The pro cycling off-season is over. Athletes have stopped posting their often exotic vacation photos on social media and have instead begun working on base training on the bike and core training in the gym. They will soon head to training camp in December, where the training will begin in earnest.

World Champion Remco Evenpole is already doing daily 3-4 hour rides at his home in Spain and adding morning runs to avoid the constant attention and cold in Belgium.

Mark Cavendish has yet to confirm his team for 2023, but has returned home from long trips to the Singapore and Saitama criteriums and the Abu Dhabi bike festival and has started running to get back into a training routine.

He will also compete in Iljo Caisse's farewell track event on Thursday evening, competing as part of the international team against Caisse's Belgian counterpart in an omnium-style event. Filippo Ganna, Elia Viviani, and Mikhail Morkov will also compete in this track event. Last week, Fred Wright and Ethan Hayter ran the Ghent Six Day with Caisse and others to blow away the winter blur.

Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert, and Mathieu van der Poel have different plans, but will mix road training camps with cyclocross races in both December and January.

While December 1 has traditionally been the start of winter training, most pro riders start training earlier, with less time off the bike, to prepare for the early season and to have a solid base for nine months of racing and some peak form.

The start of the 2023 season is less than eight weeks away, with the Tour Down Under and Vuelta a San Juan taking place in January, and the women's Tour Down Under becoming part of the World Tour calendar for the first time.

Many well-known riders will travel to Australia immediately after the Christmas break to train and race in warmer weather for most of January. The Tour Down Under for both men and women will begin with a warm-up criterium on Saturday, January 14, with races for the women from January 15-17 and for the men from January 17-22.

Peter Sagan, Ganna, Egan Bernal, and Evenpoel will compete in the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina on January 22-29.

Most teams now have a brief gathering in October at the end of the season for medical checks, bike fittings, and a team photo shoot; the December camp will be a long time in the saddle on the 2023 bikes to build team spirit for the season ahead. to build team spirit for the season ahead.

Some riders from Australia, South America, and the United States will be exempt from traveling to Spain, but others will have to spend two weeks in off-season resort hotels on Majorca and the Costa Blanca coast.

The final race program will be determined and probably announced at the training camp in December. Mechanics will be busy preparing the 2023 bikes, the Directeur Sportif will be working on race goals and strategy, and the Soigneurs will be attending to the athletes' every need and providing daily massages to help them recover from the 2-3 day training block.

Spain has become the destination of choice for many of the major teams, and according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, all 18 WorldTour teams and many other professional teams in 2023 will have training camps in Majorca or on Spain's Mediterranean coast in December

Inezetta dello Sport reported that all 18 World Tour teams and many other professional teams are scheduled to hold training camps in Mallorca or on the Spanish Mediterranean coast in December.

Ineos Grenadiers and Bora Hansgrohe chose Majorca, while 13 teams will hold training camps between Benidorm and Gandia on the Costa Blanca. Movistar will stay in Almeria on the coast, Alpecin de Seuninck a little further north in Benicassim, and EF Education Easy Post will stay near the Girona Service Course in Catalonia.

The team has mostly abandoned Italy and southern France for the quiet, safe roads and mild climate of Spain. The Costa Blanca is one of the driest places in Europe in winter, with average temperatures of 12-15°C, ideal for long training sessions.

Teams such as Trek Segafredo assemble a group of male and female athletes, and some teams gather more than 100 athletes and staff. Teams seek special contracts with hotels, and according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, World Tour teams spend about 100,000 euros for the December camp. This is a lot of money for a crucial moment in the preseason.