Fantasy Island

Despite some ups and downs,Cyclist finds true love on the ‘forgotten’ Canary Island of La Gomera.

- Trevor Ward

It was love at first sight – I had never seen curves so sinuous, alluring and mysterious. Unfortunately, my wife was with me, so I would have to wait until the next day for a closer look.

I took the local bus and beat an elderly German hiker to a window seat. As well as enjoying the views, I listened for every change of pitch and whine in the engine. Apart from a couple of sections where it seemed the gears would start smoking under the strain, the gradients felt constant and manageable. The road surface appeared smooth and unblemished.

And then a glance to my right after just 5km sealed my love: the view back down the valley showed a series of bends uncoiling towards a cluster of brightly coloured buildings and, shimmering across the sea wreathed in a wispy halo of cloud, the snow-streaked silhouette of Mount Teide. In the middle of a romantic break with my wife, I had found the road of my dreams. But my love would remain unrequited until I could return with a bike.

A year later, I am back on the Canary Island of La Gomera with a Pinarello Razha and a 106km route uploaded to my Garmin.

Object of desire 

As the ferry from Tenerife approaches the harbour of San Sebastián de la Gomera, my pulse quickens. Will the object of my desire from a year ago still have the capacity to thrill?

There it is, snaking upwards from the town’sjumble of pastel-coloured houses along one side of a deep ravine towards unseen, mist-shrouded peaks.