With all the pigeons returning back to the coup after a midseason weeks holiday, we were thrown straight in the deep end as we undertook ‘baseline testing’. Spending a few days getting poked and prodded at the Mapei lab we were all keen to get away and after loading the travelling circus that is the AIS cycling base in Castronno Italy we convoyed up to Stelvio for what was to be a very solid 3 weeks.