Life from an outsider's perspective…

Depression Epedemic.

Preface: This article is turning out to be very difficult to write. Part of the reason is that I began writing it when I was suffering from depression myself. Hence, my motivation was a lot less than it is now. Depressed people also have a slanted or warped perspective – they have an extremely negative or pessimistic outlook on life. This is something I wanted to take advantage of during the time that I was «infected» with the disease. During this phase I wrote some paragraphs which seemed to retain that negativity, but they weren’t written well. I can tell from my own words now that I was struggling with everything.

Yet I normally enjoy being an optimistic person, always thinking very positively. So it’s challenging for me to write now because I’m cured (at least temporarily)! This didn’t happen overnight – it was a gradual process over several months, gradually transforming from pessimist through to optimist. I’ve had this article in draft form for some time now and just want to present the idea to you as part of the section «Vida Enigmática». Let’s just say that it’s not a prediction. It’s a possible future scenario. Hyper-optimistic people will definitely not be able to relate to this article – they simply will not be able to comprehend the situation I describe below. (más…)

The global waming debate, continued.

global-warming-sceptics.jpgDo you notice the terminology «global warming» is somewhat detached from the humanity that caused it? As if it were the planet’s response to our domination, but not directly our own fault.

Deforestation today proceeds at 55,630 to 120,000 square kilometres each year. At this rate, all tropical forests may be gone by the year 2090.

I think the real reason why some people continue to deny global warming is taking place (subconsciously or not) is that they can’t deal with reality. So if they convince themselves that it would’ve happened anyway, they can simply carry on life as normal, and not have to worry about it.

For me, the notion that this is all some part of a repetitive ‘prehistoric cycle’ which man has nothing to do with is preposterous. It just happens at the same time man enters the industrial age, and is happening 10x quicker than anything before. Hello! coincidence!! The words RATE OF CHANGE have very strong meaning in the scientific community. Grand geological transformations don’t just happen over a matter of years or even decades. They are supposed to take millenia, or longer. So now that the average global sea & air temperature has risen a degree already, I think we’re already in deep shit my friends. (más…)

Turismo Tenerife association

We’re proud to announce that we’re now a member of the official Turismo Tenerife association. Rest assured that partnering with Turismo Tenerife won’t affect the day to day running of our business.
Being a member should help promote our cycling activities both online and in the real world and thereby create new opportunities to expand the business and also improve cycling activities in Tenerife. Here is the link to all nature activity businesses sponsored by Turismo Tenerife.

New Cycle Sport magazine advert

Here is a new ad we are going to place in the November issue of Cycle Sport magazine:

Cycle Sport Advert

Top 10 signs you need to upgrade your braking system:

brake upgrade needed 1. Your brake levers easily hit the handlebars, consequently you’re not stopping like you’re supposed to.
2. You don’t have the power to skid either wheel.
3. You start smelling that all too familiar smell of burnt brake pads.
4. You have to do a virtual panic stop just to enable you to slow down.
5. You’ve warped your disc rotors, and they stay warped no matter what you try and do to straighten them.
6. You get hand fatigue on long descents.
7. You want to be able to brake with one or two fingers, so you can maintain control of your bike properly.
8. Your current braking system has all the requisite symptoms of bipolar disorder (it’s either «on» or «off» and there’s no inbetween).
9. Riding in the rain has become an unthinkable activity.
10. You want to be faster, braking for each corner at the last possible moment.

Top 10 climbs in Tenerife

Top 10 climbs in Tenerife
1] La Esperanza – Izaña
There are several approaches to the centre of the island, and this Eastern one has the best combination of road surface, length, spectacular views and the least amount of traffic.

2] Barroso – Aguamansa – El Portillo – Mt. Teide
The road around Aguamansa has just been resurfaced this year; dare I say it but the TF21 approach from the North of the Island this has now become a world-class climb. It’s often a few degrees cooler than the Southern approach, which is great in the hot Summer months. It’s also sheltered quite from the wind (compared to Arico for example).

3] Granadilla – Vilaflor – Mt. Teide
Lots of cycle-tourists will already know this route as many are based in Las Americas or Los Cristianos and therefore it’s the most convenient climb. It has lots of smooth sweeping bends past Vilaflor, which make for some fast descending.

4] Almáciga – Taganana – Pico del Inglés
This ride is highly recommended. It’s steeper than the others, but the topography is truly amazing.

5] Arafo – Izaña
Choose this route if you’ve aready explored some roads in Tenerife & you’re looking for a Sunny approach to the top of Tenerife.

