Olympic Champion will lose a critical day of adaptation to the time difference
While the vast majority of the Spanish national team arrived in Australia on Friday and took to the road for their first training ride on Saturday, Olympic Road Race champion and 4th overall at the Tour de France, Samuel Sanchez, did not arrive until late on Saturday.
The 4th place overall finisher at this year’s Tour de France, Sanchez, was held longer in Spain due to family problems and was unable to fly at the same time as his team.
The Spaniard missed the team’s first ride on Australian soil and will lose a critical day in the acclimatization process to the huge leap forward in time zones, something that nearly all European riders have confessed to suffering badly with.
Spanish coach, Jose Luis Dos Santos, explained to the Diario Vasco his thoughts on the critical adaptation process, which he picked up from some kind advice from the Australian team.
“Although it may seem easy to adapt, if we force it too early, the riders will pay later. This is what the Australian coach said to us when we arrived here, and they advised us during these early days to only be concerned with adapting.”
The Spanish team is comprised of: Oscar Freire, Juan Manuel Garate, Imanol Erviti, Luis Leon Sanchez, Ruben Plaza, Jose Francisco Ventoso, Samuel Sanchez, Carlos Barredo, and Haimar Zubeldia.