Words can hardly describe how good our camp in Mallorca, Spain actually was.  The small island situated in the Mediterrain between the mainland of Europe and Africa offers some of the most incredible cycling in the world.  Many professional cycling teams and triathletes call Mallorca home for the winter months and the weather in May did not disappoint.  Clear sunny skies with temperatures in the seventies and eighties made for a great camp. Ken Whelpdale a local Mallorca resident helped make our experience in Mallorca excellent.  Ken is the president of 3F Sports and works for USA Cycling managing the worlds and olympic cycling teams and was a former mechanic for many professional cycling teams including Gerolsteiner.  Four years ago Ken made Mallorca his home after meeting his soon to be wife while traveling with the US track team.  His wife; Magada, was born in Mallorca and her mother (Madre) and father (Tony) made our trip an authentic spanish experience for everyone.  Ken knew all of the roads incredibly well and had us on some amazing routes. Owen and Tony provided some amazing vehicle support and snapped some great pictures.  Ken’s mother in law (Madre) helped Zander in the kitchen and whipped up some traditional Paella and many other specific Mallorca treats.  The trip would not have been nearly the experience that it was without the support of Ken and his family and The Cycling House offers up a huge Thanks!

We had 11 campers for the 1 week camp and our amazing villa was 2k from the Meditterean.  Many of the surronding roads seemed much more like a bike path than a road and very low traffic made cycling very easy. Afternoon swims in the Meditterean was an added benefit and lounging on the beach was pretty relaxing as well.  The island offers an amazing variety of terrain with several different ecosystems.  Coastal roads, inland villages, and mountainous terrains offered great variety for our rides throughout the week.  We enjoyed amazing local cuisine and cortados at the local coffee shops along our routes.  The highlight of the week was our 70 mile day that included Sa Calobra a 10k winding descent down to the Mediterrean.  The descent is breathtaking and the climb back out made for a difficult day but homemade Paella was great motivation.  One of the other highlights was cycling out to the light house past Alcudia called Formentor.  We had unlimited options for cycling and the campers were able to get as much out of the roads of Mallorca as they wanted.  Needless to say; we will definitely be coming back to Mallorca.  The Mallorca 70.3 Ironman has also become a very popular destination race and it will probably happen around camp again next year.

We were also fortunate to have support from Hammer Nutrition and clients were able to use Hammer Gel, HEED, Perpeteum, Sustained Energy, Endurolytes, Recoverite and Hammer bars as fuel during out rides.  The use of Hammer Nutrition products has been an added benefit for all of our clients during our camps.  The week seemed to go by very quickly but the the group was able to see the majority of the island and get a good feel for life in Mallorca and Spain.  After the camp Owen and I dropped the clients and Zander off at the airport. Our time in Spain had come to an end but we had a couple of weeks in Italy to look forward to.  Mallorca is a very special place and I highly recommend it to everyone.  Be sure to check out our website in the coming months for dates for 2013.