Snow and cold weather disrupt European training camps

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While the riders at the Tour Down Under are enjoying the Australian summer, snow and cold rain is making to difficult for riders in Europe to train effectively, with some spending a second day on rollers or suffering in the snow or cold rain.

Several teams have gathered in Mallorca and Calpe near Valencia to escape the weather of northern Europe, only to be hit by a cold front that has swept across the Mediterranean to the Balearic island and the southern Spanish coast.

On Tuesday, Team Sky and Trek-Segafredo fought through snow showers to do their daily training. Today riders awoke to a covering of snow in Calpe, with local residents saying it is the first time the area has experienced snow since 1982.

With conditions not conducive to quality training, several teams have opted to ride on the rollers instead of getting wet and cold and risking illness. Morning workouts have been moved to the afternoon in the hope of slightly better conditions, with directeur sportif scrutinizing the weather forecasts.

Despite the tough conditions, Trek-Segafredo rider Julien Bernard revealed that he and his teammates still did 161km of training in a four-hour session on Tuesday.

Some other riders were more fortunate, with Dimension Data doing some testing on the velodrome instead of suffering in the cold. Katusha were the lucky ones to have booked the track in Valencia on Wednesday, with world time trial champion Tony Martin dialling in his new Canyon time trial bike.

On Tuesday, the Katusha team took advantage of the bad weather to do some indoor rider tests. Ilnur Zakarin was one of the Katusha riders to leave a pool of sweat on the floor around his bike.