Yesterday afternoon I took the hire bike for it’s first spin. A quick 30km to open the taps. I think the bike is a touch small for me and annoyingly the seatpost has been cut so when I took it out to find the min insertion line there wasn’t one so I had to have it out as far as I could keeping some of the post safely in the seat tube. The result being a clicky saddle for the ride.
Today I’m going to tweak it a bit by turning the stem over and pushing the saddle back a touch.
Onto the ride and I just did a regular loop I’ve done a few times before. Out of town via, what I call Volcano Alley as the gravel road twists and turns, up and down around a couple of them. At times when I rode through an airless pocket the heat was pretty intense but the wind was welcome as I climbed over the high point past Calderon Hondo, a popular tourist spot to walk up to the rim.
So far the gravel roads had been wide, as they are used by cars, but as I descended and whizzed past a couple on bikes I took a right onto some quite fast but rocky singletrack. This great little track keeps you on your toes as you pick your lines and brings you into the back side of Larajes and ironically onto beautifully smooth tarmac which was a welcome break from the rocky trail.
Although the bike has a cheap coil spring fork, they are quite plush and do offer some help on the offroad sections.
Forks locked out, it was road all the way now into a really tough but refreshing headwind. Straight, out to the coast to pick up the coast trail back at Majanicho. I forgot how long this section was. It seemed to go on forever but there is a nice, long straight descent to the sea that opens up in front of you.
Cross tailwind now all the way back with the occasional head and tailwind as the gravel washboard surface followed the twists of the coast road. This part of the island is very popular with surfers and kite boarders because of the waves and wind that roll in. It just looks awesome.
Eventually the tips of the wind turbines that sit on the outskirts of Corralejo came into view so I knew I didn’t have long now. The trail turned south and I finished the offroad at 20mph before it dumps you out on the main road to the harbour. Ride done, I decided to have a ride through town and catch up with Sally before back to the apartment for a shower.
Back on it tomorrow
