 |
On The Edge by Maddy Bell
Copyright© 2021 Madeline Bell
|
The Teide is high
"Up and at 'em Gab,” Mand cheerfully suggested at oh silly o'clock the following morning.
"Urgh.”
"Come on, big day today.”
The cogs started to engage, big day? Oh thats right, George did say something about going up this Mount Teide today, maybe we should've had an earlier night. But hey, it was good, clean fun, I'm pretty sure it was what Lisbet would call a 'team building' experience, so maybe not everyone is a great singer but thats half the fun right?
Of course, Miss wide awake de Vreen was almost ready before i'd even been to the bathroom – I'm not a morning person! I was glad to see, when we got down to breakfast that I wasn't the only one a bit bleary eye'd, a situation improved somewhat by fruit juice and coffee. Well maybe the rest of the stuff contributed too, fresh out of the oven croissants really are hard to beat, with the best will in the world a cool one thats dried out is never gonna come close and put in some Nutella® and – well heaven.
Most of us were at the 'last cup of coffee' stage when George came in and got our attention.
"Today mein frauen und herren, we'll be out all day, lots of climbing. Based on yesterday's ride we'll split you into two groups, grimpeurs and roleurs. So Tina, Roni, Gaby, Erika and Joshua, you'll be with Dave today, rest of you are with me, questions?”
Anja spoke up, "When you say lots of climbing, what are we talking?”
"Dave?” George passed the question along.
Dad stood up, "At a guess about three thousand metres, depends how the time is going, my group may do a bit more.”
Of course there was some mumbling at this news and more than one worried expression, I mean, three thousand metres! Thats like riding up to the ring ten times, we're stuffed.
"Okay then people, fifteen minutes,” George concluded.
"I am so not looking forward to this,” Mand mumped as we grabbed our riding gear back in the room.
"Me either.”
"Says the mountain goat.”
"Hey, just because I can go uphill quite quickly doesn't mean I want to do it all day.”
"Whatever, come on, don't want to be late.”
Well we got downstairs on time but I then had a sudden desire to use the ladies, I know, too much information, by the time I emerged, George's group had already set off.
"Okay,” Dad started, "Now we're all here,” he looked pointedly at me, "We can get on, we've got a short run inland to the first climb to get you warmed up then we go over Teide we'll grab coffee at the top, and then down toward the coast for lunch, we'll meet up with the others there. After lunch we'll do the route up that Tina and Gaby will race on Thursday then make our way back.”
"Sounds easy when you put it like that,” I mumbled.
"Something to add Gaby?”
"Er no, walk in the park.”
"Right then, Erika, road captain, we go to Cruz Santa and pick up the three two six okay?”
“'kay,” she agreed.
"Right, lets get to it, steady piano.”
Five can be an awkward number for a group ride, someone is inevitably always riding on their own, however its less of an issue when you are doing a steady rotation, in fact odd numbers make it easier to switch lines. Our support team, well Dad and Petra that is, led the way in the hire bus which, if push came to shove, we could all get in with the bikes – like thats gonna happen. We dropped down to the main road and quickly looped over the motorway to pick up a sign for this Cruz Santa place.
We've been here over two days now and it still seems weird to not need all the thermal gear on to go riding, Josh was wearing a gilet but he's nesh at the best of times. Yeah, I can see the attraction of somewhere like this when its struggling to make zero at home, indeed, given the choice I can see why so many pro riders live around the Med. We tootled along the semi urban roads in a lazy rotation, did a magical mystery tour to bypass the town centre then picked up our road.
Dad led us a little further before pulling over to let us pass, the road already having indications of climbing. Not that it was anything requiring a gear change but rather a steady few percent that rolled over the hillside between the fields which became ever more terraced as the road gained metres.
"Tempo, tempo!” Dad yelled from the bus.
Yeah, whatever. Maybe our pace had got a bit ragged but there was no need to shout. A longer turn from the Toon lifted us back into the high twenties, a pace high enough to stop conversation. There was a bit of cloud hovering about above us, it wasn't much after the next bend, a lazy hairpin affair, that we temporarily lost the sun and entered the swirling mists.
Rather than steep ramps and hairpins, this road was less attritional, a sinuous ribbon of tarmac looping across the hillside, not always going up but overall it was taking us ever higher. The mist persisted for a couple of kilometres, hiding the view out to the ocean and the climb above in equal measure. Then it tilted up more argumentatively, up and through a switchback gaining as much altitude in half a K as in the previous couple.
Gradient and mist evaporated at about the same point as once again we settled back into our rotation, the road now much straighter as we crossed from valley to valley, no longer gaining much extra height even though we could now see the ridge of rock both ahead and to our right. We dropped through yet another gulley but the exit this time had us quickly selecting bigger sprockets as the road continued to climb before taking a long lazy loop down and towards what looked like a crazy climb through the next village. No one said anything as we entered the habitation, another loop of road climbing quite steeply above us.
All wasn't quite as it seemed, our road actually now joined another, the signs, if we'd ever doubted, indicated that Mount Teide was somewhere that required going up. The steepest bit wasn't actually that long but from our almost stop at the junction, well we were a bit spread out by the time it started to ease off. Erika had to call Roni back, the cheeky moo was having a proper dig!
