Team Garmin TTT training video
Team time trial training video from Girona in January. Be sure to turn on the annotations. This is one of the team time trial exercises we did during the Girona training camp. Two days of training were completely dedicated to TTT preparation, specifically for the opening TTT in Qatar. We worked on finding the top [...]
Wiggins faster than a Spanish thunderstorm?
After our first rest day here in Girona, things really changed. The riders did not sleep well because of a ferocious thunderstorm. During the night, doors were banging, chairs were shifting to and fro and windows were slamming. We found out later it was the strongest storm to hit Spain in 12 years! The wind [...]
Girona Camp: Getting race ready
So the final preparations for the European race season are under way here in Girona, Spain. Since the Boulder training camp in mid-November, the riders have been working on coordination, muscle strength, core stability and building endurance. For the last three weeks, they’ve been putting in longer high intensity workouts on the road. And now, [...]
Meet Ricardo van der Velde
Ricardo van der Velde is a 21-year-young Dutch rider who comes to Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O from the Rabobank development team. Initially Ricardo was going to join the VMG/Felt U23 Team, but it was decided that he should go directly to the professional team. Johan van der Velde, Ricardo’s father, was a very talented bike rider [...]
What happens in 'off season'?
In our planning, this period is called the ‘off season’. But what is off? For the riders I train, the season is certainly off with no competitive road racing at the moment. But does this mean work, communication, planning and training are off too? We evaluated each rider’s season by looking back at the lists [...]
The future face of Le Tour?
With two recent wins – the Route du Sud and the Irish national championships (pictured above) – some have wondered just why young Dan Martin isn’t part of the Tour de France squad. His trainer, Adrie van Diemen answers that question. Dan Martin isn’t going to the Tour de France for many different reasons. The [...]
Along the road to Le Tour
Yesterday was the last day of the training camp in the Pyrénées. And this was the final training camp before the Tour the France. David Millar, Christian Vande Velde, Ryder Hesjedal and Danny Pate have done an immense amount of work over the past couple of months. It all started in April with the pre-Giro [...]
TTT training: Full speed ahead!
How can you make fast guys go faster? We attempted to do just that during the team time trial training camp here in Girona. After our second place finish in the team time trail (TTT) in Qatar and our TTT win at the Tour de Georgia, we should be ready to be competitive in the [...]
Amstel Gold postage stamp racing
Riders sometimes say the Amstel Gold is a race on a postage stamp. The area where the riders race is so small that they pass the same point on the road sometimes three times. Here is the actual course. You can see how they use different colors to better indicate where the course goes. It [...]
Delayed pain from 52.8K of Roubaix cobbles
Sunday our riders race Paris-Roubaix. Even before they have done the race, I’m certain they will need more time to recuperate from this than from any other 260 km classic. The reason for this is simple: 28 sections of cobble stones totaling 52.8 km. Over this total distance of cobbles, the body has to deal [...]
