The professional road cycling season begins. In recent weeks, for example, the Slovenians Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic have shown themselves to be very solvent in Paris-Nice and Volta Catalunya respectively.
Although right now they are in exceptional shape, and they are already outstanding in themselves, they will not be able to lead in all the races.
This is due to the fact that, throughout the season, their physical trainers establish theoretical peaks, according to the goals of the team and the rider. At this time, athletes reach their peak, where they are able to squeeze their abilities to the fullest and register their best numbers on the power meter.
Now, for example, in the Tour de France, a 3-week race, we always see that there are riders who go further and others who go less. This happens because the first ones arrive at the start in their best moment, while the others start the test with room for improvement, to reach their peak of form during the second or third week.
Those of us who are not part of the cycling elite can also plan the season. First of all, we will set objectives, such as cycling tours or bike trips, where we want to be able to give our best.
Once defined, we must adjust the training loads. Volume and intensity are the two determining factors, but there is one thing that does not fail: to improve, you must perform demanding training.
Shape peaks depend on multiple factors. Training loads, hours of sleep and rest, body weight… Easily, the watt/kilo ratio will have a higher value than normal, and we will not be able to maintain it for many weeks, for physical and motivational reasons.
A couple of weeks before reaching the indicated date, you should reduce the hours of training, and maintain the intensity. In this way, the muscles will arrive fresher, without having lost the “spark”.
The best way to control the training figures is with a potentiometer, like Favero Assioma. This pedal power meter will provide us with information about our instantaneous performance, and will also allow us to analyze our progression over the last few months and weeks.
Thanks to its ease of assembly, we will install it in a few minutes and we will be able to start measuring our pedaling force. In addition, we will also have other metrics, such as cadence, sitting and standing time or power zones. All these values ??will help us achieve an improvement in our physical condition.
It is clear that we cyclists are not capable of defining, by ourselves, a peak as precisely as the runners in the professional peloton, but we can make a small approximation to reach the goal in the best shape possible.
