Lovely Lanzarote

Now I really do have imposter syndrome.

Lanzarote is where it's at when it comes to triathletes. Anyone who is anyone in cycling or triathlon goes to Lanzarote. So what's all the fuss?

I wasn't particularly interested in diving there...nor caving there (nice lava tubes apparently but you're not allowed to dive them - so I immediately lost interest in taking caving diving kit).

Cueva de Los Verdes, Lanzarote

But I'd just taken delivery of a new road bike. It was barely out of the box when I stuffed it into a rental bike bag and put it on the plane (the fully integrated cockpit meant I could forget dismantling it to shoehorn it into a hard box - just wasn't happening).

Never in my life have I taken a bike on a plane...but luckily Jet2 were quite accustomed to it and I was met with very good customer service from them at the airport and my bike arrived intact.

The hotel check in queue left a lot to be desired, but once settled I was able to build my bike and get some sleep.

The next day I decided to out for a shakedown spin from the hotel. One thing that Lanzarote is famous for is wind. And it’s proper wind!

The volcanoes offer very little shelter and it’s not uncommon to battle 30mph winds on the bike. Descending fast might be fun, but it is super dangerous in Lanza. The road surfaces however are super smooth and the traffic is very patient and tolerant of cyclists.

Moonscapes, architecture, volcanoes, cactus, lava fields and coffee. All in a day’s cycling on Lanzarote.

Over the next fortnight I rode 220 miles, climbing 16,149 feet and sea kayaked 23 miles. On the advice of a colleague Andy ‘Wish’ McColl I joined him on some day trips with Sea Kayaking Lanzarote and also some coaching sessions which really showed up my capability – or lack of – in a sea kayak.

The first trip we took the ferry over to La Graciosa, a small island off the northern tip of Lanzarote. The ferry seemed quite used to sea kayaks and happily loaded them on board whilst we grabbed coffee and a snack.

I ended up making friends with two British guys; one was an ironman athlete and coach; the other had done triathlons, iron mans etc and they were great company and happy to have me along on bike rides. Mark Julier insisted in giving up a day of his programme (ok, it was his rest day) to come out for a ride with me to th every highest point of the island. A bit nervous as my climbing speed is sloooooow, I grudgingly agreed. He kept feeding me bananas until we finally got to his favourite cafe at the observatory and he ordered us both his favourite sandwich.

The views were stunning but I couldn’t help pointing out that the sky looked a bit ‘dark’. At that very moment, the heavens opened and were accompanied by a clap of thunder and flash of lightening. We decided to have another coffee and sandwich and wait for it to blow through.

Almost an hour later the sky had got darker, more lightening happened and we realised we were in for a cold, wet, miserable downhill ride for 2 hours. Nervously we started to get our bikes ready. My Di2 (electric gear shifters) started playing up and we couldn’t get the bike into a lower gear at all. After some fiddling we got it moving but the heavens opened even harder and we ran for cover. It became clearer over time, as a dozens of different nationalities of cyclists turned into the cafe utterly frozen and drenched, that we weren’t going to be riding home.

Keen to get ahead of the game, we made the decision early to get a taxi. Unbeknown to us, this was the smartest thing we could have done.

A large taxi turned up, happy to take both us and the bikes. As the driver stepped out of the vehicle he insisted on showing us his phone, pointing at it frantically saying ‘Look! Look! I never see this before!"

On the way up to us he had taken photos and video of what looked like snow. Confused and not convinced, we put our bikes in the car quickly. Still feeling like complete wimps, we set off back towards Costa Teguise.

Snow in Lanzarote! Mark with his favourite sandwich up at the highest point on the island.

We couldn’t quite believe what we were seeing. Rivers of brown mud ran down the roads and mountain run-off surged across the road. The fields to either side were smattered in snow as the sleet continued to hammer down. The temperature was sub zero. We started to realise just how dangerous attempting a descent would have been. Apart form hypothermia, a crash would have been inevitable as the roads just weren’t rideable. Now feeling rather more smug than stupid, we arrived back at the hotel for a well earned drink.

Barcelo hotel complete with 50m swimming pool - and a cat.

While I was out there I received a random message from my old school friend Debra Bond. She was staying at La Santa – famous for triathlon training camps – so I met up with her for a classic ride around the Taminfaya national park. It was so amazing to catch up with an old school friend I’d not seen for decades and it was as if we’d never been away.

We had a nice lunch and then set off with a howling head wind that seemed to follow us all round the park. It was brutal heading back to La Santa but a good leg stretch.

Sea Kayaking Lanzarote gave us a lovely tour of the north western coastline of Lanzarote, to a place called Famara. It got a bit choppy and the soaring cliffs treated us to a dramatic landscape. We were surprised to see what looked like little fishermans huts embedded in the cliffs and realised they were actually houses!

I spent another day with them learning some self rescue skills -which are much harder than they look - and watching other paddlers trying to drown Wish as he did some capsize recovery drills.

Lanzarote is a serious playground. It has all the things I like, even though I didn’t bother with any diving or caving - but it’s there if you want it.

For me, it was a wonderful way to be spoilt for sports and to be able to cycle, swim and kayak until my heart’s content was a total joy.

I made some great friends and it really inspired me to continue my triathlon journey.