By Dr. Marco Pierfederici - What follows are training recommendations based on more than 30 years in European cycling. They are not simply personal prejudices. What I am about to advise is directed to the rider aged 18-25 who wants to achieve optimum performance in road racing. The advice is also workable for the older rider who is trying to realize his potential on the bike.
What I offer is not the type of help found in a pill or syringe. It is preventive medicine. It is advice on what to do to avoid losing conditioning as well as what to do to gain maximum conditioning. Evaluate it and do with it what you please. Cycling is a sport of individuals, so find out what does and does not work for you.
Three Things You Must Do
Very simply, the training that a competitive cyclist should do is based on riding a bicycle. Once the season is over, there is another thing the cyclist should do -- and that is to ride a bicycle. When the cyclist doesn't know what else to do, he should do a third thing -- ride a bicycle.
The cyclist must train the muscle group that is responsible for the repetitious motion of pedaling. This is quite easy, because the more you repeat the motion, the more you condition the muscles. Because the other muscle groups hardly work at all, they don't need training. Therefore, the training of the competitive cyclist should take place almost exclusively on the bike.
To create the desired increase in the size of the capillaries that deliver blood to the muscle fibers, all training should be quite slow and easy, especially in the early season. You must realize that these capillaries are very small. In a square millimeter there may be as many as 40. To enhance their size and ability to transport blood, the best training is not to fatigue the muscle but to maintain it in motion. The result will be larger leg-muscle volume and greater power.
If you ride slowly for the first 2,500 kilometers (about 1,500 miles) of the season, your leg-muscle fibers will adapt to accepting a greater blood flow. Once the muscles are well fed through blood, then you can begin to force the pace a bit. First increase the power, then use it.
Never Ride Hard
I advise beginning the year by pedaling at 60-70 rpm in at 42x17 or 16. Do this for 30-35 miles a day for three weeks, then start riding 50-60 miles. Add more long rides until you are alternating days of 50-60 miles with those of 30-35.
It is extremely important that the first 1,500 miles never include hard efforts. Otherwise, you are not training the muscle, you are just training the cardiovascular system.
Why pedal so slowly? Why such a moderate effort? We have a saying in Italy that you must feel the pedals, feel the chain. If you are pedaling at a high rpm in an easy gear, you won't feel like there is anything under your feet. You'll just be spinning the air. Your pedaling effort should be above spinning but below pushing. This is a subjective thing, so it is very hard to give a schedule for which gear and rpm to use. As you gradually increase your training, you will gradually increase your gears and pedal rpm. This doesn't mean that by July you should be doing all of your riding in a huge gear.
No training should take you to the point of fatigue. It is in the race, not the training, that you should get tired. You should come in from every training ride feeling like you could go out and do it again. You shouldn't come back wasted. When you train too hard there is no development of the muscle mass.
Train Alone
Cycling is a rather difficult sport to begin with. The training method I advocate makes it even that much more difficult because instead of riding an hour a day, I'm talking about three. Instead of riding two, riding four. Consequently, it is hard to become really proficient in cycling unless you have a lot of love for the sport.
It should always be your primary interest to expand your personal capacity and reach full potential. This means you should train by yourself. Each rider has his own needs. You have to be able to ride like you feel. Go slow if you want to, go fast if you want to, vary the pace as you wish. You must listen to your body. If you train by yourself you won't be forced into efforts that are contrary to your feelings.
When you are going really good, take advantage of that period. Give it everything you've got and try to win races. By the same token, when you are not going very good, beware of the usual response to try to train harder. Putting out more effort at this time is totally counterproductive. What you should do is exactly the opposite. Slow down, take it easy, maybe skip a few races, and try to recover.
In Italy, interval training is not recognized for road riding, only for certain track events. The reason is simple: A road race cannot be duplicated with interval training. It doesn't help the road rider in any way.
A road race doesn't go one minute on, one minute off. A race is not something you can predict the same way you can set up the structure if interval training.
When you do interval training, you essentially train yourself for a length of race that doesn't exist. Ten times one minute on and one minute off adds up to 20 minutes of activity. In reality, you should be training your muscles to repeat the pedaling motion for two, three, four hours at a time. This is what road racing is all about. Interval training will not prepare you for it.
I know that in many European countries they have stopped using interval training for the national teams. You will find places where they don't even know what you mean if you use the term.
