So a lot of the talk around the TdF is about how Froome can extend his lead towards the end of a grand tour. The speculation seems to be based on him upping his game, rather than him simply having better stamina over a 3 week period and others dropping away.

To be this seems impossible – how would one tailor their training / diet etc to peak in week 3? Is there any science to this or is it just a case of staying power?

More epo?

Google training periodisation, its been all over the internet for years.

He’s not actually getting more powerful, just maintaining his power, whilst others drop off?.

Well i didn’t actually see any evidence of it in this years tour, but it should be possible in theory, but would be risky.

You’d have to hold back on the intensity a little in training and arrive well rested and slightly under-baked.

Many of the stages in the first half of the race were very flat, and sitting in the bunch, each stage wouldn’t provide particularly unusual training stress on a pro rider. And the intensity at the very start and very end of each stage would bring on the peak you are after in the second half of the race.

I’m sceptical of all this talk of peaking in week 3.

Obviously you don’t want to go in completely cooked. But with very little opportunity for rest, surely it’s going to be almost impossible to gain, or even maintain fitness. I would’ve thought the ideal scenario would be to go in having just reached your absolute prime, and hold on best you can for 3 weeks.

That, or a blood transfusion.

He’s targeting TdF / Vuelta double. So he came into the TdF a bit below peak, ridden up into it and finished without doing too much (apart from that day when he changed wheels). This puts him in a good place to have 36 hours off then get back onto training for 3 weeks before the Vuelta.

Beef, it’s defiantly about the beef.

Not quite the same thing but have you ever done a long touring holiday? By day 10, you can ride all day without a problem, you just ride yourself into it.

Similar sort of thing here. Arrive slightly undertrained but rested, use the flatter early stages to build peak power and fitness.
Ideally, if you’re being really tactical about it, some of the team should be in that state too while others should have peaked for the first 2 weeks.

I was thinking the same about touring holidays I’ve had.

Froome normally peaks earlier in the season for the likes of the Dauphine – first year he hasn’t done the Dauphine/LeTour double and it was obvious in June he wasn’t fully fit. I don’t think it’s a notion of him getting stronger, but the fact that the others were getting more tired / unable to mount a sustainable attack. Whether he can recover in time for the Vuelta will be interesting. Look at Quintana, attempted the Giro/Tour double and failed miserably. If anything it does demonstrate cleaner riding too – but of course in Spain they interpret the rules differently and an ‘ambush’ from the Spanish teams e.g. Contador and Quintana like last time.

[conspiracy theory] Froome lost time on the airport runway because to save time he’d have exceeded the power output specified by the trainer road plan he was trying to follow [/conspiracy theory]

😆

Did anyone else notice that when he changed his bike on the last stage he made sure he took his SRM head unit off the old bike and put it on the new one. I’m fairly certain everything he does is measured and analysed to the nth degree and even a stage where you’d think power/energy used would be the last thing that mattered he still took it seriously.

Tim Kerrison is the person who should get all the plaudits for his and Sky’s success imo.

I’m fairly certain everything he does is measured and analysed to the nth degree

I think you can win one TdF by making a massive effort for a year but to be a contender for 6 years in a row requires a level of dedication, attention to detail and, frankly, borderline OCD about everything in your life that few could manage.

Wiggins said that he couldn’t do another TdF run as the first one was just too hard to sustain and that, probably, is why he wasn’t selected in 2013(?) as a joint leader.

This apparent lack of early season form followed by a meteoric improvement at the TDF is one of the reasons for the dislike/suspicion of Froome/SKY by the French etc. The average French fan is far more aware of races like the Paris Roubaix and Tour of Flanders where Ag2r and FDJ teams are flogging themselves against the SKY B team. I watched the Tour of Cataluña in May and on a 1,100m climb local to me, Valverde and Froome slugged it out finishing 12 seconds apart, the following day SKY came in 30mins down on Movistar and had clearly knocked it on the head despite Geraint Thomas lying in 2nd overall. It’s obvious that the TDF is the only event they target due to it’s worldwide coverage and the disapproval of some rabid afficianados is of no consequence. For historical references see US Postal, Banesto etc.

Physiologically it has to be about not fading as much as your competitors rather than actually getting stronger. Mere amateurs like us can get stronger as we ride more, but given the base level of fitness for elites like Froome I’d frankly be stunned if on any objective measure he is actually stronger at the end than the beginning.

I did note that in at least one respect he did appear to dip – if you compare the gap that Uran had to him on the first TT (51s from memory over 14km) that became only 30-ish seconds on the second TT over a longer distance. Uran had a lot more to ride for, so perhaps dug “deeper” than Froome who may have been cautious, but in that one respect it looks like Froome weakened relative to at least one competitor by the end of week 3.

