Carry on camping
For pro teams, the gap between racing seasons is a time for training camps – but as sports director Cherie Pridham explains, it’s not all about training. Or camping, for that matter
Towards the end of the year, a team’s management will sit down with each rider in the team and discuss the following season’s goals and objectives. We listen to what the rider would ideally like to do and balance that against how the team sees their role. It’s not too prescriptive at this point – the idea is to seek an agreeable solution, although it’s impossible to cater for everyone’s ambitions. After all, only eight riders can go to the Tour de France.
Come December, we meet up again for a training camp. This is where new kit and equipment will be issued and we spend time with team sponsors to get all the required photography for showcasing the respective brands. It’s also where a detailed schedule will be released, giving riders and sports directors an idea of where they are going to be racing in 2022.
For instance, a rider will know if they are part of the Classics group, whether they’re going to an altitude camp for the climbers or be part of the sprint leadout train. Riders will also know if they’re on the long list for any of the Grand Tours. By the time the main – warm weather – training camp arrives in January, each rider will have a good idea of what’s expected of them and have all the necessary equipment at their disposal.
Compared to the December camps, the January camps are more disciplined and riders are really put through their paces. Various physical and performance assessments are undertaken, which give a guide as to where each rider is in the winter training schedule and also a benchmark against last year’s numbers.
While the team will ride as a collective from time to time, various groups will be hived off for separate work. For example, a lot of work will be done on the sprint leadout team. There are some good sprint opportunities in the Middle East in February so the idea will be to put in lots of practice and be ready to hit the ground running.
Another group will have been earmarked for the Spring Classics and, as with the climbers, they may have a specific altitude camp pencilled in straight after the January camp. Then there are a handful of one-day races in Spain in late January, with the first stage race being the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina in the first week of February.
From there on it’s full gas until next October. Each rider will have a nominated sports director who will be responsible for their progress and wellbeing throughout the year. Unlike most professional sports, where teams train together on a daily basis, there is a huge responsibility placed on riders to put in the work when they are training at home and also on communication between them and the management. Fortunately in this digital age it’s far easier to keep in touch than it was.
One of the strange things about working at this level is that we will see all the riders in January, but because of different schedules there will be one or two who we don’t see again for another six months. It’s therefore imperative to use the winter training camps to get to know all the riders as well as possible, because the last thing you want is to turn up for a race in, say, September and have a rider who you don’t really know.
For now, though, I’m just enjoying some quality time at home, waiting for Christmas, and then before I know it we’ll be at the January camp and the new season will be under way.
Various physical and performance assessments are undertaken, which give a guide as to where each rider is in the winter training schedule