Tour of Cornwall 2014

Here are the proposed routes for the 3 days riding, which includes 2 groups to allow for the varied fitness levels. (2 groups are dependant on numbers)
**If you are planning to join this camp, please come with a reasonable amount of preparation as the terrain can be difficult**

MapMyRide: 85.89 mi Poco Loco Day 1 - Group 1
Distance: 85.89 mi
http://www.mapmyride.com/gb/newquay-eng/poco-loco-day-1-group-1-route-171962212=

MapMyRide: 72.37 mi Day 1 Poco Loco Grp B 2014
Distance: 72.37 mi
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/343846639

MapMyRide: 76.62 mi Day 2 Poco Loco Grp A route 2014
Distance: 76.62 mi
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/343830351

MapMyRide: 65.17 mi Day 2 Poco Loco B Route 2014
Distance: 65.17 mi
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/343838755

MapMyRide: 45.53 mi Day 3 Poco Loco 2014
Distance: 45.53 mi
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/343863197

Once again there will be prizes up for grabs for most determined rider and best performance in the training segments...men & women!
Prizes courtesy of Specialized Chester

Santa Susanna Masters Vuelta 2014 Updates: CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF ENTRIES

• Courses have been revised, but generally kept the same except the 'team time trial' will be only 9kms in length...which will please many!
• The Saturday course now has a fantastic return leg after the long main climb with the smoothest roads I have ever ridden, coupled with some beautiful views of the Pyrenees in the distance...race still 85km!
• Both time trials are pan flat, but do have tricky sections and some road surface issues, but nothing like here at home...again road bikes only!
• The road stages are tough, myself and Marcus Walker, although not race fit and on heavy hire bikes found them difficult...long climbs with some technical descents. **please don't take this event lightly, the stages are longer and more demanding than Majorca, so if you are thinking of riding please make sure you prepare for it**
• The race will be run in three separate categories, 40-49, 50-59 & 60+ 
• Time gaps betwen each group still to be confirmed by police.
• The Aqua Marina Hotel is currently being totally refurbished for 2014, we will be some of the first guests to be staying there and they have offered the Santa Susanna Masters Vuelta room upgrades with an extremely low supplement to any rider/family who would like to take-up this offer.
• All hotel reservations and payments will be made via Poco Loco Cycling, in which, once I receive your notification, including, what type of room, how many in the party & how long you would like  stay will forward you the bank transfer details...this will contain a reference which must be quoted when making payment (Please state if you would like to book your one free session at the Spa as this will need pre-booking!)

• IMPORTANT: Hotel reservations... Within 28 days all individual cancellations will be notified immediately by mail. Cancellations made more than 6 days prior to the client's arrival will result in a NIL cancellation charge. Cancellations made within 5 days prior to the client's arrival and no-show will result in a 100% cancellations.
• Flights can either be booked for Barcelona or Gerona (this is the closest) and depending on numbers asking for transfers, there will be a hotel bus available with a small fee incurred.

• Enter here:
  

Enter

Tour of Cornwall 2014

Back again for it's 4th edition the popular TOUR OF CORNWALL...

Beautiful scenery, quiet roads and some very tough challenges, all the right ingredients for a long weekend of cycling!

Please checkout the camps page on the Poco Loco site for further details...

Mallorca Classic Training Camp 2014

Rider list...

Nick Giles
Malc Giles
Nicola Collins (flight booked)
Stuart  (flight booked)
Matthew Collins
Dave Spencer
Elise Spencer + 2
Rich Whitley
Will Morgan
Sue Seller..tbc
Yvonne Amesbury (flight booked)
Ben Amesbury  (flight booked)
Gilbert Matthew (flight booked)
Paul Sanderson (Physio)
Warren Giddins
Dave Williams
Leah Williams

Mallorca Classic Training Camp 2014

Happy days, the hugely popular Mallorca Classic Training Camp is back for it's 3rd edition, this time offering an extended 10 day camp for all those hardened cyclists who just want to savor the extra miles on this Majestic Island.
Once again the Hotel Dunas Blancas will be looking after us with it's ideal location and friendly staff who helped us so much in previous years.

