Traditionally, that had been an area I had struggled in. But then I went to the opening crit at the Tour Down Under and in terms of accelerating in the saddle, I don’t think anyone on that start line was as good as I was. The session finished with four lots of four minutes at Zone 1, at 120rpm and focusing on position, interspersed with eight-minute rests.Īll winter I did this once a week and thought it was useless. In-between were eight-minute rests, and the coach preferred complete rest, like sitting on the floor. Focusing on neuromuscular efforts for two-and-a-half hours and with a Training Stress Score of no more than 55, it involved six-second sprints, each time with a higher gear and more revs. The most effective training session for me felt like the biggest waste of time at first. I’d have to readjust nutrition, training plans, my rest day, and I knew I’d feel shit about myself. If I wasn’t motivated for a training session, I’d ask myself how, if I didn’t do it, I’d feel at the end of the day. When I got to the climb, because I’d had a big rest, I was able to do 500 watts, punching out better watts-per-kilo than him and cresting the climb 20kph faster. I was going faster than him for 400 watts less. I told him that when I got to the top of the downhill, I accelerated hard and then sat on my top tube, at zero watts, and reached 70kph. “Four-hundred watts on both, and I went 60kph on the downhill,” he said. It was a lumpy course and I asked him what he did on the downhill section that kicked up into an uphill. ![]() After a kilometre I was 10 seconds up on him, though he’d averaged 400 watts more. I told him I didn’t go over 600 watts, got into the aero tuck and accelerated straight into the saddle. “Rolled down the ramp, sprinted up to speed, changed gear a few times, reached 1,000 watts,” he said. I asked him what he did in the first kilometre. I had destroyed him, sticking one minute 53 seconds into him, despite the watts-per-kilo disadvantage and being on the same equipment. Weighing 79kg, I had done 395 watts at 70kg, he had done 400 watts. ![]() A young, inquisitive Marc Soler wanted some advice. The day I really realised just how effective the Maldon 10 had been for me was in 2015, after the TT at Bayern Rundfahrt. I beat British Cycling’s computer modelling of my performance at the 2019 Worlds in Harrogate because I didn’t ride at 250 watts downhill like the modelling said, but instead at zero watts. People who devised pacing strategies got an awful lot wrong, as they were based on computer modelling that ignored the nuances. When it was time to go, I really hit it hard when it was time to back off, I went close to zero. Depending on the day, I would average between 400 and 435 watts in a time trial, and my performance was about refining pacing and polarising power.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |