TRAINING ON THE FLAT
It is often thought that in order to train for the mountains, you need mountains!
Training on the mountains is obviously the best approach, but most people do not live in the Alps or the
Pyrenees. We may therefore have to content ourselves with training on the flat.
But is this of any benefit for a mountain stage? I believe it is! Pas de Peyrol, one of the most challenging climbs in 2004 has an average gradient of only 8% and goes on for five and a half km! Within that 5.5 km there is a km with a 13% average, and within that km .... who knows! Endurance training is therefore very valuable, assuming you have suitably low bottom gears for the Etape. If your gears are not low enough, you will have to contend with applying high forces to the pedals as well.
TRAINING SPEEDIt is interesting to look at this in detail.
There is a simple formula for the power required to climb hills.
It is quite accurate for speeds of less than 10mph, when wind resistance and rolling
resistance are not very significant.
Power (Watts) = 2 x Weight(lb) x Speed(mph) x Gradient (as a fraction)
Suppose you weigh 200lb with your bike, and want to climb a 7.5% gradient at 5mph.we get:
2 x 200(lb) x 5(mph) x 0.075(gradient) = 150 (Watts)
This is fairly similar to the real speeds that many riders will expect on a climb of this nature. If you think you will go twice as fast as this, you will need twice the power, and you are either a professional racing cyclist, or possibly I might just pass you pushing your bike half way up! 150W - 200W is probably a suitable target for sustained climbing power for many riders, though this will vary with weight, training etc. You will see from the formula that if you are lighter you will be able to climb proportionally faster (or vice versa!), though this is deceptive, as muscle weighs more than fat. It is really your power to weight ratio that countsHaving worked out the power you want for various gradients, use the following table to find your target speed for training on the flat!
|
Speed |
Power |
|
27mph |
375 Watts |
|
25mph |
300 Watts |
|
22mph |
225 Watts |
|
19mph |
150 Watts |
|
14.5mph |
80 Watts |
|
10.5mph |
38 Watts |
This table shows the speed you will acheive on the flat for a given power output.
From the table you will see that 150 Watts is equivalent to riding on the flat at 19mph. Note that this is completely flat terrain, without any wind.
Reference for the table: (1) Bicycling Science by Whitt and Wilson published buy the MIT press p37
It is possible to prove the above formula mathematically. Click here for more information.