Team Rally gathers for winter training camp

American Continental squad Team Rally assembled in Colorado on Sunday to begin a four-day preseason winter training camp. Canadian Matteo Dal-Cin, who joins Rally from Silber for 2017, had a chance to see his old competitors as teammates for the first time.

Rally signed Dal-Cin along with 2016 Tour of Alberta Stage 1 and Points Classification winner Colin Joyce from Axeon Hagens Berman for 2017. Dal-Cin joins compatriots Rob Britton, Adam de Vos and Pierrick Naud.

Dal-Cin outlined his pre-preseason: “The off-season was awesome for me back home in Ottawa. I enjoyed some time off then spent about a month on the mountain bike before starting back into more structured training. Once the snow hit, I went down to Tucson for three weeks to tune up a bit before Winter Camp and Christmas to get a bit of a head start on the season to be ready for our trip overseas. It’s great to be at Winter Camp and getting to meet all my new teammates. I’ve never had that opportunity before so I’m hoping that it leads to strong team chemistry.”

The squad first rallied in Golden, Colorado to fine tune their Diamondback bikes before heading up to Snow Mountain Ranch in Estes for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and other winter delights.

Rally Performance Manager Jonas Carney said, “It is important to get the team together in a casual environment. We had a very successful 2016 season and we are looking to build on that momentum with the addition of some talented riders and a challenging start to the season in Europe.”

The squad has some tasty dates on the Iberian Peninsula to begin the season. First up is the UCI 1.1-rated Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia in Spain on February 11; followed by the Volta ao Algarve (UCI 2.HC) in Portugal February 15–19, the most prestigious race of the four, with Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Sky) the current title holder; and then the Volta ao Alentejo (UCI 2.1) February 22–26 before the Classica da Arrabida-Cylin’Portugal (UCI 1.2) on March 5.