Coachinginterview

13 YEARS OF COACHING PROS: WHAT AMATEURS DON'T KNOW

with Dan Lorang — Head of Performance, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe; long-time coach to Jan Frodeno and Anne Haug

47:26·21 April 2025

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DAN LORANG

Head of Performance, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe; long-time coach to Jan Frodeno and Anne Haug

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Dan Lorang is one of the most respected coaches in endurance sport — the long-time coach to triathlon greats Jan Frodeno, Anne Haug, and Lucy Charles-Barclay, and Head of Performance at Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe since 2017. He is the rare coach who has produced Ironman world champions and Grand Tour stage winners using the same underlying principles. His public work on training-load management, polarised intensity, and the long-arc development of an athlete has influenced how the smarter end of the amateur world structures their season.

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TOPICS

Dan Lorang, head of performance for Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe, reveals what separates pro cyclists from amateurs after 13 years of coaching world tour winners and Olympic champions. Spoiler: it's not more training time or higher FTP. It's the overlooked fundamentals that most cyclists completely ignore—from how you structure your season and taper for races, to managing life stress and recovery in ways that actually compound your performance.

Key Takeaways

Plan your season backwards from your priority A races, then identify your athlete profile (sprinter vs. endurance type) to determine recovery needs and training structure—not all cyclists taper the same way.
Periodize your life stress alongside training load: coordinate high training blocks with periods of low external stress (work, family demands) by communicating your yearly plan to your boss, partner, and family so everyone supports the schedule.
Monitor real, measured parameters—sleep quality, how long recovery takes, time spent in power and heart rate zones—rather than relying solely on calculated metrics like the Performance Management Chart.
Don't chase altitude or heat training just because it's trendy; these require 3-4 weeks of proper implementation and can easily push you into overreaching. A standard two-week training camp with good weather and zero external stress often delivers better returns.
Torque work (low cadence, high resistance efforts like 5×2 minutes at 35-40 RPM) activates more muscle fibers and builds durability, but start conservatively to protect your tendons—this is strength-endurance training for the bike, not a substitute for gym work.
Remember why you started cycling: the passion, the freedom, the mountains. Don't get so lost in data and rational optimization that you lose the playfulness and joy—sometimes a 'ride for the soul' with friends matters more than perfect power numbers.

Expert Quotes

"I always ask athletes why did you start with the sport. What was the reason? And then I hopefully they answer because yeah they like to ride their bike the passion to be outside looking at the mountains or whatever. And I always try to remind them to get back to that one."

"Less is more. The older you get the less tolerant you get for external load. When you are 20 you don't really care about it. You can do 100 things together but when you are 40 and even over 40 it gets more and more to a point that you feel this external load much more and that it also will have an impact on your performance."

"Sometimes I just write five hour rides right for the soul so I don't care about the intensity, just feel, go on feeling enjoy the ride, look left and right and if you do this in a group or alone I don't care, just you should come back from that ride and say wow that was a cool ride, I love to ride my bike."

KEY QUOTES

“you should calculate to have around yeah let me say three to four weeks where you're doing this five times a week probably 1 hour and if you are if you want to do this on a roller um inside um and you want to try this can give it a try but it costs you some like I said it cost you some energy and you should not do it just like okay I'm now doing e training Because the same as with altitude training, you can really overdo it.”
Dan Lurang — Head of Performance, Bora Red Bull Hansgrohe

“I never compared performance chart from athlete A to performance chart from athlete B. So for me it's more like oh okay is there some kind of um um relation between what I see there and the performance outcome from the athlete. And if you have this several times during the year um probably then you see okay if I'm there at that point in the performance chart the probability that my athlete will perform and not perform perform is quite high.”
Dan Lurang — Head of Performance, Bora Red Bull Hansgrohe

“the stress in relations uh that is something is the biggest one of the biggest stressor you can have. So if you have stress with the family with your girlfriend also on with your wife uh this really has a big impact on on your health on how you feel on on your performance.”
Dan Lurang — Head of Performance, Bora Red Bull Hansgrohe

