The cycling season actually lasts for around 9 months, as the World Champs / Il Lombardia are the last main races and take place late Sept / early Oct.
Though for purists, the season doesn't really start until Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the end of Feb! ;-)

As for periodising, it depends what races the riders are targeting - the Australian riders will tend to prioritise the Tour Down Under & Australian Nationals in January, and so will adjust their schedules accordingly with an earlier base period.
Classics riders will be a couple of months behind them, with their season starting in earnest with the Omloop and continuing through March & April.
While the stage racers will usually aim to peak for either the Giro (May) or the Tour (July).

Lots of cyclists still use racing as a form of intense training and will "race themselves into shape", and lots will take a mid-season break and therefore race two 'mini-seasons' in one year.

It'll be interesting to see triathlon go in a similar direction with the Challenge triple crown adding on to either the standard ITU summer season, or the long course 70.3/Kona peak in Aug-Oct...

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On twitter talking about Triathlon, Cycling & Sport Science - @taffytriathlete

The bold underlined for sure. A lot of people do this regardless if they are pro or not.. Race early season to get themselves in shape for their "A" race

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COROS Sports Science

You target particular races.
You can probably count on a crash giving you some rest at least once a year too.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
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Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

This makes perfect sense, thanks.

You also have to consider that a "base" is not simply a couple of months a year, but a lifetime of accumulated fitness. These guys have that. And it is MASSIVE. So the traditional idea of base training isn't really something that has to be implemented to such a degree.

You still have sprinters doing 6 days throughout the winter (and that's been the case for decades). Not exactly going out and slogging along for 6 hours a day at z2. Plus, as others mentioned, there are points of the season where they will want to be closer to 100% than at other times. They might still win races at 95% of peak fitness, though.

ditto what the others said on 'racing into shape' - though this is probably changing a bit. a generation ago there were dudes who were notorious for showing up soft and slow in the early season and basically training down into shape for the grand tours/worlds/etc.

one thing lance (!) did, i think, was to bring in a more disciplined, structured approach. he'd also ruthlessly target the tour, triathlon-style, and treat it as his only A-race. practice on the course, build up to specific stages, and so on. that was unusual at the time but i suspect more common now among those who can afford it.

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Yep, very good point.
They'll still move from 'unspecific training' towards 'specific training', broadly speaking, as their target events get closer. But their 'unspecific' isn't that unspecific, and their 'specific' is very specific, if that makes sense...

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On twitter talking about Triathlon, Cycling & Sport Science - @taffytriathlete

Like others have already said the season really isn't that long as far as racing is concerned though they will train pretty much all year round.

Those racing the classics will typically do a few training camps in december and january, and will start their racing season early February at Tour of Algarve. Some guys like Boonen like to start a little earlier. Mid April after the Scheldeprijs they're done and take a first break. Some guys will go to the Tour and limit their break, others will rest a bit longer. After the Tour it's all over the place because the remaining classics are limited so most attention goes to Worlds or the Vuelta. But Worlds is hard because not many riders are guaranteed a spot on the team so they can't plan anything with certainty.

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Don't forget to attack!

Could be my limited exposure and experience but the "base" for the few pro level cyclists I know is... the previous year's racing and training.

Volume is *slightly* dropped, intensity reduced a little, maybe a couple of near full weeks off the bike entirely... But that's about it.