Planning for next year. I want a place where I can climb 3-5000m without having to do 100 miles. Ideally in Europe but open to other options. planning to do 30h.
For reference, would love to do it here in Nice, Fra, but the weather won’t be great during that time of the year.
Looking forward to your suggestions.
Have you looked at Tenerife?
Here is an account from a January trip that might whet your appetite?
My old club (I’m still 2nd claim) had this same talk last night (although not Mid April). A lot of people recommended Annecy or Borg D Oisan and I’ve another ex club mate who set up a B&B on the other side of France in Quillan (the base of the Pyrenees). Tenerife or the other Balearic Islands is a good shout
Gran Canaria is cheap and warm / not too windy at that time of year. If you stay in Maspalomas in the South (easy trip from the airport) then you have access to loads of different climbing routes - basically everything goes UP from there towards the centre of the island. Plenty of accommodation and bike hire options there as well.
I was there end of June/ early July for the marmotte and it was still quite cold and I could imagine April being much colder still
It’d go further south, Mallorca maybe and I once saw a GCN video about cycling in Morocco, it looked beautiful
Gran Canaria would get my vote. Fantastic weather, nice variety of climbs, roads of decent quality and quiet enough.
Maspalomas is a good base.
Tenerife gets good press but I much preferred Gran Canaria.
Agree. Dont go there in april
I cycled with a Kona salesman on my first day on Tenerife (strong rider FWIW) and he said similar.
Mallorca is supposed to be one of the best/ most beautiful places for training camps!
Absolutely Mallorca is great. But the weather can also be a bit shifty in april.
Do what the pros do - girona og calp should be some of the best choices early season - or gran canaria
Tenerife or GC are save bets, but for April you usually don’t need to get this far. Marbella region, or Costa Blanca will have fantastic weather, with super long day light at the time, and offer perfect riding conditions. Alternatively, Mallorca, and Sicily will be great.
Lastly, Nice offers amazing riding, but the weather can be a little so so.
My best training camp was probably Marbella Area.
This is interesting. Do you have a reference?
I’ve only been there once and I didn’t record Strava at the time.
The entire area from Catania and Taormina is extremely mountainous. Especially with the Etna, but certainly not limited to it.
There are a couple websites that are specialized in local routes. Komoot is a good source, and the Giro d’Italia as well, which has features Sicily a couple of times.
Sicily is absolutely beautiful. Two drawbacks compared to Spain are the roads (the surface is definitely worse) and the earlier sunset. The latter doesn’t really matter in April, but was always the reason for me to not go in February.
This 6 day itinerary seems interesting:
In April, you can definitely go for the north of TF as well. Riding there is more varied and the nature more beautiful than in the south.
South is a must in December, as it tends to rain there a lot more. Not that much of an issue in April.
This is a great guide, and the north loop is amazing.
Not to mention the food, seems like a more interesting place. Likely going alone.
Definitely a lot harder to find info online. Seems like I have 2 good candidates.
Tenerife vs Sicily
I’m in Mallorca now, and while the purpose is not cycling I did rent a bike and climb sa Colabra and Coll de Soller. The drivers are accommodating, cyclists are everywhere, and I couldn’t imagine a better location for a climbing camp.
That’s awesome!! A bit jelly!!
If I can wait til May, I can do Girona during Volta Catalunya. And Maybe do some gravel in the Traka course.
Haven’t read the entire thread. We go to the beach close to Girona each May for family vacation. While it is really nice there, climbing options are limited. Would not be my first choice for a climbing camp.
Spring weather is only safe on the Canary Islands. And there is a lot of climbing.
Cyprus is nice,too. Did a nice spring camp a couple of years ago. I would chose it over Sicily.
But you can never go wrong with Mallorca.
