Two weeks ago, we declared the end of the off-season. Now, it's the true start of the pre-season. Training camps are upon us and a big chunk of the pro peloton, with teams such as Soudal-QuickStep and Ineos Grenadiers, is descending on Spain to lay the foundations for 2023.
The last part of November is traditionally when riders put an end to the relaxation, the eating, and the drinking, and reach for a bike that might have been gathering dust for a month or more.
But it's a sort of limbo, those early outings mostly about blowing the cobwebs away. In a way, that's the pre pre-season, the training for training camp.
This year marks a sort of return to normality, the humble training camp back in its rightful place. In the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent dearth of racing in January have seen camps delayed and staggered, carried over into the new year. Now, the Tour Down Under and Vuelta a San Juan are back on the calendar in a matter of weeks, and racing is just around the corner.
All 18 men's WorldTour teams are holding training camps in Spain in December, while the women's calendar does still allow for more breathing space. Of those men's teams, eight have already got their camps underway, seven will do so by the end of the week, and the remaining three will be starting on Monday. There's no time to waste.
Spain will be the location for all 18 of those men's WorldTour camps, and a lion's share of the women's WorldTour camps. Cement conditions, cheap abodes, quiet well-surfaced roads, and a combination of coastal flats and inland climbs have turned it into the place to be over the past several years.
A few plump for the island of Mallorca, and a couple for Girona in the north-east, but it's down the mediterranean coast in the south east, between the regions of Valencia and Murcia, where you'll find the central hub. The holiday resorts of the Costa Brava, dormant in the height of winter, suddenly spring back to life with the whirring of freehubs and the clanking of gears.
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Logistically, it's a dream. Flights to Alicante and Valencia are cheap and plentiful. Large hotels, packed out in the height of summer, are there to be effectively taken over, car parks filled with trucks and cars, conference rooms turned into mechanics' workshops, and no scraps for loungers by the pool.
Astana director Giuseppe Martinelli said last year they paid just €60 per person per day for full accommodation. Even if costs have soared in Europe for just about anything, a big operation is made surprisingly cheap.
Training camp locations (Image credit: Cyclingnews)
Teams may have organised initial camps in November, with the likes of UAE Team Emirates and Israel-Premier Tech taking riders to the countries of their backers for preliminary team-building gatherings. But Spain in December marks the start of the serious stuff.
Distances will be ramped up, sessions will be more specific, and the heart rate will wind back up towards race levels. Those racing in Australia or Argentina in January will already be ahead of the others in terms if intensity.
It's not all about the bike, though. These camps are also host to a number of pre-season planning meetings, where race calendars are mapped out and targets are written into the wishlist for the year ahead.
There's also new equipment and kit to get to grips with, physiological testing to undergo, and a host of media and sponsor obligations, including official team photographs for the new season.
Ineos Grenadiers, who held an initial gathering in Nice with the Ineos-backed football club, kicked off their first training camp in Mallorca on Tuesday. Chief among their priorities is working out how to regain their Tour de France perch, with Geraint Thomas expected to target the Giro d'Italia while Egan Bernal looks to get back to his competitive best.
Bora-Hansgrohe will land in Mallorca later in the week, while EF Education-EasyPost will be up in Girona in Catalunya. They'll join Israel-Premier Tech, who still can't do too much planning given their drop from the WorldTour has yet to be officially confirmed, and given they might not hear about wildcard invites for a good couple of months.
Down in the south-eastern hub, Jumbo-Visma are among the later starters in Denia on January 12. Chief on their to-do list is work out how to win the Tour de France again, with Jonas Vingegaard expected to defend his title, but uncertainty over whether it's a two-leader strategy with Primož Roglič or if the Slovenian switches to the Giro d'Italia. Roglič himself only recently returned to riding on the road after his shoulder surgery so will be behind his teammates in terms of training load. Race schedules will only be revealed at a team presentation in Amsterdam on December 22.
Soudal-QuickStep are currently in Calpe, with World Champion Remco Evenepoel having already made the decision to target the Giro, while two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates teammates will be in La Nucia from December 10.
On the women's side, some teams are sharing camps with the men's squads, such as as Trek-Segafredo in Calpe, Movistar in Almería, and Israel-Premier Tech-Roland in Girona. Some, however, are separate, with Jumbo-Visma heading to Girona later in the month.
Not all are happening in Europe, either, with US-registered teams EF Education-TIBCO-SVB and Human Powered Health holding camps in the USA. EF are already underway in California, while HPH are holding two split camps, one in Girona and the other in Minneapolis.
Like the men's teams, many will be holding follow-up camps in January ahead of the start of the European racing season.
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.
