20170506 Fun in the Mountains Week

Mountains, mountains and more mountains this week! This was a really fun filled week with a small group of riders but all of different abilities and with different requirements from the week. Lawrence was first to arrive and he wanted lots of km’s and m’s of altitude. So day 1, 136km, 2,300m, not the normal easing it into the week ride! Next day was the newer arrivals day 1, so we did a more typical start of the ride week by going to Petra and enjoyed a 100km with 630m of altitude gains. As we were going to be riding the Andratx to Puerto Pollenca MA-10 on Tuesday, we thought Sa Calobra would be a good warm up the day before, so that was Mondays route. Well done to David Cole for a superb performance on the day! I think the others were thinking about Tuesday! We had some fresh legs with Gavin Targonski joining us for 2 days, so together with Lawrence Levin, David Cole, Ben Price, Colin Duff and myself we headed to Andratx and enjoyed a great day out traversing the MA-10 route back. Sunshine, stunning views, superb cycling and all indelibly etched into the memory banks! Some riders learned the importance of prior preparation (recovered legs and body), some pacing themselves on the day (or lack of it!) and others simply had a great day out! Wednesday was a ride out to Randa (a mere 1,000m of altitude, nothing after the previous days…), a first for Lawrence and Gavin. Thursday was more climbing with a number of groups through the favourite Orient village with the Cols d’Honor and Orient depending on the direction you went. The crazy group (Mark and James) went the very long way round, via Femenia, Cuber and Soller. Friday saw the 2nd ride to Sa Calobra this week, for some, while the others went through the pretty lanes around Mancor and then over the Col de sa Batalla. Saturday was tired legs and the end to a fantastic weeks cycling for most and it probably took a few days for the scale of the achievements to truly sink in! Well done all! Last day for James, a ride out past the 1/2 Ironman competitors round the bay, then via Sencelles to Sineu and the obligatory few laps of the track. Despite 2 days of mountains, James posted a very quick 24 secs lap!