training camp for triathletes

Dear friends of triathlon,

Sicily is an ideal location for a training camp from October till May. If you are interested, send us an email, we will send you an offer straight away!

Yours,

TOUR-magazine training camp Sicily

Arrivederci Cefalů! Text by Thomas Musch

Sicily is worth a visit, that is for sure. But when take a look into the people's faces who surround me, some of them seemed to be a bit sceptical, if Sicily was the right choice. We are sitting in a coach which takes us from Catania's airport to to Hotel Kalura in Cefalů. The concrete slabs on the motorway determine the rhythm of the ride, each time the coach is crossing a joint, the answer is a deep rumbling sound.

The first enthusiam which rose when the snow-covered Mount Etna came into sight gives now way to a certain kind of insecurity, whether Sicily is really the dream destination of a race bicyclist. The landscape is wide and flat, very few trees but citrus plantations as far as the field of vision can reach. But each rumble brings us closer to our destination and only two hours later the faces of our participants are relaxed and happy: hills, trees, soft turf and blue skies: Some group member even look like their expectations have been exceeded by far.

The very impatient of us rush up to their rooms, leave their suitcases there and immediately start to assemble their bikes even before dinner. Most of the other guests postpone these activities to Sunday morning and prefer to have a relaxed dinner instead. The waiter are friendly and very service-oriented, the buffet of starters is rich, everybody is satisfied. One person is asking: Where are the normal spaghettis with tomatoe sauce? We do not have to answer this question as Hotel Kalura is one the best hotels found on Sicily's northern coast.

During breakfast the next morning even the last doubtful guest discovers Hotel Kalura's highlight: The terrace. Radiated by the beautiful sunshine, it is located high above the beach, the view over the sea is lost in the haze of the horizon, a glanze to the right shows the coastal road with palm trees and pine s growing high above it on the slope. Some roofs are coloured in warm terracotta. We enjoy our cappuccino outside, the breakfast is delicious with fresh croissants, fresh fruit and muesli.

The scenery is beautiful, nevertheless, our crowd wants to bike. People start some zealous installing, at 11.00 the first group starts their warm-up cruise on the coastal road. Luckily, there is very little road traffic, therefore we can roll in teams of two into the direction of Aquaedolci, which makea a round trip of about 100 km. It is warm enough to wear shorts, the weather is perfect with light winds and sunshine! After a about 100 km along the coastal road, we can pretty much gues what we have to expect from the next two weeks: Meters and meters of miles of altitude! Although our road never leaves the coastline, we already have collected 800 meters of altitude!

The next day provides the first trip into the mountains. The very wild ones are sceptical, because the offered guided tour are "only" from 80 to 100 km long. Why not any more? After two or three days even the most ambitious participants have understood, why. The area around Cefalů is pretty hilly. Not very steep, rarely more than five or six percent of gradient, but these ascents can be long, very long. It is no problem for us to find a tour which provides 25 or 30 km of constant ascent. That is real fun if you adapt your speed and keep an eye to the pulse monitor. You might only have an average of 22 on your clock when you come return home after having beaten a distance of 120 km, but then you will have managed a perfect six hour basic endurance-training in a beautiful landscape. And this is exactly what we are here for!

We spend some wonderful days with nice weather and beautiful tours. We enjoy the solitude of the Sicilian mountains, we cruise through pitturesque village, which assemble on mountains peaks and we experience unexpected kind hospitality in the small bars and cafés. We are far away from everyday life, but luckily far away as well from the tourisitic hustle and bustle of other bicycling strongholds under southern skies. We do not cruise from one café to the next and lazily enjoy some Weiss-beer as this is not available here. We much rather enjoy the local bars and their outstanding "dolci", pastries, so good that you cannot get enough of them!

Some of the evenings are reserved for interesting lectures having one common topic: bicycling. Dirk Zedler gives us some information how to drive safely amoung a group, valid information that will even teach some old (bike-) warhoses some new tricks!

Katja Meyer, a professional triathlete, gives a very interesting lecture about how to plan your training schedule and to design your bicycling-season. Nevertheless, it will always be an ever lasting mystery why the amount of bicyclist who follow the advice of experts and professionals is so small. Most of us should train less hard but more efficent instead! A discussion with successful athlete confirms how important a solid basic endurance training is to become faster and better in the long run. Other professionals like Andreas Sauerborn (ex-professional Team Gerolsteiner, the winter triathlete Sigrig Lang and the professional mountain biker Mannis Heymans talk about their experiences and share some nice anecdotes with us. If we hobby athletes only had the discipline to follow all their useful and valid pieces of advice!

Another highlight was the test-centre provided by TOUR magazine. Some top-brands of the scene supplied very interesting products to be tested by our guests for free:

– racing bikes from Felt, Look and Principia
– pedals from Speedplay and Look
– helmets from Lazer and Giro
– camelbaks and tools from park-tool
– pulse monitors from Polar
– food designed for athletes from Squeezy

The big advantage was that is that the participants could make your own experiences with these products. For example, you could borrow a bicycle for a whole day and try it out extensively during one of your tours. The test-centre was a preferred spot for our guests to talk shop or share experiences with the company's representatives - Stefan Scheitz (Sport Import), Michael Kraft (ACS), Dieter Schreiber (GROFA) and Markus Schwoll (Polar) - or to order a different test bicycle for the next day.

The fairwell-party was great fun! The evening we spent on a country estate near Castelbuono a success. The participants parted with the training camp they attended to for one or two weeks enjoying excellent local food, fine dry red wine and nice music. The conclusion for most of the participants: We will return next year!