Lampre riders rack up miles

World Road Champion Alessandro Ballan and his Lampre-NGC teammate Marzio Bruseghin have been getting plenty of training while staying based at their respective homes thanks to some cooperative weather. Their situation is unlike that of Damiano Cunego and some of the other team's riders who have had to travel south to warmer parts of Italy to find less wintry training opportunities.

"Yesterday I performed a strengthening workout during four and half hours of training; today with Marco Bandiera and Simoni Ponzi I pedaled for five and half hours covering 155 km," said Ballan.

"After fighting off a cold at the end of 2008, I haven't missed any training in 2009. The temperatures are milder when the sun is shining, but tomorrow morning, I will have to go training in the morning so I can attend the opening of my wife's new shop, a beauty and tanning shop."

Bruseghin, in Cappella Maggiore, has been enjoying even warmer conditions. "There hasn't been any deep cold in my zone. I did not train for only two days - in order to avoid the frozen streets. All the other days, I rode my bike, up to four hours.

"I did routes in the hills because it's warmer. I haven't ridden my time trial bike - I'll work with it starting with the next training camp."

Meanwhile, in the south of Italy, Cunego and his teammates Marco Marzano, Mirco Lorenzetto, Massimiliano Mori and Manuele Mori and Daniele Righi logged 80km on their fixed gears Friday.