Roadman, let's talk about training right through a race
Roadman, let's talk about training right through a race. Strange concept, but I'm going to unpack it today. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Welch and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roman, it's Monday, welcome back to the roadman cycling podcast. I hope everybody got out and about went exploring had fun, laughed, met friends at the weekend and got some sunshine. It was a beautiful weekend for a ride near bike here in Dublin. So I hope wherever you are listening you had a similarly beautiful weekend really excited about this week comment and also the next few weeks because I've nailed down some super amazing podcast guests for our long form Wednesday. If you haven't had a chance to listen to Taylor Wiles from Trek Sega Freido on last Wednesday's episode, definitely go back and listen to that one. It's an absolute cracker. We unpack and we dive deep into some heavy issues and may and Taylor talk about sexuality, discrimination in the Peloton, pay parity and it was a hard hit and podcast. Enjoyed it a lot and really looking forward to getting more of the world to work girls onto the podcast in the coming weeks as well. Today I want to talk to you about the idea of training true race. You're probably listening to this and going, but didn't we train for the race? Why would I try and true the race? Why would I go into a race fatigued? But if anyone had a chance yesterday to watch Colonel Brussels Corrin, to start the Belgian classics, more accurately a semi-classic, more a bit of an academic nerd distinction there. The classics are, I don't know, all off hand, but Ratlin and Truro, they're kind like your Flanders, your Pari Rubé, your Liaison Baston, Liaison, Milan San Remo, Strada Bianchi and then your semi classics are more like the slightly obscure races like Hent Hagelands, Corn Brussels Carne, Omele Hent Nousbal and these type races. Not to say you can't get absolutely dramatic racing in these, which you can and we see in a current Brussels current at the weekend. And that's what I want to talk about. Matthew Vanderpold was in the breakaway, pulling these crazy turns and I want to explain to you why he's doing that and contrast that to a train in week that Eddie Merck's put in and the run up to the Tour de France. Before I dive into all that, I want to remind you about Patreon. We're kicking off a new month, which means we need a new bit of a bigger, bit of gas on the fire with Patreon to get it moving. Small businesses are going under all the time at the moment and we're staying true and we're We're building, we're building, we're building week on week, month on month, and we're building into something really special and it's thanks to everybody that's just paused this podcast right at this point and they've headed on over to Patreon and they've decided to support a small creator.
All you gotta do is pause it, head on over, buy me the price of a…
So all you gotta do is pause it, head on over, buy me the price of a beer once a month and you're gonna get access to the secret podcast and the secret podcast has all my best bits and pieces from the month. all the stuff I can't share publicly and it's all my secret little hacks and I love the secret podcast. It's like a small little group chat once a month. Okay, so let's dive into this one. The link for the Patreon, it's as always in the description down below, it's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. So we had Machu van der Paul in the break yesterday and he is smashing these crazy long turns and he's hit out from like 85 kilometers to go. If Vanderpaul wants to win that race yesterday, if it's his primary main motivation, he doesn't hit out with 85 kilometers to go. He hits out at 85 kilometers to go to give himself a chance of winning, but more importantly, training effect. To get a real true and off with the lads up the road. One of my training partners texted me this morning and he said, oh, Machu Vanderpaul, be the true and off with the lads yesterday. And that's what it was. It was full gas, true and off, race simulation in a race for a Vanderpall. Kornbrusselskern is a big race, but Machu van der Poel, probably the best boy grider in the world at the moment. They're up there, top two or three. He is bigger fished of rowing, he's bigger targets at the moment. So he trains right through it. And Victor Carprenaerts, our world error record holder, he had his training week on the lead up to Kornbrusselskern, opened his YouTube channel. And it was a crazy training week where he's basically doing three training sessions on some days with core strength and conditioning, stretch and work, like it was a full gas training week with some super long training rides in. Man, I got me thinking on harking back to an old Eddie Merck's training week, which I wanted to share with you guys, because this will blow your mind away. And you'll realize that as a bike rider, it's not all about training in the winter and then taper and coming up to your race. A lot of the time it'll be about riding out to the race, doing the race, putting on some winter, hitting right in home from the race, especially if it's a club league race or if it's a Saturday race. And that's why we have priority races that we say, okay, this race at the end of May, it's a priority, but all races until then, they're building towards that. Often to get our farm all right, to a race or right home from a race. One of my favorite ways to get extra kilometers in and Eddie Merck's like, listen to this train and we get baffling. So some day he rolled the Belgian Championships.
As you do, on Monday he decided, you know what, I'll take a rest day,…
As you do, on Monday he decided, you know what, I'll take a rest day, I'm going to do two races, so he'd own 110km of Criterium in the morning and a track meet up in the evening. Tuesday he'd own a Kermesse, anyone who's ridden a Kermesse, like Der Ball's heart, full gas, probably four hours of racing around hills in the States and Belgium. Wednesday he'd own 190km of training ride with his buddy. he'd done a 270km solo training ride, Friday he'd done 50km on the back of the Derny, Saturday he rode 40km Temple session in the morning and then he rode the Tour de France prologue in the evening and incidentally he went on to win that Tour de France, took the Yellow Jersey by over 18 minutes and winning 7 stages along the way. If that is not a serious example of how you train through non-priority races. I don't know what it is. So look out for the classics as they're coming up now. We've stratted Bianchi at the weekend on Saturday, which is going to be amazing. But look out for Reuters who are racing them and Reuters who are using them to build form for targets later in the year. We'll typically see the Tor guys, like if you see from Bernal Quintana, Pogacha, Roglish, these guys, if you see them turning up the classics, there's a good chance that their goal is later in the year, maybe it's this year of the tally, maybe it's the Tour de France, and as crazy as it is for all cycling fans, they're maybe gone to do a race as prestigious as Strat Bianchi, just as a hard training ride. Roadman, thanks for listening to another short from Roadman Boyz podcast, and I'll be back to you guys tomorrow. Enjoy your Monday. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join, arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14 day kickstart challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans, regardless of what your level is. There's the master's beginner advanced. There's meal plans, shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you true at all. So what What I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmancycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio that roadmancycling.com slash 14 day.