Flora Perkins journal #05: training camp deep dive

20-year-old Flora Perkins rides for the Fenix-Deceuninck Women’s WorldTour team. In her second journal entry of 2024, Flora takes us behind the scenes of the team’s winter training camps.

I write this sitting in my room in the Syncrosfera hotel, just outside Denia, a small town in the Valencia region of Spain. I’m over a week into my third and last camp of the winter. After a four-day stage race in the UAE, a two-day journey with an unexpected stop-over in Istanbul, and a solid week of training, the fatigue has crept in – a familiar, almost comforting sensation. Work has been done.

Each winter, cycling teams like mine from across Europe flock to Spain for pre-season training camps. But why? But what are the camps for? I thought it might be interesting to shed some light on what we try to achieve in these training camps, what goes on and the aspects that contribute to a successful camp.

It’s motivating to ride together as a team. We can do lead-out training and motor pacing, stuff that’s perhaps more difficult to do alone.

The primary goal of a training camp, believe it or not, is the training. But if we can train at home, why bother with travelling to do it on a camp? Firstly, it’s motivating to ride together as a team. We can do lead-out training and motor pacing, stuff that’s perhaps more difficult to do alone. We can race up climbs, practice descending in a group, and just enjoy riding together and getting to know one another. I found it particularly helpful in my first year to practice skills on training camp such as cornering, riding behind the car, and taking bottles back to the group. It was really valuable to practice these simple things before I began racing, so I didn’t feel that I was being thrown right in the deep end.

Secondly, the camp setting allows coaches to assess our performance directly. Through lactate testing, they can make adjustments to our training zones and see how we have progressed from camp to camp. They can see how we climb and sprint. They see how we ride with others. This approach reveals nuances in our abilities that don’t come across in the data.

Lastly, because we are with the team they can take care of all the faff so that we can focus solely on the training. They cook, they clean, they do our laundry. The mechanics fix our bikes. We put on the clothes they tell us to wear and eat the food they cook for us to eat. All the small details are taken care of, so all we have to think about is the training. And even then, the coaching staff organise the routes and what training we should be doing. We pedal, and that’s pretty much it. I think I’d find it too much to live like this all the time, but for two weeks, it’s bliss.

And you may be asking, why is it necessary to have three camps?

In January, more intensity is added to the training as we start to get ready for the first races. At this particular camp, we hope to reap the benefits of altitude-simulated rooms as we prepare for specific individual goals

Each camp has a slightly different emphasis as you slowly progress towards racing, ensuring the foundations are laid correctly and that you don’t peak too early. Thankfully, I’m not in charge of planning this. The team of coaching staff works to plan and set training for each rider and to organise the structure of each camp. In December, we are often still in a building phase, so the training on camp focuses on laying down an endurance base. This is made easier by the nice roads and good weather, a welcome change from the icy conditions at home in the UK. In January, more intensity is added to the training as we start to get ready for the first races. At this particular camp, we hope to reap the benefits of altitude-simulated rooms as we prepare for specific individual goals. There’s much more to say on this, but that’s a whole blog post in itself.

Another aim of the camp is to get to know your teammates, the people you’ll spend at least a year racing alongside. It’s a chance to build friendships. Mealtimes are great for this, offering a time to chat and discover who the people around the table are off the bike. For example, I now know that one teammate won’t get her hair cut unless her star signs are aligned, or something along those lines. I know that another teammate has a strong aversion to all fantasy films (yes, including Harry Potter). I know that one teammate hates coconut, which is unfortunate given the team chef’s particularly prolific use of it. I know the names of their dogs and how they take their coffee. All really useful information. But it’s not just about the random facts; it’s about who people really are. What makes them tick, what their humour is, how they react to stuff.

You can take far greater steps to understanding one another from a few days of real-life interaction on camp than you can from a month of online communication

It’s also a great chance to get to know the staff better. On the most basic level, to put names to faces. To know who the mechanics and the soigneurs are, who drives the bus and who does the marketing. To enjoy the sense of working together for a shared goal. Cycling is a sport that operates remotely. I work with a coach who lives in another country. We only get to see each other on camp. So it’s these opportunities to interact face-to-face that build a relationship, which feeds into and informs our online interaction. You can take far greater steps to understanding one another from a few days of real-life interaction on camp than you can from a month of online communication.

Another function of camps is to iron out all the nitty-gritty details ahead of the season, so we don’t end up trying to squeeze the admin in around the chaos of racing. Medical testing, such as blood tests and heart screenings, are carried out to make sure we are healthy, something also mandated by the UCI. We’ll have bike fits and try on new equipment to make sure things are running smoothly and efficiently. You’ll often get the new cycling kit on camp as well. And who doesn’t love a freebie? This year our kit is rumoured to be somewhat similar to last season, so there’s no real anticipation there. But if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right?

Often there are one or two afternoons allotted to media responsibilities. We all have pictures and headshots done, which may be used on the website or for social media during the year. It’s quite an awkward experience, where you plaster on smiles and occasionally have to create funny GIFs or say sponsor slogans into a camera. Not a cyclist’s natural habitat. Think school picture day, but in lycra. The camera crew often come out on training rides and get pictures of us on the bike. This feels more comfortable as you can largely ignore them and hide behind your glasses and helmet a bit. Some riders will have interviews with the media or sponsors. It’s largely just an opportunity to gather a whole load of content that will be drip-fed throughout the season.

I like this stuff, the exciting big-picture planning. More than anything, it gets me motivated for the season ahead to see what we can do as a team and how I can keep developing

Finally, camps are a great chance to have meetings. Lots and lots of meetings. Meetings with the team. Meetings with the coaches. Meetings with the medical staff. Meetings before training. Meetings before dinner. And in all fairness, they are necessary. And they’re not nearly as tiresome as I’ve made them out to be. At most camps, I’ll have a meeting with performance staff where you begin to lay out the plans and goals for the year, both as a team and individually. They’ll outline what they hope to achieve as a team and what culture we are trying to establish. On an individual note, we’ll discuss my race calendar and what parts of the season the team are looking for me to focus on. We discuss how the winter has been, what’s worked well and areas to improve. We look over testing data to track progress. I like this stuff, the exciting big-picture planning. More than anything, it gets me motivated for the season ahead to see what we can do as a team and how I can keep developing.

There are many more aspects to camps that I’ve missed out, but these are the most important ones I reckon. It’s the one and only time in the year when we are all in the same place at the same time. It’s where the team can gather and prepare for the season as one unit, before it all kicks off. This week, I was reminded by my father of the incredible privilege it is to call this “work”, to spend weeks being looked after, riding in the sun with people I enjoy, doing the sport that I love.