Forget Tenerife and Mallorca, Tom Pidcock and his Pinarello-Q36.5 teammates are heading to South America for their pre-season altitude training camp this year.
Seven of the team’s riders, including Brits Pidcock, Fred Wright and Tom Gloag, will travel to Chile at the end of this week ahead of the 2026 road campaign.
“It all has to do with the climate,” Bogaerts, Pidcock’s long-term coach, said. “The weather is beautiful there and it’s a new environment.”
January is typically sunny and dry in the mountains of northern Chile, where the team will be based for nearly a month, with temperatures between 20-30°C.
He added that Tenerife was also ruled out because “most riders have already seen Mount Teide from the inside and out. You have to cycle up that same climb every time, which makes it mentally tough.”
Alongside Pidcock, Gloag and Wright, three Belgian riders will be part of the trip to Chile – Brent Van Moer, Xandro Meurisse and Quinten Hermans – as well as Swiss rider Fabio Christen.
“Tom [Pidcock] was the first to raise his hand. He even pushed me even harder to get it done,” Bogaerts told Sporza.
“We’ve been working on performance at a high level all season long. But sometimes we forget that it also has to be fun. That’s why I’m happy to hear that the riders are looking forward to that altitude training camp,” Bogaerts said.
