The Haute Route events are long distance stage races over mountainous terrain. They exist in two formats: either seven day’s cycling including one mountain time-trial, usually stage 4 or stage 5, or three days cycling with a mountain time-trial on the last day. Pacing strategy at a one-day sportive such […]
The Tour des Stations is a new event in the cyclist’s calendar, and judging by the first year’s results it is destined to become a classic! Based in the Valais (Switzerland), a two hour drive from Geneva, the event offers three possible distances: 50km | 2,200m+ Mediofondo 130km | 4,500m+ […]
This post about the Etape du Tour starts with an introduction for non-cyclists and finishes with a detailed analysis for the more passionate amongst you. This includes our strategic advice for the race, and a report on my own attempt to apply the strategy! INTRODUCTION The Etape du Tour […]
The practical art of periodisation Periodisation in training is about changing the training load to get better results. If we do the same training over and over again and expect continued improvement we will be sadly disappointed. It is the variation within a session, within a week, within a month […]
When posting the strategy a few days before (read here), I promised to write the actual event up afterwards. So here it is: my personal experience at the 2018 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Challenge. How hard is it? Early start Act 1, South to Bastogne (100km) Act 2, Bastogne to Francheville (75km) Act […]
Riding Liège-Bastogne-Liège We at Alpine Cols are best known for riding in the mountains, and especially the Alpine sportives such as the Haute Route, the Marmotte and the Etape du Tour. This year it was time to try something new, so we have ventured north to Belgium to the climbers […]
Until quite recently winter training was all about LSD or Long Slow Distance: putting on the miles at home, often in wet and grisly weather conditions. Nobody did any serious climbing, and the long cold miles were stoically endured until spring came at last. Things changed with the wide availability […]
I was already 3 weeks into a polarised training programme last November when I posted a blog article entitled Threshold or Polarised: why should you care? This was much too soon to draw any personal conclusions, but I promised at the time I would post a new blog with the […]
Time to train is often at a premium. So what can you do if you only have one hour, including time to get changed and shower afterwards? Given the short time available, using a turbo will be more effective than riding outside. The turbo allows you to focus fully on […]
Summary: Threshold or Polarised? (one-minute read) If you are like most amateur cyclists, you probably follow a threshold training model to improve your performance. This means you ride as much as possible in the tempo and threshold zones (Zones 3 and 4 on the standard seven zone model), perhaps aiming […]