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT10 SECTIONS

Coaching Pros vs Amateurs

Dan Lurang is the head of performance for Bora, Red Bull, Hansrove. He's coached Olympic champions and tour to France winners for over a decade. But what he revealed to me today in this conversation, it blew my mind. It turns out the biggest difference between amateurs and pros. It's not available time to train. It's not FTP. It's the things that amateurs completely ignore. In this episode, Dan shares his real playbook. The stuff that even experienced cyclists overlook. If you've ever wondered why you're plateauing, this is one episode you can't afford to miss. Welcome to the podcast. Dan Lurang. Dan, welcome back to the Roadman podcast. Yeah, thank you for having me again, Anthony. Nice to be again here and speaking. Today I want to try and distill your vast coaching knowledge from working with the top athletes in the world and give some actionable tips and insights to amateurs listening to this podcast. So, we may jump around a little bit and it won't be as tightly structured on building out training plans, but to to kick off, how do you look at individualizing training plans beyond power zones and training zones? Is there something that amateurs are missing in terms of how they structure the season? Obviously, the race calendar is a big structure for you guys. Is that what you're predominantly leading with when you think about that overview of looking at someone's season? Mhm. Yeah. I think the the races are is always the goal. Basically, you train for for the races. So, you train to have um to feel good, to have good results at the races. That's why you always plan backwards. So you look where are you your peak racing peak races or probably your A B and C races so that you when you have more races what is the case in cycling you try to make some kind of prioritization and um then you take your A races and from there you plan backwards the season and make the different um yeah the different training periods with different um points that you want to focus on and that also depends for sure where you started. So probably the still the the analyze of the athlete at the beginning of the season looking which kind of do you have is still also the thing what gives you how long the different periods are. So one thing is when is the goal race and what the other thing is what kind of athletes are you and then uh with this information you try to figure out the the right training plan until the the the peak race. So to step one step backwards from the target race, what does a taper look like for a priority race? Is there principles that are applicable across the whole squad or is it very much case by case specific? Mhm. Um so I think there's some kind of basic principles. So if somebody from the listeners would now make a Google research or nowadays chd research you would find some kind of classical tapering where it's about reducing volume keeping intensity and for so you always try to get basically the fatigue down by keeping your uh your uh your performance. So because performance buildup works over the load that you put. Um but for the race you want to have fresh legs. You want to be at the best point and by reducing fatigue. And so classically uh in the race week probably you have the day before the race you have some kind of activation depends a little bit on the rider. One one and a half hour where you have some activation efforts that is really individual. For example, two times 3 minutes progressively or two times where do uh 9 minutes with lactic lactate shuttling. For example, 1 minute over threshold, 2 minute below threshold. Um you do some some activation and the day before that you in general have your rest day or your recovery day. Uh what what means don't ride at all or for some even it means or just moving a little bit around. And um so then we have already the two days before the race and then um it depends a little bit so when you're an amateur rider how big is also the workload from your normal life how much training you do in the days before. So normally in that week happens one intensity day and probably one yeah longer ride compared to the rest of the week. So let's say you have Monday rest day. So let's say the race is on Sunday then you have Saturday an activation ride. You have Friday rest day. You have probably on um on t on Thursday a shorter ride of around um let me say two two and a half hours. You have on Wednesday a long ride of around three to four hours. So depending on how much time you have and on Tuesday you're doing probably a short ride with some intensity. So and on Monday you have again your your rest day. So that could be one version how to do it, how to deal with it. Um one big thing is one thing is to recover from the um from the let me say from the cardiovascular side and the other side thing is to recover from the muscular side.

Tapering and Pre-Race Loading

So you have this kind of sprinter types the athlete with a little bit more fast switch muscle fiber they need longer recovery um to be really fresh for uh for the races. So probably they are doing a little bit less than the pure endurance rider. For the for the pure endurance rider it's really like they don't feel well if they don't have enough load going into the race and and then we come immediately to the next topic. So that is the classic tapering. So, and but there's also a tapering phase that you taper basically the week before um you a key event and then you start again to build up some load to go into the race with some preload because some athletes perform better when they have some kind of a bigger preload before the race and that is really specific. This is nothing what you would write in the book but what you really have to find out by by yourself or if you're working with the nets with together with the athlete and are you still prescribing zones of parameters or have you moved across to respiratory analysis? I know Vizma Lisa Bike have started using respiration as their main prescription tool now using timeware. Mhm. Um yeah, we are following this um for sure also what's happening on that area. But at the moment we are still or at least I'm still working with the classic parameters with power meter with so with power with heart rate and with RP. So this is for me um these are for me still the parameters that I'm working with with the breathing rhythm. Um this is something always with the breathing pattern. It's something sure we we look into this we observe but uh it's not so much or it's not used uh at least for not not for me from from for me use and also not used in our team at the moment. And do you rely on the performance management chart in training peaks because obviously the drawback of power as opposed to measuring breathing rhythm is we assume like a linear relationship between like hour one and hour five on an endurance ride. So zone 2, hour one, we're attributing maybe 25 or 30 TSS points for that hour. Hour five, we're attributing the same TSS points for that hour. Even though you could make an argument that it's a different physiological toll on the body to perform that same work in the fifth hour as opposed to the first hour. If that's one of the flaws and we build that flaw and we carry across that into performance management chart, does performance management chart then become less reliable? I think that's really um I can just tell you how using this chart. So I I I use these charts just to compare for example periods with periods or year by year and really individual. So I never compared performance chart from athlete A to performance chart from athlete B. So for me it's more like oh okay is there some kind of um um relation between what I see there and the performance outcome from the athlete. And if you have this several times during the year um probably then you see okay if I'm there at that point in the performance chart the probability that my athlete will perform and not perform perform is quite high. But I don't use it to um to u adapt training load. I don't use it to to monitor training load. So for me uh I'm also here quite classic. I look how much time do we spend in hardware zones? How much time do we spend in the power zones? Uh how long does it take a net to feel to feel recovered? So from up the east side uh how is the sleep? How is HIV? Um so more this kind of parameters and not so much the the calculated parameters what basically a a performance chart is so there some kind of algorithm behind it who makes calculations what is u yeah like I said it's could be something really interesting um but I like more the real the measured parameters and to work with them and athletes that are over the age of 40 would you coach them using a different philosophy or is there special considerations for an athlete who's over the age of 40? I think um the older we get um the more we have to take care about recovery and if this is an recreational cyclist who has also normal job I think I would really look into that and look how big is the load beside the training uh how much recovery do you need uh this is about social life family and so on and I would try to figure out a program that he that the overall load is still positive you know that he's not always chasing behind oh I have to do this, I have to do that and just training, showering, family. So, really having a deeper look in how the recovering is going, how is the sleep going? Um, is the sleep pattern really good or do we have uh disrupted sleep? What could be a sign of that we are just over the over the limit not in terms of pure training but in terms of overall load for that person in the daily life.

