Etixx – Quick-Step is getting some rest today, after a successful six days of their first training camp for 2015 in Valencia (Spain). The riders and staff have been kept busy between off-bike photo shoots, strength & stability training, and of course training rides.

Etixx – Quick-Step trainer Koen Pelgrim said the area has proven to be the perfect training ground for the team.

"The quality of the roads is good here," Pelgrim said. "You can train on the flats, the climbs, and the types of climbs are also diverse. You have rolling climbs and steep climbs. The quality of the weather here is also good. The rest day was our first cloudy day in six days. This makes it a perfect place for training."

Training camp was also a perfect place to get the riders together for their off-bike training. This way, team physiotherapists and trainers could work with them directly to monitor technique and progress.

Some riders, for example, performed cycling ergometer lactate threshold tests with Pelgrim and staff of Bakala Academy.

"We did lactate threshold tests that we also did with the Belgian guys earlier at Bakala Academy," Pelgrim said. "We tested the other guys here at camp. We wanted to see the level of riders to determine the training zones for the rides we did at training camp, and also until we test them again around the time of our second training camp."

Bakala Academy Nutrition Specialists also met with the riders to discuss their individualized meal plans for the upcoming season. Furthermore, some of the riders performed strength & stability training a couple times directly following their training rides.

"It's been proven that doing strength training helps also endurance athletes," Pelgrim said. "That is something we always do in the preparation phase before at home. But we also try to continue it at training camp. That's why we brought it here and we did the program here, so they can continue it without missing anything."

Of course, a major component of training camp are the team rides. The kinds of efforts differed depending on the type of rider.

"We split the groups into three," Pelgrim said. "We had one group with the guys from Tour Down Under, as they need harder and more specific training to prepare them for earlier racing. Then we have the group that consists of the guys of the Belgian Classics and the sprinters. Then, of course, you have the climbers."

All of the riders still performed long distance rides as part of their training.

"Our longest ride until now was around 150 kilometers," Pelgrim said. "That was yesterday. Two days before we did between 100 and 120 kilometers depending on the group."

There are still several days left of camp, and there is plenty of work left to be done for the riders.

"Tomorrow a lot of rain is predicted so we will have to freestyle it a bit," Pelgrim said. "We will see what we can do that day if the rain is heavy. The day after there will be some hard training, interval training for Tour Down Under riders. For the Belgian Classics and sprinter group they will do some 200 meter sprints one-by-one. The third group, the climbers, will do some endurance training with strength training after. The last day we will have long rides for the climbers, an endurance ride and also some time on the time trial bike for the Belgian Classics and sprinter group, and the Tour Down Under group will do long training in the mountains. So, as you can see, there is still plenty left to do for our guys and each group will perform efforts specific to their needs."