Far from the fervor and the heat of the Tour de France that many riders are currently dealing with, some of the IAM Cycling riders who are not racing at the Tour are taking part in training camp at Bernina in Switzerland as a way to acclimate to altitude and regain some calm before the second half of the season. 

Avoiding the typically crazy world of the Tour, Marcello Albasini is protecting his crew at their 2300 meter camp in Engadine to help them prepare for their upcoming goals.   

“The purpose of this camp is to prepare for the second half of the season, and specifically the Vuelta,” explained Albasini, who is the coach in charge of monitoring the performance of the riders at IAM Cycling.  “So far we have done a lot of endurance work to strengthen the foundations that they have already built up since the beginning of the year. 

"But now that we are in the second week of the camp, the riders will start to do much more specific efforts that will correlate with their specialties.  For example, Matteo Pelucchi will work on his sprints while Heinrich Haussler will focus on the strengths he needs in the classics, and then guys like Marcel Aregger and Larry Warbasse will be a little more focused on their prep work for the Vuelta.”

Larry Warbasse, who has both the Tour of Poland and the Tour of Spain in his sights, explained the need for an altitude training camp at this point in the season. 

“Here at over 2300 meters, the Bernina Pass is very high.  At first, the body must adapt to the altitude, and that will benefit us at races like the Vuelta where we will be racing to high summits.  Then every day in training we have to descend down to find the roads we will be using for the ride that day, but then inevitably we have to climb back up to our hotel at the end of the ride.  Having to do this long climb gives us essential preparation ahead of our next races where the profiles of some stages will be much steeper. 

"Finally, looking to my own training, in the most recent races that I did, I could clearly see where my weaknesses were, or at least where I had to focus my training a little more.  For that, we are in an ideal environment here, with staff to help us, and the camp itself is long enough so that we can take the time we need to do the training right.  I can work on the explosiveness that I was missing at the Tour of Austria, for instance, without feeling any pressure, and just stay focused on the task at hand.”

Riders:

Marcel Aregger (S)

Heinrich Haussler (Aus)

Roger Kluge (Ger)

Matteo Pelucchi (It)

Vicente Reynes (Sp)

Patrick Schelling (S)

Larry Warbasse (USA)

Aleksejs Saramotins (Lat)