On Wednesday morning, Antone Kombouaré’s men had their first training session at the Stade Jacques Forestier, working out for almost two hours before a bike ride to the top of the Col de Chambotte.
The day after their arrival, the players were all at breakfast at 08:30, taking in some much-needed sustenance ahead of an intense first training session. At 10:15, the squad arrived at the Stade Jacques Forestier in Aix-les-Bains and started things off with some jogging. Physical conditioner Raphaël Fèvre also came up with some exercises including sprints and jumps over a course of wooden blocks.
Antoine Kombouaré and his assistant Yves Bertucci took over with a session of combinations in front of goal, an exercise that saw an excellent overhead finish from Ludovic Giuly, who is in top form, as well as some fine saves from promising young ’keeper Alphonse Aréola. Guillaume Hoarau also showed that he is ready to give his all right from the word go, climbing highest over his teammates to put an imperious header into the back of the net. Claude Makelele, who only resumed training on Tuesday, did a couple of extra laps of the pitch. At the end of the session, the players were happy to pose for some photos with fans who had come to watch their team work out.
The Red and Blues then finished the afternoon with a bike trip, but when they took charge of their mountain bikes, they had little idea of what lay ahead of them. After an 8 kilometre warm-up on the shore of Lake Bourget, the climb up the Col de Chambotte had them sweating and straining straight away. Christophe Jallet and Marcos Cearà kept pace with their physical conditioner, and a few metres from the end, the Brazilian took the lead to reach the top first. Everyone was exhausted at the end, so the coach announced a welcome stopover at the mountain-top bar.
By the time they made it back to the hotel, the players had been pedalling for a solid three hours. “They all showed a lot of grit and determination on the bikes,” said Yves Degravel, who organised the ride. “The lads in front made the climb in 32 minutes, which is a good time even for a professional cyclist. Even more so because it’s a tough slope and most of the lads don’t ride that much. They made a good race out of it and it’s clear that they’re already in good shape to start off the season.” On Thursday morning, the group will sleep in until 08:30 before having two training sessions – in the morning at the hippodrome in Aix-les-Bains and in the afternoon at the Stade Jacques Forestier.
