Dutchman enjoyed bike-free month following lengthy season
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Bauke Mollema raises his arms on the podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Bauke Mollema wins the 2015 Japan Cup(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Bauke Mollema (Netherlands)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Bauke Mollema takes a swig of the celebratory bubbly(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Bauke Mollema (Trek) is ready for the week ahead(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
After closing his season in the middle of October, Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) is finally back on his bike and training ahead of his 2016 campaign. Mollema enjoyed a strong end to the season with victories at the Tour of Alberta and the Japan Cup, his final race of the year. He also scored his third consecutive top 10 finish at the Tour de France in July.
Like most riders, Mollema safely locked his bike away for the past month. “It has been about four weeks since my last race and that is always the moment to start training again. The off-season for me went very fast this year. Normally I go on the bike a couple of times but this year I haven’t touched my bike for almost four weeks so that’s a lot,” Mollema said in a short audio diary on the Trek Factory Racing site.
“Today (Sunday) I rode my bike for the first time since the Japan Cup. It was 65km, not so fast, it took two hours. There’s still plenty of room for improvement. From now on, I will start to train normally, five or six times a week plus strength training. I normally do three or four hours a day, next week, and then from December on I will do longer rides.”
Mollema is yet to confirm his programme for the 2016 season but the main focus of his year is likely to be the Tour de France. The Olympic course also suits him well and he could be in with a shout of a spot in the Dutch team. For now though, he is putting his focus on getting back up to speed after so long off the bike.
“The intensity will not be as high in the next weeks, you have to start training easy and then from December on the intensity will be increased,” he said. “In the winter I do a lot of training, core stability exercises, mostly twice a week to get some strength in the legs and also to train the rest of the body. I think it is important to train the core and the rest of the muscles.
“We also have our first team training camp from the 16 to the 18 of December around Alicante in Spain. It will be nice to see everybody again but for the next weeks I will just train for myself.”
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