Last week, three members of Tallaght Wheelers, Niall, Eddie and Jonathan with their friend Phil Smith headed down to southern Spain to do some warm weather training around the hills of Barcelona.
Departure Day
We had an early departure from Dublin arriving in Barcelona mid morning. We had a one hour transfer to their hotel. At the hotel we were greeted by blue skies and light winds. After collecting our 
bikes we headed off on a 40 km cycle to help us get acquainted with the bikes we would be using, with our route including a lunch stop. We then headed back to the hotel for a relaxing evening before dinner at 8pm. It was into bed for 10pm
Day 1
The agenda for the day was a 101 km spin which included over 2,000 metres of climbing, with a start time of 9:30 am. We encountered very little traffic that day and the road surface was terrific, pity the roads back home can’t be as good as this. The route snaked through rural villages and included 5 challenging climbs ranging from 6% to 13% gradients with a maximum elevation of over a 1,000 metres. The day finished at a monastery by the famous Torres wine vineyards. That night we sampled some fantastic local cuisine and beers in the restaurant
Day 2
After a delay to fix a puncture we were on the road for 10:30am. Today’s weather was on the chilly side and after receiving advice from locals we changed our clothing before departing. On today’s menu was a 113 km 
route with an elevation gain of over 2,000 metres. As soon as we started we were greeted by a climb which had an elevation gain of over 600 metres. The rest of the day was spent on a further four climbs with the last one having an average gradient of 8% with some switch backs peaking at 18%. It was a very tough day in the saddle and we were glad when it was over. That evening we ate in a local restaurant nursing our sore bodies.
Day 3
After yesterdays exertions we dragged our sore bodies out of bed for a 9:30 am start. Thankfully today’s route was nice and easy which included lots of downhill sections. We had three ramps thrown in for good 
measure which brought us right down to sea level. Our final climb of the trip brought back up to a summit of over 600 metres with an average gradient of 7%. Once we reached the summit, we rolled home to the finish.
The trip was fantastic and we had an amazing experience. This scenery was stunning and the local cuisine we sampled was delicious. The company supplies you with everything. The bikes we used were Argon 18 bikes with Ultergra groupsets. All we had to bring was our helmets and shoes.
By Eddie Donegan
