Summer Holiday

I hope you have had enjoyable Summer breaks. My family and I had our usual holiday to Tenerife. We have already booked again for next year, as it offers something for all of the family. There is a Spa for Sarah, a variety of pools for Ollie and Saffron, and for me, my standard holiday requirements of sun, great food & wine, and cycling.

For those of you who don’t know me, I enjoy cycling - especially climbing in the mountains. This makes Tenerife, with Mt Teide (favoured for Winter training by many of the Professionals ) an ideal destination.

If you have read my profile you will know that I have three bikes, but I always find it easier to hire a good quality road bike when I am away, rather than take my own bike with me; the thought of trying to reassemble it on arrival, as well as deal with any baggage-handler-induced mechanical faults is my idea of holiday hell.

The only issue with bikes hired outside of the UK is that the brakes are reversed – usually it is right lever for the front and left for the back, but over there it is the opposite. If you take your time when you are descending it is fine, but if you are on auto-pilot and have to brake sharply, it can be messy.

Two years ago, a chap immediately in front of me who had only picked his bike up that morning, approached a hair pin somewhat aggressively, braked, ran out of talent…and road…and went off the edge! Fortunately for him he only slid 20 meters. Less fortunately, his fall was stopped by a rather large and imposing cactus.

It is an image that I now find hard to remove. I have done descents in the past at up to 70kph, but this year, whether it was that image, the big drops on the other side or the strong winds, or just having more responsibilities, I found it hard to hit 30kph. I am hoping that it is just the reversed brake levers, but if not then maybe it is time to hang up my cycling shoes and stick to the static bike at the gym!