A similar format to the 2013 camp with a few subtle changes to keep the riders keen and the training fun!

Rider list will be posted on the Blog as they confirm their places....

For all information and prices please follow this link: Mallorca Classic 2014

Thanks

Nick

Post Mallorca Results

The rewards of the Mallorca Training Camp 2013...

With Mallorca over a month gone, the guys are returning some impressive results showing good form gained on the camp:

Dave Spencer - Silver at the TLI National Criterium Champs

Dave Spencer - 13th overall in Brenig Road Race 2/3/4

Dave Williams - 3.56 in Anfield 100 a PB and 3rd overall

Dave Williams - First group in Brenig Road race 2/3/4

Ryan Morley -   Top rider in club t.t. series 

Ryan Morley -   Team prize and 3rd overall in Chester r.c 25m t.t.

Ben Amesbury - Finisher in Anfield 100

Congratulations to all of above and to the others who came on the Mallorca Camp, please let me know your results/achievements.

Mallorca 2013

Mallorca Classic Training Camp 2013

Poco Loco Cycling would like to thank the following people for making the 2nd Mallorca training camp such a huge success...

David Williams - 'bring it on'

Leah Williams - 'the determined one'                                                  

A relaxing and happy group enjoying a well earned drink

David Spencer - 'mr slice'
Susan Seller - 'the adventurer'
Nicola Collins - 'im lovin'it'
Nick Giles - 'the lizard'
Malcolm Giles - 'the teacher'
Richard Whitley - 'tan your dick'
Ben Amesbury - 'never say die'

Yvonne Amesbury - 'the joker'

Ryan Morley - 'man .v. food'

Also, I would like to thank all the staff at the Hotel Dunas Blancas for making our stay so enjoyable...

Jose Manuel, Charo, Andra and Marianne.

Last but not least Rolando from 'Sportbequi' for supplying the fantastic Wiler and Ridley Carbon Bikes and his excellent customer service.

Now for the week's review, oh where do I start....

With the excitement and anticipation of the Mallorca classic training camp finally arriving everyone was looking forward to the cycling adventure ahead, from the newbies to cycling to the hardened racers.

The various flight arrivals meant that i had to travel out early to make sure everything was in place and check out some of the routes that we were going to ride over the next week. Myself and Malc arrived at L'Arenal three days before our first arrival which was Richard (who was to become known as 'tan your dick').
As with the Newquay camp the weather was on our side, warm, sunny and temperatures ideal for cycling, albeit 15 degrees warmer than Newquay....happy days!

The initial few days it was myself, Malc and Richard riding together and with neither of them knowing the island by bike, i took them on 4-6 hour rides around the south of the island over the mountains and through the rolling hills of central Mallorca with Richard stopping every 10 km for a natural break on each of the rides... hence his nickname!

Myself and Richard with a stunning Mediterranean backdrop

The rest of the gang eventually turned up after some being on time and some being delayed which meant the hotel driver doing some extra shuttles out and back to the airport. Once all rooms were allocated and everyone was settled in, it was a case of meeting in the morning at breakfast and deciding the days 'parcours' for the two groups consisting of mainly the lads in one and the lass' in t'other and collecting the hire bikes pre-booked from 'Sportbequi'. After a few small sizing problems with the bikes we finally made it on the road with Sue Seller taking out Von, Leah and Nicola on a gentle ride up via the coast rode.

The gang all smiles on the first day...not for long!

I decided to take he lads on nice 'break-in' sort of ride, a little of everything, coastal rolling roads mixed with a few gentle climbs and some very fast flat stretches. The riding hours seems to pass so quickly with scenery to die for and weather that was just perfect, warm sun and little wind, no winter kit hear, just shorts and a jersey, happy days!

