Matt Stephens jets off to the Canary Islands for what he hoped would be a nice relaxing holiday. With 300 days of sunshine a year, Lanzarote is the perfect place to relax and put your feet up after a busy summer. However, the hilly volcanic terrain and steady year round temperatures also makes it the perfect training ground for top triathletes with Kona on their radar. Already in holiday mode, Matt is in for a rude awakening when he learns that Lucy Charles Barclay has scheduled a full training day for him, in this amphibious episode of the Sigma Sports Café Ride.
In the pool, Matt must first master his diving technique, before using all of the strokes in his arsenal to complete a single length. Both athletes are at home on the road for the bike leg, before rounding out the day with a short run around the local lagoon. But with Matt’s foot still healing from a fracture, how long can he keep up with Lucy?
Throughout the day, Matt explores the mind of a multiple world champion, trying to understand how she overcomes obstacles like solitude and pain to win her titles. Perhaps Lucy’s strongest asset might be her mentality, and Matt’s best diving efforts are of the conversational variety.
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The Route
The Sigma Sports Cafe Ride took its first trip to the Canary Islands for a truly memorable spin around the north of Lanzarote. The ride started and finished at Club La Santa, Lucy took Matt on a loop which saw the pair climb out of La Santa and towards the town of Tinajo. Exploring the volcanic landscape, Matt and Lucy stopped to admire the many wine groves before turning back towards the coast for a downhill run back towards to Soo and then a stop at Bike Stop Cafe in La Santa to finish the ride.
Enjoying the coastline and picturesque lagoon around Club La Santa, Matt and Lucy swapped bikes out for running shoes and took on Lucy’s favourite run route, before finishing at Club La Santa to wrap up one of our most active Cafe Rides to date.
The Bike
As a CUBE athlete, Lucy has taken her bike to glory at many Ironman events around the world and channeling the same winning feeling Matt jumped aboard the LITENING AERO C:68X SLX Road Bike, equipped with a SRAM RED groupset. The LITENING AERO boasts, as the name suggests, aero credentials but also complements it with a Newmen Streem Aero/Sprint 60/66 Vonoa wheelset which is lightweight and responsive.
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Technology
Tricked out with a range of performance and safety focused Wahoo products, Matt Stephens’ bike housed Wahoo’s ultra advanced ELEMNT ROAM 3 GPS Bike Computer, Wahoo Speedplay Zero Pedals and a Wahoo TRACKR RADAR Rear Light. The latter ensuring approaching vehicles were picked up and Matt was able to be notified on his ROAM head unit.
Clothing
Lanzarote, as well as being renowned for its wind, is also one of the warmest locations we have visited on the Cafe Ride. With over 300 days of sun a year, the kit of choice for Matt for this episode had to include a super ventilated helmet, in the form of a KASK Protone Icon. This was paired with Universal Colours’ Chroma range that kept Matt both cool and comfortable. For the run Ciele shorts and a Universal Colours Tech Tee was the perfect choice for a swift 5k. No triathlon or Ironman is quite complete without a swim, and the Orca Killa Goggles and Orca Core Jammer was a fine pairing for Matt’s maiden Cafe Ride swim.
Want to explore the series? Find out about the other Sigma Sports Cafe Ride guests and watch all the episodes.
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