January 24, 2008 – After completing a week on the bike comparative to a workweek in France – 35 hours – I am ready for a rest. During the last seven days we have logged kilometers, tested our bodies, tested equipment and have bonded as a team – which is pretty much what training camps are all about.

We arrived in Mallorca to new bikes (Giant has produced a lighter, stiffer bike for us this year), new clothing, and a new look team. The magenta has been stripped from our bikes and clothes and, internally, our team is very different, as the German roots no longer run deep through the team – and hopefully, we have also unloaded some of the baggage of the past.

To set value standards for the year, we were tested in a makeshift lab. The team doctors and trainers tested our acceleration, VO2 max, lactate threshold, body-fat, mechanical efficiency, and our bodies to ensure we were fit to race. The UCI requires every rider to undergo heart exams and blood tests to make sure everything is okay and we are fit to race. These are not drug controls but simple health checks.

Our blood and urine was also taken and tested to establish values for the UCI’s new biological passport as well as our internal ACE testing. During the year we will each undergo about 27 out-of-competition blood and/or urine controls.

The team was split into three groups each day so that our workloads were significant, making sure that we weren’t sitting on our teammates wheels without putting pressure on our pedals. In groups of 6-8 riders, we were able to complete structured workouts with individual strength work on the climbs and then double-paceline work on the flats to give us a little speed. Often, the team coach would monitor the workouts as a few riders had remote SRM’s that could relay the data in real time to the coach’s computer in the car following us – so, we couldn’t slack.

The long rides were broken up with a coffee and pastry stop which not only refueled the morale in the group but also upped our average speed as we rode into the last hours of the training ride.

In a week, the team will again be back together in California for another training camp where we will ramp up our fitness for the races and, also where, the team will officially be presented.


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