Feature: Rapha Condor Sharp’s Busman’s Holiday

With the help of Team manager John Herety, former GB coach Ken Matheson and young Rapha Recruit Luke Mellor, we take a look at a training camp in the sun …

You can read the interview with the team’s king of crits, the ‘daddy’ of the men in black, Dean Downing here…

By Larry Hickmott | Pictures by Ken Matheson

You wouldn’t have to be a cyclist looking for some good training weather to jump at the chance at ten days in Lanzarote. Shorts, t-shirts, relaxing by the pool, it does sound very very inviting. Throw in a suitcase full of clothing from Rapha and a team bike from Condor and the young riders in the Rapha Condor Sharp team must feel quite lucky right now and have their heads in the clouds. The training camp though is just the start of a big year for the team and as any cyclist will know, a season as a pro bike rider is a roller coaster and the time for the hard stuff is just around the corner.

The long and the short of it … Luke Mellor (left) and Dean Downing (right) lead the Rapha Condor Sharp group on one of their training rides.

One of the young riders on the camp was Luke Grivell-Mellor who finished second in the Junior National Road Series in 2011 and on and off road, was one of the country’s most consistent top finishers in the junior ranks. Luke, having been given a chance in a top pro team, is focused on making an impression and prior to the camp, had taken himself to Majorca to get in some more miles to prepare for the training camp.

Luke explains in a recent blog how it wasn’t just the weather that made the training in Lanzarote well worthwhile. “The training was amazing thanks to the great roads and terrain on Lanzorate, plus riding with a group was great because I have spent the majority of my winter training alone due to there being few people or groups to train with in Shropshire.”

But, as Dean Downing explained in his interview, the skies may have been sunny and the temperatures warm but riding on Lanzarote means dealing with the strong winds. “The wind was extremely strong at times” says Luke. “That was good in a way as it made us think about how we rode as a group and where we positioned ourselves in the group to get optimum shelter.”

“Unfortunately, this made it at times a bit dangerous and hard to handle your bike, especially for me being 6’4” and weighing 70 kg.

I did get blown about a bit and on one day Felix (English) got blown completely off the road!

The team meetings where the manager John Herety would talk to the riders about their day’s training and look ahead to the next day.

The team were at the resort on Lanzarote for ten days and in that time, did 40 hours of training with three days on, and then an easy day which saw them have a coffee stop but no-one’s revealed as yet whether caramel slices were on the menu at the cafe! As John Herety explained to VeloUK, the focus was on the technical things rather than riding full gas. Simple drills such as through and off and the odd sprint train to work on being a unit rather than a series of individuals.

Being a ‘unit’ is the key for a team says Dean Downing and Luke also found the drills useful. “I found them extremely useful and learnt a fair bit because coming from a small local club, I’ve never ridden with a team in a race” Luke explained. The young riders also experienced the other perks of being a pro as Luke explained. “Every other day, we would have a massage. I’d never had a massage before coming to Lanzarote so I was nervous about how it would feel as I’ve heard people go on about how painful they are.

However, I found them very pleasant and felt they were highly beneficial to making my legs feel fresh for the following day.

”

In summing up, Luke says of the training camp, “I thought the camp was great, not just because of the quality training we did, but also getting to meet most of my new team mates properly for the first time and getting to spend time with them on and off the bike to get to know them better. We all got on very well together and had a good laugh sharing some top banter with each other. When not riding, I’d either watch a film in my room with Mike (my roommate for the camp), have a coffee by the pool or watch a football match in the sports bar with the other guys.”

That camaraderie will be important in many ways during the year whether it’s looking after each other in a race that’s lined out in the gutter or organising themselves to get to races together and using their initiative to work together to win for their sponsor, the first camp was a great success says the manager John Herety. The camp not only saw the riders get to know each other but also kicked off the learning process which is integral to why the Rapha team has made the changes to its team this year. To lay the foundation for a team that can develop the cycling stars of the future.

“The camp was more about showing them how a training camp works and how the team works” explained John. “

It was a pretty low key camp as far as the intensity goes as we didn’t want them slaughtered at the end of the ten days.”

John did find though that he had riders getting sick by the end of the camp and emphasised how important it was for riders to be honest, to listen to their bodies, and not be afraid to talk to their coaches and managers about how they feel. John also explained how some riders needed to think more about their training and their goals and not base their training on that of others they be training with. “It’s about them managing their workload so they progress” he says.

It is a big learning curve for the riders says John and also for him after years of working with experienced professional riders who were able to manage their own training for races. The message seems to be young impressionable riders seem keen to put themselves into boxes training with others racing at a much higher level and putting in danger their own ability to progress. It’s no sin to want to train with professional riders but riders need to be strong and keep to a training programme, bailing out when their work is done seems to be the message from their boss.

Luke Mellor in his new kit for 2012.

With the first camp done and the boxes for bonding and the technical drills ticked, the next camp is in a few weeks in Benidorm. While the young riders probably can’t wait for that camp, their manager was quick to stress Benidorm will be a very different training camp with all but one of the Rapha riders there and the intensity of the work will be ramped up to prepare the riders for the first races starting at the Clayton Velo in the North East.

“The first camp was very much a technical camp, where the riders were taught race skills.

The second camp will involve shorter rides, two and half to three hours, and be a lot more intense where we’ll crank it up and get them ready for racing” says John.

Our first glimpse of them racing will be in the North West before the team are divided up for races here in Britain and abroad. 2012 will for sure be a very different year for the men in black and with a mix of youth and experience; the manager and the rest of us are keen to see where it leads them as they make the bold step to help develop the road stars of the future.