Fréjus training camp

[Sylv]

Have to say that has to have been the best training camp ever and simply one of the best week’s hols too. Won’t do detailed report but we had 2 girls 8 guys, getting on great, and 5 full days of awesome riding. Weather despite horrific forecast was in fact beautiful and mild, ten minutes of droplets is all the wetness we had all week. We clocked 550km with 7,700m of climbing but that doesn’t half tell the story of how hard we were all pushing ourselves at times. The inland ride to St Tropez must rank in my top 5 road rides ever, and the new climb on the way there my new favourite. We all agreed the girls did amazing, they did probably 90-95% of that distance, often just the two of them as they would set off in advance, Kate on her heavy bike (gotta sort that out soon ; ) and Becks who would then trash Matt and I on our post-ride hilly run! But don’t be fooled that was as much a holiday as anything as all that was followed with lumps of great food and alcohool, and constant laughter and p*ss take. I felt tired on the last day but so much fitter already. Huge thanks to Richard our host and Paul for organising and driving down and providing most of the comedy, and well done to the other guys Darren, Andy, Dan and Nick for daring to enter the Honecamp, surviving it with honours and having a good laugh about it!

[Peachey]

What a great week away that was - hard rides, excellent scenery, great food and wine, and even better company. The evening entertainment and banter made the hard days all worthwhile.

From a training point of view - I certainly feel stronger for the rides and am really pleased with the power numbers collated for the week. I certainly didn't think I was capable of some of the levels seen. We really did go hard every day and I got home with nothing left - the rides were challenging in different ways on every day - Paul, Sylv and Matt were immense all week and the girls did fantastically well.

Big thanks to our hosts Richard and Paul for organising some awesome rides and a great trip....! Can't wait for 2012...!

Darren

[Fat Robbie]

any pictures to share with us !

[Kate]

Yep - thanks boys for looking after me and Beck's...I think we both agree from a training point and social point one of the best weeks!

[matt chapman]

As Sylv and Peachy said it was an awesome week with a lot of laughter and even more suffering!

Many thanks to Paul and Richard for organising a cracking trip.... same time next year? hopefully my legs will have recovered by then!

Just uploaded some photos to facebook that hopefully everybody should be able to view, let me know if not and I will post them on flickr -

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid= ... aid=639050

[nick de meyer]

it was a brilliant training camp i agree with sylv, i've been on camps before and this was the best by far! so much fun on and off the bike, great views, suffering for sure on the hills, and the pacelines home after lunch will definitely be something to remember esp back from st tropez!
thanks to everyone for making it such an enjoyable experience, from a socially and cycling viewpoint, and to paul and richard for organising, and for the routes too!

[George]

awesome photos looked like I missed out on an ace time.
The train looks like the best option to get down there to me
For sure I'll be there next year

[Sylv]

There were too many epic battles on the bike to tell but I just have to mention the last big day and the ride to the infamous Col de Hone and back. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/74555323

Everybody had been strong all week and on the climbs especially Matt, Paul and Richard (though Darren, Dan and Andy were still motoring on the flat) but there were some tired legs on day 5, but with Paul seemingly getting the better of his knee injury and improving each day.

After 38km of hilly riding we entered the small village of Bargemon where we waited for the girls but where Paul would not allow me to take a pee break before the 8km climb, I needed some food too but after a few bites of my DYI energy bar he told me that was enough. So we all started the climb and soon enough Paul and I were at the front in each other’s wheel. Paul let me lead for a while and I was from time to time putting some little digs to test him. He was breathing increasingly hard to the point when I thought he was getting sick and it was time to properly attack, little did I know that this was yet another of his shady tactics and we was soon again on my wheel.

After a few more attacks I realised that we were not Contador and Schleck and that this was going to be too painful if we carried it all the way. At that point of course Paul attacked big time, and I couldn’t immediately respond. So I tried to slowly reel him in, which after a couple minutes looked like it wasn’t going to happen, so I decided to put a massive dig and then rest when I ‘d got back to him. Can’t remember at which point but in one of the attacks Paul went past and threw his full 1l bottle in the ditch, I knew it was getting nasty then so threw mine too and narrowly avoided hitting him with it (shame).

In the end we stayed together for the rest of the climb, I think we were both pretty tired and happy to have held on to the other one, the top (980m alt.) came closer than we’d both expected too, so we rolled in past the painted finish line soft-pedalling (didn’t stop Paul afterwards claiming the win by half a wheel though).

After a nice meal in Bargemon we rode back 45km the same way. The guys were letting me take long turns on all the downhills so I gathered there were more tactics going on. Later on Paul and I got away a little, were had some downhilling before the village of Bagnols so my plan was to lead Paul on the downhills to make him work as hard as me as he wouldn’t be able to hold my wheel, then let him do the work on the small climbs to Bargemon, and then finally drop him on the twisty descent following. But Paul was holding his own on the descents, and also Matt and Richard had caught him up and they were working together to get back to me.

At the bottom of the descent and before more climbing I decided to let them come past but wasn’t going quite fast enough and obviously Paul then attacked, very hard. Matt and I were able to chase and I was confident that as had been the case previously we’d reel him in, but Paul was obviously giving 100% with his eyes on his Powertap as the 100m gap was not going down. Still, there was more crazy downhilling to come after that summit to reach the campsite, so I wasn’t getting too worried. Matt had found his legs again and when he took his turns on the way down I was struggling to stay on his wheel. We were getting a little closer to Paul but not enough! The final stretch was flat with a small climb to the campsite, and I would have like to see Paul’s face as he was digging deep in the final stages, having kept us as bay for so long.

We were all completely shattered but had to keep a poker face so casually rolled into the campsite as if nothing had happened