6] Buenavista – Masca – Santiago del Teide
A top-ten list wouldn’t be complete without including a ride to Masca. Prepare yourself for the last 5km, because the road out of Masca climbs 450 metres in only 3.4km, giving an average gradient of over 13%

7] Afur – Pico del Inglés
One of my favourites simply because it’s more isolated than other climbs.

8] Los Silos – Tierra del Trigo – El Tanque – Erjos
The first part of this road is brutal. It literally zig-zags up the side of a cliff face. From afar, you wouldn’t think a road like this is even possible. If you’re looking for your new HRmax, you won’t be disappointed.

9] Los Gigantes – Tamaimo – Santiago del Teide – Las Llanadas
This road is one of the steeper ascents in the South of Tenerife, so make sure you choose the right gearing.

10] Batan de Abajao – Pico del Inglés
Another personal favourite, but not easy to get to.

Do you accept credit card payments?

CajaCanarias logoYes, we can now finally accept credit cards wherever there is mobile phone coverage in Tenerife (most places on the island except Teide National Park). If requested to pay a reservation deposit during the high season, you can phone us to provide your card details. Other convenient forms of payment are IBAN bank transfer, paypal and Euros cash.

Bringing your own bike to Tenerife?

24hr cable housing installation conversion

Take advantage of our 24hr Custom Vertebrae Installation!

If you are planning a Tenerife cycle training vacation, you should be pleased to know that we are now offering a door-to-door cable housing fitment service with a 24 hour turnaround period.

We first pick your bike up directly from your hotel or apartment in Tenerife, where you will meet Dr. Leslie Brown to discuss your specific requirements; we then perform a professional, customised vertebrae installation to your exact specifications, finally returning your bike to you within 24hrs in perfect working condition.

There is currently a €150 surchage for this premium service (price subject to change). We are pleased to also offer you a courtesy rental bike from Pro Bike Hire while we are working on your bike. Alternatively, you can opt for a rest day and see some of the attractions in Tenerife while we setup vertebrae on your bike. Please call +34 605 56 2020 for more info.

Why Tenerife?

It’s no coincidence that many cyclists choose to train in the Canary Islands -Tenerife- the largest island, offers one of the best cycling locations in Europe all throughout the year.This is home to the world’s third largest volcano, and it serves up some of the biggest and most challenging climbs in all of Europe. Starting from sea level, you can ride up to an altitude of 2300m!

What better place to test the limits of your braking & shifting? Naturally, with all the steep offroad descents to be found, it’s even popular with the DownHill crowd.

For more information on Vertebrae Components, please see our sister site: www.vertebr.ae

Bike service will be closed this July (26/06/2010 to 14/08/2010)

With well over 2 months notice, I’d like to annouce that we’ll be closed from 26/06/2010 to 14/08/2010. This means bike hire and guided rides won’t be possible during that time. Of course the website will continue to function and I’ll administer it while I’m away. Throughout July and August we’ll also still be able to answer emails and take advanced bike reservations for the remainder of the 2010 Summer & Autumn seasons. All current bookings for this period will be respected (currently there’s only one so Chiqui will take care of that).

The pro bike hire service will resume as normal after that date. We are of course happy to take bookings now for August, September, October, November 2010.

On a positive note, despite the global financial crisis we had quite a successful Winter season renting road and mountain bikes this year. As always, I look forward to resuming again in mid-August and we’re expecting strong growth into 2011. I think everyone deserves a break after working hard; so I feel that I deserve a good holiday! I’m really excited about going back to Australia for a month to see all my family there!

Happy cycling!
Leslie

Limited bike availability, Easter 2010

There’s just two small road bikes available this Easter long weekend, as well as one small MTB and large MTB. Other than that, we have full capacity this week. So if you’re a small rider keen to get out, now’s the last chance to grab a rental bike! The best thing is to phone me directly on +34 605 56 2020.

Free pro bike hire T-shirt when you spend €200 or more…

Free pro bike hire T-shirt when you spend more than 200 EurosSimple enough really. Limit one per customer. Quality fruit of the loom T-shirts with proper printed logos (you won’t see any iron-on transfers used here!). It will feature this logo on the front. Just so you know what you’ll be getting, they are white T-shirts available in small, medium & large sizes. Either short or long sleeve – and when they’re gone, they’re gone!

Free island-wide bike delivery service

pro bike hire with ford connect transit delivery vanWe deliver rental bikes anywhere in Tenerife. Since early February this year, we have been trialling a totally FREE island-wide delivery service!

