A Cyclist's Life in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Dear Leslie,

I am travelling to Los Gigantes in mid-August and am interested in doing some cycling during my 10 day stay. I have only recently got back into cycling from being a child and currently commute daily to work within London – so the thought of having some open space cycling is very inviting! My enquiry is what you think would be available to me given my location and relative lack of experience. I really like the thought of a full day’s cycling around the volcano tracks as the pictures look incredible – and am not overly keen on the thought of hairpin alpine like extreme hills.

Thanks for your help,

Katy

Hi,

If you’re talking about MTBing, the best thing would be to head to Chinyero / Arenas Negras. There are lots of offroad tracks around there…

The main climb to get there is tough, so I would consider alternative arrangements (taxi, bus, hire car)

Thanks,
Les

Tags: The Bike Guru by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

Yes, we can now finally accept credit cards wherever there is mobile phone coverage in Tenerife (most places on the island except Teide National Park). So you can pay directly with your Visa or Mastercard when the bike is delivered. Bike reservation deposits are also more easily paid via this method (you can either telephone or email your card details to us). Other convenient forms of payment are IBAN bank transfer, paypal and Euros cash.

Tags: News Reel, The Bike Guru by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

If you can’t be bothered reading this, the short answer is ‘no’.

Inititally, all I did was guided road rides leaving straight from the hotel, but from the very beginning most of our potential customers had something different in mind (meaning they wanted to be picked up, taken on a shorter ride and dropped off at the hotel – not so much about the training but more of a sight-seeing tour for the wealthier folk). For a while I started to do a few guided MTB rides in my spare time (which I also enjoyed doing moreso than onroad), but I think we have greater competition in that area; that alone was never enough to pay all the bills. There’s technically even more chance for offroad accidents due to the steep descents invloved.

Basically we have had to look at who we are, what we are about and where we want to take the business in future. [Read more →]

Tags: News Reel, The Bike Guru by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

I’m planning a road biking trip to Tenerife with a couple of friends. In your opinion, what would be a best town to stay in regarding the available cycling routes?

Hello,

* Well Los Gigantes is a nice, small resort but the road & MTB rides are pretty limited around there. The road condition up to Mt Teide from the Western side is not the best – it really needs resurfacing. The road to Tamaimo and Santiago del Teide is generally steeper than a lot of the other road climbs in Tenerife.
* From Los Cristianos you have the Southern approach to Las Cañadas. For example you can also you can ride from Granadilla to Arafo, a flatter but still ‘undulating’ route. Having said that, you either love or hate the Las Americas resort.
* From Santa Cruz you are very close to Anaga & La Esperanza (a good starting point for the climb to Teide from the Eastern side)
* And last but not least, there are several climbs close to Puerto de la Cruz / La Orotava valley region. For me this is the best region!

Thanks,
Leslie

www.Tenerife-Training.net | Pro bike hire
www.vertebr.ae | Precision braking & shifting

+34 605 56 2020 (mobile)
+34 622 22 7262 (mobile 2)

Tags: The Bike Guru by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

Hi-

I am so excited I found your site and service. I will be traveling to Tenerife for a work conference on 1/27 and want to do some serious riding and exploring from around 1/29-2/1.

I am not certain whether I want to go roadie (my preference) or offroad (because the terrain looks unbelievable). At this point it looks like I’ll be traveling solo. I ride a 54 cm in road and 16/medium for offroad.

Can you give me some insight that will help me make a decision about road v. offroad rental? For road riding, I love hills and epic routes. For offroad, although I am in very good shape and enjoy hills, my technical mt. bike skills are not at the same level, so I guess I’d be looking for more cross-country type routes.

I am really looking fwd to it…. not into laying on the beach or shopping, and I most definitely want to spend my vacation riding.

Pls let me know your thoughts as soon as possible, as I want to make sure there will be a bike available.

Many thanks.
/erin kenneally

Thanks,

Well I am both a MTBer and a roadie so I know all about these kinds of «decisions decisions».

The road climb to Teide is definitely an epic route, preferably starting from either La Orotava in the North, La Eperanza in the East or Granadilla de Abona in the South. Where else can you climb constantly from a sea level resort to 2300m (7000 feet) in one ride???!

The bummer with road bikes seems to be traffic around the coastal resorts. However, the local drivers here are extremely considerate when overtaking etc.

To make your descision that much harder, some of the firetrails that criss-cross the upper La Orotava valley are probably the flattest roads (either on or offroad) to be found on the whole island. They are connected by a series of perpendicular «downhill runs». Yes it is possible to get 1 bus to drop you off at the base of Mt Teide so you can ride back down various ways—

There are no jumps and things of that nature. The main obstacles are rocky volcanic boulders and further down, slippery pine needles… so it’s easy for your font tyre to lose its line if you brake and corner at the same time.

Getting back to the road bikes… our road bikes cost basically twice the MTBs because they don’t seem to get abused as much. So we have a beautiful new Pro Lite 54.5cm Cuneo road bike (or 2); one has just been built up last week with the new Ultegra carbon levers! It’s so new I haven’t even had a chance to photograph it yet.

Hope that is of some help.
-Leslie

Tags: The Bike Guru by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »