January 2009
Going round the training camps.

It’s been a hectic year so far with trips to
Majorca, Portugal and Belgium. It was great
to see all the British riders training with the
Cervelo Test Team of 2008 Tour de France
winner, Carlos Sastre in Portugal. It was
especially good to see. ‘Les Deux Dans’
Dan Lloyd and Dan Fleeman settling into
a top level team, a place they both deserve
to be,

I’ve known the two Dans for quite a while, Dan
Lloyd contributed to my second book, The
Complete Bike Book, way back in 2002 when
he was a mountain biker. He was also one of
the first subjects that I did a Cycling Weekly
‘Ride’ feature on, although his claim
that I took the photographs with my ‘phone
isn’t true. Dan Fleeman was another early
‘Ride’ subject.

They have both kept plugging away at their dream
and this year will get the chance to show what
they can really do in races like the Ardennes
Classics and the Giro d’Italia. Best of
luck to both of them, you will hear a lot more
about the two Dans in 2009.

Another young rider who is going to do great things
is Edvald Boassen-Hagen of the Columbia team. The
Norwegian had some incredible victories in 2008 and
wants to make his mark in the tough Classics of the
north like the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix this year. I did a ‘Ride’ story for Cycle Sport with Edvald
while I was in Majorca, where I also interviewed the team’s trainers for a new feature in that magazine
called Performance Training in which we will focus
on how the top pros train

For more like this go to our sister site CrazyAboutBelgium