T-Mobile riders training around the world

By Susan Westemeyer

It's training time again, and T-Mobile's riders around the world are looking to get into shape. One group just finished a training camp on the Spanish island of Lanzarote. Patrik Sinkewitz anticipated typical German weather and took off for South Africa, where he has 25°C and sunshine. Had he known that the weather at home would stay so nice, he might have stayed at home, but he is pleased with the optimal conditions he has found and is also pleased with his progress.

"I feel better than I did a year ago, it's really going well," he said on his website, www.patrik-sinkewitz.com. He'll be flying home for the holidays before taking off for the team's official training camp on Mallorca.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Adam Hansen is preparing for his first season with T-Mobile with methods that are new to him. "I have to admit, that I do try something different every year, last year's base training was more of the crazy stupid but this year's training set out by [T-Mobile team doctor] Lothar [Heinrich] is kinda........hard," he wrote at www.adamhansen.com. "It involves runs in the morning, Swiss ball stuff, training in the arvo, Swiss ball stuff and sometimes gym work."

A few days later, his training changed. "I have been doing some solid rides lately and now I have my first break (if you call 1.5 hours of riding a rest day!), then into some serious gym work. All this gym work is kinda good and I'm learning heaps. I'm amazed that these types of programs exist. But I will try it and see as I'm pretty new to it and love to know if it really works."