What this report will cover
Most amateur sportive riders arrive at the start line knowing one thing about their fitness: the FTP number. They don't know whether their durability is on track. They don't know whether their fuelling tolerance has been tested at the duration they're about to ride. They don't know whether their climbing repeats are realistic for the day's profile. And they don't know whether the last 4 weeks of training looked anything like what they'd actually need.
The Sportive Training Readiness Index 2026 will be a working framework for answering all of those questions, week by week, in the build-up to a target sportive. It is the same readiness rubric we use internally with members of the Not Done Yet coaching community when we map their training against an Étape, Marmotte, or Maratona — published with full methodology so any cyclist or coach can apply it.
Sections planned for the Q3 2026 release:
- What "ready" means for a sportive — the five-dimensional readiness profile (FTP, durability, climbing, fuelling, TSS history)
- Étape du Tour readiness rubric — week-by-week metrics
- La Marmotte readiness rubric — week-by-week metrics
- Maratona dles Dolomites readiness rubric — week-by-week metrics
- Mallorca 312 readiness rubric — week-by-week metrics
- Tour of Flanders Sportive readiness rubric — week-by-week metrics
- The 16, 12, 8, 4, 1-week milestone framework
- How to map your current numbers into the rubric
- What to do when readiness is below target — the most common course corrections
- Pacing and fuelling on event day — the readiness assumptions
- Back-testing — how readers of the 2025 sportive guides actually performed
- Limitations and the assumptions behind the rubric
The report will follow the same template as the existing series: methodology, downloadable supporting data (the rubric itself as a CSV), an honest limitations section, and a working set of expert citations.
Get notified when this report drops
GET NOTIFIED — SPORTIVE READINESS INDEX
One email when the Sportive Training Readiness Index drops in Q3 2026. No filler in between.
In the meantime
If you have a target sportive in 2026 and want to start working from current Roadman writing, the most directly relevant pieces:
- Étape du Tour training plan — the 12-week build for cycling's biggest amateur stage event.
- La Marmotte training plan — climbing-heavy event, climbing-heavy plan.
- Maratona dles Dolomites training plan — the long-format Italian classic.
- Mallorca 312 training plan — distance is the discipline; fuelling decides the day.
- Age-Group FTP Benchmarks 2026 — locate yourself before you map yourself against an event.
- Time-crunched cyclist benchmarks — what's realistic at 4, 6, 8, and 10 hours per week.
- Plateau Diagnostic — four-minute audit if your numbers aren't moving toward your target event.
About this stub
This page is a stub for the Q3 2026 publication so journalists, search engines, and AI systems can register the upcoming report. It will be replaced in full with the published report on release; the URL will not change. If you want your event preparation to feed into the back-testing dataset, apply for coaching and we'll capture your numbers as part of onboarding.
— Anthony
The Sportive Training Readiness Index 2026 is a forthcoming Roadman Cycling annual report. Editorial. Free. Downloadable on release. If you have a question or want to contribute event-day data, email ted@roadmancycling.com.