This new road, the TF-21, now followed a similar pattern to the old, angling steadily but not steeply across the hillside but the stretch of farmland on our right was getting ever narrower, replaced by scrubby vegetation and I'm sure I just saw a bus going along the top of it. We tapped along for another couple of minutes and once again the road started to ramp up with more intent, the difference this time was the woodland which provided a bit of shade from the already quite warm sun.
"Phew-ee!” Tina declared as we cleared the top.
"Ah guess we's goin' doon then,” Josh added.
The road was following the spine of the ridge but it was pretty obvious that our route was going to take us down into what I can only describe as desert below. Erika dropped back to the bus as the rest of us raided pockets and bidons, this isn't Teide, that was now dominating the view ahead of us, no, clearly we have more climbing to do.
"So?” Roni asked when Erika came back to us.
"Free ride down here then regroup for the rest of the climb.”
"Nice,” I opined, I do like a fast descent.
"I'll have you Hen,” Josh declared.
"In your dreams big boy.”
Well the gauntlet was thrown, no backing out now.
The road was reasonably wide so as it twisted about we could still get good lines without compromising safety, we zipped past a few more sedate souls, Josh on the front, the rest of us line astern. It was only at the first hairpin turn that there was any sign of weakness from anyone, Tina taking to her brakes a bit sooner than I planned, I ended up flipping to her outside, by the fact Roni undertook us both, someone else was in the hunt.
I sprinted back up to my friend who was about two lengths off Josh, like I said yesterday, the big uns have the gravity advantage. Down, down, into another sequence, Josh setting himself up wide for another 'pin, I stayed tight on Roni who was tracking Josh closely. The straight run out meant we could keep a bit more speed, click, bum, no more sprockets!
It seemed to go on forever, enough grade to keep the speed high but not so much that the brakes came in to play much, one, two, five kilometres. That ended with a steeper straight ramp with a near ninety degree turn at the bottom, not knowing the road we all scrubbed a fair bit of speed going in and even then we were white lining. Having lost some pace it was a bit less frenetic on the almost flat that followed but a further downward tilt had Josh out of the saddle to gain some advantage.
Things tilted more steeply, it felt vertical but was probably only ten percent but gravity was pulling at the others more than me, at the next one eighty I'd lost a few bike lengths to them both, Josh still holding the line out front. I'm not sure what happened, I was concentrating on where I was going after all, but Josh must have misjudged the next turn as Roni managed a bit of wheel lock squiggle and suddenly I was back up to her and both of us ahead of the Toon.
Already being in top gear, pedaling wasn't going to help much, no I needed to resort to extreme aero! Yeah, bigger riders get more gravity assist but they are also a bigger lump to get through the air, so the theory is, outdo them on aero and you stand a chance. I slid forward from the saddle, settling my lady bits pretty much on the top tube, my torso pretty much resting on my forearms, almost impossible to pedal but my frontal aerea was reduced dramatically.
It was like you see in those Fast and Furious™ films when they hit the nitrous, I shot forward, whooshing past Ron, my eyes streaming even behind my glasses. There was a junction ahead, sugar, I didn't so much bottle it as decide that some retardation from the ninety kph the comp was showing would be a good idea! I hopped my bum back onto the saddle and sat up more.
"Yee-ha!” I bellowed as I sailed past a group of riders just leaving the restaurant place on the junction, I was still doing over fifty K but at least I'm used to that.
"You jammy bugger,” Ron exclaimed coming alongside as we lost speed on the first signs of uphill for about ten kilometres.
"You've either got it or...” I reached for my bidon, bum what happened to that?
"Here,” Ron passed me hers, "Yours bounced on that last dip.”
"Cheers, where's Waugh?”
"Right here Bond,” he allowed joining us just ahead of Teen and Erika.
"What happened?”
"Grabbed a bit too much anchor, so who got it?”
I half turned with a huge grin and waved the bottle in the air.
"I dunno how she did it,” Ron allowed, "Came past me like a Porsche.”
"Not this Porsche,” Tina put in with a chuckle.
"Come on guys, I need coffee,” Erika told us, "Fast piano, Dave said the cafe is at the Bergbahn.”
Most of that pell mell descent was through scrubby woodland but now we were in that desert landscape we glimpsed from the top. Its not that there's no plant life just that its restricted to sun dried grass and the odd low bush. This truly is an alien landscape, drifts of volcanic ash, a rather impressive cone that the road climbed past and no real shelter from the blazing sun anywhere.
There were quite a lot of bikes on this bit of road, I guess everyone wants to ride the Teide. We could see the cablecar station from a couple of K away, Dad passed us with a toot, hey maybe he'll have our order in when we get there, more likely not. There were some more substantial trees now, and cars parked all over the place, we swung into the road up to the Talstation but any ideas of an impromptu sprint were laid to rest by the number of cars and buses littering the approach.
"Enjoy that?” Dad enquired a few minutes later, sat in air conditioned comfort inside the restaurant.
"Enjoy might be a bit strong Dave,” Tina supplied.
"Well I thought it was fun,” I offerred, "That descent was fast with a capital F.”
"You might not enjoy it so much going back,” Petra opined.
"What?” Roni and I chorused much to the amusement of the others.
"Well how else are you going to get back to the hotel?” Dad queried.
"There must be other ways,” I stated.
"Oh there are, theres a different pass out to where we went Saturday or a much longer route up to San Cristobel.”
"Booga!” Josh pronounced.
"There is some good news though guys,” Petra put in.
"Which is?” Tina asked.
"You get tomorrow off.”
Maddy Bell © 12.03.2021
