Dreaming of sunshine and warmer riding...

2 Mar

The first Enduromum trip!

On cold, dank autumn days like these it doesn’t take much for my mind to wander back to my biking adventures this spring and summer. It probably won't surprise you to hear that I have seriously itchy feet and if there’s a chance to go abroad I'll grab it - especially if bikes are involved!

Thanks so much Charlie & Eva - besos!

Back in the Easter holidays, I was lucky enough to find myself in Tenerife with a child-free day, thanks to my in-laws, Charlie and Eva. Chatting to my mate, Tom, I’d heard that Lavatrax did good guided riding there, so looked them up. Booking online when you’ve never ridden in a particular country and only have the company’s website for guidance is a slight leap of faith: do their definitions and interpretations of rides match yours?

With Darren (right) who runs Lavatrax

The Lavatrax website gives a range of skill and fitness levels to help you decide which rides might be suitable. In addition to a description, each ride has a graph showing the ascent/descent profile of the ride. I like to pedal and so chose the Vilaflor Caminos ride, simply because it seemed to have the most ascent in addition to a great sounding descent! Having recently spent a week riding in Wales I felt that I should be able to handle much of what Tenerife had to offer. To a certain extent this was true, but I don’t think anything can prepare you for the sensation of riding on lava or pumice – it’s like trying to ride in a foam pit, just hurts more if you fall!

Rock garden central!

As I was only riding for a day I hired a bike and simply took my own saddle, pedals and helmet. At the time I was predominantly riding clipless which, given the skittish nature of the lava, wasn’t necessarily the best, but by the time I’d realised that I was half way down the volcano and it was too late! After the requisite coffee and cake stop on the way up we were dropped off and continued to climb fire roads on the bikes. The scenery was stunning: a mix of woods, rocks, lava and giant cacti.

Soon we were flying down single-track and fire roads as we started our descent, heading towards the coast. There were a couple of steep sections of northshore that were beyond me at the time but otherwise the ride matched the description well in terms of fitness and skill level. What I hadn’t taken into account, having never done an uplift was that I would feel slightly frustrated at not feeling totally exhausted after a 4hour ride 😉. My inner sadist, clearly needs more pedalling in order to earn her descents! With this in mind I was careful in booking my next biking adventure in Portugal.

Darren's end cap solution - best ever?

Until this summer I’d never been on holiday on my own and I was intrigued to see what it was like. So, I booked 3.5 days riding in Portugal with Jim Carroll and The Mountain Bike Adventure. Again, the website offers comprehensive descriptions of the routes and divides them by X-Country and All Mountain/freeriding. After chatting to Jim via email and explaining what kind of riding I did at home and what I was looking for – pedally/single-track/all mountain – I left it to Jim to choose my routes for me. Seeing the variety of guests as the week went on, I came to appreciate quite how hard it can be to match riders to trips.

Having decided to travel alone I thought I’d make it a proper adventure and take my bike too! Arriving in Portugal with a backpack and my faithful Boardman full suss (my Juliana Roubion was still on order at that point) I felt like an intrepid explorer and the temptation to unpack the bike at the airport and simply ride off was huge! Travelling with your own bike has to be the adult equivalent of taking a favourite teddy – no matter how good or well maintained a hire bike is, I always prefer riding my own.

Clearly I'm not alone in wanting to arrive and ride!

To the bemusement of my landlord, I pitched up at my Airbnb, unpacked my tools and re-built my bike before pedalling across town to Jim’s base to leave the bike for the week. I have used Airbnb a lot this year on riding trips and once again it provided cheap, clean and central accommodation where I could make my own food and meet fellow travellers.

Biking breakfast Portuguese style!

Jim led most of the rides: a font of biking knowledge with a calm nature and a dry sense of humour he's just what you need for guiding a mixed group of riders over unknown terrain. With a range of routes that take full advantage of the local area our first day’s riding was a gentle loop inland which included a long, fast single-track descent before heading along the irrigation canals back to the coast.

First day gang, with Jim (left) and my new mate Tim (behind me) who rode all week

For the second day’s riding we headed along the coast in the opposite direction following a mix of coastal walking tracks, with exciting technical descents and an excruciatingly challenging technical climb! On the final full day of riding we did another coastal loop, stopping for lunch in a lovely beach café on the sand dunes.

Not wanting to waste my last day, I snuck in a half day ride before packing up my bike and flying home. After driving away from the coast we unloaded the bikes and headed off along dusty trails that wove their way through bushes and scrub to reach a village where we stopped for coffee before then heading back to the landy and trailer.

Sunny coffee stops are ace!

The highlight of this ride was definitely seeing a majestic white eagle soaring above the plains, but watching Jim narrowly escape riding into a bush while trying to take a photo definitely came a close second 😉.

The picture was worth it ;-)?

Whereas I hadn’t had enough pedalling in Tenerife I had lots in Portugal. The only shame was that I wasn’t able to do the spectacular Monchique ride that would have given more technical challenge as well as the chance to swim in a mountain lake mid-ride! Looks like I’ll just have to go back for that!

Fun in the landy with Meaghan

I really recommend riding in other countries if you get a chance – it’s an awesome way to meet people and see a place. My top tip from all this summer’s riding abroad is to spend time talking to the company so that you can get a feel for the rides they offer and match them to your skills and fitness level. Now to planning next year's 'fun in the sun' biking adventures!