With transfers over it's time to get the new team ready for action.
The first training camp of the preseason belongs to the climbers.

7 of our mountain goats made the trip and posed for some great pictures.



The whole gang: David Abal, Juan Jose Cobo, Ruben Plaza,
Manuel Lloret, David De la Fuente, Jose Serpa, and Taylor Newton.



Cold and rainy day here in Spain, not the ideal weather for a training ride.



David Abal showing off his acceleration.



And his celebration by beating the rest of our climbers up the climb.



Hopefully we will see a lot more of this once the season get underway.

A separate camp is planned later in the week for the punchuers/sprinters
and we might head into to get a ride in for our cobblers (time permitting).

In the meantime, we are looking forward to seeing where we stand in the preseason rankings made by the cycling experts and how they view our team.

Should be a fun and exciting season ahead, can't wait to get started!

We hit the mountains first, now it's time to break out the TT equipment
as the punchuers took to the road one by one to get ready for the season.



We followed Francisco Ventoso around all day but Sergio Barrio,
Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver, David Livramento, Omar Fraile,
Daniel Hoelgaard, and Francisco Anton Martin all took part.



Looking good and a nice crowd as well. Looks like our PR guy did his job.



The Spanish countryside overlooking the city.



Ventoso comfortable and confident in his new CSC-Orbea colors today.



He is starting to blend right in. Him and Barrio ready to conquer the PCT hills.

It looks like we did have the time and money to bring the cobblers into .
So, expect those pictures to be up some time later today.

As promised, the pictures from the training camp
held out in Belgium for the classics men.



The group of riders we bring here: Marcos Altur, Francisco Ventoso,
Egoitz Garcia, Ramon Domene, Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil,
Daniel Ruiz, and Jesus Merino Criado.

A whole Spanish cobble team, don't see that every day.



However most of them don't want to be here; rain, rain, and more rain.
Don't know why Garcia is drinking his water bottle when
all he has to do is tilt his head back to get water.



Just 2 men that are really enjoying themselves, Altur and Ventoso.



Until Ventoso gets a flat. Then it's only...



Marcos Altur that truly enjoyed his ride today.

That does it for our preseason training camp segment.
We are packing our bags and equipment to be shipped to
for our first race of the season... The Tour Down Under!

A few interesting selections to try and avoid the top competition but
overall our top riders will be present at a majority of the big races this season.

Cool, calm, and collected.
Francisco Anton Martin showing off the CSC logo with pride.

San Fernando, Venezuela - Vuelta al Tachira is Team CSC-Orbea's race.

Their first win in program history came here in 2012 with E. Parra Bustamente. They followed that up with a win by Julian Rodas on the following day.
Rodas defended yellow against home favourite Alarcon up until the final stage.

Now, back here in 2014 after skipping in 2013, they are winning once again.
This time it's Francisco Anton Martin on opening day of this 10-stage tour.

It's CSC-Orbea's first victory of the season even though they came
agonizing close in their first race of the season in Austrialia
where another Francisco (Ventoso) sprinted to a 2nd place.

The question now is how long can Anton Martin hang onto yellow?

De la Fuente went into the Vuelta al Tachira as an outsider and came out
as a dangerous threat for the rest season. An early attack on stage 4 allowed him to break free from the better climbing favourites, finish 2nd on the stage,
and held 2nd overall all the way to the end of this 10-day stage race.

Arguably our only sprinter, not counting the guy below him, has already proved more valuable than a certain Russian sprinter. On stage 1 of Tachira, Anton Martin picked the fastest train and stole a victory from our rivals at Bacardi,
then used the sprint points to hold the yellow jersey through stage 3.

The season started off with a bang and if it wasn't for a guy named Van Stayen then Ventoso would of had got even better results at the Tour Down Under.
Our hilly sprinter took 2nd in the 1st stage of the season and finished right around the top 10 ever stage after, in the end bringing home 8th overall.

16 race days used up this month and not a single day spent in the breakaway.
Many teams have already experience a lot of success by getting away early including Boeing-Bulgaria Bicycling, Dell - 361° Racing, and Project: Africa.
If this is what the rest of the season is like then we need to be in them.

MIA - Missing in action.
Serpa was sent to Tachira to be the leader and he finished outside the top 30.
Whether it's his legs finally catching up with him or no early preseason form,
we need him to be better moving forward for the rest of season. That's that.

No go Barrio. Sergio just had no hop in his step in Australia.
Supposedly once of the punchuers in the divisions has stagnant and
refused to attack when given his chance at the Tour Down Under.
This surely can't happen again if we have dreams of promotion.