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As the winner of an article-writing competition in the Hungarian Bringa magazine, I could spend 11 days together with the Hungarian MTB squad in a training camp 80 kms from Athens...

Training Camp in the Greek spring (2002)

Gyorgyigabor
2004-02-05 19:15:22

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also has a friendly castle. In the background it could be seen the castle of Argos at the opposite side of the gulf; behind it there are snowy mountains in spring. On a 12 km long road we cycle to Argos sometimes between orange-plants. From the town there is a road with varied steep ascents to the 289m high mountaintop. Because the entrance is free and there is no control there, we can walk inside the castle everywhere. It’s worth looking out for the bikes, because there are no people to watch them. From Agros – cycling towards Loutraki – there is an almost flat road to Mukene, where we have to turn right to the famous museum. The treasure of Mukene can be found in the museums of Athens. From the ruins and walls of the castle we got a pretty view back towards the sea.

The ruins and the nice museum of Akrokorintos is not too far from Loutraki. Beside the doric / ionic column there is a panorama to the Gulf of Korintos. From Vrahati the road ascends very lightly to ancient Nemea, where it’s worth seeing the ancient ruins and the museum too, but the town of Nemea 5 kms from here is a starting point towards the 1000-1500m high mountains. The panoramic scenery and not too difficult ascent starts in Andonia, from its 1000m high top there is a nice view to the surrounding area: eastwards we can see over the area of Nemea, while towards the west I could enjoy the pictures of the snowy mountains. It took not much time to arrive at Skotini in the flat valley, but the climb up to the 1500m high pass was sometimes difficult because of the stormy wind. The 6-7 km long climb was beautiful too: partly towards Skotini and Lirkio and partly towards Nemea. The height of the saddle wasn’t shown anywhere there. I had to use my arm muscles to be able to make a film with a video camera.

· The tour on which I cycled up to the highest point in that week was a varied one. In the first 47 km I biked along until Xilokastro, where I got ...