Team HTC-Columbia's training camp in Mallorca entered its third full day on Monday with the team's nineteen riders completing their training schedules despite of the bad weather.  "We delayed the start by an hour because it was wet and cold but that was the only change to the day's program," HTC-Columbia team manager Rolf Aldag told Roadcycling.com.  "There was no point in risking them getting ill because of the weather."  The main aim of the HTC-Columbia training camp, Aldag said, is "very straightforward. We have a big day for our partners and the media on Tuesday and we'll pay a lot of attention to that, but we're also here to get on with riding our bikes."

The team has already completed a lot of the groundwork for the 2010 season with a training camp in Lanzarote back in December. According to Aldag this second camp is more focussed on improving the fitness level of the team's new riders.  "Lanzarote was about everybody, old and new guys on the team, getting to know each other.  We had big apartments with six riders in each, instead of the usual double rooms. Now we want to get the riders in shape for the upcoming races and give them a strong base for the whole season." The riders are, therefore, staying in double rooms in the Mallorca hotel.

"Today we moved the start [of the] training forward an hour, but we did a big work load yesterday [Sunday], riding for an hour longer yesterday because the weather forecast for Monday was so bad.  Even so, they all completed between four and five hours, one group working with the time trial bikes.  As it's only the third full day of training, it was still all fairly straightforward."

The HTC-Columbia women's squad joined the training camp yesterday. "This is one of the few chances we get to have the full team here together," Aldag pointed out, "and that's an advantage to the camp for both the riders and the staff.  It's also an ideal opportunity for our partners to collaborate with our staff before the start of the 2010 season."