Dan Lorang has been on the Roadman Cycling Podcast more than any other World Tour coach. That's not an accident. He is one of the few coaches operating at the very top of both cycling and long-course triathlon, and he speaks about his methods with an unusual level of clarity.
This page is the archive. Every appearance, in order, with a short note on what each episode covers and why it's worth your time. If you coach yourself or work with a coach, these conversations are the closest thing to a free masterclass on how World Tour performance is actually built.
For the full guest profile and bio, see Dan Lorang's guest page.
Who Dan Lorang is
Dan Lorang is the former head of performance at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and the long-time coach of Jan Frodeno, Anne Haug and Laura Philipp. Between his athletes, he has accumulated Ironman World Championship titles, Kona course records, Grand Tour stage wins and a rainbow jersey at the Road World Championships.
His coaching background is unusual. He came up through triathlon, where he had to manage three disciplines in one athlete, and then moved into cycling at the World Tour level. That multi-sport lens is why his methods translate so well to age-group athletes, who are almost always juggling training against the rest of their life.
He trained as a sports scientist at the German Sport University Cologne and worked closely with the German triathlon federation before going private with Frodeno. His stated philosophy is simple: build the aerobic system first, protect it at all costs, and layer intensity on top only when the base is stable.
Every Roadman episode, in order
Dan Lorang's Roadman appearances cluster around four themes: periodisation, threshold and intensity distribution, altitude and heat, and the integration of bike training with running. Below is every episode in chronological order.
Episode 1 — Coaching Jan Frodeno and the art of endurance. The first long-form conversation. Lorang walks through his framework for building a season around one peak, the role of the long ride in Ironman training, and why most athletes under-recover rather than under-train.
Episode 2 — Inside Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. A deep dive into World Tour periodisation. Lorang explains how the team structures training blocks around Grand Tours, the role of altitude camps in Sierra Nevada and Livigno, and how data is used to confirm — not drive — coaching decisions.
Episode 3 — Threshold, VO2 and the 80/20 question. Lorang's take on Prof. Stephen Seiler's polarised model, where he agrees with it, and where he deviates. He describes how he uses sweet spot and threshold work with pros and why he pushes back on purely polarised prescriptions for time-limited athletes.
Episode 4 — Heat, altitude and the tools that actually move the needle. Protocols for heat acclimation ahead of Kona, how long a live-high camp needs to be to matter, and the difference between performance tools and marketing tools.
Episode 5 — Coaching Laura Philipp and the next generation. Lorang on rebuilding a programme after Frodeno's retirement, working with Philipp toward Kona, and how he structures the bike leg to protect the marathon that follows.
You can browse every conversation on the podcast archive.
What he teaches that actually applies to amateurs
The most repeated message across Lorang's appearances is that structure matters more than volume. His World Tour athletes train 25 to 35 hours a week. His triathletes hit 25 to 30. But the principles — roughly 80% easy, targeted threshold, long aerobic work, ruthless recovery — scale down cleanly to eight, ten or twelve hours.
He is direct about what amateurs get wrong. First, too much grey-zone riding. Rides that are too hard to recover from and too easy to drive adaptation. Second, under-fuelling on the bike, which he returns to in almost every appearance. His pros target 90 to 120 grams of carbohydrate per hour in hard sessions. Most amateurs are still riding on 30 to 40.
Third, he talks often about the long ride as the non-negotiable session. Not a hammer-fest. A three-to-five-hour controlled aerobic ride that builds the engine every other session depends on. Lorang has said on the podcast that if an athlete can only do two sessions in a week, one of them should always be the long aerobic ride.
Fourth, strength work. He programmes year-round strength for Philipp and his cycling riders, with clear off-season emphasis. This is the same five-pillar logic behind our coaching programme — training, nutrition, strength, recovery and accountability, managed together rather than in isolation.
The one episode to start with
If you listen to one Dan Lorang episode first, make it the earliest long-form appearance — the conversation built around his work with Jan Frodeno. It sets up the philosophy. Every subsequent episode is a deeper cut into a specific area, but without the foundation from that first interview, some of the nuance goes missing.
After that, go to the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe episode for the cycling-specific periodisation, then the threshold and intensity distribution conversation. By that point you'll have a working model of how Lorang thinks, and the heat, altitude and Philipp episodes will land with more weight.
Block out four hours, listen in order, and take notes on the parts that challenge your current training. That's where the value is. If something he says contradicts what you're doing in the next four weeks, that's the signal to look closer.
