If you’re looking for a destination to provide jaw-dropping scenery, perfect tarmac, great food and a pleasant vacation with your partner, you can bank on booing a trip to Mallorca. After countless of bike trips with my better half, we’ve gotten quite good at organising good bike holidays. This time a lot of things came together for a great trip. Here is an overview of our cycling routes and what made our bike trip to Mallorca stand out. Cycling routes Mallorca day 1 // Sunset ride to Cap de Formentor // 52 km Wow. I had already heard a lot about this sunset ride. Yet, it exceeded my expecta ..read more

It’s not everyday you get a detailed look at how the best professional cyclists train. There are several books written on how to plan and structure your cycling training. But up until recently, there was surprisingly little published literature on how the best professional cyclists scheduling their training. More to the point, are they following the common training and periodisation advice that you’re so used to hearing? “Start by building a base. Then add volume. Then add intensity. Then taper. And so on…” A team of sport scientists decided to look into this matter. Their efforts resulted in ..read more

If you ever watched Tour de France, you’ve probably said to yourself “one day, I’m going to ride those mountains.” Only to put the ambition aside and go on with your life. Surely, such a trip takes a lot of planning and careful preparation? Except, it doesn’t. This summer, my girlfriend and I booked a spontaneous flight to Nice. And rode through the French Alps to Geneva on two light-rigged road bikes. And what a ride it was. This post summarises our experience. Along with some tips for anyone considering doing a similar trip. In this post I will cover: Our route from Nice to Geneva (followin ..read more

Do you struggle to achieve the same power output when riding on flat roads compared to uphill? A recent study published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport suggests this difference is very much real. Is uphill power different to flat power? To investigate this question, Valenzuela and colleagues examined power data from 98 male cyclists from World Tour and Pro Team level (1). Over a 10 year period they collected and reviewed 1074 files from each cyclist. Data was collected during both training and racing. Power data was analysed for power records (mean maximal power) across duratio ..read more

Have you ever struggled to achieve the same indoor and outdoor power outputs? If so, you would not be alone. This begs the question if indoor and outdoor power output does indeed differ. And if so, how to we work our way around this discrepancy in controlling training intensity? A study by Lipski and colleagues in International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance took an interest in this question (1). Is indoor and outdoor power output the same? Lipski and colleagues wanted to see if indoor and outdoor power output differed across a range of efforts from 1 to 14 minutes. To investigat ..read more

If you are a keen cyclist you are probably looking for ways to optimize your intervals for greater training effect. There is a handful of interesting studies showing compelling results with fast-start and varied intensity intervals. Increased time at high VO2 with varied power output Spending time at or above 90% of your VO2 max is often suggested as one of the hallmarks of efficient high intensity training (1-2). As such, tweaking your intervals to maximize time spent above 90% of VO2 max might yield beneficial training effects. A recent study by Bossi and colleagues examined the effect of va ..read more

What power outputs do you need to perform on the big stage in professional cycling? Power records of the pros go some way in providing an answer. Aspiring riders may use existing power data as benchmarks for: which physiological properties to develop (which effort durations are required) the magnitude of performance required from each property (how many W at a given effort duration) Recently, Valenzuela and colleagues published the greatest collection of power data from professional cyclists to date (1). Let us have a look at what they found and what it means for cyclists who aspire to joint ..read more

If you want to become a stronger rider next season, you may consider including some high intensity (HIT) intervals in your off-season break. There is compelling evidence to suggest that your level of maintenance training during off-season dictates your development next year. High intensity training maintains performance during off-season In a study from 2014, Rønnestad and colleagues compared the effects of two different training regimes during off-season on performance the following pre-season (1). One group of riders conduct low intensity training only during the 8 week off-season period. Wh ..read more

“I was wondering how my FTP compares against other riders. Will I be competitive with [insert value] W?” I often get these questions from riders who wonder how they test results hold up against the competition. So let us have a look at what FTP values are typically seen in different racing categories according to the fathers of the FTP concept. And let us also briefly discuss why you should not necessarily get too caught up in your FTP value. Featured image: Radu Razvan/Shutterstock.com What is Functional Threshold Power (FTP)? Functional threshold power is a concept created by the authors All ..read more