Grischa Niermann of Rabobank and Thomas Ziegler from T-Mobile joined forces for some altitude training on the Spanish island of Tenerife off the West African coast, but ended up getting a lot of exercise in changing their clothes. They had snow at their hotel up at 2100 meters for a few days, but when they rode down the mountain, it was 25° Celsius at sea level. So, Niermann wrote on his personal website, www.grischa-niermann.de, "In the mornings we dressed warmly in order to ride down, only to pack everything in our jersey pockets underway so we could enjoy the warmth. When we returned to the hotel it started getting cold again and we had to put it all on again."
Niermann is starting in the Tour of California, and will know by then "whether I can transform this good feeling from training into good racing form."
