3 weeks to go!

Just 3 weeks to go till the Etape de tour!

Here's a few photos from our weekend away to the Sierra Nevada in the south of Spain to stay at our friend Annabels mum's beautifull hillside villa and do a bit of hill training with Tom (Annabels husband and fellow etaper), while the girls did a bit of tanning!

On the first day we decided we would take on the Sierra Nevada ski station. We climbed from 700m above sea level to 3,200m over 45km of near constant riding uphill. it was pretty tough work near the top as the altitude made it really hard to beathe once we got past the ski lifts. Our plan was to ride over the top but we ended up losing the road 400m short of the peak as it was totally covered in snow, and although we tried hiking through the snow to re find the road higher up/on the other side of the mountain, the sight of all the other hikers around in full mountain kit with ski poles and balaclavas while we were taking it on with lycra shorts, bikes and cycling shoes kind of put us off!

The decent back down was amazing, it took us over 4hours to ride up but only 40 mins to ride back down! riding downhill for 40 mins with hardly any cars, a smooth road and a beautiful view is a phenominal experience.

Second day involved more climbing, a bit steeper and a bit shorter, but really hot! touched 30 degrees while we were out there which feels very hot when you have been living in the UK for a few years! and to finish it all off we spent the rest of the afternoon playing pool volleyball, not a bad way to spend the weekend!