are in the flatlands of East Angular….!

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    teadrinker – Member

    Stick to the road. If you can get over towards El Retamar and then towards Masca there are some nice mountain roads to ride. Otherwise maybe head up towards Vilaflor. Have fun and hope the weather is good.

    Cheers. You posted this while I was concoting my reply. Pretty much mirrors my thoughts, so perhaps on the right track! Would be good to get a map from somewhere; perhaps the hotel will have them.

    teadrinker
    Free Member

    Great minds Stumpy!

    Way hillier than we have, I’m Essex/Suffolk border based so understand where you are coming from. At least out there which ever you go it should always be downhill on the way back 🙂

    terrahawk
    Free Member

    the road back down from Teide, through Vilaflor the to the coast is probably the greatest road I’ve ever ridden a bike down.
    (you’re planning to ride up it, which is good too, but try to fit in a descent)

    mtbguiding
    Free Member

    The road stuff there is awesome. Go from Las Americas to Teide via Vilaflor and backdown again – about 2500m of climbing in one hit. Return to Vilaflor then drop via Granadilla or Fronton to San Miguel… probably the best road bike day I have ever had!

    phiiiiil
    Full Member

    Bollocks to the road bike, get yourself and a mtb taken up to Las Lajas by bus or someone you can talk into driving you and enjoy the trails from 2300m down to sea level without bothering with that “climbing” malarkey. I took a bike on a mostly normal holiday last year when we stayed just up the coast, and I’d love to go back, there are some super trails down the mountain – strava or openstreetmap is handy to find the ways down, but there’s some good stuff.

    I did one ride down to Playa de las Americas via Ifonche, and another down towards Adeje – the trail down the hill from the (spectacular) viewpoint at Boca del Paso is possibly the hardest, longest downhill I’ve ever done (well, tried!).

    I know it’s famous for it’s road biking, but it takes an hour to drive up the mountain never mind bike it, everyone we saw just looked hot and knackered, it looked like a pretty rubbish version of “fun” to me…

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    I hear what you’re saying phiiiil, but I just reckon it will be a bit more faff than going out on the road, but I will ask in the shop and see what they reckon.

    I’ve just realised that I can use my inclusive data/minutes/texts on Three while I am out there for no extra cost so I can always tap into Google Maps if need be to find my way around!

    Thanks chaps! Really looking forward to it now!

    Potdog
    Free Member

    For a road bike I’d recommend the guys at Bike Point who you’re probably looking at anyway.
    If you want to sample the trails give me a shout. Got a couple of day rides doing out next week.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Potdog – Member

    For a road bike I’d recommend the guys at Bike Point who you’re probably looking at anyway.
    If you want to sample the trails give me a shout. Got a couple of day rides doing out next week.

    Bikepoint look to be the place that our hotel is just round the corner from (Marylanza suite & spa on the edge of the golf course).

    Thanks for the offer! Will see what riding gear I end up packing and take it from there….Cheers!!

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Ha! Well, a quick update….

    I hired a Ridley from Bikepoint that was the cheapest option, but massively better than my own bike. It was fitted with 105, double compact and a 32 cassette on the rear for ‘mountain gears’.
    Ahem, it was only just OK for me and I spent a long time in the granny ring on the way up.

    The plan was to go up to Vilaflor, get some food and drink at the cafe just as you enter the town before going right down the TF-21 back to Granadilla and then right again towards Los Cristianos on the TF-28.

    But – bloody hell the climb was harder than I expected – especially in the high temp and with zero shade. I got to Vilaflor thinking that I’d stop for some food and drink and try to ask whether my planned route back was mainly down or down/across or down and back up. I wasn’t really looking forward to a substantial amount more climbing.
    But, I got to the cafe and it was shut (Siesta time, I guess).
    I didn’t fancy heading off without any food/more water and run out of steam so I just bombed it back down the way I came.

    It was a good ride, but did somewhat prove that legs used to relatively miles around the flatlands of East Anglia don’t really work well on mountain climbs!

    I hired a bike, helmet and spd’s from Bikepoint. I took my Garmin but forgot the mount so they sold me one for 6 Euro. I thought they might have had a spare they could put on or some hire ones, but it was no big deal.
    Also took bottles, energy gels and my usual clobber.
    I was lucky with my phone as Three let you use your normal minutes/texts/data in Spain so I was able to use that as a back-up to navigation.

    I definitely recommend giving it a go if you are over there.

    Anyway – here’s a link to the Strava route…..

    https://www.strava.com/activities/334090874/overview

    teadrinker
    Free Member

    nice one stumpy, glad you had a good one.

    Potdog
    Free Member

    It’s really unysual for that cafe to close. Ironically you were less than 100m away from several more cafés. The way you’d planned back was mainly down / flat. Try again next time

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Potdog – Member

    It’s really unysual for that cafe to close. Ironically you were less than 100m away from several more cafés. The way you’d planned back was mainly down / flat. Try again next time

    Yeah, I did think it was strange that it was closed given the amount of coaches/hire cars going past at that time of day.
    I figured I could probably potter further into the town and find somewhere, but the lure of the pool back at my hotel was too strong!

    teadrinker – Member

    nice one stumpy, glad you had a good one.

    Cheers.
    Before going I was a bit concerned about cycling on the roads over there (having been knocked off in Granada, Spain a few yrs ago) but it was fine and every one gave me loads of room. The closest passes were from what looked like rental Ibizas/Polos, rather than locals.

    hora
    Free Member

    Tick!

    Anywhere to search in particular for late all inclusive deals- could book flights and hotel seperately.

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