Periodizing Life Stress Around Training

So and and probably yeah people the listeners would would know that from their own the older you get the less tolerant you get for this. So when you are 20 you don't really care about it. You can do 100 things to together but when you are 40 and even over 40 it gets more more to a point that you feel this external load much more and that it also will have an impact on on your performance. So sometimes there less is more uh the the basic um quote to that and I would always try to explain it to the athlete because the athlete also has to understand why should I now even skip a session or make it shorter. I want to get better. How why should I now trade less and you have to also to to um to explain why you make these adaptations or why probably because we said how to build up a season. Why we probably say hey look these are two weeks there we would like to have a high workload probably it's better we we plan here something where you just take your time there you go on holiday or whatever you do there two weeks of good training and for this you have the other weeks again less less load and more time for other stuff so also this should find consideration in the in the year uh in in the yeah yearly schedule. That's really interesting. So you're almost advocating periodizing external stressors outside training. So like freeing up space for extra training bandwidth at certain points of the year. So that could be a, you know, a conversation with your spouse saying, "Hey, I'm going to be less available to do housework in this period, but I got to make up for it in this period." Or having a similar conversation with your boss. So you're you're effectively have a you're periodizing training in one direction and your work and life stress is periodized in the opposite direction. 100%. And I would even share this with the specific person. So with the boss, with my was the family and so on. So that basically everybody knows oh okay that's just now this period there he's a little bit more involved and then he has again more time for us more time for for the job or whatever. So that this plan is clear to everybody because the more people you involve the less stress you have because you don't have to explain yourself why you have now to go on the weekend four hours on the bike two times so on Saturday Sunday because probably your family knows okay this is now just one block over the next two or three weeks and then after again uh it's less so um when you have this this yearly plan share it share it with the people around you uh I always see uh so when I coached uh age groupers in the or amateur cyclist that by sharing this is also a big motivation for them and it just takes people on board to your project and then it's it's yeah it feels better. Yeah, 100%. Like anytime I've had a conversation with my girlfriend saying look here's the period I'm in right now. It's not going to be like this forever. This is just the next three weeks, the next four weeks and then I can chill. Then we can go on holidays. Then we can go for a run. We can go back to going climbing. But for right now, I I need to be dialed on this plan. Yeah, exactly. So, that's I would really confirm this. And um then it's also important to stick to that and not say, ah, but I just do a little bit more or next week, oh, I still have to do a long ride or whatever. I think that's really to make it really clear to all the parties. And um and that's and and the goal of this is also so to have a structure but also to take stress out from you so that you know hey everybody is involved everybody knows that yeah there I have a weekend where I'm basically fully loading training or even uh you for example you do a 5 hour ride and probably you say there you also want to have at least 1 hour to relax from that. So, we're coming home, enjoy your your lunch or whatever, just sitting on the couch for 1 hour and you don't want to feel bad about it. And then it's good if people know, okay, that's the plan for the weekend. And um so and that takes stress out from you. So, I always try to reduce this external stress because this costs a lot of energy. And um one pro thing probably is not not be part of the podcast, but it's quite important is the stress in relations. uh that is something is the biggest one of the biggest stressor you can have. So if you have stress with the family with your girlfriend also on with your wife uh this really has a big impact on on your health on how you feel on on your performance and um so this is always something what what you try to avoid if possible.

Altitude Blocks: Worth It?

