Tenerife

[Mrs John Murphy]

An off-shoot from the Sky thread.

A question or two.

When did teams/riders start making extensive use of Tenerife for winter training?

Who were the first teams/riders to make extensive use of Tenerife?

When did the doping doctors appear on the scene and it become a winter bolt-hole for doping operations?

Is there any evidence of performance benefits from training in Tenerife? (assuming that there was a period when riders were going there to train rather than to dope).

 

[thehog]

An off-shoot from the Sky thread.

A question or two.

When did teams/riders start making extensive use of Tenerife for winter training?

Who were the first teams/riders to make extensive use of Tenerife?

When did the doping doctors appear on the scene and it become a winter bolt-hole for doping operations?

Is there any evidence of performance benefits from training in Tenerife? (assuming that there was a period when riders were going there to train rather than to dope).

The question to ask what are other teams outside SKy doing?

What does Liquigas do for altitude training? Europacar? etc. etc.

There's not a lot of teams travelling there. If it was the magic place of clean GT performances then the place would have 400 Pro cyclists checking into hotels in June.

It serves one purpose of a "program" and not a lot else.

 

[Froome19]

Remember it is not within the majority of teams' budgets to accommodate..

 

[Benotti69]

How muh would it cost for a GT team to train in tenerife?

 

[Arnout]

What exactly was wrong with the previous Tenerife thread?

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Hasn't this been discussed to death already? I'll be very surprised if anyone has anything new to say on this.

 

[thehog]

Remember it is not within the majority of teams' budgets to accommodate..

What 4 plane tickets and 3 nights in a hotel!?

You are having a laugh! Don't be so ridiculous.

It's doesn't cost 1.2m to travel to Tenerife. I mean senior citizens in their 60's go there on holidays!

It's not St. Moritz!

You have to do better than this pathetic excuse. That's very poor.

I could google a holiday package from London now for well under 500 squid.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Was Tenerife in use pre-EPO era as a winter training base?

Did Lemond train down there etc?

When did Ferrari start using it with his riders (was it after the court case when he was banned from working with people and so somewhere remote was more favourable?)

What exactly was wrong with the previous Tenerife thread?

I didn't know there was one. Sorry.

 

[Froome19]

What 4 plane tickets and 3 nights in a hotel!?

You are having a laugh! Don't be so ridiculous.

It's doesn't cost 1.2m to travel to Tenerife. I mean senior citizens in their 60's go there on holidays!

It's not St. Moritz!

You have to do better than this pathetic excuse. That's very poor.

I could google a holiday package from London now for well under 500 squid.

I have a feeling you may be mistaken in that Tenerife is much more expensive to be used as a training camp than for example Sierra Nevada, how about you ask JV?

 

[thehog]

I have a feeling you may be mistaken in that Tenerife is much more expensive to be used as a training camp than for example Sierra Nevada, how about you ask JV?

No I'm not mistaken. And I don't need to ask JV. Several teams go on training camps every year.

US teams have flown entire teams to California for training camps.

French teams have training camps. Italian teams have training camps. Their cyclists don't all live in one country. They have to transport them around Europe.

Sky only sent the core team not the entire team to Tenerife.

I just checked on Expedia.co.uk - 400-800 per person on flight, hotel, car for 4 nights.

You're just not making any sense.

If Ivan Basso and Nibili wanted to go to Tenerife they could get there and their team would fund it. There is a documentary on you tube of the ENTIRE liquigas team on training camps. Yoga instructors, meditation experts, sleep instructors!, dieticians etc. - and they can't afford it?

 

[Arnout]

I didn't know there was one. Sorry.

More than one, actually. You posted 4 times in one of them.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

More than one, actually. You posted 4 times in one of them.

There you go. To be honest I was more interested in the history of Tenerife and I didn't remember it being discussed before.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

There you go. To be honest I was more interested in the history of Tenerife and I didn't remember it being discussed before.

Just had a quick look on wikipedia, there's a bit about the Spanish conquest in the late 15th century and plenty about the island's later use of slavery. I'm sure you can find more knowledgeable historians than us lot though.

 

[Ferminal]

Maybe the hotel on Teide costs more?

 

[andy1234]

Was Tenerife in use pre-EPO era as a winter training base?

