Training camp
Training camp
One of the only times in the year we've got the whole team
together is during the training camp. It's a great way to catch up
after the off-season and to get to know the new riders on the team.
Of course we've had a photo session and a team presentation with
the whole team in the last week but these days are so full that a
proper chat is nearly impossible.
Last Sunday (January 17) we left from airport Weeze, on the
German and Dutch border to the German island in Spain: Mallorca. I
say German island as especially the area where the hotel is (s'
Arenal) there are more German shops, restaurants and hotels than
Spanish ones so we do feel like we are in Germany whenever we are
off the bike. The good part about Mallorca is the wide range of
possibilities with training and of course the good weather. There
are large flat parts on the island but there are hills and even
mountains as well, so whatever you want to train, it's only a
maximum of an hour ride away.
My roommate for this week on Mallorca turned out to be Jin Long,
one of our Chinese riders. His English has improved significantly
since last year so it's a lot easier to communicate with him so I
don't mind being in one room with him. Nearly all races we can pick
our own roommates but at training camp it is usually thought out by
the directors for different reasons. An obvious reason is to make
sure there are no little groups within the team, if the French
riders are always together, the Chinese riders together and the
Germans together there is not one big team but several small groups
within the team and you want to avoid at all times because we have
to race for and with each other during the season. Usually in the
training camp there is a lot of 'half-wheeling' going on, everyone
is excited to nearly start the season and wants to show everyone
how well he's been training by trying to ride a half wheel in front
of the rider next to him. This is a little annoying as it brings
the speed up a lot because no one wants to ride a half wheel
behind. So far this training camp the half-wheeling hasn't been too
bad, but while saying this I'm thinking it might be me
half-wheeling my teammates... If that's true I'll have to hear that
for the rest of the year, bike riders are like elephants, we never
forget someone that hurts us...
So far we have done 2 training rides, the first day we did a
sunny and warm 6 hour ride, mostly on the flat with some sprint and
coordination efforts. The sprint efforts are done by sprinting in
2's and try to push each other to the max to improve as much as
possible. I was sprinting against Mitchel Docker and definitely had
a hard time beating him; he's trained well the past months and will
do well this season. Good job Dockers!! The coordination efforts
are based on cadence, the amount of revs per minute of the legs. We
varied between 80 en 110 rpm for a fairly long time.
The second day was a very hard 4 hour ride with some short
anaerobic intervals. We started with a good amount of 30 sec
sprints uphill and not a lot of rest in between. The sprints are
done in 2's again and this time I had to sprint against Tom
Veelers, I think the strongest guy on the team, what an animal!
After a few sprints the lactate starts building up quickly in your
blood and legs and after about 4 sprints some riders started to be
sick off the bike and that made me laugh. These softies can't
handle anything! Another few sprints later I started to feel very
sick myself as well, sometimes being a cyclist means hurting
yourself a lot... I managed to do all the sprints and when I tried
to get off my bike my legs nearly buckled and I felt very dizzy.
Apparently cycling is easier than walking! After these sprints we
rode for a while to let the body break down the lactate and when we
felt up for it again we did another few 1 minute sprints uphill.
Funnily enough the 1 minute intervals are easier than the 30 second
ones but still pretty darn hard. To finish the day off in style we
did a 10 minute race with the team for an imaginary finish line.
There were a few attacks, Rooijakkers and Goesinnen first, then
Huguet for a little while and after the Aussie connection (Dockers
and I) broke away but we also were brought back. Rooijakkers
attacked again in the last kilometer and managed to take the win
just before director Rudie Kemna (he didn't do the sprints before
so that isn't fair, still a pretty good effort!). At least
Rooijakkers made a great comeback after his horrible crash in the
Tour de France last year; he's ready for the season I think!!