Yeah, I've even I seen an analysis of Warren Buffett who the investor for Berkshire Hathaway lives an exceptionally unhealthy life. Eats McDonald's, drinks soda, not super physically active, but he's engineered a lifestyle that's such a low stress lifestyle that there was a lot of debate as has his low stress environment almost offset his bad habits. So, it's like an interesting debate. Athletes are always looking for, you know, the the turbocharge button. How can I get better real fast? Because typically we have a tight schedule, balancing conflicting demands on our time, work, family, trying to squeeze training in. So sometimes we can get a training block away. It could be a family holiday or it could be going away with friends and we can go on a training block away. Is altitude training worth considering for athletes? I know a bunch of your athletes live at altitude in Andor and some of the others just do shorter blocks at altitude. What's the pros and cons of either approach? And then I suppose as a follow on to that, is is it worth the average dude or girl listening to this planning an altitude block to Sierra Nevada? Mhm. Um I would see like this. So if if you see it more like an an adventure. So basically an adventure I mean you are at a nice place you are in the mountains uh you want to experience altitude you have time so you have no stress but you have time to do it. Uh then I think it's something nice to test. Um but if you have not so much time, if you basically just have two weeks uh where we say I want to go there, then in my opinion, it makes more sense to go two weeks in the south making a proper training camp training at I don't know uh no matter where you has good weather and you're just focusing in your training, you can do your quality training, you can do volume training in altitude there are so much things what you can do wrong um that there's a high risk that the performance benefit from the altitude will not be Yeah. And normally you go to altitude when you have already a good level. So people go to altitude with a good aerobic level and they then try to increase it to the next uh to the next level. But you have to take care about adaptation about intensity uh control about having um uh the the irons um stores full. The sleep quality could be um can have problems with the sleep quality. normally logistic wise it's not so easy um depending on the the period of the year where you are so there's a lot a lot of things going on with that that's why I say if you have time and if you say okay I always wanted to do this and you plan this long in advance then try it talk um to some coaches or to at least one coach who can give you some advices what to take care of before you go uh and then just uh just do it and enjoy it but if it's to to save time I would not recommend it. Really not there. I would say okay then just give it just go do proper training for two weeks. Just take basically just put you in that you in a hotel. Somebody cares about your food about your making your room. You don't have to do anything beside training. That is really effective because this uh and you know also the altitude studies sometimes it's hard to to really make the difference. What was now the real effect? Was it that training camp environment even with professional athletes or was it the altitude or was it a mixture of both? But what we know is when you when you can train properly without any kind of stress outside of you, you are much more you can much support much more load than what you can do uh when you're at home in normal environment working 40 hours a week or whatever. Road man, whether you're a weekend warrior or a world tour rider, the right tools can make all the difference. Enter 4's Precision 3 Plus power meter. The latest innovation from 4i. Designed to help you reach peak performance. The Precision 3 Plus power meter is a compact yet powerful unit. It weighs just 9 g and it's packed with features that set it apart, including integration with Apple's Find My Network, giving you the peace of mind by letting you track your power meter wherever it is. Plus, you've got up to 800 hours of battery life. We all know that accuracy is key and 4 Eyes delivers a groundbreaking plus or minus 1% accuracy thanks to their unique 3D strain gauge technology. For those seeking even more data, the Precision 3 Plus Pro meter offers dualsided power meter metrics, giving you detailed insights into pedaling efficiency, torque effectiveness, and left right balance. Four eyes offers versatile product options to suit your needs. Choose from ride ready parameters with pre-installed units on Shimano cranks or up for factoryinstalled parameter where you send in your crank set for a custom installation.

Heat Training Risks and Protocols

Ready to elevate your cycling game? Trust Forey Precision 3 Plus power meter. Precision, performance, and peace of mind allinone. Learn more by visiting fori Iii Iii Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.com. That's for i I I.com. I'm going to put that in the description down below. Are you guys using heat training? Not so much for acclamation purposes, more for physiological adaptation purposes. You know, the boiler suit on core body temperature monitor and looking to get a heat stimulus into athletes. Mhm. Yeah. So, some of our athletes are using this. Um, everybody who did it already knows it doesn't come without a price. So it's not the most nicest thing to do. Horrible. Horrible. I threw the heat on, raincoat, full everything in the house and it's like I just look better on the packer. Yeah. Um there there are like we know there are studies out there who shows you that there's a big impact can have a good impact performance impact on heat but also there's the risk to overdo it. It's basically this nearly the same as for altitude. So if you want to do it really get advices from somebody who has expertise and don't try to overdo it but here you should calculate to have around yeah let me say three to four weeks where you're doing this five times a week probably 1 hour uh and if you are if you want to do this on a roller um inside um and you want to try this can give it a try but it costs you some like I said it cost you some energy and you should not do it just like okay I'm now doing e training Because the same as with altitude training, you can really overdo it. And um that means that you're really losing some weeks. And this also happens sometimes to professionals that they don't that they overdo it. They come in a status of overreaching with heat training. And um they need weeks to come back to feel good again, to feel uh healthy again, to feel powerful again. So um yeah I I I think it could be something for somebody who has not so much time who cannot travel in the south and he say okay I want to give a different stimulus to my body or I want to combine heat acclimatization to with heat training for example your competition happens somewhere where it's really hot then you can say okay beside doing two weeks of adaptation because normally two weeks is needed to get adapted to heat you make this a little bit longer and then you also use the benefit of heat training and um so could be a thing to to do. I've heard whispers that the Bora coaches like their athletes to train first thing in the morning. Is there a Sakarian rhythm benefit to training first thing in the morning or is it a case of professionalism and it's the thing you do because you're a professional cyclist. you get up in the morning because I know there is studies on increased grip strength in midm morning as cortisol rises. I think we've seen more world records broken at that time and around the late morning time than any other time. What's the thinking behind training timing? Um so first of all we we want that the riders have an also a normal daily routine. So they are professionals. So their main job is to um to ride the bike and then also organizing their normal life around when they are not in a camp and um we want that they have yeah they don't have to ride at 8:00 the bike but at least waking up like like a normal people um having their breakfast and then going for a ride like other people go to probably go to work having a good rhythm um because this is also quite good adjustable then to the social life what they have with the family. Um so then they also they have they they don't have stress there. Um about what you are saying um I think there we could say pros and cons because when you look when races are happening they normally start at 12:00 or 1:00 u uh in the afternoon or probably at 11 uh and go over the afternoon. So basically then you would have to say okay we have to get adapted to that rhythm like it is in the race. Um but here we prefer to yeah keep to do adapt it to the rhythm of the athlete to the living rhythm and also to the environment rhythm as long as not somebody is coming I want to train at 5 in the evening until 10:00 uh because then we would for sure interfere but just having this routine having this daily life and not getting so not getting lost basically in this professional athlete life and being yeah part of the of the of the normal lifestyle. We have also even um have some riders who um they are cyclists and then when they finish training they are they say themselves then we are just normal people and um so that's why it's good to um to have a some kind of rhythm every day the same if possible just that yeah your body can adapt to it and that we don't have a new variable always coming into the game.

