Life from an outsider's perspective…

Advice on riding at altitude

Hi,

I am looking to book a one week family holiday in Tenerife in September. Are road bike hire and route support still available at that time? I’d only be looking for two or three days, hopefully including an ascent of Mt Teide.

I’ve never ridden at altitude, so would need to take some advice on this.

Regards,

Hello,

Road bike hire is certainly available… guided rides may or may not be available, but I can certainly advise you on routes if you’ll be hiring a bike with us.

I imagine that riding at this sort of altitude won’t present any special problems unless you are ashmatic, or have a similar lung condition. [please note that I am not a medical Doctor but a Science Doctor] The highest roads in Tenerife are located at 2300m. You will notice a slight loss of breath, especially evident on steeper sections of roads. Otherwise, if you take it easy it’s okay. It starts to become more noticeable at 3000+ masl. Perhaps more important than oxygen levels are the weather conditions… Septemeber is normally pretty hot. There’s further info throughout the webpage (try using the search function, it works very well).

I’m working at being able to offer road support & I’m glad you asked about this. At this stage (meaning right now) it’s not practical for us to pick up people mid-ride, especially for people renting bike in the South. We’ve only ever had one breakdown (a spoke failure) in the first two years. As I recall, it took us ~2 hours to get to the scene (in the South) & would have been easier for the client to flag down a passing car/taxi. Since then I check that the wheels are true & tensioned well before every rental. Equipment is replaced at regular intervals & I’m proud to say that we haven’t had a mechanical breakdown since then.

The main problem is that we don’t yet have a truly dedicated vehicle for this purpose available at all times (the family needs to share it, hence we need to organise bike delivery times in advance). Having said that, if you are unlucky enough to have a breakdown, we’ll obviously either replace the bike no charge, fix it, or give you a refund for the day if that isn’t possible. Obviously, my goal is to be able to provide a pro rental bike service, and we’re looking into buying another vehicle around that time for this very reason. In that case, yes we can provide full road support (but we’ll never have a teletransporter hehehe).

Looking forward to your reply,
Leslie

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