Page 18 - DLNnov2016-1012
P. 18

At CSC there was more of a difference between hard and rest days – hard
days were even more intense than at CSC but rest days were really for resting.
(At GAN/CA a “rest day” might feature a 3 hour ride and some light
intensity work. At CSCa hard day might have a 6 hour ride with some 20
minutes medium intensity intervals followed by climbs with sprints – typically
1hr-1.5hr intervals per day. CSC worked in 3 day blocks, such as:
Day 1: Medium intervals: 40/20s – big gear at 80rpm on a climb for 40
seconds then spin smallest possible gear for 20 seconds.
Day 2: Speed work: 4 x 20 minute team time trials cadence around 110rpm.
Day 3: Big gear intervals – 5 minutes standing, 5 minutes seated
Unlike at CA however, the time between intervals would be really slow rather
than cracking on at a good pace. Despite this, Jens observed that although
the system worked well for older, more mature riders, it was too heavy for
neo-pros and they frequently would appear drained even 2 months after
the training camps.
The CSC riders would also go out for 2-3 hour rides on their TT bikes to get
used to riding in the TT position for extended periods of time rather than
only riding them in races. (At the time, some teams might only put their
riders TT bikes together on the eve of a stage race prologue..)
Obviously things have moved on a bit in the day of Team Sky!

                                                     18
   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23