Ethiopian Training and Group Energy

I I spoke with a endurance runner who embedded himself with the Ethiopians for a few years. I haven't released this podcast yet. I'll I'll share it with you when I do. It was really interesting because Ethiopia are obviously producing year after year some of the best endurance athletes in the world. They look at training very very different than we do in a western culture. They look at it as almost a spiritual or religious experience. And one of the things which I thought was super interesting, you've seen the data on blue zones, these areas of the world where people live the longest. They have the highest concentration of century. And so it's areas like Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy. When they deconstructed those areas, one of the key commonalities was the power of community, the power of being around other people. And the Ethiopians have intuitively caught on to this where dating community is important, but they take it one step further. If you've seen an athlete in Ethiopia who's training on his own, they look at this as a selfish pursuit that they believe there's an energy that each athlete has. And by taking that energy and using it just to benefit yourself, you're actually robbing from the group. You're stealing an energy from the group collective. That if we all met up and we all went training together, we'd be more than the sum total of our parts. And I'm kind of reminded of that saying, it's not what you know for sure. It's not what you don't know that hurts you. It's what you know for sure that just isn't so. And I wonder if we gone so far down this data road that we've lost some of the some of the connection, some of the the playfulness it was of meeting up with your friends when you really got started cycling. And you know, I had friends and when we're we're all trying to become pro and we'd meet up and we'd say, "We're going to do a three-hour endurance ride." And eight hours later, we'd still be in the mountains exploring and laughing and telling stories and crashing and miles just went faster, hours tick by like minutes. And in that quest for marginal gains, it all becomes very professional. Do we erode some of that childlike play and curiosity? And is there a benefit to that? It's it's really interesting to um to to listen to that. Um I had never thought about it. So for sure you know there are different cultures out there um especially in in running like what you say when you also when you're in Kenya. Uh so it's completely um a different motivation and a different way how to see things for sure in western country we are look more into yeah data and rational so rational data and looking for why should we why should we train as a group because if I train individually I can make more stay in my zones training is more effective. Um I think cycling is also a little bit different to running because yeah with the with the windchild if you just ride in the group it's quite a different training stimulus. Yeah. Um but I I I I get the point and I think the the most important part here is also to I always ask athletes why did so when they ask me about yeah should I do this should I do that should I do this competition or I always ask you what was the reason why you start with the sport. So what why why did you start with it? And then I hopefully they answer because yeah they like to to ride their bike the passion to be outside looking at the the mountains or whatever and I always try to remember them to get back to that one. So if they feel bad just to feel hey um I just said we are doing this for competitions but the initial idea or the original thoughts were probably completely different. It was because we we liked what we are doing and sometimes it gets lost. This gets lost when we look too much into data when riders starts only to look at the power meter when they just go on performance. Um and you also see riders cracking then uh even younger riders especially now in our days it seems we are not 100% true it seems that they crack even a little bit earlier because in cycling now the speed is higher. It's basically already with 15 years old they train like like the pros they have the knowledge they have access to knowledge and um a lot of them have the feeling oh we uh we are already behind something we see a new training muscles oh we also have to do this or we have to do that so more like um that somebody or that they feel that they are hunted and not that they really enjoy uh what they are doing I think there there's really a big uh a big trap that you can fall in that you're just looking too much in this rational stuff and then I think it's also the job of a coach just to remind people hey um I I write for example sometimes I just write five hour rides right for the soul so I don't care about the intent just just feel go on feeling enjoy the ride look left and right and uh if you do this in a group or alone I don't care just you should come back from that ride and say wow was a cool ride I love I love I love to ride my bike so and I think this has a lot of also a lot power into it.

