Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Just wondering what the average pre-season or traininf camp week/month entails for a pro

Does anyone have an example training schedule? Something like this but surely there is more to it than a whole heap of "3 x per-week road ride on normal bike for 3 hours with 150 HR ceiling"

*purely out of interest. not trying to replicate it...i'm a mere mortal

Your link appears to be incorrect...

100+km rides each day but taken easy on one day and hard the next. Also lots of hill climbing if possible.
But it also depends on what the race is. If they are doing a one day race (50km criterium) then they might train for shorter distances but try to push it more. Stuff like the Tours, which entail many days of riding, will include lots of long lonely rides to cover as much distance as possible.

orphic wrote:Your link appears to be incorrect...

oh well you get the gist

Aren't they geared towards team building and work out team tactics and coordination? Also a chance for the team director sportif to see his charge perform before an actual race. No? I doubt these camps do that much for the actual physical conditioning of the riders.

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.

'i'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. what are you on?'
(this quote sponsored by nike)