Sportive

Six reasons to visit Club La Santa for your next training camp or holiday

Sponsored feature: Lanzarote complex caters for more than 30 different sports

For many riders, jetting off for a training camp or cycling holiday is one of the highlights of the year. In the case of the former, it means heading abroad for some warm weather training when those at home are still facing the cold of winter or unpredictability of spring. Come summer, meanwhile, it’s an opportunity to make the most of your fitness and form.

And Club La Santa, located on the doorstep of some of Lanzarote’s best roads, is an ideal place to book yourself in for a training camp or cycling holiday.

Based on Lanzarote’s north west coast, the resort caters for more than 30 different sports. It may be billed as ‘the perfect place for you to do as little or as much as you like’, but for cyclists it’s a chance to really enjoy the best the island has to offer.

You can book a trip through Sports Tours International but if you’re still not convinced we’ve listed six reasons to head to Club La Santa for your next cycling trip.

Lanzarote’s barren volancic landscape makes for a dramatic backdrop (Pic: Club La Santa)

1) Weather for year-round training

A host of professional teams pick Lanzarote – and Club La Santa – for their winter training camps, and it’s for good reason.

Located off the coast of Africa, the weather is warm and dry year round – with an average of just 18 days with rainfall for the whole year. Needless to say, the weather’s certainly far more reliable than back in Europe or in the UK. Nothing beats the feeling of riding with the sun on your back when the UK is miserable.

Cyclists at Club La Santa (Pic: James Mitchell/Club La Santa)

The winds can whip up on Lanzarote, but if it’s warm weather training you are after you can do far worse than head to the island whatever the season.

2) It’s on the doorstep of Lanzarote’s best roads

Location, location, location – that’s ultimately what it’s all about, isn’t it? And Lanzarote has plenty to offer for cyclists.

Year-round sunshine in the Canary Islands, and varied terrain across the volcanic landscape with plenty of climbing to be done.

Lanzarote offers a variety of terrain and warm, reliable weather (Pic: Markus J Schoch, via Flickr Creative Commons)

In the south you can climb the steep Fémes, or tackle the 10km ascent of Tabeyesco, which averages five per cent in the north. There are no shortage of roads to fine-tune your climbing form.

In between there are plenty of undulating roads to test your legs, and the ocean views, volcanic landscape and towering cliffs make for an inspiring, beautiful backdrop.

3) Bike hire and mechanics on site

Organising your own trip abroad is well and good, and can be very rewarding, but also has its own challenges, namely having to take your bike abroad and keeping it in good nick while you’re out there.

Club La Santa takes those worries away with their own dedicated Bike Centre, with mechanics on hand and the possibility to book from a range of more than 100 bikes up to one day in adcance.

High-spec Cannondale SuperSix bikes with Shimano Ultegra are available in a range of sizes, and can be booked for €25 per day or €98 for the week.

And on-site mechanics take away the stress if you run into any mechanical problems.

4) Training camps

Club La Santa allow riders to pitch up and do their own thing – follow their own routes and ride as much or as little as they want.

But Club La Santa also offers a variety of structured training camps throughout the year, allowing you to book an early-season training camp to build form, or even take part in the Etape du Tour training camp in June.

In training for the Etape du Tour? Club La Santa offer a dedicated training camp, one month before the event (Pic: Pierre Alessandri/Etape du Tour)

The latter, which takes place in June, offers a last chance to get big miles and hills in the legs with the hugely popular Tour de France sportive just one month away.

5) Guru bike fitting

Alongside on-site mechanics and bike hire, Club La Santa have also launched their new sports science department, with cycling and swimming the first two sports to benefit from it.

For cycling, that means Guru Bike Fit, with a basic fit offered for €49 or an advanced bike fit available for €149.

You can combine your cycling holiday with the chance to get a bike fit

As well as using your training camp to get valuable miles in the legs, you can also use it to fine-tune your position on the bike, and potentially benefit from increase comfort and improved efficiency.

6) Other sports & facilities

As we’ve said, Club La Santa is not just about cycling but hosts an incredible array of facilities making it perfect for groups and families.

There are facilities for tennis, athletics, squash, swimming, football, yoga, pilates and more, while excursions include sailing, sport fishing, volcano walks, golf and more.

Club La Santa caters for a huge amount of sports, has its own Wellness Centre and is suitable for group trips or families (Pic: Club La Santa)

On-site facilities also include swimming pools and several restaurants, a wellness centre with a hydrotherapy bath, jacuzzi, plunge pool, steam bath, saunas and sports massage to help tired legs rest and recovery.

Website: Club La Santa