Today

Question: What’s the stopping distance of a ‘well used’ training bike in rainy conditions?

Answer: Several metres further than the car in front when they do an emergency stop.

Luckily I did a very dance-like avoidance move (similar to the jive) and succeeded in taking the impact solely on my left quad, which is lucky because you don’t make much use of them when cycling.

I spent the next ten minutes riding like my leg had had it’s own miniature stroke; pedalling squares doesn’t really cover it.

Other fun occurrences on the ride this morning included getting ‘tidal waved’ by an overtaking car and sneezing a cereal bar out my nose.

In shed news: she’s a beaut. Below is the story of her growth from wee nipper to strapping young gal, in pictures.

Organised chaos!

Just some graves I dug up.

Got wood?

Tenerife - A sunny summary!

Another gorgeous sunrise.

Today was my last big day of riding; I’ll probably do a little spin tomorrow to enjoy the scenery a bit more rather than whizz through it. I’m a little bit sad to be going too. I’ve become very accustomed to the simple life now after only a week here and I’m thinking I might struggle a bit re-integrating into society! My life has consisted of getting up, eating breakfast, drinking coffee, cycling, eating lunch, napping, eating second lunch, drinking tea, eating dinner, having a beer, eating cake, going to bed. I’m not convinced there’s much more that I want in life!

Up in the clouds - chilling on the volcano.

I’ve really enjoyed staying here at the Refugio Plantacion Tenerife with Rich, Chris and Tosh as it’s so relaxed, and the weather is renowned for being good. It’s been warm every day and the only thing I’ve had to consider when going out riding is how much food to take and if I need a gilet to keep warm on the mountain descents. The scenery is breathtaking and surprisingly varied depending on where you ride to. I love being able to ride from sea level up to the top of El Teide, 2200m up: it’s just astounding!

The pad.

Today we headed out with the Rapha guys and a few others and had a good ride around and back over Masca, a climb which is a bit grippy. They also showed us a great little café where we got whopper sized ‘café con leches’ for cheap which I of course loved, being a whopper. I’m looking forward to getting back to England to continue building my shed (I’ll post a snap soon) and of course seeing the lovely girl! I’m not really looking forward to the twenty degree drop in temperature though, gah!

Forest fire destruction. And fluffy clouds!

"It's all downhill from here".

It's Teide butt!

I decided to come over to Tenerife as a treat to myself for some warm weather training, and to see my friend Richard as it has been far too long! Last time I saw him we were freezing our nips off at an early season ‘Springtime’ Pursuit. This time round we were in a much more pleasant environment, a Spiritual Retreat in Armenime!

Flying in just before sunset was a real treat.

 As you can see the terrain is remarkably similar to the Surrey/Hampshire hills.

I’m staying on a banana plantation which is so great! It’s peaceful and a bit like living in the jungle as you go in through all of the leafy orchards.

This is a snap I took yesterday morning. I woke up, wandered out onto the steps outside and was treated to this sight. I’ve definitely woken up to worse things.

Today we did a little spin up El Teide, the local volcano. I’ve never ridden from sea level to over two thousand metres before, so it was jolly nice. We were riding uphill for two hours forty five minutes which was about as epic as it sounds and when you reach the top it’s a full blown moonscape. The scale of everything is so huge, I couldn’t really get my head around it.

My mind was blown.

Met this guy too and could NOT drop him!