"My heart rate jumps to about 110 bpm just by walking to garage": Q36.5 riders enjoy a special altitude camp in Chile

Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling have adopted quite an unorthodox approach to their off-season preparation. While most of their rivals are currently racking up kilometers in sunny Spain, a compact expedition of seven, including Tom Pidcock, travelled across the globe to the cycling-exotic land of Chile. In South America, summer is currently in its peak and the tropical temperatures correspond to that.

"Even at 2,700 meters, it’s already warmer than twenty degrees when you wake up around eight," Xandro Meurisse presents the group's accomodation for HLN. "Down in the valley at 700 meters above sea level, where we do our intervals, it’s 36 degrees or more. When you’re sheltered from the wind on the bike it feels like an oven. You sweat buckets."

Unbearable for regular mortals, the professional cyclists deep down appreciate the weather conditions as an important part of their prepeation. "Every pro rider nowadays does heat training as a stimulus to challenge the body in extreme conditions. Some ride indoors with warm clothes or sit in a sauna - here you do those heat sessions just outside on the bike in shorts and short sleeves," Quinten Hermans notes.

However, the real draw for the team is the altitude itself. Hermans noted a difference from European altitude camps like Teide in Spain: "Sleep quality is a little worse than what we’re used to during altitude camps in Europe." Meurisse added: "I feel like I need more sleep than in Belgium. When I walk from our apartment to the garage to get my bike, my heart rate already jumps to about 110 beats per minute. For a top athlete that’s unusually high. Our bodies are really working hard."

The lovely aspect of visiting an unusual bit of land is that you get to see sceneries you won't run across in your home region. Meurisse knows how to appreciate the innate beauty of Chile too.

"The landscape is nothing like what you see in the mountains in Europe," Meurisse said. "When we finish training in the valley and then have to ride another hour and a half back up toward El Colorado, you see wild horses running on the mountain slopes and condors gliding through the air."

Locked-out from the rest of the world by the high peaks of Andes, Chile is far from regular in cycling circles. But that doesn't mean locals don't love cycling, Brent Van Moer insists. "You could even call it bike-mad. When we rode up from Santiago on Saturday, every hundred meters we were stopped by club cyclists wanting a photo with us - especially with Tom Pidcock."

"There were even more people on bikes than on a busy day at Coll de Rates in Spain," Meurisse added. "The road surface sometimes has cracks and potholes, but you see that in the Ardennes too."

Van Moer did have one complaint: "If I have to complain about one thing, it’s that after every training we still have to ride another hour and a half uphill toward our apartment on a pretty tough climb."

For now, though, the team is enjoying it while it lasts. Their return to Belgium is scheduled for February 5. Hermans joked, "At the end of this altitude camp there’s even a seven-hour training ride planned, but maybe that’s so we’ll fall asleep quickly on the long flight home."