Tips for riding up Mount Teide?

Thanks for a really
Thanks for a really interesting write up. I was hoping you’d let us know how you got on, having read the tips with interest. It’s a huge achievement and if you never do another big climb, you did this one. Brilliant.

Unless you’re intending on

Unless you’re intending on incorporating Teide into a longer ride, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.  It’s a relatively short distance, albeit all uphill, so probably a 2hr uphill ride followed by 30 minutes downhill (at 4x the speed).  There only so much your body can process in this time, though you should replace what you’re using.

Assuming that you’re going there for a week or so and are intending to ride it more than once, treat the first ascent as a recce, i.e. take it easy and then plan a faster ascent once you know the road and where you’ll be tested and where you can recover or press on.  

If you’ve got the correct gearing, stick within your riding limits, drink and eat little and often, you should be fine.   Another good tip is cutting bananas in half, that way you don’t eat too much at once, don’t have to peel them whilst cycling, and can just squeeze them into your mouth…

martinsynapse wrote:

Great Dun Fell & Honister are less enjoyable on the down because they are single track with tight curves, so you could easily find yourself doing 35+ mph into blind bends + facing tourist car traffic head on.

No tourist cars on GDF, surely? Suicidal sheep, yes…we did it on a day there was a 60kph wind blowing directly in our faces up the climb, absolute hell, but the descent was extraordinary – that dip around the middle, just got blown up and over it without pedalling, combined with the perfect road surface I hit 79kph and could have got more if I hadn’t been so frit.

Depending on your power to

Depending on your power to weight ratio, ensure you have adequate gearing: 50/34 chainset with a 34 cassette are about as low as you can go with conventional equipment.  Teide isn’t that steep, but it’s long.

As many have said, there’s not much you can do to prepare for a 20k plus climb in the UK apart from ride up the hills we have, perhaps using interval training to push yourself into the red to see how you cope.

Then gilet / armwarmers, your liquids, bananas, gels if you get on with them, and a good breakfast.  

I sometimes tape gels and chewy food to my bars so I’m not fiddling around in my back pockets when I’m at my limit. Eat small and often and start earlier than you normallly would.

Then it’s just man versus mountain. Enjoy. 

For a long descent, it’s

For a long descent, it’s worth doing some finger grip strength exercises with something like this.

We think about braking technique (not dragging the brakes & alternating front/rear to allow rims/rotors to cool), but not often about training hand muscles to prevent cramp, which can be a problem on a very long descent.

Also, I’d have a practise somewhere safe at the emergency braking technique of putting your heel on the back wheel.

Damn I’m jealous!

I’ve not climbed Teide, but I

I’ve not climbed Teide, but I’ve done Ventoux, Stelvio and a few other big ones.  Training wise, I’d suggest fast efforts e.g ‘2×20’ minutes on flat roads but up on the hoods is a reasonable simulation for the sort of effort a long climb like that is.  Make sure you get out of the saddle from time to time and shift your weight about a bit, for a break.  I’ve found a HRM handy to avoid getting over-excited early on and overdoing it, only to pay the penalty an hour or so later…

If you have Zwift, a few goes at climbs like Ven-Top and Alpe du Zwift wouldn’t do any harm.

Clothes… I’ve generally found that the heat generated from the effort has kept me warm in summer gear, even when there was a metre of snow at the roadside!  However, make sure you quickly cover up at the top if you stop as your sweat soaked clothes and the wind can be chilling… keep a rain jacket, arm warmers and gillet in your back pockets.

Just to add to the good advice below,  make sure you look up from your stem and pause from time to time to take in the changing views which I’m sure will be great… and then look forward to the descent!