Due to the ever-mad weather in England from rain to snow it's not good for uninterrupted training, so for a generally safer option many riders head over to the Mediterranean island of Majorca where the terrain and weather is perfect for racking up those valuable training miles.
This is exactly what I did on January 9th as, up nice and early, I headed off to Stansted airport for twelve days of (hopefully) sun and good miles. I was going over with friend and fellow cyclist Andrew Griffiths and meeting up with Dan Patten and Russell Hampton who were already out there.
Plane boarded, and we were away. A few hours later and, landing in Palma, I was relieved to see my new Orbea Opal team bike safely off the plane! Soon we were on the local bus to our apartment in the popular Puerto Pollensa, which couldn't have been further away from the airport, on the north of the island.
Arriving and unpacking it was already close to 5pm so we relaxed, ate, and got an early night ready for the next day's first ride.
In the first two days we headed over a few climbs but stuck mainly to flatter roads and five hours each day. Day One consisted of the climb of Orient, which to our amazement had ice and snow at the top of it. Day Two and the climb of Randa was on the menu - a relatively short 5km climb but perfect for an effort. The third day - and this was when we went into the thick of the mountains with a climb upto Lluc and the notorious Sa Colobra climb. It was a hard day with over 2000 metres of climbing in four hours. The plan was to structure our time away with three days of training followed by one day easier on the bike. This is what we did on Wednesday, with an hour along the coast at recovery pace.
A very windy ride followed the next day where we rode up to San Salvador, my favourite climb on the island. We rode up steadily and saw the Lotto Pro team at the top. A good five hour ride and 150km. The next day was probably the most epic as I headed out alone. I tackled three major climbs: that of Orient, Puig Major and Soller. A really memorable day - five and a half hours and the warmest day so far which allowed arm and leg warmers.
Saturday, and a flatter day planned after last two days of climbing. We rode to Bunyola and came back down to the coast with four and half-hours on the clock. The following day was another easy one, where I did a longer core session and had a nice sit by the café.
The next three days were the start of my easy week, which consisted of shorter rides keeping HR and watts down. With nice warm weather the pre-breakfast rides along the coast road with the sun rising cannot be beaten! Soon, though, it was time to leave but, after a great block of training over 35 hours, I cannot wait to come back out for the team's training camp in February.
