UKC

Looking to do the Fred Whitton in 2023 with 3 others as a team.

Due to lack of cycling or any other meaningful exercise and the accumulation of lockdown lard which I hope to be addressing this year, we thought a spring training camp might be a good idea to get miles/hills under our belt. Never having done one, maybe looking at Mallorca but the 4-5 week window before the FW is the Easter week. On the plus side that means we could get a 10 day trip in with 8 days riding. On the down side, it will be expensive.

Any thoughts on just biting the bullet and going for an organised trip vs trying to organise everything ourselves piecemeal-notably accommodation (villa hire as opposed to a hotel) and bike hire.

Any specific recommendations?

Ta.

Stayed in hotel cap nagret in Altea this year, very reasonable priced and well set up with bike garage etc - making it all extremely easy. have done diy in Mallorca before too and was great. For that length of time may be worth taking your own bike? 

I'd save the ££ and just organise yourself....Spain is great for cycling and plenty of good hire shops. I did a cycling trip a few years ago with mates....we stayed in Mojacar (Almeria), hired a villa, hired bikes which were great quality and had a great trip.....I think we worked it out to be a touch over 1/2 of the price of an organised trip....there were 4 of us in the villa and we got pretty cheap flights...I'd love to go again, we rode to lots of small whitewashed villages in the hills or down the coast. The drivers were so courteous and everyone very welcoming....

Mainland Spain will save you cash and weather on SE mainland is as good/better than Mallorca. I've had a few days out with Pete at: https://blancabikes.com and whilst not stayed at his accommodation set up, have had a look and it's perfect for a visiting cyclist. The roads around Costa Blanca are unbelievably good and once into the hills are virtually traffic free.

Here I wrote a few words about a ride I did around the Fred route: https://www.mountain-journeys.co.uk/blog/category/fred-whitton-challenge

Thanks for the replies all.

Liked the blog post Mark.

I’d say consistent and sensibly increasing training from now would be far more important than a training camp. 

An alternative could be Vamos Cycling I've been going to for over the past 9 years  http://www.vamoscycling.com/ as you stay in their house and can have either guided rides or do it yourself.    The other advantage of going here for the Fred is that there are no flat routes.

Get a nice combination of being looked after (as are on holiday) but nowhere near as expensive as the big outfits.

Thanks, both are part of the plan but well noted. Would just like to be able to get a week of solid riding in somewhere around that time.

Hi there,

We're doing training camps here in the Baronnies every week next April. Depending on the weather you'll probably get the chance to do Mont Ventoux too.
We did a training camp this year, 2nd Easter week and got over 600km in 5 days. with plenty of hills and great weather.
We used to run our camps just south of Alicante near Murcia but to be honest, the last few years the late spring weather has been better here.
Send me a PM and I'll send you the details. If there's 4 of you we can do the fully catered package with guided rides suited to your needs.

Cheers,

Enty