{"id":189899,"date":"2022-06-23T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T07:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=189899"},"modified":"2022-06-22T16:22:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T16:22:21","slug":"getting-ready-for-the-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2022\/06\/23\/getting-ready-for-the-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Ready for the Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>How do the pros prepare for one of the hardest races in cycling? The 109<sup>th<\/sup> edition of the Tour de France is just around the corner and professional riders are putting the finishing touches on their year long journey to the pinnacle of cycling. What do they train in each of the distinct training stages leading up to the Tour? Let\u2019s take a closer look.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Tour de France 2022<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This year\u2019s Tour will span 3328 km inside the classic 21 days of racing. There will be 6 mountain stages, 2 individual time-trials, and plenty of flat stages for breakaways and exciting sprint finishes. Stage 7 will be the longest with 220 km while stage 11 will take riders to the highest point at the top of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2021\/11\/23\/what-can-we-expect-from-the-2022-tour-de-france-route\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Col du Galibier,<\/a> a breath taking 2607 metres above sea level. If last year is anything to go by, then the winner will be expected to maintain an average speed of 41,17 kilometres per hour over nearly 83 hours of racing. It\u2019s clear that every competitor will have to be in the shape of their life.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-controller-wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\ude0dAhead of the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TDF2022?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#TDF2022<\/a> Grand D\u00e9part from Denmark, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeTour?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Letour<\/a> is meeting the &quot;golden generation&quot; of Danish cycling <\/p>\n<p>Today: \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddf0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mads_pedersen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Mads_Pedersen<\/a> \u2935 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/F6tVUkcEHj\">pic.twitter.com\/F6tVUkcEHj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tour de France\u2122 (@LeTour) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeTour\/status\/1539596396407537666?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async data-src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<h2><strong>It takes the whole season<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Competing at the Tour de France is the highlight of every cyclist\u2019s season, if not their whole career. That\u2019s why most pros plan their season with the main goal to peak just as the Tour kicks off. The preparation often starts around 7 months before the Tour and includes several training macro-cycles. They will be building an aerobic base, adding high-intensity, doing race-specific training, and tapering. Let\u2019s take a closer look at each of these training stages.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Building a base<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Tour is set to start on the 1<sup>st<\/sup> of July which means that most rider initiated their base-building phase late November or early December of last year. Their main focus is on long, low-intensity rides to build up the basic aerobic endurance required. It also includes some flexibility and strength training on top of that. The riders typically do something like 20-30 hours of training each week.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Adding intensity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Come February, or about 5 months before the start of the Tour, cyclists start adding more tempo, sub-threshold, and threshold rides. Threshold tempo is the hardest effort that you can sustain for an hour which means they will be spending more and more time at high intensity. This training phase is also where they start working on their nutrition on and off the bike. They need to get used to consuming a lot of food on the bike. Their digestion needs to be conditioned to handle up to 90 g of carbs per hour while cycling.<\/p>\n<p>This is also the time when the pros start to peak with their body weight. They start early because steady weight loss is the best way to avoid sacrificing performance. There is a general rule of thumb that they shouldn\u2019t lose more than 0,5 % of their bodyweight per week.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Race-specific training<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Right around the beginning of April, Tour competitors will refocus on race-specific training. They will reduce their strength work and use actual races as some of their training. There is no substitute to racing. Certain skills can only be gained while amidst a race. The Ardennes Classics or the Giro D\u2019Italia are often used for this purpose.<\/p>\n<p>This is also the time when cyclists include training camps. These are typically 10-day training blocks of structured cycling where every day is planned out. Training camps often include altitude training and adapting to riding in the heat. The specific schedule depends on the type of rider. Climbers will spend more time in the mountains doing lots of long, steady climbs while others might work on high-intensity speedwork elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Tapering<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Tapering means reducing training load to be fresh at the starting line. During this process riders will go from riding 5-6 hours a day to riding about 1 hour or not at all. About 2 weeks before the Tour, riders will start shortening their training blocks and adding ample rest in between. They would do their last long ride the weekend before the Tour. There might be a short speed workout mid-week to practice bursts of power and picking up pedalling cadence. They will also have a session on the time trial bikes during the last week.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>They take recovery as seriously as training<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A crucial part of getting ready for the Tour de France is recovery. It\u2019s present in every phase of training and riders know that they can\u2019t cut any corners there. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/series\/recovery-nutrition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Recovery<\/a> is a continuous process that includes post-ride shakes, massages, stretches, and quality sleep. Especially sleep is what most professionals focus on as the bedrock of recovery. They go to bed and wake up at the same time, sleep in a cool and dark room, and avoid blue light an hour before sleep.<\/p>\n<p>The riders give it a better part of a year to get ready for the Tour, let\u2019s cheer them on as they compete for glory on this 21-stage Grand Tour!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do the pros prepare for one of the hardest races in cycling? The 109th edition of the Tour de [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":189900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[332],"tags":[6481,6482,6483],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-189899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-training","tag-getting-ready-for-the-tour","tag-how-do-pros-train-for-the-tour","tag-tour-de-france-training","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How do Cyclists Train for the Tour de France - We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The pros have a special schedule when getting ready for the Tour de France. 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