Our team will head to Spain on Monday, where it will conduct a ten-day building block.
Costa Brava's reputation as a destination for winter training camps among professional team has witnessed a fast grow in the past years, and this December will play once again host for Quick-Step Floors Cycling Team's first training camp. Sunny Denia will welcome the outfit's riders at the start of next week, as the 29 members of the team, including the eight new recruits, will use this opportunity to lay a strong foundation for the 2017 season.
Koen Pelgrim, Quick-Step Floors Cycling's trainer, talked of why the pre-season training camp – that comes just a few weeks before Australia's Tour Down Under, the team's first race – is such a key part ahead of next season, in which the squad hopes to continue on the successful road of the past years: "This is the first and only moment of the season when all the riders will be all together. They will do a test to evaluate their current condition, their working points and set specific training zones for their work on the bike."
"From the starting point we'll use the camp to get the first big block of training done. The guys have been training at home, of course, but here we will increase the training load towards the new season. We will use the (hopefully) good weather and good roads to get a block of endurance training done in order to have a nice build-up for the rest of the preparation. We will also mix in specific and hard work for the riders who have early objectives, in January, practice lead-outs, while off the bike we will focus on core and strength", concluded Koen, who was instrumental in the team's victories during the 2016 season.
The 29 Quick-Step Floors Cycling Team riders who'll take part in the Denia training camp: Julian Alaphilippe, Jack Bauer, Tom Boonen, Gianluca Brambilla, Eros Capecchi, Rémi Cavagna, Laurens De Plus, David De La Cruz, Tim Declercq, Dries Devenyns, Fernando Gaviria, Philippe Gilbert, Bob Jungels, Iljo Keisse, Marcel Kittel, Yves Lampaert, Daniel Martin, Davide Martinelli, Enric Mas, Maximiliano Richeze, Fabio Sabatini, Maximilian Schachmann, Pieter Serry, Zdenek Stybar, Niki Terpstra, Matteo Trentin, Petr Vakoč, Martin Velits, Julien Vermote.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele
