Hi
Ive entered l’etape du tour 2026.
The final weeks of their official training plan puzzles me.
Rather than a standard 2 week taper there’s a sort of 3 week one where you reduce training load in weeks -3 and -2, but then oddly ramp up load again in the penultimate -1 week. Never seen that before. I’d appreciate your thoughts.
There is a monster sportive near me one week out before letape. Do i could fo that then really ease off which would fit their plan.
This year the route is basically la marmotte.
It’s strange, I can’t see a good reason behind it because not only are they ramping up the total volume, the “long intensity” workout is a big jump from the most you’ve done to that point (a 2x30 SST or threshold workout from a 4x12).
If you simply swap weeks 11 and 12, and then make that 2x30 into a 4x15 (keeping the 2x30 with long rest isn’t the worst idea, but 4x15 is a cleaner progression), the plan doesn’t look too bad in a conventional sense.
But I agree that week 12 seems misplaced and/or ill-advised. That said, they do have six days of recovery built in prior to the event, so maybe their thought process is that you don’t want to over-taper if you’re only coming into an event like that on 3 months of training, and that you’d be better off knowing you can do those workouts leading into the event. Otherwise, I’m not sure I can pinpoint some kind of physiological or training benefit from that construct.