Training for Ventoux

Harrogate Velo50

Hi.

Looking for some advice for training for the 3 ascents of Ventoux next year. Don't really class myself as a proper cyclist, although done the Fred and Etape Dales, just to say I got round, like cycling just to keep fit. Lots of steep short hills round where I live ( north Yorkshire) but nothing all that long really. Will hill reps on these be any good or waste of time in view of the long slog that Ventoux will be.

Any help appreciated. Thanks

stueys

Did this in early October, it's more than manageable. Essentially you've got 2 tough climbs and one gentle one with a tough finish (the wind at the top gets more than interesting in the pm as well).

You need to train to sit at LT for an hour. In the later part of build phase I did this with simulated climbs (RLV) on a tacx turbo trainer, I also tried hill repeats and TT runs but personally find the turbo closer to the real thing as it avoids traffic, junctions, etc,etc. Standard training advice, work on your base through winter throwing in some force work (hill climbs in a big gear), good mix of endurance and hill climbs during early build and then focus on long LT intervals during later build.

If you're going late summer/early autumn be prepared for how cold it is at the top. The first descent was a far from pleasant experience.

lukasran

hill reps wont do you any harm mate but like you said it is a long old slog. maybe a hour half / 2 hours on a turbo with a nice vid of the clime. most important thing is pacing if you go into red early prepare to suffer. try to find out a nice rythem you can sustain. make sure your brakes work well or you hands will be like claws when you get to the bottom. good luck mate you will have a great time.

bahzob

As above. Hill reps really are not that useful for this sort of challenge.

Long (1-2 hours) steady NONSTOP effort at a pace where you have to breathe hard but comfortably through the mouth is what's needed. Sorry for the caps but it's the nonstop part that's the hard one. It's why hill reps can be a bad idea as they encourage you to take it easy every few minutes or so.

That's why long session turbo work is so good. Alternatively if you live in the UK paradoxically the best training you can do is do long rides on flat roads where you can maintain a steady unbroken pace. Time trials are perfect, if you havent done these before there will be a club nearby that will run these and most allow folks to turn up and ride, so worth checking out.

The advice here http://www.hunterallenpowerblog.com/2013/11/four-keys-to-powerful-winter-training.html?utm_source=November+2013+Power+News&utm_campaign=November+Power+News&utm_medium=email will help you if you follow over winter.

Other thing is get your gearing right. You should be pedalling up Ventoux at the same rate as you train at. For most every cyclist this means fitting the lowest gears available.

This is one way that hill training can help. Find a hill that's around 10-15% and goes on for a bit (you will get sections like this on both the 2 hard ascents). Do some hill reps on this to the point where you are very tired. Do one more ascent and check cadence, you should be doing at least 70rpm. If you can't maintain this you should look at getting lower gears.

Tom Dean

bahzob wrote:

Time trials are perfect,

Training as for (long) TTs may be a good idea, but racing is not really an efficient use of training time / energy.

okgo

Why so?

Apart from the repeatability aspect training at FTP is the best way to train FTP surely...The only reason people don't is because its hard, and you can get much of the same adaption from knocking it back a bit which allows more repeatability. BUT I don't see that doing TT's would be a bad thing to do every now and then.

Tom Dean

for just the reason you describe. You can't separate the repeatability from the intensity level itself. No big problem every now and then of course - I do club 10s every week in the summer for 'fun'. In training terms they give a poor balance between intensity, duration and fatigue generated though IMO.

Some people can do a second long effort on the way home. That makes a better session.

Harrogate Velo50

Thanks for the advice so far guy's. If a bit technical for me
The longest continues hill ( crag vale??) Is not that far from me, think it about 5 miles long, so reckon couple of reps of that would be a good place to start

davidof

3 climbs of the Ventoux. That is 138km and 4400 meters of climbing. Apart from doing hill repeats to build strength etc. I would look at doing 180-200km in rolling UK type terrain in under 8 hours. Do a couple of these some time before your Ventoux day. The sportifs you mention would be part of your training. I would also do some cadence/strength training - low rpm/big gear hill climbing and high rpm/low gear climbing. This will make you a more efficient climber.

The Ventoux is not ridiculously steep, generally in the 8-10% range and not ridiculously high so you only really have altitude issues after Chalet Reynard. The wind is the most serious issue. I've been blown off my bike on the climb and unable to descend the first km as it was too strong.

ut_och_cykla

training should be focused on long sessions of unremitting effort as others have said but just doing the time or as hill repeats might not give you what you're looking for.
My take on it :
You should aim at being comfortable on the bike for the time you think you will need (so a few long steady rides) , eating & drinking while working hard (ie when going uphill not just on the wonderfull whizzes down!) so on harder shorter sessions and to top off I would suggest sessions of 2 x 20 mins at a constant effort that you can just sustain for both intervals. Once a week now and increase slowly to 3 times a week well before the event.
Make sure you have the gears you need to keep going on the day.

The heat/cold and nutrition will be issues special to Ventoux - the wind can be ferocious but it can be cripplingly hot in the lower parts of the climb too.
Good luck

Harrogate Velo50

Thanks for the advice guy's, very helpful.

I am doing it at the end of May so the weather might be interesting! My aim is to just complete it, which will be hard enough

durhamwasp

Keep your fitness up and try and do some long rides (60-80 miles). If you can train and manage the Fred Whitton, you can do the Cingles do Mont Ventoux.

Never Ever Quit.

bahzob

Harrogate Velo50 wrote:

Thanks for the advice guy's, very helpful.

I am doing it at the end of May so the weather might be interesting! My aim is to just complete it, which will be hard enough

Good luck. You should have no problems in May, probably the perfect time of year.

This year I made a beeline for the Ventoux after a week of misery during a May in the Pyrenees that alternated a freezing rain with snow depending on how high you were. I heard the weather at the Ventoux was in the twenties/sunnny and just pedalled as fast as I could to get there.

Harrogate Velo50

Sounds fun bahzub! Looking forward to it......I think ha ha.

Thanks for the encouraging words Durham, I shall have to employ you as my mental inspirational coach

I am so far away from being ready it is scary, but then again, to a certain extent at this time I guess I should be

durhamwasp

Enjoy it all, fantastic experience!