Welcome to the Canary Island cycling paradise of Gran Canaria, renowned for its seemingly endless sunshine, challenging mountain terrain and beyond belief landscapes! Join your host Mike Cotty On Location as we explore this beautiful island and find out exactly why it’s a favorite winter retreat amongst the professionals.
In this series we’re bringing you three unique workouts with plenty of high and low cadence work, strong tempo efforts and even some good ol’ fashioned sprints for good measure, making sure you’re working your system to become a more efficient and accomplished rider by the end. From the sinuous curves of a climb called “Serenity” to one of GC’s most picturesque villages, Tejeda, all the way to the very summit of the Island at Pico de las Nieves we leave no stone unturned in this island adventure! Plus we take you off the beaten track and into the wild on our first ever gravel adventure to Chira Lake, how’s that for exciting?
- Lake Chira - Our first ever On Location gravel adventure and what a ride we have in store! This one may be short but it’ll have you hanging onto the edge of your saddle as we explore the Pilancones Natural Park, high up on a mountain ridge overlooking the Soria valley as we head towards Chira Lake. This workout is perfect for those days when you need an easier session or want to activate the body before going deeper. This workout focuses on a progressive build through the duration of the climb helping with your pacing skills and sustained efforts.
- Pico de las Nieves - From the picturesque village of Tejeda today we’re heading to Pico de las Nieves for an unforgettable ride and workout to the summit of the island at 1,949m above sea level and the highest point on the island! This workout focuses on cadence work which helps with muscular endurance making it an efficient threshold session working at a variety of cadence targets.
- Serenity - Starting at the island’s iconic rainbow rocks at Los Azulejos de Veneguera in this session we tackle one of the most stunning climbs on the whole island, known locally as “Serenity”. We’ll be breaking this 10km climb down into three distinct sections, kicking off with a block of 6 x 50 second high tempo efforts with a 10 second burst out of the saddle before taking a swift breather before getting back on it. As we climb through the pine forest we’ll switch things up a touch, alternating between low and high cadence for 30 seconds at a time for around 7 minutes. We’ll then revert back to our 50 second high tempo with 10 second burst out of the saddle efforts before we build up our effort to the summit. This is going to be a challenging workout so make sure you’re ready and whatever you do don’t forget to take a moment to look at the views!!
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