Today was my last day of training in Spain before heading to Switzerland tomorrow to spend the week there training and racing. I have had a great week here in Spain riding in some of the most amazing spots on some of the best tracks I have ever experienced. I have been very blessed to have been hosted here in Granada by my manager Martin Whiteley who has showed me all the sights and provided me with a great base to train from. I’m especially grateful of the pool after my training rides! The temperature here regularly reaches 40degrees Celsius in the afternoon and just a couple of days after I arrived it reached 44degrees Celsius, a far cry from the snow, rain and cold that Christchurch turned on for me while I was last home!
We took a trip down to the centre of town for dinner a few nights ago and I was blown away by the beauty of the city. The grand old buildings, cafe’s and churches were so large and well crafted with intricate carvings and when you realise that these buildings were built almost 700 years ago it makes it quite hard to comprehend and very awe inspiring. The history behind many of these European cities is sometimes unimaginable. Two nights ago Martin and I took a drive up the highest sealed road in the world which is in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range just behind where we are staying in his Audi RS-5 which was good fun! There is a high altitude training centre up the road a bit above 2300m which I had a look around. Martin tells me that Cadel Evans often spends time there training, they have an Olympic size swimming pool, high tech testing facilities, accommodation, catering, gymnasiums etc for all the top athletes and national teams that train there.
Maybe I will spend a bit of time up there in the years to come doing some altitude training. We then stopped for dinner at an amazing restaurant on the way back down the hill where I tried some of the local Spanish blood sausage….AMAZING. I am currently watching the tail end of today’s Vuelta de Espana stage and I will then have to pack my bags for my flight tomorrow. We are heading out to another one of the great local restaurants tonight, can’t wait. All in all the training is going great and I am feeling in really good shape. This Sunday I am racing in the final Swiss Cup round in Muttenz, Switzerland which should be a good test as most of the top juniors will be there and will therefore will be a good gauge of my form heading into the World Champs. I’m Looking forward to continuing onwards with my journey through Europe!