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 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