Orange Monkey Training Camp - Les Sorbiers, France

At the beginning of the 2009 season the team acquired a new sponsor, however, this one was different. Les Sorbiers is a holiday operator in the French Pyrenees specialising in Cycling, Walking and Bird Watching holidays. Mountain Bike holidays has now long been associated with the Alps and whilst hundreds of holiday companies advertise the Alps as the best Mountain Biking in France the Pyrenees has so far gone un-noticed. Les Sorbiers have changed all that and when they offered to sponsor the team with a week in their luxury accomodation half way up the famous Col Du Tormalet we jumped at the chance!

The options are limitless, climbing on or off road and then descending on varied terrain from rocks to roots to smooth pine tree lined trails. Of course climbing on the road is not for everyone, but then when you think back to the legends of cycling that have rolled over that very same asphalt its difficult to resist - Merkx, Armstrong, Contador are just some of the famous cycling superstars to grace these roads.

Your reward, downhill!

The team climbed the Cols Du Tormulet, Luz Ardiden and Hautacam and what many people don't know that once at the top of these famous climbs there is an off road descent just screaming out to be ridden. The riding is extreme in places, just like the alps, with a fair mix of long straight trails, tight steep hairpins and twisty fast singletrack.

You don't have to wander far from the base at Les Sorbiers to discover trails and literally just behind the accomodation was a fantastic descent with around 20 or 30 hairpins and a mix of terrain which gave the team perfect opportunity for some downhill practice, coaching and a timed downhill "race run" to finish off the session!

On the other side of the valley was a descent from heaven, the climb was long but worth every pedal stroke with over 30 minutes of full on downhill starting above cloud level and finishing at the doorstep to our accomodation!

With all the hard efforts the team had put in it was only fair to take full advantage of the Spa just 3-4 mins walk up the road!

It was a fantastic experience for the team and will surely put them in perfect shape for the final race of the year in Plymouth!

A special thank you must go to Rob and Rachael of Les Sorbiers who made us feel incredibly welcome and fed a very hungry team with delicous food.

As for the Alps... it looks like it has some serious competition on its hands!