Suffering for Teammates

Um, but the culture what you described, I think there you have to to grow up there or you have to dig into that culture to really understand. And it's nice that we have a big world. So every parts of the world are having different cultures. So it's nice to share for sure this kind this point of views. It's interesting because momentum normally swings. When we swing too far in one direction, we swing back in the other direction. We've gone very far down the training on your own datadriven approach and I wonder is it just swinging back the other direction. I'm reminded of that quote from the great author Hunter S. Thompson. He said some things in life are too important to be taken seriously and we have less fun on our own. You just don't laugh as much. Who goes laugh like unless you're schizophrenic who's going out training on their own laughing? But when you meet a group of friends and I wonder then from that and again none of this is based in that I just you know thrown out some thoughts. I wonder do you pull 2% harder for 2% longer for a friend than you do for a teammate. Mhm. I think uh you would do and we say we have to say that cycling is really a special sport. So is I think the only sports where you have to suffer that somebody other that somebody else is winning. So I think that is really special and um and I think you suff you can suffer more if the guy beh if you really like the guy behind it or if you have if you have gun with that guy through good times to bad times. So if that connection is is is really is really really yeah if if we have a really good connection to that guy but we also have to see um that and that is the less romantic part of it. It's a job somehow and athletes know okay if I'm helping here if I'm for example one of the best helpers also this has a big value for even for myself so they can they can also see the benefit from myself for sure also for the teammate but um for sure as a team you try in training camps or at racing you try to create that groups but it's hard to say we create a group it's more a group has to create itself so people has to look for this kind of connections has to um you have to bring together the right personalities for sure they have an influence on it but then this magic has to happen and and in general this happens at at races and um and there's a lot of energy behind that so there I completely agree yeah it's like science meets art almost it's happened like a few times through history like Pippen and Jordan Hinapy and Armstrong like it it's happened a couple of times and I don't know if you can uh if you can recreate that magic. But switching gears from the mythical, spiritual, and religious back to the technical, uh, have you jumped on this trend of shorter crank lengths this year over at the team? Um, we have some riders where we adjusted because of yeah the bike fitting what we are doing, not because the trend. Uh, we also observing this that there is really like saying a trend. So a lot of riders change it. Um but for us we also need the the reason okay what is the reason why we should change it for this rider for this rider. something where we we with our engineer department we are um digging into it but not because of the trend but it's always a topic you know it's always a topic to say what is the bit it started with the time trial bikes there it's already quite longer people um play around with different um crank length to have a better hip angle and um so we we really try to make individualizations rider by rider and that's why I would not say no so no we did not say okay half of the guys now get a shorter crank rank length but we are measuring here and try to figure out numbers that really confirms that for this guy it's good and probably for another guy it doesn't suit now or we have other other things where we want to focus on you have Dan Bingham I'm working fulltime figuring out the aerodynamics on it for you exactly yeah so that is a big yeah big help for us for sure to that he takes care about the aerodynamics and also together together with Johnny well that they execute this for example in time twice being in contact with the coaches explaining to riders. So bringing that engineer knowledge also to the sport directors to the whole group and it's an ongoing process. So you're never never finished with it. So you do one test and then you think already okay but next time we go to this track and we take another rider and so I think it's also good for a team manager to understand this that it's not about uh we do one test and it's done.

Aero Testing vs Recovery Tradeoffs

You know it's basically ongoing process development process and it's good that we have now that opportunity to have even in our team experts for for that field. We have three long form podcasts every week. Some of them are 90 minutes or 2 hours long and I realize you're busy. Sometimes it's hard to cut through the noise and figure out the signal, figure out what the important parts are of these conversations. So, I've taken your feedback and once a week I'm delivering to your inbox a newsletter called the Saturday Spin. It's a 4-minute read or less and it's going to break down the very best thing I've learned on the podcast this week. So, it's insights from the biggest names in the world who are physiologists, sports psychologists, and coaches. It's completely free to sign up to the newsletter. All you have to do is go to romancecycling.com, stick in your email address, and once a week on a Saturday morning, I will deliver the Saturday spin newsletter direct to your inbox. The link is down below. Go sign up. And it's back to the merger of science and art almost. Like they say, the art is never completed. It's only abandoned. And at some point, you need to approach aerodynamics like that because you can always do an extra 5 hours in the wind tunnel. You need to just say, "We're happy with this for the moment. We'll improve it when we can, but let's abandon it for now. Yeah. There it's also and there also we have a close um close connection to the engineer department. For example, they come up and say, "Hey, it would be good to do it aerodynamic testing with this and this rider." And then the coach has to decide with the rider. Yeah. But does it fit into the race schedule? What do we prefer? Do we have now stress go travel to the track having another travel having the um the load there on the track? um or do we prefer to to stay at home to give more rest to the rider and even uh not getting the extra watts from the aerodynamic testing. It's a case by case this um discussion and that is that is teamwork. So basically there comes up an idea and the worst thing what you can do is that now engineer department says okay this rider has to come to the track on that and that day and not involving basically the coach aspect of it and so the performance aspect beside the track testing and that is working pretty well uh in our team I have to say that that we really looking okay which wider have where does it fit in the race schedule can we do some I don't know some material testing for rub can we do error testing there and there and It's always performancedriven. So it should never compromise on performance and a travel extract can also compromise on performance and that's something we try to avoid. And kind of flowing from that question about crank length. Are you guys still a fan of the low cadence sessions and does someone that changes their crank length does that then effect in effect bleed into your job if you're prescribing a low cadence effort? Does that slightly change it if somebody's on it? Because it's changing maybe the torque requirement from someone going from a 172 to a 165 crank. Yeah, basically we would reduce the torque by going down with the crank length. So you increase cadence. Um I would not link now one to another. Um I would say there is something in doing torque work on the bike. It's for me the application of strength training to to the to the specific. So you can do uh in the gym you can do your squats, you can do your exercises but in general the body is always good in doing what's you trained to the body and so if you do a squat it does not mean that you have now more power on the bike. It could be that you have a higher recruiting of your muscle fibers, but the best thing to do is try to get the simulation of this high strength on the bike. And that's why I think torque work has some kind of uh um place in in a in a bike program and then there are so many different ways to do it do it with really low cadence with with really high torque and doing sprints and so on. So I think there is a value in this. Uh we can also talk about durability. This talk probably does talk have an impact on durability. There's not the real proof about this but um it it could have an impact but at least to train also this muscle fiber specifically um is something what is still part of the training and also the shorter cranks don't not change it. I know what what you mean is that basically these highruses never got achieved in a race because if you have a high cadence you never achieve these high torqus that you are training basically with the low cadence work but you basically what you are doing is you raise the potential.

