 As promised in the last installment of this
newsletter,
we'd like to introduce you to the "Spring Training in Spain" series, released this season. We travelled further afield to gather our 2009-10
ErgVideos, and we're very excited to bring you some rides filmed in the pro's
early-season training headquarters: Mallorca, Spain."Spring Training in Spain": New Releases for the 2009-2010 season! Mallorca is located due-south of Barcelona in the Mediterranean sea. It is the largest of the Balearic Islands, a four-island archipelago including Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. The islands are well-known for their spectacular weather, unique scenery and beaches, beaches, beaches. It is a vacation destination for much of Western Europe, and its economy relies on this busy summer tourism. Different areas target families or die-hard dance-bar party animals. It is also world-renowned for its sailing and yachting competitions. If you visit in the cycle racing pre-season, you are guaranteed to see several ProTour Teams training on the roads of Mallorca. The walls of local bars and cafes are decorated with photos of local cycling heros, as well as the Pros who frequent the places in springtime. CycloTourism encouraged by the local government! Imagine it!  In the pre-Easter off-season for
the beach-goers, the island is
temperate and
traffic-free. Several commercial
operations renting the highest quality bikes have sprung up, some
offering complete packages of hotel, bike, airport pickup, and supported rides. In
a day, most of the island is reachable from anywhere by a very experienced and
fit cyclist, but the ride back home may be more than you can take. Many tour
companies include "remote start" services where they bus you to the start
point of a long day trip. The island has a vast network of restricted-access
roads designated as bike routes. Don't mistake these for the bike paths you may be imagining. They are full-fledged
roadways, euro-narrow of course, but you can't drive your car on them unless you
live on that road! On Mallorca, you can ride among 1000m+ high mountains,
or on empty arid plains, all in a single ride.To the North American cyclist, it is a special experience to ride where you and your bike are welcome on the roads as part of the culture. Cycling spreads tourism wealth into the center of the island, instead of concentrating it in the coastal beach resorts. It extends the tourist season by a few months, as well. I was introduced to Mallorca in 1998 by John Large and Peter Metuzals of CyclingAdventure.com. John and Peter have impressive racing resumes dating back to the early 80's, including National team projects and Euro-racing experience. I call them cyclist's cyclists: You won't get pampered, and their faith in your potential generally exceeds your own. You will be challenged, and unlike some touring companies, they won't condescend to worry about you in ways only your mother should. In 30 years of riding, I've had some of most enjoyable experience's with these gentlemen, at home and in Mallorca. So, let's talk about those Mallorquin ErgVideos! I arrived in Mallorca a week earlier than the CyclingAdventure group. I was hedging my bets against the weather and the filming gremlins. While weather is generally great on the island, when you consider how much CAN go wrong with lightweight portable camera equipment, (batteries failing, cameras failing, incorrect aiming, a lens collision with a bug you don't notice for hours) and you add the possibility of rainy weather, then spending only a week on location is gambling against the long odds. I was also eager to gather some "solo riding" footage. Some customers have indicated they might like more of these rides. While I prefer to have riders in frame, the "solo ride" point of view showcases the landscape a little more. It's interesting as long as the scenery is particularly beautiful, and certainly Mallorca qualifies! The ErgVideos in the "Spring Training in Spain" series are a mix of solo rides and a few group training sessions. They are tempo intensity or high threshold/hill-climbing focused. In one edition, "Climbing Puig Major" we tackle the longest and highest pass on the island, comparable in elevation gain to Alpe d'Huez. Another, "Mallorca Tempo and Hills" mixes an hour of tempo riding with two spectacular runs at the pro's favorite "test climb". Then you hammer home with John Large and Vince Caceres, surviving their attacks on exciting rolling terrain, inches from the stone-walls that line the roadways to our resort. "Wheelers Tempo In Spain" also includes some spirited attacking riding from your companions. We include some descents between the climbs for recovery, and you'll quickly see why this place should be on every cyclist's bucket-list! We present pictures and descriptons of each ErgVideo in the "Spring Training in Spain" series below. The ErgVideo collection stands at 54 titles. Now, we're too big to fail! Click here to go straight to the Full Catalogue page!
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