Pre-season Disco: Discovery Channel training in Solvang

Armstrong and Basso (Image credit: Kirsten Frattini)

For the past few years, Solvang, California has been home to the pre-season camp for the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. The quaint Danish town sits amid some of the most scenic terrain in the state, and quiet roads that are perfect for training. As riders and management convened at the Royal Scandinavian Inn, Cyclingnews' Kirsten Robbins was there to find out what the team is doing to prepare for the upcoming season.

One of the riders' favourite parts of the camp is the new clothing and equipment hand-out. When the full team arrived in the lobby to ride at 10am sharp, U.S. national champion George Hincapie stood out in his stars and stripes version of the team jersey, as did Japanese national champion Fumiyuki Beppu, who was distinguishable in his red an white rendition of Discovery's uniform. The rest of the team showed off the team's new, predominanly black kits.

One rider going into 2007 with a great deal of momentum is Tom Danielson, who took a stage win and sixth place overall in the Vuelta a Espana. The camp offered a chance for Danielson and his teammates to have some quality time together on and off the bike. "The training camp does a good job of bonding the team together and that's the clear purpose." said Danielson. "They put riders in rooms together that don't know each other. We train five or six hours together and that provides a lot of time to rotate through the group and talk with everyone, to see each other's talent on the bike."