KEEPING IT TEIDE

High altitudes, year-round sunshine – and intense demand from pro teams.

- Emma Magnus

Emma Magnus f lies to Tenerife to test the volcanic pressure to secure lodgings on Mt Teide

 Outside the Parador Hotel at the foot of Mount Teide, Tenerife, the sun shines with a fierce intensity. At 2,200 metres above the cloud line, this is a surreal, volcanic lunarscape of teetering rock formations, black lava flows and dry, dusty land – presided over by the 3,718-metre-high volcano. And inside, equally surreally, the hotel is packed with professional cyclists.

“When you’re in the Alps, it kind of feels normal, because there’s civilisation around. Here, there’s just this one hotel, and miles to the nearest village. It’s barren,” says Geraint Thomas in an Ineos Grenadiers video. “It’s easily over 3,000m of climbing every day. It is unique. Everyone who comes here knows we’re here to work hard.”

Every year, WorldTour teams descend on Tenerife for winter altitude training camps. It is easy to see why: good altitude (above 2,000m), good roads and good weather (highs of 23ºC in March). “It’s simple,” Mathieu Heijboer, head of performance at Visma-Lease a Bike, tells me. “It’s the one place in Europe in the winter where the weather is good and you can stay at altitude.”