Kloden and Didier set the pace at the front(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
US road champion Matthew Busche(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
The team were well supported(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Andy Schleck and Kim Andersen(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
The UCI can't ban radio during team camps. Can they?(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Laurent Didier and Andy Schleck(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Fabian Cancellara has been recovering from a cold(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
The riders think their six-hour ride is just a joke(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
The RadioShack-Nissan-Trek team camp(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
At the RadioShack-Nissan-Trek team camp(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Andy Schleck and Andreas Kloden before the ride(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
No cars, no distractions in Mallorca(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Will we see so many RadioShack riders on the front of the bunch come July?(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Not all the riders stayed with the lead group(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Last year's Tour of Lombardia winner Oliver Zaugg(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Fuglsang on the front(Image credit: RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Come summer and the Spanish island of Mallorca will be awash with drunken English tourists, beer-bellied football fans and disco fever. Yet right now, at the start of the year, it’s a different kind of tourist altogether that enjoys what really is a beautiful island.
Tucked away in various hotels, cubby-holed resorts and out-of-season apartments are the elite of professional cycling as they prepare for the year ahead. Team Sky in one corner, to the south Katusha and towards the hills, RadioShack-Nissan-Trek are all quietly putting their touches to their final camp of the off-season.
Andy Schleck, Chris Horner and Andreas Kloden are among those from within the Luxembourg team familiar with the island’s rolling and in some cases, severely testing parcours and they made the most of their quiet surroundings by training for six-hours on Tuesday.
Away from the mountains of the Tour de France that beckon in July, the passionate cycling fans that line the roads and crackle of the race radio, this is perhaps where races are really won – on the lonely and taxing roads at team camp.
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