Team DSM January Recap – Camp Life

A new year means new beginnings and new opportunities for all! And we are more than ready for another fantastic year as Team DSM after some good Team Camps together across all three of our programs – Men, Women and Development – over the winter period.

Escaping the often unstable weather conditions in Northern Europe and our team’s base in the Netherlands, we headed to Calpe in Spain with all three of our programs present for Team Camp. Early season camps are about getting in those important base miles but it also gives everyone in the team, staff and riders, an opportunity to come back together as a group and spend some time together, with friends old and new, before the racing action gets underway – and of course, how could we forget the all important content shooting days!

Adhering to COVID-19 regulations and taking the best precautions possible, we split into four bubbles with the three program’s separate from each other, as well as the staff. Unfortunately, it meant that we were unable to get our traditional “One Team DSM” picture beside the pool, but the precautions meant that our team camp could go ahead in the best way possible. With lots of hard sessions on the bike and some great group workouts in the gym off of it, we also had the chance to fine tune more details such as bike-fits as we prepare for the upcoming races.

Waving goodbye to each other, albeit seemingly only briefly, it wouldn’t be long until we were back in Calpe to begin two specialised camps; our Team GC Camp and Team Sprint Camp. These Camps allow us as a team to focus more closely on the details within the groups; bringing us closer to both our long and short term goals.

At the Team GC Camp we focused on some TT and TTT action on the opening full day, before some intense efforts on the many climbs in the surrounding areas in the days that followed. You can check out some of that here! However, it’s not just on-bike specifics we focus on, as we also have moments for conversations between the group and coaches to talk all things cycling, of course with a GC slant, while our Mindset Expert also held a discussion group about stress; helping highlight symptoms and causes, and ways for the guys to overcome it – something that can provide a benefit to everyday life, but also during the intense life of being a pro athlete.

With the GC group heading home, our Sprint group was metaphorically tagged in, and once again we hit the road for more specific training; with a large focus on lead-outs and sprint practice – something the guys really enjoyed and most definitely went all in for, as is proven in this video! Like with the GC group, our Sprint group also discussed the fine-art and often changing landscape of WorldTour level sprinting with each other, while our Mindset Expert also spoke to them too. Did you know – smiling can help to trick your brain into thinking you’re not struggling as much, and as a result help you push that little bit harder and get a performance benefit?! It apparently really is mind over matter!