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Quick Step splits up for Tour Down Under, training camp

By VeloNews.com
Published: Jan. 5, 2009
Two-time Paris-Roubaix champ Tom Boonen will join his Quick Step teammates for a January 2009 training camp in Spain.
Two-time Paris-Roubaix champ Tom Boonen will join his Quick Step teammates for a January 2009 training camp in Spain.
Photo: Graham Watson (file)

Double Paris-Roubaix winner Tom Boonen will join his Quick Step teammates this month for a training camp along the sunny Spanish coast.

The team will converge at the Spanish resort town of Benicassim for a 10-day camp beginning January 12 to put everyone on the right footing heading into the racing season.

Per team tradition, the squad will split into two crews for training rides of different intensity, depending on pending racing schedules.

“We’ll be doing different types of training,” said Quick Step trainer Luca Guercilena. “We’re breaking the guys up into two groups: one for the first part of the season and the other to work on follow-up conditioning.

“Our aim for the first group is to give the finish touch to the work begun in December, working mainly on tactical line-ups for sprints. The second group will work backwards, concentrating on volume by starting to work on long climbs.”

Other members of the team bound for the Tour Down Under will skip the January camp altogether and head to Australia on January 13 for the first major race of 2009.

Quick Step brings a young team headlined by Aussie sprinter Allan Davis. He’ll be joined by Matteo Tosatto, Hubert Schwab, Davide Malacarne as well as newcomers Dries Devenyns, Kurt Hovelijnck and Francesco Reda.

“We leave from Amsterdam for Australia on January 13 and arrive in Adelaide on January 14 and will take a few days to adjust to the jet lag and time difference,” said sport director Rik Van Slycke. “On the 18th there will be a circuit in the center of Adelaide. Then starting on the 20th we’ll be competing in the Tour Down Under.”