The evening was a case of fueling up for the next day from the vast buffet in the restaurant, which Ryan certainly made his own! Funny though, one thing I did notice during the week, people were coming down later for breakfast and eating became a little torturous trying to replace all the energy used on each of the rides! Saying that, the Aladins cafe stop, after a day's ride was just fantastic, out of this world cakes and real coffee, It was a place we took over in the late afternoon sunshine, to sit and chat and reminisce on the day's heroics!

This is the life

I must mention how impressed I was with the ladies, no moaning, just grit and determination not to let each other down and just enjoy the experience and see some of the island. Leah, must be given the award for tenacity, as she had hardly turned a pedal before she arrived, (mainly due to the crap weather here in the UK) and with wearing basic running trainers she completed all the rides...hilly ones to-boot! To me the lass' bounced of each other, a little competitive which is nice, but, all supporting each other at the same time, pure magic!

The awesome foursome - Sue, Nicola, Leah & Von

Over the week, I had designed specific 'training segments' to give the riders that something different to their rides and help them prepare for their seasons targets. The rides broke down like this..hard day with segment, easy recovery day with the girls, hard day with segment, easy recovery ride and so on...

These were optional, but the pleasing thing everyone was up for it...BOOM (one of the camps new phrases)

Our first segment came on our 140km trip into the mountains, where after a few shall we say 'ups & downs' performed an 8km team time trial with everyone doing 200m on the front and then swinging off. It was great, good tempo on medium size gears and all of us in team kit, it must of looked like a pro outfit, just a shame we didn't video it!

As last year, I kept the popular 'cut & chase' where the riders team up in pairs (selected at the pub in a draw) and set off for a 5km 'two-up' and given 1 minute before the rest gave chase. If the pair make it to the roundabout (5km) they won a drink courtesy of Poco Loco....trouble is, all pairings made it, no one was caught! :-/

I must give mention to Ben...for drama and the most noise made in a two-up he's reigns supreme, man can he suffer...but valiant he is!

Don't get me wrong, even the recovery days were still fairly hard and on several occasions we were still covering 100kms and with the lass' even pushing on the front! It was great to see the improvement from the ladies as the week went by, more confidence and the capacity to do such long days in the saddle, chapeau!

Well earned coffee break with Spenno having the widest grin after seeing  the Cannondale Slice in a nearby bike shop

                                                                                 
Ever wanted to know how to stop Dave W in his tracks...place a fake Euro note in the middle of a mountain road with a bleeding great lorry coming down the opposite way! Nearly wiped out for what turned out to be monopoly money :-(

The hardest day came with two days left, Richard had already departed and his happy go lucky, cheeky wit persona was already being missed by the group! Yeh, this day was a mixture of segments (basically to confuse the body and incur positve muscle reaction). It consisted of 5 x 8 second hard sprints, ride recovery, 2 x 1500m overload mountain climb and finally the cream on top of the bundle, 2 x 4.5km road race with 9km recovery between each effort. Once again, Ben was in his detemined chewing stem mode, while in complete contrast Spenno was never out of level 2. Rymo & DW were showing their strength, with myself...just disguising my age!

The road races were great fun...painful...but fun! The first one going to DW after an awesome attack with 2 km to go and the second one going to Rymo, showing all that eating must go towards his huge turbo!

The man who changed the rule book for tenacity...Ben

                             

I would also, like to mention our kid...Malc was so nervous about the trip and was worried at not being able to keep up on the rides, but give credit where it's due, he rode every day, covering a very hefty 900km in 10 days! When the rides became too hard he joined in the slower group and helped them enormously with encouragement...some say it's the teacher in him, hence his nickname! He also credited with doing the photos which you can see above!

I hope the resume gives a decent read and apologies if I can't recall everything, but events upon my return caused a little melt down for me physically and mentally!

Till next time...

Adios.

N