Training Camp Frejus recap

[Sylv]

Last week PaulH, MattC, RichardH and myself travelled to South France for the ACC Spring Honecamp, again staying in Richard's bungalow at a campsite 12km from Frejus.

We had almost perfect weather which allowed to ride in shorts and short-sleeves, with armwarmers needed for the long downhills (and when sat in the shade at the restaurant). Oh how we laughed when we heard of the wet clubrun that weekend.

We did five long and hard rides in as many days, totalling just under 500km. I don't have the stats on altitude gain (maybe Matt will) and will spare you the power numbers, but all rides, including the ones following the coast, had significant amounts of climbing and were done in a through and off fashion, with some truely epic fights on the hardest climbs.

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Richard was amazingly strong, especially compared to last year, having lost some weight and started serious bike training (power based). He can climb in the big ring (seated) like no one else I know, and like Paul will never give up if beginning to get dropped. Paul was as strong as ever but wasn't always a match on some of the hills, he also suffered from kneepain halfway into the week. Matt was in for a bit of a shock but was happy to take our wheels and managed not to get dropped too often. I'm glad I didn't have to go for a run, or swim with him though!

I felt good from the first day, in fact the clubrun I did just before we left was pretty much the first time this year I'd felt remotely good on the bike this year, which reassured me a bit at the time. My knee was ok but somehow wobbling a bit sideways within the pedal cleat, Paul gave me a patellar strap which seemed to solve that issue.

One day we rode to Cannes and I bumped into some workmates attending the Mipim conference, sadly we couldn't get on a yacht or grab some free food. We rode back through the inland, much shorter but also hillier.

One day we rode the other way to St Tropez, which is much nicer at that time of year then in the middle of the summer when it gets very busy. The wind on the coast that day was atrocious on the way back, we struggled to maintain 31km/h whereas on the way out we were cruising at 45km/h.

Other rides included climbs into the back country, up to almost 1,000m high from where we could see some snow-covered tops at 1,700m high.

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4462352530_e3cc8fd32e.jpg[/img]

Despite the hard riding the mood was very relaxed with (for me at least) much needed 10-hour sleep, massive breakfasts, 11-ish am departures, tennis or pool in the evening, Paul and Richard's crazy rowing stories, and plenty of beer, wine, mussels and pasta (and steak) in the evenings.

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Due to the train strike we had to travel back a day earlier in order to catch our Eurostar in Lilles (by then it had started raining anyway), where we had to stay overnight, rounding off the holiday with beer and waffles at way past midnight.

Have to say that (having had two days to recover!) I'm feeling much stronger now than before, and almost ready to race.

Roll on next year

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4461577133_41cfb7a696.jpg[/img]


pics by Matt

[Snoop Doug]

brilliant write up and photos, pity the steaks were so tiny though

Thanks Sylv

[EdO]

bloody hell those steaks are massive. Conditions look much better weather than last weeks clubrun.

[Rob W]

Sounds like you all had a great week.And them steaks will put hairs on your chests.

[Andrew G]

It does sound like a good week. Did you ride to and from the station too Paul, I knew were a secret get the miles in man .

[Rogan]

great write up Sylv. Looked like a fantstic week!

[Paul H]

Nice write up Sylv.

High mileage clearly doesnt suit me as I did my knee in.

Great trip though and dont think you can beat the cote d'azur for training and weather.

[Sylv]

What's that you say, we don't look quite as slick as the NP?

[img]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_IxFHyVoMlkc/S5ZAf0I9EvI/AAAAAAAACME/IxESl1zKLlc/s640/IMG_0002.JPG[/img]

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4462352530_e3cc8fd32e.jpg[/img]

Rubbish, we've even got matching (er, almost) knee straps!

[Sylv]

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4467511176_3932cdd87a_o.jpg[/img]

And we've got cakes to our name