Riding on the front training

mclarent

I had to do a fair bit on the front in yesterday's race, unfortunately, but clearly need to work on this area of my riding. Can anyone suggest specific training for that? I was thinking long threshold intervals, maybe a few 10s?

amaferanga

Depends how long you spend on the front in each go. Threshold intervals or shorter intervals above FTP will help. Did you have your power meter in the race and if so what power were you putting out and for how long?

Why did you have to do a fair bit on the front anyway?

jibberjim

amaferanga wrote:

Why did you have to do a fair bit on the front anyway?

Maybe no-one else was... so someone had to keep the pace up.... (hopefully he was chasing for a team mate)

If you're having to work solo on the front - you probably need to review your race tactics rather than worry about training for it - you're on a hiding to nothing doing that, there's little chance you're going to pull back a break solo. So you need to work to ensure you don't get in such a position. Go all out to be in the break when all the other teams are included etc.

If you have others to work - then it's the same training you want to do when in the break - just get some mates and go out and absolutely cane some sections as if it was a race.

mclarent

The "have" was (unfortunately) intentional. "The" 11-man break was 2-3 minutes up the road, the right blend of teams, including our strongest guy, so was looking good for a top-5. Unfortunately he punctured, and with no support car that meant we had to chase. We had 5 in the bunch at that point, but two were hanging on towards the back and one is a climber (though he took his turns). Tbf, a few other guys did turns as well, but it was basically me and my teammate trying to pull it back - you'll be suprised to know that we didn't manage it. Anyway, at least lining it out killed the bunch and we took 3rd and 5th in the bunch sprint, but still out of the points.

Anyway, didn't have my powermeter on (it's built into an OP, and too heavy so I don't race it), and as you can imagine every turn felt like 2 hours but was more likely 2 minutes(!) Thinking about the kind of work this involves, maybe some shorter threshold intervals with short recovery periods would work, maybe something like 3 minutes at threshold, 2 minutes at tempo?

jibberjim

mclarent wrote:

maybe something like 3 minutes at threshold, 2 minutes at tempo?

You have a large team presumably? And the best training for it, is going and doing it... Our club has 1 hour rides in the winter, where the strongest guys do a concerted chase by however many are there to work (with weaker riders hanging on the back, occasionally doing turns if they're feeling strong)

And our sunday club runs, have extended periods where we do it, it's generally 2-3 minutes at over threshold, followed by 4-6 minutes at just under threshold. Not sure the point of doing the intervals just at threshold - you're not going to pull a break back like that.

In physiology terms though, the limit is still essentially threshold, so you can likely train solo for it just by raising your threshold with traditional threshold training.

mclarent

Our clubruns finish at the end of March as the season kicks in, so really only solo options available. And I'm hoping to avoid the front next week - there's only 3 of us in, so someone else can do the work! Good point on threshold not being hard enough, sounds like HoP and some mid-week crits is the way forward...