City’s excellent club videos from the training camp in Austria suggest there are few yellow-jersey candidates among the Bantam peloton.

The bike rides around the Alpine hotel complex and into Obertraun are a regular fixture of the daily work-outs. But some look considerably more comfortable on two wheels than others.

Graham Alexander laughed: “I look at some of them and think, ‘you surely must have had a bike when you were a kid?’ It’s good fun with the banter that flies about.

“But they do have a practical element to it. We use the bikes warming up for the next session and for recovery.

“It gives the players the opportunity just to ride into the little village and break up the scenery from the training ground.

“The biggest thing is being able to get out regardless of the weather and work and the bikes have a big part to play.

Tadej Pogacar doesn't have many rivals in City's peloton!Tadej Pogacar doesn’t have many rivals in City’s peloton! (Image: Thibault Camus)

“It’s all part of making your body tough and flushing out the legs and the lactic acid after you’ve been working on the pitch. We’ve got the river to do that as well and the sauna here.

“They’ve got everything they need to prepare for the next session but yeah, some of the cycling skills need a bit of working on.”

Alexander has been impressed with the mindset of the group over the first four days. He can sense the players driving each other on through the numerous challenges they have been set.

“We’ve worked several times a day up to this point,” said the City boss. “The players are in good shape and they’ve attacked it properly, as we’d expect.

“It helps that half the squad were here last year and know what to expect. I like their attitude – the work’s got to be done, let’s get our heads down and do it.

“You’re in a good place as a coach if you’re not having to convince the players to work hard. They are taking accountability themselves and have created a really good environment with all they are putting into it.”

 

 

Spending so much time in such close proximity is also helping to build the bonds between the eight summer signings and the rest of the squad. Alexander can see relationships starting to form.

“We’re out 24/7 for the whole week and it’s that downtime you get in between. The lads nip off to the coffee shop or they are in the river together chatting away while they are recovering.

“It’s just a perfect environment for that togetherness. There aren’t many distractions – if you’re not going to speak to your teammates, you’re not doing anything else!

“They know what we’re here for. We spoke at the start of the week about how important last year’s camp was with what we achieved at the end.

“All these things we put in place 10 months previously build up to a culture that the players want to be involved in and it’s been successful.”

Take out a digital subscription and keep up to date on everything Bradford City, including: 

⚽ All the latest news from City’s training camp in Austria

⚽ A live blog from the game tomorrow

⚽ ALL the match-day coverage

❤️💛 Subscribe HERE