0/5

Airdate: Sports Insiders

Eurosport launches of a new monthly series of sporting portraits called Sports Insiders.

2014-03-07_0102Eurosport launches of a new monthly series of sporting portraits called Sports Insiders.

The launch show will travel first to Gran Canaria in Spain to join the professional Tinkoff-Saxo cycling team during its first preparation camp for the 2014 season. Led by Alberto Contador, the team gave Eurosport unprecedented access to its rider bonding sessions, its strategic planning for the racing season ahead and shows how it creates vital team spirit for the campaign ahead, blending riders of different nationalities, ages, experience and talents.

Stefano Bernabino, Eurosport’s Head of Cycling and Executive Producer for the “Sports Insider” series said:

“This is a fascinating insight into the dynamics of a UCI World Tour cycling team. It is one of the few occasions in the year that everyone gets together before travelling starts to the many different races. It is a time for the riders, the technical staff and all the different, wider members of the team’s operations to be together, to plan and build the relationships needed for the racing year ahead. It is a unique environment and one that only Eurosport was granted access to.”

Philippe Mauduit, Tinkoff-Saxo Sporting Director said:

“Gran Canaria is the first and most important camp of the season, especially because it integrates new riders and staff members, helps them discover the life rules of the team and enables them to introduce their own thinking. These 15 days to build team spirit are crucial and experience shows that if the camp goes well, the rest of the season is successful too, but, if not, it’s hard to correct things afterwards.

We let Eurosport film the camp because it was an opportunity to show another vision of cycling. Fans often tell us they do not know how riders prepare and work, contrary to some other sports. Here, viewers will see riders’ skills are not limited to only pedalling and things are much more complex. The Eurosport crew quickly gained the confidence of the team which explains why they really could let go and talk freely.”

As with any business the previous year is reviewed and Eurosport captured the frank assessment of the sporting performances as well as the preview of the 2014 calendar.

Individual riders also have their annual performance reviews and Eurosport was given unprecedented access to Czech rider Roman Kreuziger’s session with the team management discussing his contribution in 2013 and objectives for 2014.

Thursday, March 13 at 10.30pm AEDT.

Leave a Reply