Tenerife’s Teide volcano continues to lure Team Sky, Astana and other pro teams, but the island’s ocean-gazing balcony roads, lunar landscapes and surreal rock formations add a sprinkle of magic to any two-wheeled adventure
In the wilds of Tenerife a cyclist’s senses can become disjointed from reality. As I pedal through a volcanic world of red cinder cones, golden pumice fields and shiny black obsidian rocks, I can see the Teide volcano looming high above me, which makes me suspect, with a wince, that I must be much lower down the day’s big climb than I had hoped.
Yet when I glance in the other direction, I realise that – thanks to a confusing cloud inversion – I am already high above the clouds, which float, absurdly, below the pine forest I’ve just cycled through. Craning my neck at the sight of clouds hovering beneath trees, I feel like I’m staring at a landscape painting that has been hung upside down.
Strangeness surrounds me. I can feel the sunshine toasting my back and taste the salty sweat dripping down my cheeks, but I can also sense the metallic chill emanating from the slabs of snow piled up by the sides of the road. I can smell pine trees – an aroma I normally associate with mountains – but also the thick scent of hot, sun-blasted sand dunes.
And although my brain knows I am miles from the ocean, when I curl around a bend in the road I appear to be floating on a giant wave of water. This hairpin bend slices through the smooth, flowing contours of a 10-metre-high solidified lava flow – known locally as La Tarta (‘the cake’) for its colourful layers of white pumice and black and red basalt – that appears to rise and fall like a wave about to crash against the shore.
Am I low or high? Hot or cold? Cycling or surfing? In this hallucinogenic landscape I’m not sure whether to take a photograph or call a doctor.
Denne historien er fra August 2016-utgaven av Cyclist.
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Denne historien er fra August 2016-utgaven av Cyclist.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Best of both worlds
The new Trek Madone blends the speed of the brand's quickest superbike with the lightness of its mountain-crushing Émonda to become the ultimate race bike
Eddy Merckx Pévèle Carbon
A versatile design that shows the pros and cons of flexible build options
Gravel ride: Girona Welcome to Cycling Central
Girona in Catalonia has become one of Europe's most popular cycling venues thanks to its weather, roads and culture. But it's still possible to leave the hordes behind by going off-tarmac
Revolutions and evolutions
The wheel may be a 5,000-year-old invention but designers are still finding ways to make it lighter, faster, safer and more stable.
Kitzbüheler Horn
The Austrian climb that dishes out pain
Cycling history in six items
In the first of a series on cyling's historical artefacts, Cyclist visits the KOERS Museum in Belgium to discover the pick of the exhibits.
Different times
What was the cycling world like 75 years ago? Now in his midnineties, Scottish former champion Ramsay Mackay remembers those times like they were yesterday
Big Ride: Alpe d'Huez - Climb and a half
No climb is as emblematic of the Tour de France as Alpe d'Huez. Ahead of its first appearance at the women's Tour, Cyclist takes a ride around it and up it. And then up it again
This Olympic Road Race might actually be worth watching
A punchy finale around Paris's Butte de Montmartre will bring the excitement usually missing from the Olympic Road Race, says Felix Lowe
Beryl Burton wins her first road Worlds
Beryl Burton claimed the first of two World Championships Road Race titles in 1960, becoming the first rider to win pursuit and road world titles in the same year
