Team Training Camp

Training camps have concluded as Team RadioShack riders departed Calpe, Spain and Scottsdale, Arizona. With the holidays around the corner, riders and staff will spend time with family and friends before the Tour Down Under kicks off the season, January 16 - 23, 2011.

In the next edition of team-building from December camp in Calpe, Spain...director Johan Bruyneel wanted to stress racing strategies and tactics. Although the team is spending the majority of the days on moderate training rides, it is never too early in the season to simulate racing scenarios.

Having spent hours sitting, the peculiar thumping in my chest so often accompanied by burning legs, evidenced the intensity of the count down. That isolated adrenaline of heart pounding in my helmet, I launched forward over squealing tires, shifted, accelerated, weaved cones, slid right, overcompensated, and spun out in a cloud of smoke, laughing like the maniac driver I was. Racing Nissan’s 370Z Coupes against my new teammates on that challenge course highlighted our day of test driving Nissan’s entire line up at their test track in Scottsdale, AZ.

Following a fast and furious day at the Nissan Arizona Test Center, the Scottsdale crew enjoyed the luxuries of sleeping in (if you consider a 10:00am ride “sleeping in”). By mid-morning, temperatures had already reached a pleasant 70 degrees F (21 degrees Celcius). Riders and sponsors were very cheery as we set out on an "easy" three-hour cruise across Arizona back roads.

On Wednesday, Team RadioShack riders logged about three hours on the bike, more for others such as Andreas Kloden. Taking full advantage of the beautiful Calpe weather, the 35-year-old German rode for nearly five hours. Meeting in front of the hotel after lunch, the team directors led staff and riders on a fifteen-minute walk from the hotel toward “El Peñon d’Ifach,” known as the Rock of Calpe. Standing at 332 meters tall, the riders were challenged to make the 40-minute ascent. The reward: one of the most breathtaking views of the Spanish coastline.

As the European-based riders climbed a mountain for their first official rider meeting, American-based riders also went off the beaten path for their first team get-together. It’s safe to say all Team RadioShack riders have a “need for speed.” And Tuesday morning this urge was answered…While attending camp, our sponsors at Nissan wanted to add a little “innovation” to traditional team-building activities and training rides, so they invited us to the Nissan Arizona Test Center in Scottsdale.

Philip Deignan represents one of the six new faces joining Team RadioShack this January. Deignan joins the team from Cervelo TestTeam. The 27-year-old Irishman is a strong stage racer, whose resume includes a 2009 Vuelta a España stage win and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Get to know one of the latest Team RadioShack riders as he answers fan questions here.

Welcome to Calpe, Spain! Population: 13,000, a small fisherman’s town that plays host to cyclists from around the world. Team RadioShack is back for our first training camp of the 2011 season. All European-based riders are all officially present and accounted for, now that Jani Brajkovic has arrived. It took Jani almost two days to arrive in Spain. Like often, he was very unlucky with his flights!  It is great to finally have the European riders and staff reunited, as we catch up and welcome the several new riders of 2011.

We were fortunate enough to have photographer Graham Watson join us at camp in Calpe, Spain this past week.  Check out some of the great moments that he was able to capture with his lens.

This is my last blog from camp, as I start the journey back to Austin, Texas early tomorrow. Calpe became a temporary home, as the routine of morning training rides and afternoon meetings became standard. It will be an adjustment not waking up and reporting to team breakfast with the faces that have grown so familiar over the last week. But I will say that we are all anxious to launch into the spring season and see all the hard work play out.
 
The directors saved one of the best training rides for my last. Johan ordered up six hours on the bike, logging 180km (115 miles). Yesterday’s hint of rain clouds never showed. Instead, we were blasted with the coldest wind yet. You’ll see in the pictures riders went to extra measures, and layers, to stay warm. The freezing wind was literally whistling through riders’ helmets as we rolled out at 9:30a.m.