You know, I first knew about the website “Tenerife Bike Training” over a year ago while I was searching for my own site. I wasn’t too worried as they weren’t in the top 10 search results anyway. Why give them additional exposure?
Although, I have to say for the record, initially I wasn’t too pleased because apart from partly copying our original name Tenerife-Training, they actually copied the names of our own routes! Too bad I don’t have a screen shot to show you. Neither does it appear on thewaybackmachine.org. Anyway, they’ve since rectified that issue.
But then, earlier this year, they actually called me up pretending to be part of some questionnaire for La Laguna University. And when they started asking too many questions about bike hire, I responded that I wasn’t going to reveal too much information without knowing exactly who I was talking to. They promptly hung up. Great.
What continues to annoy me about their site is their authenticity. They make claims and show you photos of racks of Focus bikes for example. They appear to be stock photos to me. Perhaps they get their bikes from Bike Point. Or perhaps they can’t supply any bikes at all. Who knows?
More worrying is that a quick search of their business number reveals this:
| Denominación: |
DELGADO GONZALEZ ALBERTO |
| Domicilio Social: |
AVENIDA A… |
| Localidad: |
38003 SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE ( Tenerife ) |
| Forma Jurídica: |
Empresario individual |
| NIF: |
78610109-L |
| Actividad Informa: |
Salones e institutos de belleza |
| CNAE 2009: |
9602 Peluquería y otros tratamientos de belleza |
| Fecha último dato: |
18 de Enero de 2013 |
| Popularidad: |
Esta empresa ha sido consultada por última vez el de de y 1 veces en total |
So it’s registered to a Beauty Salon franchise:
Whether or not they can provide the bikes they advertise, I think potential customers who do go out on training rides with them should ask themselves what is likely to happen in the event of an accident. Are they covered? Do they pay taxes? Do they contribute to the social security system? Because from where I’m standing they don’t appear to be a legitimate business at all. They don’t even appear to have the correct business activity registered. Looks to me like they are using their DNI in place of an actual CIF number.
Oh and while I’m at it, no I don’t think cycling in Tenerife is for everyone. I wouldn’t agree that it’s for beginners. It’s the world’s third largest island volcano for fucks sake. Stop the lies people.
(you know, two of the most popuar sitcoms in Spain are essentially based on lies: “Aida” and “Lo Que Se Avecina”. And tell me – where do the main characters always end up? They’re almost always worse off)
For what it’s worth, I often refer people to other cycling websites in Tenerife, but the way it stands, I simply cannot recommend these guys to anyone.
Tags: News Reel by Dr. Leslie Brown
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Winter has been very busy & it’s that time of year again (Spring) when we need to disconnect and go on a holiday ourselves! This is actually a honeymoon vacation and we’ll be visiting Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria as well as New South Wales. As always, looking forward to starting work feeling refreshed. We plan to be back in Tenerife by July 5th, 2013. We’ll still have internet / email access so feel free to submit your bike reservations during this time… Thank you, Leslie.
