Peter Sagan in full orienteering mode.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Elia Viviani points the way during orienteering.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Elia Viviani gets ready to hit the slopes.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Orienteering was part of the team building exercise for Cannondale Pro Cycling.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Under-23 world champion Matej Mohoric is among Cannondale's new signings.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Peter Sagan and Moreno Moser at the Cannondale Pro Cycling gathering.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
New signing Marco Marcato in conversation with directeur sportif Stefano Zanatta.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Ivan Basso wraps up against the elements.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Cannondale Pro Cycling began their 2014 campaign in the snow of Val di Fassa.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Peter Sagan, Ivan Basso and Cannondale take to the slopes at Moena.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Cannondale's first gathering of the year is usually in the snow before a pre-Christmas training camp on the road.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Peter Sagan will hope to slalom through the peloton to more victories in 2014.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Moreno Moser is looking for the right direction.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
The serene surrounds of the Val di Fassa, where Cannondale were based.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
The 2014 Cannondale squad goes into the wild.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Davide Villella is a highly-rated neo-pro at Cannondale.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Cannondale on their first training camp at Val di Fassa.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Peter Sagan and his Cannondale teammates on skis.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
George Bennett arrives at Cannondale from RadioShack.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Elia Viviani leads the charge in orienteering.(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
Survival courses and potholing may be increasingly en vogue as team building exercises in the professional peloton, but there was a distinctly traditional feel to Cannondale Pro Cycling’s first gathering ahead of the 2014 campaign in the Val di Fassa in the Dolomites.
Just as in generations past, the likes of Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil and even Sean Kelly took to the ski slopes during the off-season before easing their way back into the saddle, Peter Sagan, Ivan Basso and the rest of the Cannondale team’s first assembly of the new season took place in the snow of Trentino.
Indeed, the team has followed a similar template for the past number of years. The final week of November sees the riders gather for to discuss their race programmes for the coming season, before they begin collective work out on the road in sunnier climes in mid-December.
Cannondale spent the past three days in Moena, in the Val di Fassa, for meetings and team building activities, including skiing and orienteering. Among those present were Sagan, Basso, Moreno Moser and Elia Viviani, as well as new arrivals George Bennett, Davide Villella and under-23 world champion Matej Mohoric of Slovenia.
Over the course of four days next week, the team’s 27 riders will individually undergo physical assessment by the team’s medical staff, before the first true training camp gets underway on December 6th. The Cannondale squad will spend thirteen days in Riotorto, Tuscany, clocking up the miles ahead of the 2014 season.
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