After an off-season break, back to training

“I spent the first 14 days of my vacation at the seaside so I enjoyed the rest. But then we had the first three-day get-together camp in Belgium where all the riders gathered. I flew there along with Zdeněk Štybar and we shared the room, which was quite pleasant,” Franky said. The principal aim of the camp was to meet the newcomers, prepare the race schedule for next season and take the measurements for new clothes and bikes. “The off-season break has passed quite quickly and starting next week, we are getting back into practice swing.” 
 
Nevertheless, he didn’t have to adjust to a completely new and unfamiliar environment. “Though, it is a new team for me, six riders and seven soigneurs from HTC joined the Omega Pharma – Quick Step, too. It is a tremendous challenge for me and I´m really motivated. My new Belgian teammates said that they the team had never worked so well and harmoniously before. Everything went as planned but I guess it was partly because of the team staff from HTC,” he smiled. 
 
He learnt about the complete race program that the team will follow next year. “I spent two or three days designing the race schedule that would suit me best but we will see if the team management will give me a green light. Among other races, I would like to ride the Trofeo Mallorca Challenge, Tour of Oman, Paris - Nice, Tour of Catalonia, Tour of Romandy, Tour of California and if I stay in shape I´d like to start at the Tour de France. Then I´d include either the Duphiné Libére or Tour of Switzerland in my racing agenda. That would be my ideal program for next season but first I have to get into shape that is necessary for these races,” Franky said. 
 
If he doesn’t get a chance to start at the Tour de France he would like to compete at the Vuelta, at least. “Other than that, I´m very tempted to ride the World Championship Team Time Trial. It is not the typical TTT formed by the national teams but by six team members and since there are many excellent time trialist on our squad it could be very interesting.” He doesn’t even rule out the possibility of participating at the Olympics although he thinks that he has already wasted the opportunity to start at the Olympic time trial. “It looks like that the Czech Republic will have only two places for the Olympic road race. I´m still in touch with the national team coach René Andrle and we will see what kind of shape I will be in,” Raboň added.