Training for the Etape

Ride a lot more. When you're pushed for time ride at a pace that's beyond 'comfortable' but not so uncomfortable you can't sustain it for 60-90mins.

Your commuting distance is fine especially if you do what phil s recommends but you need to do a longer weekend ride too. If you're doing an hour or so up it to a couple of hours and increase it each week so you're doing 3 or 4, then next year you nedd to occasionally do some even onger rides. Try to ride non stop at as constant an effort you can manage (don't attack the hills, but don't let off on the decents either), arrive home tired, not exhautsed.

You dont say if you have had any experience of riding abroad on the sort of big climbs that will feature in the Etape.

If you havent then these will come as a shock to the system. Key thing about them is that they are unrelenting, requiring you to keep up a constant effort for 1-2 hours. There are 3 of these on the 2010 route, all different in character. (First climb is easy start then brutal last 4 km, second is moderately long and features constant changes of gradient, last is an epic that will take close to 2 hours for many)

So as per above the best training to prepare for these is a 25-30 mile constant effort on a circuit thats flat and doesnt need any stops/freewheeling. I'd advise using the winter months to find one that you are comfortable with and just ride at a steady pace round it once a week or so, (also aiming to put in some longer steady pace rides aiming to have done one over 100 miles by end March). Feb or so onwards next year push a bit more and aim to go a bit faster each time you ride. If you can bear the boredom a good routine would be to ride 2-3 times with a 15 min or so easy spin between each lap. Ideal would be to hold pace/go faster each lap.

Also definitely suggest entering a sportive or 2, best in terms of being like etape/timing in my experience is the Dragon which happens in June.

Another thing to search out is a hill with a 10% gradient. The first climb ends with 4km of this and very last km of the whole ride is this steep so its good to practice riding up this sort of slope to check bike setup/gearing. Hopefully you will be able to find a 10% climb nearby that will be a reasonable length. One thing to do at some point is do hill reps up/down it so that ride total of 5km. Inevitably you'll find the going harder each time up, if start to have real difficulty keeping the pedals turning even in lowest gear its a sign you may need to try a different gears, (One point, the vast majority of the time spent on the climbs should be done seated).

One other suggestion. Despite the advice you'll get here, the best guarantee of having a successful etape would be to use the services of a personal coach. Given the cost of the event its also a good investment in terms of money and may even save some if you are considering buying any new kit for the etape.

bahzob wrote:

You dont say if you have had any experience of riding abroad on the sort of big climbs that will feature in the Etape...
...One other suggestion. Despite the advice you'll get here, the best guarantee of having a successful etape would be to use the services of a personal coach. Given the cost of the event its also a good investment in terms of money and may even save some if you are considering buying any new kit for the etape.

All very good advice. You won't go wrong with this.

But I'm not no sure about the coach. All the coaching plans I've seen for others simply have the old formula of building up the mileage, the base miles and then sharpening the efforts as the big day approaches. They are a bit more sophisticated than this, but not much more so.

Some will come with recommended heart rate or wattage zones but such precision probably isn't needed for a beginner, it's like setting an Olympic coach to work with someone hoping to complete the London Marathon dressed as a rubber chicken, their aim is to trot around the course and have fun, not to set a new competition record amongst the elites.

I've seen several training plans from different coaches and none has mentioned the basic premise that bahzob touches on above, that the climbing is unrelenting and the way to prepare for this is to tackle a 1-2 hour loop on the flat.

derekl

If you want to look at Coaching try checking the web-site www.sports-coaching.com we do a lot of etape training.

Mail me if you want further information

john@sports-coaching.com

Cheers
John

Derek - some good sensible advice on here and you are right to ask for it. Too many people do Gran Fondo events utterly unprepared for them. Good friends of mind went out to do a recce of the Etape route a couple of years ago in the Spring and, having done the whole ride in one go, decided it wasn't too bad.

When they went back in July the temperatures had changed from 10 degrees to closer to 40 degrees and they literally melted. If the sun is out, climbing in the Alps and the Pyrenees in mid-summer is completely different to anything you can experience in the UK. Your whole sportive strategy can literally be torn up and thrown away as it becomes a battle of hydration and nutrition as much as fitness. The amount of riders you will see with shorts caked in salt-line marks and with leg cramps will amaze you - you need to drink copiously throughout the event - a litre an hour is a reasonable target, if you sweat even that might not be enough.

If you have the opportunity, think about a week of cycling in the sun somewhere 2-3 months before the etape. Train in Spain (www.traininspain.net) do training weeks in April for Gran Fondo events. The idea is to do lots of long climbs and 4-5 hour rides each day including one day of something similar in profile to the etape. Just as importantly, it will normally be in warm weather!