We know that as individuals we never stop learning… and the same goes for our team of guides & office staff. Last year we enjoyed an incredible season but it’s no reason to rest on our laurels. In fact if anything, it just motivates us to ensure that we keep up the good work.
Our Staff Training Program
Our Staff Training Program is something we do as a company that has a huge effect on how good a holiday you have. We not only train up new members of staff, but we share ideas about what worked and what didn’t, we play around with new gadgets and equipment, and we catch up.
The latter is as important as everything else: we put a minimum of 2 leaders onto every Marmot Tours holiday and it is imperative that together they quickly form a team so as to be able to offer you the best support on the road. Our Leaders are exceptional individuals. Put them together in teams and they are in our view, pretty unbeatable.
As you might imagine, it was a fun few days!
Preparing for your Cycling Holidays
While you guys are getting the kms under your belts on the turbo trainer during the winter, James and I have some time in the office without the ‘distraction’ of running trips and we always put it to good use. We tweak things, develop things and James spends a fortune on gadgets 😉 All for a good cause, of course! The training days then allow us to share what changes we have made and make sure all of our leaders are confident about the start of the upcoming season.
Cycling holiday base in French Pyrenees
What better place than the Pyrenees as a location for our get together? We didn’t get out on the bikes (our hire fleet had just finished being serviced and cleaned to within an inch of their lives by Leader & Hire Fleet Manager Alan Toogood) but there was time to ‘nip’ up to the Chapelle de Saint Bartolome for a stunning view of the Valley of Ax, whose namesake town (Ax les Thermes) is the starting point for the Pyrenean Classic Cols as well as featuring on Day 3 of the Raid Pyrenean. The sun shone (though we wouldn’t have minded rain as we had just opened our new Marmot Tours Montane Jackets!) and it was great to get out of the ‘Training Room’ where the projector had been doing overtime.
Physiotherapy for Cyclists Tutorial
Physiotherapist Amanda, gave us a tutorial on kinesiology tape and knee pain, Merv shared his words of wisdom on pressure sore management (with just a little heckling!) and Debs shared some of the fun that has been going on during the winter on Marmot Facebook & Twitter pages. James and I probably gabbled on about stuff far too much but it’s hard to curb our enthusiasm for what we do and how we do it, and we rarely get all (or very nearly all) of the team in one place so we have to take advantage of it when we do!
Road Cycling in Corsica
It seemed only right that the day after our training course, 4 of our customised vans headed off to Corsica to start the first trips of the season; a Raid Corsica and a Classic Cols of Corsica.
If you have got a Marmot Tours adventure booked this summer then rest assured you will be in excellent hands this summer. If you haven’t got one booked then there are still the odd spots available so get in touch! 2017 dates are also online and we’ll be confirming our holiday costs just as soon as the Brexit vote is through.
Watch this space for tales of fun and frolics as the season goes on….
