London Phoenix riders went to Belgium over Easter to ride the Tour of Flanders cyclosportif and to watch the men’s and women’s races.

Stuart Lockyear decided to get serious about his training for the big events later this year so tackled the South Downs Way on 21 April. It was a perfect day for this epic ride – as this picture shows. Starting from Petersfield, he rode the route in nine and a half hours – including stopping for a puncture, two major wrong turns and a detour to get painkillers for his riding buddy who suffered with a dodgy knee after the first 20 miles.

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The full route of the South Downs Way is just over 100 miles offroad from Winchester to Eastbourne. Due to train engineering works Stuart missed the first 20 miles and started from Petersfield. If anyone fancies trying it, Stuart plans a repeat of this route sometime soon, hopefully starting from Winchester.

London Phoenix jerseys could be spotted this week all over the beautiful sunny island of Mallorca, with rides setting forth from our rather lovely beachside villa in Port de Pollensa, and reaching as far as Soller in the north west and Cala Rajada in the south east. With several hundred kilometres in our legs we’re back in London ready to take on a full season of races and sportives!

If the weather and the racing is like this all season, we are in for a great one. Simon, Nick, Jason & Liz all took on the 50km option at this fun, swooping course, in perfect conditions. For all the gory details, check out the results.

London Phoenix mountainbikers Abigail Armstrong and David Steele recently participated in the 3rd Gran Canaria mtb marathon held on March 17th – a challenging 77km event held over a dry rocky course in the south of the island just outside Maspolomas. The course included long stretches of undulating rocky single and double track, a 12km off-road climb up one of the island’s most scenic valleys, steep rocky climbs and descents and an 8km descent on a bone shattering dry boulder-strewn river bed, making quite a change from the usual UK mud-plugging. It was be an achievement just to complete the event without mishap to bodies or bikes.

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The event was based in the bizarre setting of Sioux City a western theme park 10km outside Maspolomas complete with cowboy extras, buffaloes, horses and Johnny Cash blaring out of the loudspeakers.