THE SHORT ANSWER
Alex Howes, ef education pro cyclist, alt-racing pioneer, has appeared on the Roadman Cycling Podcast. Here's where Howes lands on ultra-endurance riding. The positions below are drawn from those conversations, quoted directly.
WHO IS ALEX HOWES?
Alex Howes is the former EF Education–EasyPost rider, 2019 USA national road race champion, and one of the public faces of the EF alternative-calendar project that brought riders like himself, Lachlan Morton, and Mike Woods into Tour Divide, Atlas Mountain Race, and gravel-style events alongside their World Tour duties. Now retired from the road, he is a useful voice on what it actually feels like to transition from a 25-hour-a-week pro programme into a self-directed mix of ultra-endurance, gravel, and amateur racing.
HOWES ON ULTRA-ENDURANCE
Howes’s key positions on ultra-endurance riding.
- Gravel and ultra-endurance reinforce the road racer's aerobic capacity — they are not a replacement.
IN HOWES’S OWN WORDS
Verbatim from Alex Howes’s appearances on the podcast.
“I think you just have to do a ton of Miles like I didn't train for it necessarily the biggest thing is just like knowing your equipment I feel like um knowing your equipment and like understanding pacing and like how to get around out there those two things seem like they were probably more valuable than Fitness almost”
“a lot of things you go do like a five hour ride and you're like yeah the bike's good you know and then you go do three 16 hour rides and you're like this bike is not good like the fit is not what I want uh I have a lot of pain here here and here and my hand doesn't work anymore”
“I'll probably get into the four digits for uh hours this year so it's not quite the same as you know 80 race days in the world tour like it's not it's not that but like I don't know thousand hours is thousand hours”
HEAR IT ON THE PODCAST
Episodes where Alex Howes covers ultra-endurance riding and related ground.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
What does Alex Howes say about ultra-endurance riding?
Alex Howes, ef education pro cyclist, alt-racing pioneer, has appeared on the Roadman Cycling Podcast. Here's where Howes lands on ultra-endurance riding. The positions below are drawn from those conversations, quoted directly.
What is Howes's main point on ultra-endurance?
Gravel and ultra-endurance reinforce the road racer's aerobic capacity — they are not a replacement.
Which Roadman Cycling Podcast episodes cover Alex Howes on ultra-endurance?
Howes discusses ultra-endurance riding in this episode: "The Hardest Race On Earth - The Tour Divide | Alex Howes".
EXPLORE THE TOPIC
Training Plans— The Complete Guide →OTHER EXPERTS ON ULTRA-ENDURANCE