One-day Classics are arguably the toughest races on the professional cycling calendar. They are long, relentlessly undulating, and many of them include sketchy, bone-clattering cobbled and gravel sections. As this Classics season approached, I pondered what it would take for a regular rider like me to ride such a course – and what I might learn in the process.
Right on cue, an email came through suggesting I ride the Gran Fondo Strade Bianche, a 148km sportive the day after the pro race, using many of the same roads. In fact, it’s almost exactly the same course used by the WorldTour women’s race, including 51km of white roads, i.e. gravel sections, with more than 2,600m of climbing. Gulp!
How to prepare?
Thankfully, I wouldn’t be the only CW-affiiated rider providing a point of comparison with Tadej PogaÄar’s awesome performance from the previous day. Alongside me in the clamouring start pen in Siena was Danny Lloyd, one of the trio of new participants in CW’s 2022 Big Fitness Project series (see page 54). Danny’s target was clear: to finish the event in as close to five hours as possible. How had he trained for this A-list adventure?
“Not as well as I’d have liked,” said Danny. “I had Covid in the first week of February, meaning nine days off the bike. I resumed full training just 16 days before the event. In that time I managed 19 sessions and 25 hours”
この記事は CYCLING WEEKLY の March 31, 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は CYCLING WEEKLY の March 31, 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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