Tips from the Director of Performance Training

Tips from Nancy Fudacz, East Bank Club Director of Performance Training

Posted July 18, 2011


As the riders in the Tour de France head into the mountains this week for the final stages of the race, we asked Nancy Fudacz, our Director of Performance Training, to comment on the race and provide some tips to help amateur cyclists ride more like the Tour riders. Here's what she had to say.

In the final mountain stages of the Tour de France, the race becomes a measure of the riders’ ability to climb. Three major factors that affect their climb are watts per kilogram of body weight, cadence and endurance.

Watts per kilogram of body weight

When it comes down to it, the person who can sustain the most power for their body weight is the person who will win the climb. The Tour riders will likely sustain over 6.5 watts per kilogram of weight. If you’ve used our bikes in the Cycling Studio, that’s about 445 watts for a person weighing 150 pounds – and that’s not just for a moment, that’s for the whole climb.

Cadence

The Tour riders maintain a healthy cadence even in the toughest of the climbs – well over 80 RPM, and that’s at power outputs over 400 watts.

Endurance

In the Tour de France, the ride doesn’t typically start with the climb, so riders must be able to attack a climb after already spending hours in the saddle.

So, how can you improve your cycling ability to ride more like a Tour rider?

• Focus on your power output. The next time you take an Indoor Cycling or Computrainer class, take a look at the average power output you sustained during your workout. Work to consistently improve that number each week.

• Try these workouts:

1. After warming up, spend 10 minutes riding in intervals of 30 seconds as hard as you can in a high gear, pushing the most watts possible, and then 30 seconds in recovery.

2. Perform your own time trial. Push as hard as you can for 20 minutes and look at your average watts. The wattage you accomplish working that hard for 20 minutes should be about 95% of what you can do in an hour. Repeat the workout every four weeks and try to improve your power number.

3. Work your VO2 max by riding as hard as you can for four minutes, followed by four minutes of recovery. Repeat for a total of four sets. Do your best to sustain your power number for each of the four intervals. A VO2 max effort is typically 120% of what you could sustain for an hour.

• Work on your cadence. If you find yourself “mashing” or slowing your cadence down in a high gear, try letting your cadence dictate your gearing. Spend an hour with your cadence at 90 RPM or higher. If your cadence begins to slow, shift to a lower gear.

• Improve your endurance. Try lengthening your rides to easier, longer rides. If you are great at 20 miles, try 30 or 40 miles at a less intense level.