As said. I reckon he was always holding back and did just enough to win. You could see after the wheel change what he was like when he really went for it. He knew he could gain time on the TTs and he just had to hold wheels for the rest of it.

Also their tactic of slowly reeling in attacks rather than sprinting after them – that’s a lot more efficient.

Uran had a lot more to ride for, so perhaps dug “deeper” than Froome who may have been cautious, but in that one respect it looks like Froome weakened relative to at least one competitor by the end of week 3.

Again, I’m sure he held back – he was last off, which meant he knew exactly what he had to do and it wasn’t worth doing any more because of his plans for the Vuelta.

He certainly didn’t look to be going full gas on the final TT.
When he came over the top of the climb where everyone else looked a total mess he was still totally smooth and in control.

it certainly is possible to peak at a specific time.

Even at my level I am aware of peaks and troughs in my riding ability and can take action to either get out of a trough or maintain a peak.

With the level of assistance available to the pro’s you just go into the tour slightly undercooked as mentioned above i.e. coming out of the trough and on the way up instead of being at your peak at the start of the tour and trying to maintain it for three weeks.

This apparent lack of early season form followed by a meteoric improvement at the TDF is one of the reasons for the dislike/suspicion of Froome/SKY by the French etc.

Wiggins and Froome have both won early season races, including the Dauphine. No, the French dislike of Froome & Sky is because they are successful. Apparently, even Anquetil used to get booed – it seems the French prefer an underdog.

Lets be honest, Froome isn’t popular in the UK for the most part until the French boo him a bit. Never understood why.

Never understood why.

Because he’s a Kenyan.
In much the same way as Greg Rusedski was a Canadian.

Just because you have managed to acquire a British passport, doesn’t really make you British.

even Anquetil used to get booed – it seems the French prefer an underdog.

Yes, his name was Raymond Poulidor – he was (is!) a likeable chap and even had his own underdog nickname ‘L’erternel second’ 🙂

If Froome does the vuelta then a double will be a crowning achievement

I personally think that giro then tour isn’t feasible, the gap between is too big and the giro weather makes it harder to recover

Because he’s a Kenyan.

Two British parents, born and raised in Kenya and South Africa.

Wiggins – one British parent, born in Belgium, moved to UK when he was 2

One is somehow magically not British but the other is.

Two British parents, born and raised in Kenya and South Africa.

Wiggins – one British parent, born in Belgium, moved to UK when he was 2

One is somehow magically not British but the other is.

to be fair wiggins never raced for Belgium as a junior.

Indeed, there’s a big difference between being moved to the UK at age 2, and still being racing for another country aged 21.

Froome will become more popular once he develops a ‘personality’, and starts swearing at journalists when they ask annoying question, and throws his bike off the road when it does not work properly any more.

Perhaps it’s just my own background but I don’t consider it impossible that you can be (and feel) part of two countries. It’s quite possible that had Wiggins’ dad not left the family that Brad would have been an Australian Tour and gold medal winner. Froome, by all accounts, has always held British ctizenship and a passport rather than getting them as an adult.

Re the ‘Britishness’ of Froome: can understand why folk don’t see it as he’s never actually lived in the U.K. whereas other foreign born brits usually have at least some kind of home/family in U.K.

I get Froome’s POV too. My mum was born in Zimbabwe to a Belgian mum and English dad but has thought of herself as British for whole life. Helps that she went to a boarding school for ex-pats

I live in a country with 40% of the population as expats or people who self-identify with a culture other than the country they live in and identity is a strange thing. Some feel like they’re very much part of a country that they have never lived in and have spent relatively little time in, others feel almost no attachment to the country their parents are born in despite the fact they don’t have citizenship anywhere else.

It’s a minefield both socially and politically.

I’m not happy with Maoris playing for England .
When I had the chance to bring up with them personally as we got changed in a swanky spa I thought it would be a good time to get over it.

One is somehow magically not British but the other is.

Wiggins was brought up here, and continues to live here. Whether it bothers you or not, I think it’s a different situation to Froome.

I dunno, he sounds more British than, say, Johanna Konta. I mean before her elocution lessons.

Anyway, wasn’t this topic about training??

use the flatter early stages to build peak power and fitness.

Thing is, for the pro’s this is wrong. If you read the Wiggo and G books the reason they go off to Tenerife and elsewhere for training camps is that the flatter stages of a race do them no or little benefit as they aren’t exerting themselves in a way that build peak power and fitness – that needs very specific sessions. Think he wasn’t in top form this year, just good enough to beat the rest, and probably trying to keep a bit fresh for the Vuelta.