This years annual club training camp took place over Holy Week in the idyllic setting of the Island of Majorca. A group of 12 travelled together from Belfast on Sunday morning and we were being booked into our luxury accommodation by 11am in sunny El Cudio.

After a relaxing lunch on the beach front we casually took our hired (all-carbon) bikes for a short spin to the nearby resort of Porta Polinsa. The obligatory cups of coffee, espresso, hot chocolate, etc were ordered and we meandered the afternoon away before returning for dinner later back at our luxury hotel.

Sunday night saw very little drinking being done as we bedded early ready for the tough week ahead!!

Monday started as Sunday had ended - with a gigantic meal for breakfast. The organisers from Sport Active divided the cyclists into three groups and we assembled in our respective groups ready for the off at the very respectable time of 10am.

Three members - Alan, Paul  and Finbar joined the first group which consisted of a number of club riders from the North of England, Northern Ireland and a couple from Wales - so this was quite a good mix and the pace on the first two days was quite reasonable - although this was to change as the week progressed. This group was led very professionally by Allistor who kept the formation tight at all times with liberal use of the whistle.

The vast majority of our gang, Rosie, Gerry, Pam, Brendan, Eddie, Catherine, Catriona, and Pauline joined group two under the very popular (and big) group leader Tomeu. Like the first group the spins on Monday and Tuesday were reasonably easy but towards the end of the week the distances began to increase and there were some very sore bums in the evenings as a result! However all agreed that it was a tremendous weeks cycling.

What a surprise we all got at the lunch break on Tuesday when (like Our Lord after Easter) our very popular secretary John Greene appeared out of the mountains for the lunch stop - and later joined us at our hotel with his family. John and family took a short Easter break to coincide with our tour in Majorca. Well done John once again.

Hilda and Eamon joined the third group under the watchful eye of the very friendly group leader - Flora from Sport Active. Eamon even took on a mountain climb to a monastery on the rest day on Spy Wednesday.

The social scene was as good as ever with the required late nights being observed as club tradition demands on such occasions! The group gelled from Day 1 and even took on a number of additions from England, Wales and Northern Ireland as the week went on. There were many tributes paid to our club from these and other people from cycling. Most clubs - it seems have great difficulty in getting three of four people to travel away from home. One exception was the three brothers from Durham - we christened them the triplets. Although riding with them for five days - I still don't understand a word they spoke!

Thanks to Sport Active we had a most enjoyable week in sunny Majorca. Practically every thing was professionally taken care of by Martin Birney and his team.

See some pictures of action day and night at this link. There are more to follow. Also you can see some action from our groups (on the road) on the Sport Active website. Enjoy!!