Torque and Sprint Activation Work

So you you activate more muscles you create the muscle pathways um or you create basically the um the pathways to the muscle that your brain can activate these muscle fibers. And this is something what you do also in the gym when you do for example maximum strength training. You also try to recruit as much muscle fibers as possible. And that is what what you also try then to do on the bike to have a higher potential at least. So what would a typical torque session look like? Um it's like I said it's it's really really um diff different sessions out there. I for example what I like to do is um for example um five times one to one to two minutes about uh 35 to 40 um RPM with um and then it depends a little bit on on on how much torque to give 1.5 new me per kilo uh something like this the intensity should be really like feeling like an intensity on threshold so that's how it should feel for the athlete and then you build it up from 1 2 to 1.5 Newton meter per um per kilo and um see what is that it is probably for a sprinter more and then you do um 2 minutes rest between the repetitions so five times 2 minutes with 2 minutes rest and uh with some athletes you do even probably a second set um so that is one way to to do it and what I like because you have the higher intensity you have a little bit like in the gym that's the same duration one to two minute like when you do strength endurance training and um the other way would be really to do sprint training what you also see in um a lot in other teams. So just standing sprints or with big gear really try to activate over 6 to 8 seconds maximum your your muscle fibers starting from a low speed. Um so that is also some some good work to do. Seated, standing depending on what you want to activate for sure. Seated you can always activate more wheel the muscle fiber you need. Standing is more specific for for example sprinters uh or for the whole body activation. So yeah you have so much var uh variations here. Only thing you should take care of is about your knees. So the tendons that you don't overdo it at the beginning. So this high torque could have a bad bad impact on your patella especially. So that's why go step by step when you are working with with talk. That is uh the main message. And you mentioned a link between durability and torque. What's that link? Like I said there's probably no study about this but it could be that there's a link between the higher the better you are in torque. So the higher it's like in in in the in the gym too. the higher probably your maximum strength level is probably also the better your muscle endurance is and here a little bit the same. So if you have a higher muscle potential probably also you can your muscle fibers when you get tired can resist to more load or you can activate more muscle fibers because when muscle fibers are getting tired even with the same intensity what is happening is that you recruit more muscle fiber. So you start to recruit more muscle fiber but to recruit this muscle fiber you also need this no muscular pathways and that's what you are doing that's what you what you're training when you are doing this uh this talk work and is there a is there an argument for we talked about tendance and you know the overriding goal of preservation of your tendance you're looking at gradual adaptation gradual h adaptation like putting a little bit more stimulus on each time is there an argument for doing some sort of preworkout activation session. Um yeah, I I think that is something in general. Um so if you do some activation session especially to activate your glutes because this is something what often are not really activated on the bike. So often we do most of our work with the vasus mediialis vasus latalis with so with the with the um with the front of your of your legs. I'm sorry I don't have another English word in my course. Thank you very much. Twist the quads. Yeah, exactly. And but we are missing there a lot of potential from the glutes and um this can be something what just developed over years or for example you have a you have a crash you you fall on the glutes and it could be that the body basically switch off the glutes and you have no big activation and you do everything with the quads. So if but with this pre-activation where you activate the glutes with some some basic exercises um what you're doing not on the bike but um off the bike you have already a higher activation and a higher probability that you will also use the glutes for example on the bike or what you can do is even to overuse them a little bit before going on the bike so that you really feel on the bike okay now the glutes are working.

Glute Activation and Amateur Mistakes

So not that is not something what you should do every session but just to get a feeling are my glutes really working just doing some glutes exercise before you go on the bike and then you also have a a more um smoother uh movement pattern. So for sure you you your movement will be better on the bike. You will be more aligned. the whole um muscle control will be better as if you would not do the the pre-prep especially for the harder session or for example when listeners don't have so much time because a professional before he starts with interval probably he has I don't know 1 hour warm up or 1 hour riding around but probably you just have 15 minutes and then you do already your efforts then it's good to say okay let's make a pre-prep five minutes investing uh just that the muscles are firing from the beginning on is that what the guys are doing. We see them at the start with bands. Yeah, exactly. 100%. That's exactly what they are doing. Especially with the bands there bands, there are a lot of exercises where they especially try to uh try train the glutes, the abductors and uh yeah, just having that kind of recruitment of the of the muscle fibers. Interesting. Interesting. And just to finish up in observationally when you're looking at amateur riders, is there anything you think amateur riders, it's like what we're consistently doing that's just wrong? Is there one habit that you kind of just want to tap amateurs on the shoulder and say, "Oh, you really shouldn't be doing that. It's just holding you back." It's a good question. It's um it sounds weird but I had not so much contact with amateur riders over the last years because I was so much in in um in professional cycling but I think one one big thing is really what we talked at the beginning to control the load really to not thinking that more is always better. So really listening to your body get a little bit away to just looking at at at your power meter. I think also this is good for amateurs and probably and I think that's the most important part. So I said I asked the professionals why they are doing it. So I I think for the amateurs is even more important why they are doing that sport and that is probably not always about I have to win or I have to be the best or whatever but really enjoy what you are doing there. So it's your recreational time. It's your passion. So enjoy it. It's it should not be something where you say ah I have to do again and again. know it you should really enjoy it and um and I think also if you are tired and if you are completely over the point you feel it you don't have you don't want to go to training so don't force you so at that moment yeah probably just just probably too much so listen to your body so that is something what for sure is important Dan there's some absolute goals in this conversation thanks for kind of lifting the lid on what you guys are doing at the top level of the sport and best luck to you and all the guys for the rest of the season thanks for being so generous for your time. Thank you very much, Anthony. Thanks for watching Roadman. Take one second. Click up here to subscribe to the channel and click down here where there's another video I know you'll love. See you next day.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What do amateur cyclists get wrong about training compared to pros?+

