GET TOUR DE FRANCE FAST IN FOUR WEEKS

HAVE YOU GOT TOUR FEVER? If you have a good fitness base, let the pros inspire you to take your riding to the next level.

- MOLLY HURFORD

With this four-week training plan, you can get faster - fast! The first thing you need to do is add high-intensity training to your schedule. [See 'HIIT IT!' in our May/June issue. - Ed.] Each hard session requires recovery, which means you can't go hard or long every single day.

"To get faster, you need to get specific," says US-based cycling coach Lucas Wall of Develo Coaching. "You don't want to add a tonne of extra hours on the bike at the same time you're adding more intensity - you want to be really focused." For a block like this, you're going to want to make sure you're truly polarising your workouts, says another US-based coach, Ryan Kohler. This means spending a small chunk of time at high intensity, and then spending the rest of your time at a genuinely easy or 'endurance' pace.

"You'll need to focus on high-intensity efforts because you'll get the most bang for your buck there," Kohler says. "But any more than three interval workouts a week is going to be unsustainable."

Wall focuses on three key rides each week: two high-intensity workouts and one longer endurance ride, book-ended by easier efforts and skills sessions. "It's important to be consistent and ride throughout the week, but not do hard efforts every day," he says.

"Typically, a plan for this kind of goal would start with Monday as off or easy, then Tuesday and Thursday would be days when we add in high intensity, while Wednesday and Friday are easier rides. Then the weekends, when people typically have more time, are for longer rides and for some fun.

But don't go huge on both days!" Wall agrees, and also recommends using your ride time to visualise what you want to achieve. "Visualisation is a great way to practise skills, work on positive mental talk and generally be more ready for race day," he says.

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