The list of riders who've dropped Tadej Pogačar and beaten him this season is one, Wout van Aert, until now. British rider Andrew Feather, first place, Tadej Pogačar, second place, at the Poggy Challenge in Slovenia this past weekend. I caught up with Andrew Feather in this interview to find out exactly how it happened, equipment he used, race day nutrition, and honestly here his answers are both surprising and hilarious. You're going to love this interview. It's Andrew Feather. The man who beat Poggy, Andrew. We're in the in the presence of royalty. Welcome. Hi there, hi. How are you? I'm very good, thank you. Yeah, nice to be on the show. Uh Wout van Aert and Andrew Feather, that's the list, the only men who beat Poggy this year. Yeah, I think I think it has to be taken with a pinch of salt there because you did he he did have a 6 or 7 minute head, you know, um uh behind us kind of thing, so but Small details. Small details. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We don't need to get hung up on that. Like, just go with the headline. You beat Poggy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think he set the rules for the competition, so his his kind of rules that he set was that he wanted to catch everyone and then obviously finish first across the line, so fortunately I managed to stay away um and uh yeah, managed to to cross the line in first position. Albeit he was anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, uh talk us through what was the event, where was the event, what was the format of the event? So, the event was effectively a mass hill climb start in Slovenia um and the event actually started in his in his home village where his parents still lived, so it was a very local event, lots of his family and friends were there kind of thing and obviously local supporters. Um and um yeah, I I spotted the event online. I think it was on Instagram and I thought it's right in the middle of my hill climb season, you know, I should be at peak fitness then, you know, so I signed myself to signed myself up to it and uh and went from there basically, but yeah, it worked out well. What distance was the climb? The distance was around um 15 km, I think, and I think it had an elevation gain of around 1,200 m, so it was a big it was a big climb. Average percent of around 8%, so um Big climb. Yeah, big climb. Um and you know, really really beautiful, you know, you looked across all the mountains in Slovenia when you sort of got to the got to the top and you you actually arrived in the ski resort there, so um yeah, fun fantastic climb. Um and he And the fans turned out as well, like it was incredible. It was, yeah, it was like a it was like a Tour de France stage finish, you know, you had thousands of people watching at the end and the event was um finished with a local band in Slovenia playing, so I think that also attracted a lot of people. Um but yeah, it was it was his climb, I think, that he trained on as a youngster where he did all his efforts kind of thing, so he knew it he knew it very well and um he beat his own KOM, I think, on the Also, he went full at it. What was the handicap at the start and then what was the gap at the line? So, the handicap at the start, I mean, I've heard various reports, anything between 6 and 7 minutes, and that kind of stacks up because when I crossed the line, I was waiting for about 3 minutes and then he crossed the line. So, 6 minutes, 6 and 1/2 minutes stack up because I think the the net time between me and him was 3 minutes 29, so 3 and 1/2 minutes basically, that he was quicker than me. That's pretty solid, like Andy, that's like you're looking at Quinn Simmons' performance in Lombardia, uh you know, a couple of weeks back by the time this airs. And his his power numbers were outrageous if you had a chance to see them for that. I think he did 355 average, not normalized for the hard day. But for over 4 hours, but he was climbing most of those climbs at north of 400 W and I don't know Quinn Simmons' exact weight, but I would imagine low 70 kg and Tadej caught him off 2 and 1/2 minutes on the second last climb.
Yeah, it's yeah, he's incredible. I mean, I did I think for 44 minutes I did 397 W which is around 4.6 kilos. I'm weighing about 63 kilos at the moment, so um yeah, massive massive uh he's he's incredible basically, so What watts did you hit again for the climb? I did 397 W. Well, that's big. It's big for a climb at your weight. Yeah, and also you've got to take into account there's quite a few downhills in the climb, so that would have that would have taken down the average power. Um I was consistently looking down at my power meter and I was seeing around 420, 430, so obviously with those downhill bits I would have lost a bit of average power. Um but yeah, it was um it was it was it was massive, yeah. How did you break the climb down in terms of pacing or did you just try and ride A to B in as fast a time as possible? Um I basically rode my own race and I sort of went out from the outset yeah, riding at my own power and thinking that at some point he was going to catch me. I didn't have a clue how long he was going to be waiting at the bottom kind of thing to kind of catch people, but I'd I'd heard, I think, that the organizers had gone off on his deficit on a estimated path of the amateur best amateur riders doing around 5.5 W per kilo. Um yeah. And because I did about 6.2, obviously that's probably the reason why he didn't catch me, so um you know, obviously if he'd given himself a bit more of a leeway and he he started a bit earlier, he he he he would have never he would have caught me, so um It almost would have been cool to get caught in like the last kilometer or something to see if you could hold on. