Radiant sunshine, vibrant blue skies, picture postcard mountain ranges, chairlifts, challenging decents. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

We began today with a climb up the mountain. Whilst the remainder of the group decided to take the chairlifts from La Massana to Vallnord, the Snowball family headed up on the road, seated behind Courtney as she set a steady pace.

Even though it was only 9.30 in the morning, it was bloody hot with the sun searing down on us as we made our way up the 10km ascent at a roughly 5% average.

With a few stops along the way for photos and water, we reached Vallnord Village in around an hour. As the rest of the group were out riding, we had half an hour to chill and watch the remnants of the World Cup being packed up around the park.

With the group back together by around 11am, we headed out to discover some of the other trails of Vallnord.

We started by incorporating some of the World Cup trails before soon heading off further up the mountain by catching a couple of different chairlifts before joining the Commencal Track and descending down to Vallnord Village before repeating the dose and this time descending all the way down to La Massana. The descent was incredibly bumpy with lots of roots, rocks and ruts in the track. The common observation over lunch in La Massana was that we all had sore arms.

Post lunch we headed back up the mountain, this time on the chairlift. It's fair to say we were all pretty wrecked and one of the other guys from the group decided to call it a day. The hot weather and bumpy tracks were certainly taking their toll.

Once back up in Vallnord Village, Wendy and Courtney did a quick review of some parts of the World Cup course before heading back down to La Massana on the road. Meanwhile Mitchell and I had a play around on one of the other parts of the WC course, Mitchell intent on achieving a jump on a section of single track incorporated in the race on Sunday. The significance of this was that on Sunday, of all the elite riders that we saw ride this section, only one man was able to achieve the feat. Nino Schurter, the World Champion and race winner on Sunday. All other riders rolled over it.

Enter Mitchell Snowball. I must admit I was a bit nervous as I stood a bit further down the track with camera in hand, as just prior to Mitchell's attempt I saw a downhiller completely case the landing. Not Mitchell. He attacked the jump with gusto and cleared it at first attempt. It's fair to say he was pumped. After a quick review of the video, he went back and did it again.

With a sense of satisfaction that he was able to do something that the great Nino had achieved, we mucked around for a bit longer on some other sections of the World Cup course before bombing down the mountain on the road. Much to my disgust, he had me covered on the descent.

We concluded the day with dinner and then ice cream with the riding group including Martin and his girlfriend Lenka on her last night, Mike and Matt, Hugo, Will the other instructor and the four Snowballs.

Day 2 done and dusted!