Did Lemond train down there etc?

When did Ferrari start using it with his riders (was it after the court case when he was banned from working with people and so somewhere remote was more favourable?)



I didn't know there was one. Sorry.

Tenerife and Majorca have been THE training camp destinations for pros and amateurs for as long as I can remember.

I have been to training camps on both islands dozens of times, before and after the EPO era

Not to say it doesn't see its share of suspect action, but it didn't become popular because of it.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Maybe the hotel on Teide costs more?

I think thehog is right and they book a cheap package holiday and stay at one of the resorts on the coast.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Tenerife and Majorca have been THE training camp destinations for pros and amateurs for as long as I can remember.

I have been to training camps on both islands dozens of times, before and after the EPO era

Not to say it doesn't see its share of suspect action, but it didn't become popular because of it.

When did you first become aware of it as a training location and who do you associate with it?

 

[andy1234]

When did you first become aware of it as a training location and who do you associate with it?

First went there as a teenager in 86 with the team I was riding for.

A couple of the British pro teams were there and a few continental pros.

I'm not sure what you mean by who I associate with it. I guess you mean Ferrari and LA? If so, not really. I and many others used it for training before they had even heard of it.

 

[profff]

tenerife has been used by italian pros and liquigas especially for high altitude winter training since long time.
there was a long article with photos on the magazine cycling pro in 2010 about liquigas trining with their gt squad ( basso, nibali, szmyd, agnoli..) training on teide under the guidance of paolo slongo.
later in 2011, liquigas went training on etna, where basso fell and injured himself while preparing the season in which he was supposed to target the tour.

liquigas pros told me that is better the teide, because at lower altitudes in sicily there is too much traffic and training on etna is very often disturbed by strong winds.

please get informed before writing that are very well known by cycling suiveur.
i completely agree with andy : tenerife is long time well known site for training.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

First went there as a teenager in 86 with the team I was riding for.

A couple of the British pro teams were there and a few continental pros.

I'm not sure what you mean by who I associate with it. I guess you mean Ferrari and LA? If so, not really. I and many others used it for training before they had even heard of it.

Ferrari and LA is the obvious one, but I was wondering if any rider from the pre-EPO era was well known for using Tenerife. Who was the pioneer of winter training in Tenerife? Where did say Hinault train in the winter, or Ocana, or Merkcx?

 

[L'arriviste]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/23/bradley-wiggins-tour-de-france

The article above describes Sky's activities on Teide and the Parador Hotel at its summit. It notes that Liquigas and Astana also stay there regularly.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

Ferrari and LA is the obvious one, but I was wondering if any rider from the pre-EPO era was well known for using Tenerife. Who was the pioneer of winter training in Tenerife? Where did say Hinault train in the winter, or Ocana, or Merkcx?

Different era. So the quick answer is no.
Back in the 80s the riders started their season with very few kms in their legs from some base training and then used the early season events to get in to race condition.

 

[L'arriviste]

Ferrari and LA is the obvious one, but I was wondering if any rider from the pre-EPO era was well known for using Tenerife. Who was the pioneer of winter training in Tenerife? Where did say Hinault train in the winter, or Ocana, or Merkcx?

Nice little video here showing a very youthful Hinault training on his (rather rough looking) local Breton roads:

http://www.ina.fr/sport/cyclisme/vi...trait-du-jeune-espoir-bernard-hinault.fr.html

I doubt Hinault trained much outside of his home region. It was not common for riders to move for training, since it was believed in a rustic sort of way that tougher training conditions made the rider tougher and that certainly held true for Hinault's 1980 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

 

[Ferminal]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/23/bradley-wiggins-tour-de-france

The article above describes Sky's activities on Teide and the Parador Hotel at its summit. It notes that Liquigas and Astana also stay there regularly.

Spot the clean team

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Nice little video here showing a very youthful Hinault training on his (rather rough looking) local Breton roads:

http://www.ina.fr/sport/cyclisme/vi...trait-du-jeune-espoir-bernard-hinault.fr.html

I doubt Hinault trained much outside of his home region. It was not common for riders to move for training, since it was believed in a rustic sort of way that tougher training conditions made the rider tougher and that certainly held true for Hinault's 1980 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Which begs the question - when did things change and who led the change?