A recurring theme with all current elite coaches is this “how much can an athlete absorb” question. Coaches tackle this slightly different, all in different flavours. You have the testing camp with the Norwegians or ISM (or even Ferrari as I just saw). And you have the pure “intuition and observe” camp with Filiol. However, this is all based on experience and simply talking to the athlete is the most used tool.
Depending on this total work load is determined. It appears to be fairly flexible. There aren’t any special workouts and they haven’t invented anything new. It’s more this determination of the total load that makes them good coaches.
That’s why I find it interesting to look into their training models and philosophies.
Thanks, beastly numbers for sure. I remember seeing a pic of cancellara’s srm displaying ca 280w avg in the 2010 Ronde.
I dont know if this is a common pro level coach opinion, but for instance Lotta Henttala’s (nee Lepistö) coach often makes the point that in a long road race NP typically falls close to the rider’s aerobic threshold power.
So, going by numbers found on the public domain, the Ronde runner-up WVA is on the record doing fatmax intervals at 350w, and MvdP’s 341w is not far off, and quite likely on the ballpark. Of course this comparison is mechanistic and in reality things are more complex. Yet personally I think the long road race NP method of ballpark estimating aerobic threshold is interesting and not without merit.
Well, many trainers say (articles, podcasts) that amateurs do it wrong in camps. Above all, they train too hard and pay too much attention to social aspects, like Strava segments, PR’s, photos, FB…
And from that interview I like this:
“Listen to your body, and don’t look at your numbers. The biggest skill any rider can have is to feel something and not be told by a screen”
that pic.