The UAE Team Emirates squad for the 2024 season are gathered with management and staff in La Nucia near Benidorm in Spain, for their first major training camp before the new season.
The training camp began on December 9th and runs until December 20th, with riders making the most of the warm winter weather for a key block of training and also formalising their race programmes and other details before the racing begins in Australia at the Santos Tour Down Under.
Almost all the squad, including the new signings for 2024 such as Pavel Sivakov and Nils Politt are at the camp, with only the USA’s Brandon McNulty and New Zealand’s Finn Fisher-Black absent.
Tadej Pogačar, who revealed on Sunday that he will target the 2024 Giro d’Italia, will talk more about his 2024 goals, including an expected Giro-Tour double attempt, later on Monday.
“This morning they’re doing a low intensity but quite long training ride, to get some volume training but nothing specific,” team manager Mauro Gianetti told Cyclingnews as riders, including Pogačar on a time trial bike, passed by the UAE Team Emirates team truck before their training ride.
“The training camp has gone really well and we’ve covered all the main points of the background work for next year.”
“We’ve been really lucky with good weather throughout, and we’ve done the testing of all the riders, and worked out their respective race programmes and preparation for next season depending on each one’s calendar. It’s been a very important camp.”
Gianetti explained that the timing, length and location of the training camp “is a classic element of the off-season,” with riders split into two groups: those who are aiming to hit the ground running in Australia and those who are focussed on coming into top form later in the year.
“The riders who are heading for Australia come here with a bit more volume and base training already in their legs and they focus on doing more intensity work, the finetuning, because races like the Tour Down Under are right around the corner.”
“The ones who are focussed on later in the year will do more volume work here and leave the higher-quality training for later on.”
Brandon McNulty and Finn Fisher-Black are absent to avoid travelling from the USA and New Zealand but Michael Vink and Jay Vine are in Spain but will stay in New Zealand and Australia for longer in the early months of 2024.
The Australian and New Zealand riders will compete in their national championships early in the new year and UAE Team Emirates’ first major race of the 2024 season will be the Tour Down Under from January 16th-21st, where Vine is defending champion after his overall victory in 2023.
