Postby rogan » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:57 pm
Late in his career (and he rode well into his late 30s) Gilbert Duclos-Lasalle reputedly used to train 700 km per week... training twice per week.
You hear all sorts of things - but the top guys would have programs seriously tailored to bringing them up for targeted events and based upon extensive physiological testing, powertap and HR analysis as well as food intake etc. The program would be analysed and tweaked at least weekly and if you're Contador, Armstrong, Cancellara, etc, probably more often than that. Any program also has to take into account the need to be a certain weight for certain races, and the ever-present likelihood of illness, injury and the risk of overtraining (ie. if the rider spent a week or two off the bike now due to a crash, in early April, how would that affect their prep for the Tour?).
Your average pro in early season (putting down an endurance base) would be looking at riding 6 days per week for up to 1000 to 1200 km. Several weeks out from the first serious race, that would likely change to lower quantity but higher quality miles. After that it depends on the type of rider - Cavendish would have a different sort of program to Mick Rogers.
