Lotto Soudal, however, will go its own way, avoiding altitude camps and full team training camps altogether. The Belgian team will continue as before, forming small groups each week in Flanders and Wallonia.
"We now have a group that trains in the Ardennes region of Flanders on Tuesdays and in the hills of Wallonia on Fridays," team manager John Lerangue told Het Laatste Nieuws (opens in new tab).
"And team manager John Lerangue told Het Laatste Nieuws (opens in new tab).
"We avoid large gatherings of riders and staff. It's just a precaution; we decided to stick to the decision we made in March right after the COVID-19 lockdown.
"We created small groups of riders, soigneurs, technical staff, and bus drivers. The groups will follow their own race programs and keep these 'bubbles' separate for the next few weeks."
The plan is for the entire team to be "working as normal" by the end of July, Lerangue said; in late March, following the season interruption, the riders and staff voluntarily relinquished part of their wages, putting 25 staff members on temporary unemployment.
In late May, the team announced that the players and staff would work in three "bubbles" based on the Grand Tour. The Tour de France group, led by the Monaco-based trio of Philippe Gilbert, Caleb Yuan, Tim Wellens, and John Degenkolb, will head to France in mid-July, but will avoid crowding.
"We'll avoid flying," Lelang said. 'We're looking for a place where there aren't too many tourists and where we can find our own lodging and a cafeteria. We're not looking for the Côte d'Azur or Biarritz, but for the mountains of central France."
Team high-altitude training camps, a popular option before the Grand Tour, are off the menu, and full team meetings are unnecessary, according to Lelangue.
"Some riders train alone at high altitude or sleep in high altitude tents. We don't organize this as a team. In the Tour, there are no riders aiming for GC. We didn't train at altitude in the past and we don't do it now because we don't compete for a few seconds every day.
"We had a full team training camp in Mallorca in December and two training camps in January. Under normal circumstances, we would not have a full team training camp. It is the same now."
A strict protocol has been developed by team physician Jens DeDecker, but no details have been revealed. Last month, the team had a number of players tested for COVID-19 antibodies, but all tests were negative.
"We are expecting the UCI health protocol this week," said Lelang. Team doctor Jens Dekker will also develop a protocol and apply that system to training, so we won't have a large group of 28 athletes and all the staff."
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