In a few days time the 2016 season officially begins with the Tour Down Under. It is not an insignificant race, the stage race is part of the World Tour. After a long flight from Amsterdam, Maarten Tjallingii, Primoz Roglic, Enrico Battaglin, Bram Tankink, Martijn Keizer and Bert-Jan Lindeman arrived in Adelaide where it is 9.5 hours later than in the Netherlands. George Bennett joined the team a bit later this week. For the New Zealander, the trip to Adelaide meant 2.5 hours time difference. Jetlag is the greatest enemy of the riders and their performance.

Team LottoNL-Jumbo developed a jetlag protocol which is used by the riders to fight the jetlag and to acclimatise faster, to be fitter at the start of the Tour Down Under.

“Before you begin the journey you take a look at the time difference”, says Martijn Keizer. "If you arrive at 20.00 PM at the destination, you know that you shouldn’t sleep the whole flight because then you do not sleep anymore. You need to drink a lot and eat a light dinner because this effects your sleep too. The first day the feeling on the bike is a little weird because in Adelaide its 10 o'clock in the morning but in your head its still midnight Dutch time. "

The riders anticipated on the circumstances before their travel to Australia and made slight changes in their sleeping rhythm. Because of that the jetlag is less intense.

"You're flying against the clock from West to East and that is the worst. The second night is always the hardest,“ said Maarten Tjallingii. "After three nights in Australia the rhythm is slowly coming back. But you wake up always very early. Last year I needed a week to acclimatise. I've done a lot at home and I was also tired before I got on the plane so that I could sleep and pick up the Australian rhythm a bit."

On Sunday, January 17 the People's Choice Classic is due. A road race over 51km distance. The Tour Down Under starts two days later on January 19 with a stage of 130 kilometers.