Recovery

markwalker

The killer

I love the attacking aggressive style, i love the fact hes fighting for it. But how does he recover to do this day after day? Amazing. Must be his bike lots of training and all that pasta.

Bikerbaboon

(puts on flame retardent coat.)

Dru..............

markwalker

hmm that killed that then.

I meant genuinely how do they recover, what are the tricks i.e. Massage, glucose drips, etc NOT is he / they recovering so well because thyre sticking a needle full of drugs and blood every day (they may well be doing that as well)

andyp

I don't think there is any secret to it. Hydrate well, eat lots, rest as much as you can and try and get as much sleep as possible.

Pros get additional aids such as a daily massage and, if required, some sort of glucose drip. They also get their kit washed.

You'd be surprised how quickly the body adapts to riding day after day after day. I've done a few 7-10 day mountain trips so have some experience of this. You get used to shovelling food down even if you don't really want to eat and that can get quite tiresome. You're legs grumble first thing but soon come round once you start riding again. But generally you've adapted after a few days. Apart from having to wash kit, that becomes a chore.

Kléber

Without being mean to the original question, it's much like asking someone "how do you manage to ride above 25mph" or "how do ypu ride more than 100 miles?". What I mean is that it can look daunting to an outsider but once you are well trained, then riding at 25mph, doing 100 miles comes along fairly naturally for many.

Similar, even riding for three weeks is not as hard as people would imagine. Obviously doing a grand tour is tiring and it does wear the rider down a lot, but it is something the riders cope with well. They build up through their careers, indeed each season, with small stage races and onto one week tours before tackling something over three weeks.

It's also a race within a race. Di Luca might be charging up the mountains one day but on other days he can ride within himself and let Petacchi and Cavendish have their day.

Some research suggests three weeks is about the limit, do another week and the body begins to take a real pounding to the point where it gets more and more run down, the hormones and blood values dip more and more.

dave_1

have only done 7 days-Ruban Granitier and 9 day-Ras stage races so can't imagine what hell 3 weeks must be... but think Levi description describes it well...



http://cycleto.com/index.php?option=com ... cle&id=992

Kléber

It's the overwhelming sense of fatigue. Your legs get sore after two or three days but this feeling disappears when you're on the bike, actually riding is the easiest bit.

Good riding Dave. The Ras is on now, hope it's bringing back memories. Always looks like one of the wilder races on the calendar. The Ruban Granitier has been rebranded the Tour of Brittany.

dave_1

Kléber wrote:

It's the overwhelming sense of fatigue. Your legs get sore after two or three days but this feeling disappears when you're on the bike, actually riding is the easiest bit.

Good riding Dave. The Ras is on now, hope it's bringing back memories. Always looks like one of the wilder races on the calendar. The Ruban Granitier has been rebranded the Tour of Brittany.

yeah Kleber...will not forget it...

Prologue 5.1km 27/4/92
1st- 1995 Tour of Lombardy winner 6 mins 58s
2nd 1994 Giro winner + same time
5th Phillipe Ermenault + 9s
13th Piere henri Menthour + 13
27th Ludovic Auger +21 secs
55th Marc Lotz +34 sec
60th Jeroen Blilevens +36
73rd Dave_1 +40 sec
75th Fredrick Guesdon + 42secs
86th Connor Henry + 46s
91st kevin Kimmage + 48s