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. I was almost hoping for it to happen really and obviously I was doing the I was doing the event as part of a GCN video as well and they'd specifically put on a camera on the back of the bike and also the front of the bike for that moment, but it never happened, so So, you ruined their video. I ruined their video. Although the cameras did turn off after 20 minutes cuz they lost battery, so in the end it wasn't too bad. So, you're you know, you're known for being one of the best hill climbers on the British domestic scene, so anyone who follows you know, cycling UK, Ireland will have heard your name from time to time, so it's not a shocking surprise. You haven't exactly come from nowhere to pull out this crazy climbing performance. But what was your training like leading into this? Uh you didn't get off the couch to pull out those numbers. No, so I'm I suppose I'm at peak fitness at the moment just going into the British Nationals next week. Um but I mean, this is at the opposite end of the spectrum, so the climb in 10 days' time is is a 2-minute climb, so I've been really focusing on those short efforts that you know, those 2-3 minute real power climb efforts. But you know, because I've got a low weight at the moment and I've have been focusing on, you know, that that high power, I was able to kind of manage to to to also yeah, transition to doing a longer climb as well, but I wasn't specifically training for that long climb. Um but yeah, it it I enjoyed the long climbs. I think they're really good and you know, obviously on a short climb like a 2-minute climb, you don't need to be the best climber to win that, you know, a power you know, someone who's almost a sprinter could win that, whereas you know, a 44-minute climb, you have to be quite a a decent climber to sort of, you know, do well in an event like that really. What's a typical training week looking like for you in terms of volume and intensity? Um so, I'm pretty unscientific with my training. I try and do around 2 hours per day. Um just when I get a window with work and family and stuff, I kind of go out and yeah, just do 2 hours, few hill climb efforts, nothing too specific. And uh and kind of go from there.
And at the at the moment, obviously I'm doing hill climb efforts at the weekend in the competitions. Um yeah, but it's been interesting this year cuz I've done some testing with um Exeter University, some physiological testing. Um and um so, sort of VO2 max testing and um where my lac- lactic turning points are. Um like my lactic I didn't really know any of this before, but my lactic my my first lactic turning point and then my second lactic LT1, yeah. LT1 and LT2, so I now know what that is, so um which is quite interesting. I didn't before, so they were quite impressed with the results when they did it, so um yeah, it's been interesting doing that as well, so So, when you break down and you deconstruct the component parts of going fast in a hill climb, obviously being physically your body light is one, the bike being light is another, aerodynamics is another, power is another. Maybe let's take those in turn and talk to me about how you approach and try and optimize each of those. So, I suppose in terms of weight of body, I mean, I'm pretty I'm not that rigid throughout the year, but in hill climb season I try and be a bit strict. So, I've certainly noticed within the last couple of years it's been harder to lose that final bit of weight, especially, you know, so typically yeah, by the end of October I want to be 63 kilos, which is kind of my race weight. But it's been really difficult this year and that's probably just cuz I've been a bit older really um and I've had to cut a few more things out, so I'm typically a bit weak for having a massive bowl of cereal before I go to bed, so I've had to cut that out. So, there's just things like that really, but that's just I suppose part and parcel of getting a bit older. Um Are you how diligent are you on Are you weighing everything? Are you running strategic deficits? No, none of that. I just basically yeah, just um I kind of stick to a pretty standard diet. I can tell you if it's one it's very uninteresting, so I eat a couple of pieces of toast in the morning, sandwich at lunchtime with a couple of chocolate bars and then an evening meal, um you know, pasta, rice, whatever and uh probably a packet of biscuits, you know, just a small packet of biscuits before I go to bed. that's that's pretty much my standard diet during my hill climb season, which is not But the beauty of having a super simple diet like that means that if you cuz sometimes I'll talk to friends on the group ride and I'm like, "Oh, I want to lose a bit of weight." You're like, "Oh, talk to me about what you're eating." It's like, "Oh, I go out with work for the carvery on a Monday and Tuesday on me friends and we have the tacos. Wednesday's the wings." And you're like, "I don't even conceptually know where to begin to give them simple advice to start deficit here rather than like just skip the wings." But when you have someone with a super like repetitive diet. Mine's kind of like that as well. I'm like porridge every morning. Yeah. It's like, yeah, just ditch the biscuits going to bed and you've already created the deficit. Exactly. I know. It's really funny. It's just and I I cuz I do kind of the same volume of training all year round. It's just those minor tweaks and just cutting these these these things out really does drop down the weight and if you're patient you do persevere it definitely does come down. Um yeah, so that that's kind of works for me and I've been used to doing that for quite a few years now really particularly on the hill climb season. So yeah. Do you give Poggy any advice like, "Bro, drop the biscuits." He got me. No, I think I don't know what kind of watts per kilo he used to do but he must have been doing yeah, a lot. I would have thought he would have done average power. I don't know. Probably if he took 3 and 1/2 minutes out of me I don't know. 450 for like Yeah, I was going to say 440, 450 something like Yeah, probably yeah. But then again, you know, he's a lot more aerodynamic than me riding.