Some keener etappers have acheived rides of 70 or even 100 miles! One reader has been training in Snowdonia with a Kelme rider! Another rider from Cornwall has acheived 100 miles of hilly riding in 5 hours 22 minutes! Most of us have not yet acheived those dizzy heights, and some have not yet exceeded a 30 mile ride.

Now that the weather is improving there is a chance to get some really long rides in (other commitments permitting!)

So far we have concentrated on building endurance. This has many benefits (improved fat utilization, improvement in circulation and lung capacity, improved cardiac function, to name but a few!) However April is also a good time to start thinking about other types of training in addition to basic endurance rides.

If you are planning to get a good result in the Etape, this year there are three key areas to concentrate on.

• Endurance
• Speed
• Mountains

This is the key area this year, with a ride of nearly 150 miles ahead of us. If you build up your mileage in easy stages, 150 miles is not as difficult as it sounds. Once you have done 60 miles, an 80 mile ride will not seem to difficult. After an 80 mile ride, a 100 mile ride will seem surprisingly easy!
The trick is to go at your own speed. If you use a speedo which registers average speeds, make a note of your average (ignoring stops) on the longest ride you have done so far. If on your next, longer ride you set out to ride at that average speed rather than riding as fast as possible, you may be surprised how easy it is to cover the distance!
If you have not yet attempted a ride in the 100 mile league, April is a good time to attempt it. An early morning start helps, with a stop for morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea. Break the ride down into manageable sections, for example 25 miles then coffee, 25 miles then lunch, 25 miles then afternoon tea, then 25 miles home. Cycling to somewhere interesting is a bonus, particularly if there is a rail route nearby in case of emergencies! Another option is to cycle to visit a friend or relative to impress them with your amazing acheivements, or to investigate your local area in more detail, cycling some of those lanes that look so interesting on the map which you have never had time to explore.
As you get fitter, you will be able to add more hills to your route, take fewer stops, and increase your average speed. Our Cornish correspondant mentioned above only stopped once in 100 miles (to pick up a dropped water bottle!)

Speed

In April speed is not usualy the most important training target. 2004 is different! We are required to average 30 kph for the first 30km - thats about 18.7mph for the first 18.7 miles. Experienced racers and time trialers will not be overly shocked by this, and indeed when you are slipstreaming several thousand other riders it is not as difficult as it may sound.
It is however worthy of a bit of practice! We all occasionally only have an hour or so to spare for a training run, so this is an ideal opportunity to practice distances of around 20 miles at speeds approaching 20mph! A good plan is to find a 20 mile circuit near where you live, and measure your average speed round the course and try to improve it on successive rides. Initially, your speed may be lower, in which case you may want to set yourself intermediate target speeds.
If you are a regular time 20 mile trialer, remember that you will still have around 130 miles to after the first 20miles, so you may need to practice keeping your speed down to 20mph!

Mountains

If possible, don't make the mistake of letting the mountains take you by surprise. If you do not live in a mountainous area, find some hills. If you live in Norfolk, and the highest hill around is about 50 feet, try to get a few days cycling in a mountaious area. Try and pursuade the family that they would like a holiday in the Mallorca or the Alps! Failing that, a weekend in Wales will familiarise you with the struggle of scaling the peaks! If even that is not possible, riding into a strong wind is a good substitute!

Surprisingly, it is possible to build up the power you need to climb mountains by riding on the flat at the right speed. This theory assumes that you have low enough gears to keep up a reasonable cadence (eg around 50 revs/minute or more) For details, click here!

Cycle Routes

Incidentally, if you are looking for good routes cycle, Roman roads are worth investigating! They stand out on on an OS map for their incredible straightness, which means you don't have to keep stopping to look at the map. They are also usually for the most part little used by traffic, as they reflect major routes a couple of thousand years ago, rather than today. Stone Street between Canterbury and Hythe and the Ermine Way between Newbury and Swindon are a couple that I've tackled recently (though the Newbury end of Erimine Street is sometimes quite busy) The only problem is - the Romans knew how to avoid hills!

If you’ve read this far – you are not short of endurance!! Enjoy your riding - and don't forget to do a few club rides to get some group riding practice! Have fun!