The trip to Spain for Zappi Race Team's pre season training started bright and early for me, leaving Wales and crossing the Severn bridge well before sun-rise. It was a pretty long drive down to Portsmouth to meet up with the team and saying goodbye to my parents before getting on the 24 hour ferry crossing to Bilbao. This long boat journey was a good chance to catch up with the lads.
Once we got close to the Spanish coast after a surprisingly good sleep we went out onto the boat deck and were greeted by wall to wall blue sky. It was nice to finally see land but it also soon dawned on me that I really was embarking on the next step of my cycling career. It's an exciting prospect but also a long way off and a few thousand hours of training and racing between me now and becoming a Pro.
Once we got off the ferry we set about the long drive across Spain quickly leaving the greenery of the Basque Country for the barren bare landscape of mid Spain before finally arriving in Calpe, 6+ hours later in the night. The next morning after waking up, we were greeted by fantastic views from our house. This was all well and good but we soon discovered there was a price to pay for the views; a 3km climb with a 25% driveway to top it off at the end!
The first day was a chance for me to set up my mint new ride for the year, the Colnago concept. After getting this sorted we set off on our first ride; 3 hours of exploring the local roads. This area has great roads such as the Col de Rates which we have ridden most days. It is also great to see so many Pro riders along the way on these rides. We've seen the likes of BMC, CCC and Quickstep daily.
The first few days were pretty chilled just riding the 2 long days of travelling out of the legs. It was also a good opportunity to get used to the area and get used to the unique Zappi lifestyle/regime. Now we are all settled in, we are going to start on our first block of real training.
Ciao
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