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And finally the winner, Ian Boswell.
As already alluded to in the other thread, April was little slim (compared to the other top riders). However, they all focused on race specific sessions in May.
This is something we see nicely here, yesterday’s race:
And one “the” sessions in May:
I must admit I’m a little bit suprised about how low average power is.
What about Colin Strickland? I never see him ride intervals on Strava:
Jumbo Visma, Dauphine, then 2-3 days easy and then off into the final pre-TdF team camp.
It’s interesting to see how similar those mountain days at the Dauphine and the team camp rides are. They simply replicate this tempo/SST grinding in training.
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So what are the “gravel” riders doing different
They don’t ride long Alpine climbs at Tempo to TdF race pace as it is not specific to their race demands.
On the other hand, they mimic their race demands in the weeks leading to the A race. So they have this in common with the TdF pros. Race specific prep.
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Sorry for the dumb questions
Ian Boswell avg 280w, he is riding in tempo zone?
You’re referring to a specific workout?
In the article about Boswells power for unbound he had an np of 280w. I would assume his ftp to be over 374w so that would be under 75% ftp so technically high endurance. But based on those screenshots (which I sometimes think they understate the ftp for those screenshots) ftp is set at 360w so he had an if of 0.78 (np of 78% ftp) for the race. I think though it is more important to look at the individual segments of the race and how his training replicated that (which I’ve not done), rather than look at the overall load of the race as with an avg of 247w and 280np it was not steady state.
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I think you could assume that his lt1 is greater than the average power for the race duration. But not the NP.
The last 10-20 post here are very interesting for me. For MTB Marathon and a specific 12hr A race last weekend of July, My coach has basically had me:
Oct - March = long Z2 base
March - mid June = Low cadence Tempo a Wiggins describes, with long Weekend Z2 rides incorporating several Z3 10 mins blocks
Now - July = Z4 &Sweet spot + Longer Z3/3 weekend rides MTB specific
July - Z4, Z5 weekdays and long Z2/3 MTB specific
Seems to match some of the pro-tour stuff shown above. I keep moaning at him “what about my top end and FTP” (because my FTP has dropped) and he says we will sharpen in July but I don’t really need to worry about top end or FTP so much for a 12 hour MTB race, its all about sustained endurance.
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I was just wondering what things these guys are doing in training that is different from other cyclists since I do gravel is there something I should be doing more of.
Frank Overton recently had Ian on his podcast and it was well done. Worth a listen.
Seems like his type of personality is just to ride a lot when a race is coming up. He seems really naturally gifted so he does not have to worry much (though he could probably do better with structure)
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The amount of conflicting conjecture on doing a lot of SST vs mostly avoiding it (or doing the bulk of it in base season aka Nov-Feb) is making my head spin. It’s like no one has any consensus.
TR and Frank Overton love it, then you have Seiler and many other coaches that don’t think it’s really all that great. And then you have a pro super-domestique and classics hardman Christian Knees saying he does a lot of it.
Maybe different riders do different training based on the work they do?
No doubt about it. Which is what bothers me about certain coaches or cycling folks that talk down on certain methodologies or modalities w/o telling anyone why they don’t prefer one to another.