How to train for this?

okgo

http://www.milano-sanremo.org/en/route.php

Planning on dong this in June.

I'm doing it with another chap, he has done the London to Paris, other than that, we have not cycled such a distance. We're both fairly fit, but I was wondering if anyone had any training tips for this or had done it and could give me a any advice?

Thanks

oldwelshman

Just search for dozens of posts with such tips in training and also the sportives section.

Tom Butcher

Isn't Milan - San Remo about 180 miles ? I don't know about you but at that distance it would be as much about survival as thinking of racing it so I'd be looking at doing plenty of very long rides. Audaxes would be my choice - the front groups on audaxes can be pretty hard - the last long one I did I found myself in a group of 7-8 doing through and off at about 50 miles thinking hang on we've got another 90 miles to go yet !

Are you used to riding in a group - you can save a huge amount of energy if you are proficient at following wheels so a bit of practice at that - learning the etiquette etc - will pay dividends if you aren't experienced.

Monty Dog

I know someone whose ridden it a few times - don't be deceived by the pros riding up the Cipressa and Poggio on their big ring - most mere mortals are grovelling for their granny gears by this stage!

rocksteadyeddie

You're so gonna die.

Might I suggest a few visits to schools to expose yourself to the widest variety of germs a couple of weeks before the event? Then when you come down with something, hey presto, perfect excuse not to do it.

Benjamin Hall

Rocksteadyeddie wrote:

You're so gonna die.

Hahaha i spat tea all over my laptop when i saw that.

Down the Road

Ride as you are now. Bang out a few 00 milers and see how you feel after each.

Learn from them and take note of when you needed to eat and drink.

From there you should be fine

STEFANOS4784

Down the Road wrote:

Bang out a few 00 milers

I've been banging out shed loads of these sincethe winter started, had no idea they helped!

secretsqizz

I think you need to treat this 2 ways :
serious sh1t - race speed 21mph
not so serious sh1t and take 12 hours to do it.. either way ... pain ahead.

Down the Road

Sorry dodgy keyboard

100 milers

Bronzie

Sorry for the delayed reply..........been busy.

I rode this event in 2006. To prepare for it I just did loads of long rides (200km audaxes etc).

I was not well prepared for the actual event in as much as it started with 700 riders leaving the start area together.............and then banging along on the pan flat roads at 25mph* for the next 3 hours in a huge bunch until we hit the bottom of the Passo del Turchino, at which point it blew to bits with riders making their own way in small groups for the remaining 90 miles to the finish. I finished it in around 9.1/2 hours, so still a pretty good average speed.

The first hour or so was very nervy with lots of sudden braking (around oncoming cars pulled over to the kerb) and other obstacles followed by mad accelerations, the odd puncture and a handful of crashes.

If I was doing it again, I'd do the long rides (100+ miles) in the couple of months before the event, but also add in some more road racing to get the bunch riding skills and sudden accelerations sorted.

* - some of the Italian teams take this event very seriously - there were guys in the car park testing race radios as we waited to start - I guess these were the ones who finished in just over 7 hours.

Bronzie

Oh and for anyone thinking "why is this in race, not sportives section?"...........like I say, it is treated very much as a race with prize presentations etc.

We even won a prize as a group (7 of us travelling with Sporting Tours) although our Italian was not good enough to ever find out what exactly it was for.........possibly being the best team from Britain (think we were the only Brits, so not too hard ).


Receiving our team prize from the surly organiser.