Boot camp launches new Saxo Bank - IT Factory team

The now former CSC team will launch its new identity as Team Saxo Bank - IT Factory with its annual military-style survival camp in Denmark this month, the team announced Friday.

"We're a Danish team and both our two new main sponsors are Danish. We're embarking on a whole new chapter with a new name and brand new sponsors so we thought it was the right thing for us to begin this chapter in Denmark, where it all started a long time ago," explained trainer BS Christiansen.

"November in Denmark should mean a really tough and demanding camp, which will get us where we want to be ahead of the 2009 season," he continued.

The camp lasts 10 days with the actual survival challenge taking up three to five days. The remaining time will include the team presentation. The camps are designed as team building exercises, and have been a mainstay of the organisation for several years. This season, Christiansen said, communication will be a major focus of the exercise.

"The program this year contains several elements. First of all we need to get to know one another properly because there's a lot of new faces. Then there are a couple of things from 2008, which we need to improve on. We need to carry on improving the way we work together and also the way we communicate. We've grown into a large organization with a lot of different activities and that sometimes makes communicate a challenge, which is something we need to address."

The riders and sports directors will get a one-day head start on the rest of the team organisation. "We've always got specific issues in mind and we've decided that this year we have some tasks which we want solved in a specific way, and it's a good idea for the riders and the sports directors to be subjected to some physical tests before everyone else gets there," Christiansen explained.