Text and pictures copyright 2003 Håkan Åkesson

Mountainbike in Tenerife

I was freezing! I don’t think I have ever been freezing like this, ever… I was sitting at a clearing in the forest, waiting for something to happen. It was –5 degree centigrade and wind from north. I heard Niklas on the radio, he and the dogs were coming in my direction. The gun was loaded. Suddenly a movement on the clearing… 2 roe deer came towards me and a couple of minutes later Niklas and the dogs came in their tracks.

    -           “Niklas, you are following two roe deer!”, I said on the radio.
-           “Hmm, I was expecting that. The dogs are tired now”, he replied (they were supposed to track us a moose or two).
-           “Let’s take a break and re-position for the next area”, Niklas announced the hunting team via the ether.
-           “...and Håkan, you better leave now. Have a nice week at Tenerife”, he added.

I certainly would! I was just going to pick up my wife and our two kids and then go for the airport.

At the airport in Stockholm I had to deal with a complete idiot at the check-in desk for special equipment. I had paid in advance for my bike, but that information had obviously not reached the personnel at the check-in desk. I had to pay again to have the bike loaded (Luckily the fright-company had service minded personnel as well. I got the money back in no time when I called them a week later from home).

Suddenly I was in Tenerife. From one cold day in the Swedish forest to a warm beach close to Africa. I love airplanes.
A week on the saddle in Tenerife can result in many vertical meters, but my main purpose was to have a vacation with my family. Anyway I couldn’t resist bringing my bike for a couple of rides. I had already started to plan my rides at home. I bought a detailed German map before we went. (Kompass Wander- Radtouren- Freizeit- und Strassenkarte no 233 in scale 1:50000). The map was good. The roadnumbers had changed and the classification of the roads and paths was not consistent. The Swedish 1:50000 maps are better, but this was good enough for me. I’m glad I bought it.

Tenerife is a small island (2000 square kilometer) with a high volcano in the middle. Mt Teide is 3718 meters high. The only way to avoid uphill riding is to avoid riding at all, or to join a tourist tour that will rent you a bike, drive you up to Mt Teide and then let you ride downhill in a guided group on small roads. Sounds like a nice ride, but nothing for me – I’m an explorer when I ride. It’s easy to plan a ride on Tenerife. Just go uphill 80% of the time available and then turn around and trust the brakes. Be sure to have reliable brakes, as well as spare parts and extra pads if you plan to ride much.

Two pictures from the second ride.
   

My first ride was a short 1,5 hour ride. I started just before lunch from our hotel in Los Cristianos, on the south side of the island. Since it was my first ride ever in mountain terrain (I live on an old seafloor back in Sweden and am happy to find a few meters of climbing when I ride) I started easy by riding on rather big roads. After one hour I had climbed 600 meters to the village of Arona. I had a nice view over Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Americas. I decided to try a couple of smaller roads on the way back/down. The map turned out to be quite good. However an unexpected detail occurred. It’s difficult to see if a small road is the one shown on the map or just a drive to the nearest houses. There are not that many road signs on small roads as I’m used to from Sweden. During the ride back down to the hotel I was tempted to keep a high speed, but considering the amount of cars, children, dogs and hens on the road I thought it was better to be able to stop quick. Anyway, top speed was 66 km/h according to the computer. Not nice to have a hen in the front wheel then.

The second and last ride was a full day trip, or almost full, beer is cheep and it’s nice to stay in bed in the morning. After a late breakfast I packed water, sandwiches, a jacket, some Maxim Power Bars and started. The first kilometers, to Arona, where almost the same as the first trip. After Arona I took a small road up to La Escalona, That road was parallel to the main road, but only half as long, according to the map. Strange. A closer look at the map showed that the elevation was 400 meter for the 2,2 km distance. If there had been snow I’d like to ski in the opposite direction. I may be weak, but I had to get of and walk some extra steep hillsides. My wife had never allowed me to drive that road in our rental car.                                The second ride

Next stop was Vilaflor. I tried to find a footpath that could take me there from La Escalona. I found it, but I also found that big sign saying PRIVAT. I respected that and took the cart track out to the main road again. At Vilaflor I was reaching the clouds. Stopped to buy water, chocolate and a Red Bull (my second one in life, this time without vodka).

I decided to climb a little bit more on the main road before riding a forest road that was actually marked as suggested mountainbike trail on my map. I love Germans, everything mapped and in order. I would try to leave the forest road after a while if I could find a footpath that would take me up to almost 2500 meter and the base of mount Teide.

After a while on the forest road (which really was one of the best roads for mountainbike I rode on the island) I was suddenly over the clouds. I had my sandwich lunch in the sun just above Casa Galida and rested for half an hour or so. After lunch it was time to search for the footpath. I missed it and had to find a back-up path. That one was easier to find and soon I was climbing on a small dirt road. Well, it would take a high 4 wheel drive car to drive. The road/path was steep and I had to walk several times in the loose gravel. All the way from Vilaflor I had been in a forest of pines. At 2000 meters the forest disappeared and the road changed from road/path to “almost footpath”. I decided not to climb any more. I stopped and opened my beer (warm and shaked) for a celebration – 2000 vertical meters on mountainbike. I could hardly wait for 2000 vertical meters downhill… Big smile! (Unlike many others, I noticed, I brought the can and my other litter back. “What you carry out you can carry home”).

I took a picture using the self-shutter and studied the map for the best way down. I decided to try the footpath I couldn’t find on the way up. Maybe it should be easier to find it in the other direction. It was! It was very thrilling to go downhill when the bed was sharp lava stones and gravel. No soft moss to land in after an eventual unintentional air trip. I got a way with some small wounds and bruises after loosing the grip with the front wheel once. I was on my own on the mountain, so I better be careful and ride safe.

I was able to ride most of the path down to Casa Galinda and decided to follow the path all the way down to Vilaflor – It turned out to be a mistake. It was easy to find the way, but I had to cross a water pipe at several times and many large stones made it impossible to ride for long sections.

From Vilaflor I took a smaller road towards San Miguel. After a while I came in to the clouds again and it was very foggy. I caught up wit a car in the mist! Halfway down to San Miguel I turned in to what should be a footpath (according to the map) but was a road with asphalt. The road became two, became four, became… many roads. I was in some sort of plantation area with small roads everywhere. Luckily I had one indisputable direction to follow – downhill, all the way to the ocean if I had to. I didn’t have to. I got to San Miguel half an hour before the sun would go down, my bike would be illegal and my life would probably be in danger because of the traffic. I took the big road to Los Cristianos via La Camella and arrived at the hotel just before darkness.

It had been a great day and after some playing with the kids in the pool the evening ended at restaurant La Gomera II. I slept well that night.