This applies to all bike rentals with a 3-day minimum hire period. Delivery of bikes to the La Orotava / Puerto de la Cruz area is totally free of charge, all year round (and there is no minimum number of days required).

Please keep in mind that we are based in the North of Tenerife, approximately one hour’s drive away from Las Americas. For deliveries to the South of Tenerife during the low season (May through September), a delivery charge may be applicable in order to cover our basic running costs; the delivery fee for Los Cristianos, Las Americas and Los Gigantes is €36 (pickup included). The delivery/pickup charge to Santa Cruz, La Laguna and Icod will remain at €26.

New full-suspension rental bikes!

Mountain Cycle LogoI’ve had enough enquiries lately about full suspension bikes so I decided a few weeks ago to act. I just bought three lovely frames from Mountain Cycle. They are a small company that really lead the way in big-travel suspensions bikes way back in the nineties. They’ve now been around for 22 years, which is an eternity in the MTBing world. If you’re in your thirties like I am now, you’ll definitely know who they are… they were the whackos who insisted on 100mm+ travel bikes and dual hydraulic disc brakes to complete the package. Somewhat amazingly, that has virtually become standard now. I ask people if they’ve heard of Moutain Cycle now and the answer is resounding ‘no’. Visionaries!

The new dual-suspension MTB frames are coming!This is the model they call ‘fury’ and we will have small, medium & large examples of each. The aluminium frame is anodised black and has up to 5″ or 130mm of rear wheel travel, with Rock Shox Ario air shock & remote lockout included. The remaining bike spec is to be advised. Rest assured it will be good!

mountain cycle fury full suspension rental bike frame-setsThe good news is that I’m planning to drop the price of the existing Merida hardtails into the budget price bracket, so you’ll save 30% on the standard web-based prices by hiring one of those.

MTB volcano tracks?

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

Do you accept credit cards?

Paypal cartoonYes, 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.

Do you offer guided rides?

en bici estas mas guapoIf 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. (más…)

Best town to stay in regarding the available cycling routes?

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)

road bike vs offroad MTB rental.

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

Looking for a good base for cycling in Tenerife?

Hi Leslie

If you have the time would very much appreciate your advice. My wife, myself and very young son are coming to Tenerife from Feb 27 until Mar 6. I’ll be training up for a cyclosportif in France so will be very keen to ride whilst there. I actually do quite a lot of road cycling (I have a Cervelo Soloist ­it’s either a 56 or 68 cm) and mountain biking (I ride a lapierre x-control 510 51 cm).

I know very little about Teneriffe and would welcome your views on a good area to stay ­ my wife wants sun but I really don’t want to be near any trashy resorts (I have heard that part of the island has a few of these).

I’d also look to rent a bike ­ I’d appreciate your advice here also. Although the sportif is on the road if you think Tenerife mountain biking outweighs the road cycling I’d be happy to do that. Just want to keep the legs kicking over. And of course do you have anything available for that time (I also have a friend coming who will be looking for something
commensurate ­ he’s the same size as me).

Chrs

Ian Edwards

Hello Ian,

I’d be happy to offer some advice on places/locations to stay.

Firstly, if you don’t want to stay near a trashy resort, stay away from
Los Cristianos & Las Americas. There is another side of Tenerife…

Have a look at places like Barcelo Varadero in Los Gigantes, Riu Garoe in
Puerto de la Cruz. Give me some further info & we can narrow things down a
lot. Do you want to stay in a hotel, apartment or quiet villa? What about
beach access, or you don’t care? Proximity to restaurants?

Well now’s an ideal time to start thinking about the bike reservations, as
the best bikes always get snapped up first. We already have some bookings
around then… MTBs are always more fun, but then if you’re like me, you
tend to get lazy and just go downhill more. If you’re serious about
training, I’d go with a road bike, but that’s just me.

I take it you are both around 180cm tall?
Looking forward to your reply,

Thanks,
Leslie

Group rides out of Puerto de la Cruz. Cycling club meeting point.

Hi Leslie,
If you can think of any regular or irregular group rides out of Puerto de la Cruz, let me know. I don’t care what language they speak! Otherwise, I’ll be doing a lot of exploring on my own.

Hello,

The local cyclists meet at the Shell petrol station at Las Arenas, point
«A» on the following google map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Unknown+road&daddr=&geocode=FaZRsQEd0IID_w&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=28.407256,-16.539402&sspn=0.055414,0.076818&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=28.404311,-16.535368&spn=0.055415,0.076818&z=14

I’m told that they usually meet on weekends at 8:00am

Hope this heps—