The boss of Sam Bennett’s Deceuninck-QuickStep team, Patrick Lefevere, has said all of his riders will gather for a 2½-week altitude camp in Italy next months.
More teams are now making training and racing plans ahead
of a planned return to competition, with the Tour de France scheduled to begin
on August 29th.
Some racing is set to resume from July 1st while WorldTour events will recommence on August 1st, leaving very little time for the racing before the Tour.
Bennett has been at home in Ireland during the lock-down period after relocation from his usual base in Monaco. However, he will soon be on the move again and will be looking for more of the success he has enjoyed over the past two seasons.
Lefevere has said 50 personnel – including at the riders
and a group of staff – will meet for a training camp in San Pellegrino from
July 6th to 23rd.
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The team has decided against breaking the riders up into
segregated groups as some teams plan in a bid to reduce the risk of Covid19
spreading though their squads.
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Lefevere told Belgian news outlet Eén that if all riders and personnel were together as one big segregated group, it would be easier to trace the source of any infection, if the need for tracing arises.
"Italy is open. If there is a different crowd in
those hotels and someone gets sick, you don't know who it is,” he said. “If you
are all in one hotel exclusively and someone gets sick you know that it comes
from us."
The team is also set to have a smaller camp this month in
the Flemish Ardennes aimed at preparing for the classics.
Lefevere said while the process of testing riders and
personnel for Covid19, in a process run within the team, was expensive it was
something that had to be done.
"We are going to test before we leave. We will
already be testing on June 9 in Wevelgem,” he said.
“We have a large camper. Everyone arrives at their hour -
in the camper, out of the camper. It is an entire organization, which also
costs money. But it is what it has to be.”
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