Don't forget the repetitiveness of cycling. You pedal about 15,000 times every 100 kilometers. Exactly the same motion. You must train the leg muscles to carry as much power as possible, then spend this power on the day of the race. If you are doing intervals, by the time the race comes around you might have already spent most of your power in training.
How to Add Intensity
I realize that there are many short races and criteriums in America. Perhaps you are a rider who competes in them. If so, you should do the same kind of slow base work described in part 1. Once you are in shape, twice a week do some jumps and high-intensity riding instead of long miles. These efforts should not be obligatory but should be based on how you feel. Train alone so you can ride as you want to, not how you are forced to.
When it comes down to it, the best training for criterium racing is racing in criteriums.
What to I recommend for obtaining some training intensity? Let's look at Giovanni Battaglin, the pro road racer. The type of training he does is to go easy for a while, then jump and do several kilometers at a good pace, then return to an easy pace. It is strictly a listen-to-your-body type of training.
For example, ride up a hill easy the first half and then push hard to the top. Some days you might feel like doing three jumps during the course of the training. Some days you might do one and that's it. This approach makes it a lot easier mentally. You can ride like you feel and not think of yourself as a failure if you don't fulfill the interval schedule you wrote down.
The Eastern European countries make extensive use of weights and gymnastics during winter training. In my estimation, they are making a mistake. I advise people to go on a weight-training program when they start pedaling the bike with their arms.
It is possible that weight training might not be harmful for certain track specialties. For the road cyclist, however, weight training is not helpful at all. In fact, it is harmful. It develops certain muscles that are of absolutely no use in cycling, but which then have to be fed.
Weight training transports the power of the body from the legs to the upper body. When you work with weights or gymnastics you can actually increase the size of the chest, shoulders and back, creating a wider body. We all know that a wide body is detrimental in terms of wind resistance. Weight training will not enhance the ideal shape of the cyclist, i.e., thin and aerodynamic.
Remember that cycling is an endurance sport. It is also a sport of high caloric consumption. Anything that you can do to save energy expenditure is important. If you have big, wide shoulders, you will catch excess air even when riding tightly on someone's wheel.
So, a thin shape helps you avoid additional effort. When you apply this to a 100-mile ride it makes an incredible difference – an even greater difference when applied to a stage race. This is one of those subtleties that becomes very valuable, particularly when you are striving to be the best among riders who are trained much the same and are in similar condition.
Spend the Time Riding
Doing only leg exercises with weights might not be a negative thing. However, the type of training most suitable for cycling is that which lengthens the muscle. The cycling motion itself is perfect because it is one of lengthening, shortening, lengthening, and so on.
Those who do gymnastics and lift weights as their first sport and then take up riding must quit these activities. The blood must be made accessible to the lower extremities.
Stretching exercises? Fine, there is nothing wrong with them if you know the correct techniques. But nothing takes the place of riding the bicycle.
The same time that you are stretching could be spent pedaling.
Note: My cautions about weight training are directed to the younger rider. For the 35-year-old man who wants to do weights in the winter because he enjoys them, fine. He is cycling as a pastime. But for someone who has youth and potential as a road racer, it's a different story altogether. That person should be developed to arrive at the ideal riding condition. Weight training is counterproductive.
It is for going up a hill that I am perhaps best known. I have been rated the No. 1 Italian climber, a strength that helped me win two major stage races in 1981, the Tour of Spain and the Giro d’Italia. In the latter, I secured my victory in the hardest stage, which was contested on roads with 12 percent grades. I didn’t win the stage, but I won my battle with my major challenger. I attacked him five times in the hills before finally leaving him behind.
Characteristics of a Climber
The natural climber is light and thin, but not necessarily short. He will have thin leg muscles compared to the massiveness of the sprinter and even the pacer (the rider who can motor on the flats).
A climber is one who feels comfortable making a lot of jumps on a hill, while a pacer wants to establish a rhythm and then go up steadily. A climber will jump, back off, jump, and so on, trying to break the rhythm of the heavier riders, the nonclimbers, and leave them behind.
The way to get good at climbing is to train in the hills, but physical characteristics are predominant in this. Someone whose forte is climbing, who has the correct physical attributes for it, will gain a lot more from training on hills than someone who lacks these important qualities.
