1. At the training camps

Jan 14, 2016, 12:41 AM

January 14 | In the first Telegraph Cycling Podcast of 2016 we hear from training camps in Spain and Manchester and riders including Mark Cavendish, Ireland’s Dan Martin and Italy’s Elia Viviani.

Richard Moore is joined by Ciro Scognamiglio and Orla Chennaoui in Mallorca at the Team Sky winter base, where Sir Dave Brailsford explains the thinking behind the camp. Brailsford also tells us how the team’s big new signings, Michal Kwiatkowski and Mikel Landa, are settling in.

At the Etixx-QuickStep camp in Calpe, southern Spain, Martin tells us about his desire to improve, particularly in the Grand Tours. And the Belgian super-team’s sports director Brian Holm discusses life without Cavendish, having worked with the British sprinter since 2007.

Cavendish is now with Team Dimension Data, the African team, though he has spent the winter in Manchester, training on the track in his bid for a medal in the six-discipline omnium at the Rio Olympics. It has meant compromising his road training, and it represents, says Cavendish, a big challenge: “Track racing has changed so much, it’s so specialist now,” he explains. “It’s ridiculous that the omnium is an endurance event on the programme.

“I didn’t realise how much of a full time job the track was. It’s like a rally driver and a Formula One driver – they both drive cars, and can both drive fast, but they can’t specialise in both.”

The Telegraph Cycling Podcast is presented by Trainer Road.

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