IAM Cycling is ready to attack the 2015 season with the same enthusiasm that it has shown since the team first started racing in January of 2013. Now in possession of a WorldTour license, which was awarded by the UCI in early December 2014, the team founded by Michel Thétaz, the CEO of IAM Funds, intends to continue its growth within the elite community of WorldTour teams.
As the only Swiss professional cycling team, IAM Cycling will do its utmost to fulfill its ambitions. Following the first team training camp in mid-December on Mallorca, IAM Cycling has returned to the Balearic Islands for eleven days of intensive work with 22 of its riders. Only the seven riders committed to the Santos Tour Down Under, which is the first WorldTour event of the season, will be missing.
Marcello Albasini, one of the team’s directeurs sportifs, is in charge of the camp preparation and does not hide his satisfaction with the agenda for the upcoming camp.
“The guys have worked hard since they picked up their training in November. In Mallorca from the 12th to the 19th of December, directly after the team presentation was completed, we were working on endurance and intensity for the riders who were slated for the first race in Australia. In total, 18 riders were there doing a good 30 hours training including a ride of more than 200 kilometers. The atmosphere was great, and I was personally surprised by the determination, the eagerness, and the enthusiasm of the riders.”
Starting Monday afternoon, Marcello Albasini has arranged for a second intensive training camp that will prepare the riders for their fast-approaching goals.
“There will be plenty to do. We must take off the training wheels; school-time is over. Except for our younger riders like Chevrier, Holst Enger and Pellaud, everyone else is entering at least their third year as a pro. So I expect them to know a little more and to be able to cope with the higher level of competition. During our eleven day training camp, we will be focusing on intensity. Even if we can’t forget that for riders like Frank and Wyss, the focus is primarily the Tour de France, the program will nevertheless be somewhat different.
"When we approach the various tests, we will be focusing on addressing the individual weaknesses, and working on endurance, explosiveness and threshold. Since we are already facing the four days of the Trophy of Mallorca at the end of the month, any fixes of form that may be necessary we will have to take care of very quickly. But this is a race that they can use to test their condition and try to achieve something special in the sprints.”
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