Although we are in the midst of the close season, Team Sky's riders are still working hard at various places around the world to ensure they will be in the best possible shape once the 2011 campaign gets under way.

Between now and the end of January we will be catching up regularly with Kjell Carlström, Jeremy Hunt and Ian Stannard to see how their training programmes are progressing

Stannard, for instance, spent the last month working away at his base in Manchester before heading down to Majorca for the team's winter training camp.

He explained: "I tried to get three good weeks in before I joined the camp but the snow made that difficult. I'd been planning to hit the road three times during the week whilst also doing weights sessions on a Monday and Friday at the English Institute of Sport followed by two-hour stints on the treadmill. Then I'd wanted to go out for longer rides at the weekend, but it wasn't always possible.

"There is one day that especially sticks out when Geraint Thomas and I cycled up to the Cat and Fiddle pub near Buxton, despite the road being closed. At first we thought 'we'll be alright' but as we climbed the snow kept on getting deeper and deeper, and our bikes were covered in it by the time we got there.

"We somehow made it home but the day after I couldn't even leave the house so I had to make do with three sessions on the turbo trainer.

"Because the weather has been so bad in Britain, Rod Ellingworth suggested we headed down to the training camp early and that's where I've been for the past week."

Carlström keeping busy

Joining Stannard at the camp was Carlström, who not surprisingly had been experiencing similar difficulties at his home in Finland. The icy conditions there meant his riding had been limited entirely to sessions on the home trainer, but he managed to keep his fitness up in various other ways.

"I've been running, walking, cross-country skiing, going to the gym and even playing rinkbandy (a sport much like ice hockey, but without the tackling).

"Rinkbandy is pretty good for the heart and lungs as the tempo is kept really high, even if you don't always notice it. One time I had my heart rate monitor on and over one hour I had an average heart rate of 152 beats per minute which maxed out 178. That is really good for me as my maximum heart rate on a bike is normally around 182.

"Whatever type of exercise I do though, I tend to finish it off on the home trainer either spinning the legs or doing some threshold intervals."

Temperatures of around 20 degrees greeted the guys when they touched down in Majorca and during the first week of the camp they covered approximately 1000km.

"It's been perfect here so far," said Stannard. "The rides have been getting longer every day and it's nice to have got those miles in the legs. The banter has also been really fun and it's been great to meet up with a lot of the guys again.

"Dario Cioni and Juan Antonio Flecha have been giving it to each other all week and on one particularly tough climb up to Sa Calobra the rest of us were averaging about 450 Watts just to keep up.

"As well as the climbing, we've also been doing some speed and cadence work, but the main thing has just been to get as many miles in as possible."

Hunt opts for hotter climbs

In stark contrast to the guys in Europe, Hunt has spent much of his off-season in Australia, making the most of the pleasent conditions he's found there.

"It's been around 30 degrees all week, blue skies and beautiful sunshine, so a bit of a contrast to Britain," he revealed.

"With weather like that I've been able to get out on the bike a lot and I've done plenty of rides with Greg Henderson, Simon Gerrans and [Saxo Bank's] Baden Cooke.

"We generally ride fairly steadily at this time of year but there have been blocks of endurance and pressurised work as well.

"Last week I stepped things up a bit by entering the NSW International Grand Prix Series, where CJ, Hendy, Gerro and Mat Hayman were obviously competing too. It was great to see those guys in such good form and hopefully it'll bode well for the Tour Down Under next month.

"Because I've been basing myself down here, I've only had limited contact with the Team Sky coaches so far, but that will all change when I get to the training camp in a few week's time, I'll get plenty of help and input from them then.

"I'd probably rate my condition at about 75% or 80% right now. I could probably race but I don't think I would last very long, so it's a matter of gradually stepping things up in the weeks to come."

If you have any training-related questions you want to put to the guys, leave them in the comments section below and we'll aim to get them answered the next time we catch up.