Tenerife Island with Kamil Tatarkovic

Leaving the frigid Winter days of the Czech Republic for the warmth of sunshine and endless riding of Tenerife Island (one of the Canary Islands) was a simple choice.
The first time that I came to the Tenerife Island (one of the Canary Islands) was 4 years ago and that place simply amazed me. Why? It is simple. Winter it the Czech Republic isn't really the ideal place for mountain biking and for about 3-4 months we have snow and freezing temperatures like the rest of the central Europe. Another reason is that we don ́t have good conditions for riding downhill or freeriding. And on Tenerife in January you can easily ride in shorts and a t-shirt and do freeride runs with almost 2000 meters of elevation to them. It is something completely different than what we have here in Czech.

During those 4 years I wanted to come back to Tenerife, but school and other circumstances weren't on my side. Finally this year I was able to put it all together, plan the trip to this great place again and enjoy a few days riding in the sun with dust on the ground. And no snow at all!





With my friend Martin we packed our freeride bikes and flew to Tenerife for 10 days of riding and hard training for the upcoming fourcross season. Our base was in the city of Puerto de la Cruz which is probably the best place for riding bikes on Tenerife. Every morning there is bus coming up to the Pico del Teide (El Portillo bus station) and you can use it as a shuttle for downhill runs. At the top (at almost 2000m) you just have to choose one of many DH/FR trails that bring you back down to the sea. It is good to meet and ride with some local riders as they know exactly where you can ride. They are really nice people and can also take you to the best tracks on island, not just from El Portillo. On the week days we'd usually run into 5-10 other riders, but on weekends the bus is typically full of bikers and it is hard to get in with your bike. The cost is around 3,50 euro per trip, but you can have it cheaper if you buy a bus credit ticket for multiple runs. This is just one of many possibilities for riding on Tenerife. Basically you can ride from the hill (Pico del Teide) to almost all sides of the island.




Another very good location is just north of the airport on Tenerife and La Laguna city. The direction to Teide is a great place for riding an XC bike. There are plenty of forest roads and you can find some great single track there as well. Endless riding.





If you come to Tenerife with a bike then you have to definitely visit a local bikepark. The best bike for bikepark riding is probably the freeride bike (about 4-6 inches of travel), but there are lots of guys riding downhill bikes, as well as some on hardtails. Shuttling here is provided by a truck and it takes you about 15minutes to make a run up and down. More info about riding and conditions of the bikepark can be found on www.bikeparktenerife.com.






For most of our stay we were riding from El Portillo down to Puerto. One day we tried the other side of the island and did one really long track that finished in Arafo. Some parts of this track were completely different and we were riding on the lava sand. It was great fun and the same feeling as on the snow (thankfully way warmer). On the last day we spent our time with Zeno and Gumi, who are really pushing biking on Tenerife, and they showed us one trail that they want to repair and make ready for biking. The trail was pretty long, not too much downhill, more like enduro riding, but there were still some really technical parts. The trail is in the natural park called Anaga (Parque Rural de Anaga). It starts on the hill called Pico del Ingles and finishes by the sea in Santa Cruz. This trail will be part of a trail network (approximately 5-6 trails enduro, freeride, dh) that should be opened in September. So the possibilities of riding on Tenerife will only increase.





Our last sunny and warm ride turned wet when the rain decided to join us. Thankfully it wasn't cold and we just enjoyed ripping the slightly muddy track while dodging cactus.

10 days were gone too fast and we had to return to the Czech Winter reality. We had sun and warm temperatures (about 20-25 degrees Celsius) almost every day, which for January is great. I can ́t thank the local guys who rode with us and showed us all the great riding enough. Thanks to Dani, Zeno, Moises and for sure bikeparktenerife.com.

If you are bored this Winter and don't like snow, you should try to go to Tenerife! I think you won't be disappointed! Check out my whole photo album from the trip here.

Cheers www.kamiltatarkovic.com

Posted In:
Stories Reader Stories