Training
Don’t start training in hilly terrain until you have accumulated 1,200 to 1,500 flat miles. Then start on short hills and work your way into longer and steeper climbs. All early-season hills should be done with a steady rhythm rather than jumps. Try to get on a rhythm and then work all the way up in that rhythm.
A technique that I like when I feel ready to start forcing the pace is to ride up easy until the last quarter mile, then go hard to the top. The next time I ride that hill I might go hard the last half mile, then the last three-quarters of a mile. As in all training, hill work should be on a gradient of distance and effort.
My advice -- and this is what I practice myself -- is to start a hill with as slow a pace as possible (or as slow as you are allowed in a race). This will let you get accustomed to the rhythm of the hill and to breathing with that rhythm. Climbing also requires a body rhythm and a pedaling rhythm. It all has to be synchronized. You develop a feel for it by doing it in training.
Climbing Technique
Should you sit or stand while climbing? It really depends on your personal characteristics. A pure climber tends to be off the saddle a lot more than other riders. The more muscular, heavier rider will usually sit and push the pedals, powering his way up. I’m off the saddle much more than, say, Francesco Moser, who basically sits and grinds. On a given climb I will probably be in and out of the saddle an equal amount.
The way Merckx used to drop people on climbs was to impose his own pace at the front. They just couldn’t keep up with him. He would ride 90 percent of a hill sitting down.
Then there are climbers like Fuentes, who would take a major climb in 42x21 while everyone else was in the 26. He was a freak. Not even a strong pacer like Merckx could use gears like him.
The pacer won’t do much gear changing. Once he finds a rhythm, he won’t shift unless the grade on the road changes considerably. On the other hand, the climber will shift many times.
Moderation is the key to handling the bike. Don’t throw it excessively to the sides, but don’t keep it as stiff as a board. A guy like Michel Pollentier will almost touch the handlebar to the ground going side to side, but he has one of the worst forms in Europe doing anything on a bike. Try to be in balance and don’t exaggerate.
Never climb with your hands on the drops of the handlebar. You won’t be able to breathe well. Grip the tops or the brake lever hoods. An upright position also makes it easier on the back.
Tactics
Try to get to the foot of the hill among the first dozen riders. If you don’t you will have to make at least twice the effort because there will always be a guy in front who misses a shift or who is feeling bad and starts weaving. If the front riders get a gap right away, you might not be able to do anything about it even if you see it happen.
A tactic I like is to get my teammates to the front and set a really hard pace on the roll into the hill. This helps me warm up, and it gets me feeling as close to the rhythm of climbing as possible. Some of the nonclimbers may fly off the back the moment the road steepens. At the same point I will be feeling real good because I am going into my terrain.
It’s always preferable to start the hill with agility, to be spinning up rather than pushing up. This way, if somebody jumps, you can respond. If you are already pushing in a big gear, it is harder to answer and the legs may tighten. If possible, use a one-tooth lower gear than the rider in front of you. This will let you use less energy than he is.
If the rhythm being imposed at the beginning of the climb does not feel right to you and you cannot maintain it, drop off and go up at your own pace. Don’t try to stay with someone who is a better climber. If you do, sooner or later you will blow up. On the other hand, if you go at your own pace, you won’t reach that same point of exhaustion. When you crest the top you will be in better condition to make up ground on the descent.
Attacking
I will seldom attack in the first half a climb. Most riders can respond then because they are fairly fresh. The simplest way to attack is to have a teammate jump first, then counterattack after the group has chased him down. This is the way to drop people who are in oxygen debt. If you don’t have teammates to help you, play off the attacks of others.
When going on your own, attack from the back of the group. Let a five-meter gap open, then jump. By the time you pass the group you will have a big edge in speed. Another tactic is to attack when someone is drinking or has just changed to a lower gear.
Before attacking, watch your adversaries. See how they are breathing, look at their expressions, watch or signs of weariness in their posture. Watch their pedal strokes to see if they are throwing weight onto the pedals or still spinning smoothly.
The pros race so much together that we get to know each other’s indicators of fatigue. For example, there is the legend of the vein at the back of Coppi’s knee. When Bartali saw the vein swell, he knew that Coppi was weakening and was susceptible to attack.
It’s important to know how to hide your own fatigue. If you are really suffering, go to the front and set the pace. People will think you are feeling good -- after all, you are leading. Maybe you can actually slow down the pace a little. If you are usually a good climber, they will tend to stay behind you and never suspect that you are in distress. When you are at the front nobody can see your face.