Winter in the UK isn't exactly a time or place you want to spend a holiday at, let alone training. Punctures, icy roads, heavy rain and frozen temperatures all make for tough, even depressing training. For this year I made the best of it for as long as I could, although some days looking out the window was a test to my motivation.
So when I had word of some friends going to Spain for a training camp it was too good and opportunity to pass up. 4 weeks in dry weather is a good prospect, so upon arriving the weather quickly dropped from 20'C down to 10'C, I pretty much brought the bad weather with me! However it's still better than home so I couldn't complain. Calpe is just up the road from Benidorm...sadly no drinking and clubbing to be done on this holiday ;)
2 weeks on and the weather finally got to a stage of being warm, ditch the arm warmers up the climbs combined with the dry days and I'm now feeling alot more positive about the forthcoming season. Plenty of long mountain climbs and low traffic rural roads made for some ideal riding, loads of the ProTour teams come out here for the early part of the year so it must be good! In fact we've seen plenty of them about on the roads, Astana, Rabobank, Saxobank, Quickstep, Radioshack, BMC and more have all been spotted training in the area - sadly they won't let us ride with them but the feelings of grandeur are still there!
Of course in between training we've got to chill out in between our big rides, and the best way to do that is through humour to get us through the pain. I'll let you know about our biking banter soon, the Forme team riders have all been a great laugh in keeping the spirits up!
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