According to Dan Lorang, head of performance at Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe, amateurs focus too narrowly on FTP and training volume while neglecting peripheral factors that professionals prioritise: structured recovery, individualised tapering, and honest season planning built backwards from target events. The gap is rarely about available hours on the bike.

How should amateur cyclists plan their racing season?+

Dan Lorang recommends identifying your A-races first and building the entire season structure backwards from those dates. Most amateurs treat every event with equal importance, which prevents the body from peaking at the right moments. Committing to genuine prioritisation is one of the clearest separators between amateur and professional training approaches.

Should cyclists use power, heart rate, or RPE to set training zones?+

Dan Lorang prescribes training using all three metrics together rather than relying on any single measure. Power sets the objective target, heart rate reflects physiological load, and RPE captures how the body is responding on that specific day. Using respiratory metrics alone is not part of his approach with World Tour athletes.

How does muscle fibre type affect cycling recovery time?+

Dan Lorang structures recovery protocols around an athlete's individual muscle fibre composition, as fast-twitch dominant riders accumulate and clear fatigue differently to those with a predominantly slow-twitch profile. Applying a generic recovery template regardless of fibre type means many amateurs either underrecover or take unnecessary rest, both of which blunt adaptation over a full season.

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Key Takeaways

Plan your season backwards from your priority A races, then identify your athlete profile (sprinter vs. endurance type) to determine recovery needs and training structure—not all cyclists taper the same way.

Periodize your life stress alongside training load: coordinate high training blocks with periods of low external stress (work, family demands) by communicating your yearly plan to your boss, partner, and family so everyone supports the schedule.

Monitor real, measured parameters—sleep quality, how long recovery takes, time spent in power and heart rate zones—rather than relying solely on calculated metrics like the Performance Management Chart.

Don't chase altitude or heat training just because it's trendy; these require 3-4 weeks of proper implementation and can easily push you into overreaching. A standard two-week training camp with good weather and zero external stress often delivers better returns.

Torque work (low cadence, high resistance efforts like 5×2 minutes at 35-40 RPM) activates more muscle fibers and builds durability, but start conservatively to protect your tendons—this is strength-endurance training for the bike, not a substitute for gym work.

Remember why you started cycling: the passion, the freedom, the mountains. Don't get so lost in data and rational optimization that you lose the playfulness and joy—sometimes a 'ride for the soul' with friends matters more than perfect power numbers.

Expert Quotes

"I always ask athletes why did you start with the sport. What was the reason? And then I hopefully they answer because yeah they like to ride their bike the passion to be outside looking at the mountains or whatever. And I always try to remind them to get back to that one."

"Less is more. The older you get the less tolerant you get for external load. When you are 20 you don't really care about it. You can do 100 things together but when you are 40 and even over 40 it gets more and more to a point that you feel this external load much more and that it also will have an impact on your performance."

"Sometimes I just write five hour rides right for the soul so I don't care about the intensity, just feel, go on feeling enjoy the ride, look left and right and if you do this in a group or alone I don't care, just you should come back from that ride and say wow that was a cool ride, I love to ride my bike."

KEY QUOTES

“you should calculate to have around yeah let me say three to four weeks where you're doing this five times a week probably 1 hour and if you are if you want to do this on a roller um inside um and you want to try this can give it a try but it costs you some like I said it cost you some energy and you should not do it just like okay I'm now doing e training Because the same as with altitude training, you can really overdo it.”
Dan Lurang — Head of Performance, Bora Red Bull Hansgrohe

“I never compared performance chart from athlete A to performance chart from athlete B. So for me it's more like oh okay is there some kind of um um relation between what I see there and the performance outcome from the athlete. And if you have this several times during the year um probably then you see okay if I'm there at that point in the performance chart the probability that my athlete will perform and not perform perform is quite high.”
Dan Lurang — Head of Performance, Bora Red Bull Hansgrohe

“the stress in relations uh that is something is the biggest one of the biggest stressor you can have. So if you have stress with the family with your girlfriend also on with your wife uh this really has a big impact on on your health on how you feel on on your performance.”
Dan Lurang — Head of Performance, Bora Red Bull Hansgrohe

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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