Teidi & Tenerife

ads77

hi all,

Planning a trip to Tenerife and would love to attempt Mt Teidi. Will be staying in the south if the island. Any advice? Anybody had an experience of Teidi from the south?

Cheers,

A.

glynrs2

I have done Teide from El Medano several times.
You have a choice of routes up to Villaflor, which is a good place to stop before you head on up.
This is the map that they have at BikePoint in El Medano to help with route planning:
link

The most popular route up is from Granadilla to Villaflor. The toughest is Charco de Pino to Villaflor; the bottom part of which is a Strava segment called "Team Sky Test", but that is actually not the hardest part of that climb!

Whichever way you go up it is about 30 miles of continuous climbing and around 6,900 feet before you drop down into the crater.

jimmurray

Here is route I did from Las Americas with Club Activo

https://www.strava.com/activities/215091361

I'm not a climber but climb up to San Miguel wasn't too bad. Granadilla to Vilafor was lovely, a really, a really nice climb at a steady gradient, think I did it in a single gear. Vilafor to the crater was tough.

navrig2

We were there a couple of years ago. The cycling is great.

Have a look on Google maps

The TF-21 is in very good condition. Above Villaflor the road condition was excellent for both climbing and descents.

The TF-51 is OK but be careful on the bends during the descent as there are a lot of ripples in the surfacing, probably caused by coaches braking on hot tarmac. The ripple will unsettle your braking as you go into the corners.

Avoid the TF-563 as the surface, 2 years ago, was pretty poor.

In the southwest the route from Santiago del Teide on the TF-436 to Buena Vista is great although challenging. We started near Chio and returned via the TF-42 then the TF-421 and then TF-82.

If you get the chance the roads and scenery in the very north are lovely although it's hard to get a circular route. We cycled out to Chamorga and back. It's much greener and you are more likely to experience damp roads/rain.

harry-s

I've ridden up Teide a few times, usually from Adeje or Los Cristianos, and it's a climb I like a lot.
From Los Cristianos it's more like a 20-25 mile climb (TF51-TF21), depending on whether you carry on through the crater to the Parador Hotel or not. I don't usually bother, the road surface is very poor, -after you drop over the crater lip there's a car park and viewing spot, which is a good turnaround point.
A lovely open descent too.

alh14

Is there anywhere on an early Sunday morning to refill your bottles ? I'm planning to go up early Sunday morning in a few weeks time to avoid the heat and tourist traffic but off course two bidons won't be enough.

chippyk

alh14 wrote:

Is there anywhere on an early Sunday morning to refill your bottles ? I'm planning to go up early Sunday morning in a few weeks time to avoid the heat and tourist traffic but off course two bidons won't be enough.

I'm actually sat at Vilaflor cooling down at the moment, it's a lovely climb from Los Christianos, traffic is light after the turn on to TF-51 and the tarmac smooth. There are lots of shops and a few petrol stations to stop at but I don't know what time they open. I'm no climber and out of shape due to injury but I've barely been out of the saddle all the way.

Go early, I left late and the Garmin was showing 45C in the sun, I seriously underestimated the heat, I've drunk nearly 6 litres since leaving the hotel and haven't had a wee, I stopped at nearly every cafe or shop to buy more water. And wear lots of sun lotion, it's crazy in the sun. My other tip is if your hotel has a freezer, stick your bottles in over night.

alh14

Cheers chippy, sounds hot work

carbonclem

Ive done it a few times from the south coast, usually Easter time. Ive set off with two bidons, bought a bottle of water at Villaflor and thats been sufficient. Mid Summer will be different though I guess.

Sometimes I go across the the Parador but its a bit of a pain, poor surfaces, lots of tourist traffic and some nasty drags .... I guess you have to do it at least once though. My last couple of ascents I just stopped at the park entrance and went back.

bigmat

Loop I did from El Medano area, up to Teide, over the other side and back along the coast.

https://www.strava.com/activities/497192188

Brutally hard. Block headwind for the first section before the climbing started. The climb is actually fine, never too steep and quite varied, but it was blowing a gale (headwind again) at the top past the Parador. Once I came out the other side and started descending I ended up in rain clouds and temperatures dropped so pretty unpleasant wet and cold descent with very poor visibility. The coastal road back was up and down with barely a flat km. Seriously hard work! Great fun though.

Tiesetrotter

Few more pointers here:
viewtopic.php?f=40013&t=13084467&p=20220644&hilit=Tenerife#p20220644

I went up a few times. Really didn't like the main route up. The quieter routes were very good. The cafe just after Vilaflour on the way up is really good.

Tiesetrotter

Also do try and get out to Masca. The rides around that corner of the island are stunning. The coast road along the south is not nice though.