Vasilis Anastopoulos, head of performance at Astana Pro Team, thinks most cyclists are skipping the bit that actually matters. Zone 1 riding. Not zone 2. Zone 1. Below 55-60% of threshold, easy enough to hold a conversation, and most amateurs treat it as junk miles.
Key Takeaways
Anastopoulos is clear on what happens if you skip zone 1 and go straight into zone 2 or interval work. You get a month of feeling like you're flying, then a wall. After 2-3 months the performance drops and you can't recover between hard sessions. The mitochondria and endurance base that zone 1 builds is what everything else sits on top of. Miss that, and the zone 2 blocks and threshold work won't hold. He also said short anaerobic triggers — 6 to 8 second sprints — should stay in the programme year-round, not just in base phase. Two or three of those per session during zone 1 rides, just to keep the neuromuscular system ticking.
On durability, he uses a protocol that goes back to an unnamed Italian coach from the 1980s and 90s: 20-minute effort in a fresh state, then 3,000 to 4,500 kilojoules of work, then repeat the 20-minute effort. For GC and classics riders, he's looking for no more than 3-5% decay between the two efforts. He's seen one rider actually go 5 watts harder in the fatigue state. That's the outlier. For most riders, if the decay is creeping past 5%, the durability work needs more focus before race season.
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The Bora endurance episode covers similar ground on how world tour teams structure their base work. And if you want to see how this applies without a coach, the five fixable mistakes episode for self-coached cyclists is worth your time.