UAE's Performance Chief Unveils Pro Cyclists' Training Secrets.

[@gcnracing]

What did you think of this interview, & what would you like to see us cover next? 🤔

[@canaldojapao6931]

Great Stuff, on this interview.

[@MarcoP70]

Extremely fascinating. Always enjoy training discussions/interviews.

[@AmericanMuscleCTSV]

Great interview!

[@s.c.9321]

The interview is great. What would be really good is to get how recreational cyclist should train to optimize their form considering we have full time job and a family.

[@DavidxWebb]

Awesome information. Realizing he has to keep some things close to the vest, it would be great to hear specifics on nutrition.

[@superstrada6847]

A quality interview with a quality guest. Glad the full interview was released. This is by far the best training information from one of the best experts available. Refreshing. GCN; Your viewers are real and are tired of the usual. Give us more of the same or similar. Thanks Dan!

[@gcnracing]

Our pleasure! Thank you for the comment and feedback. We hope to do more like this in the future too

[@jfreck]

How good thank you

[@bestjal654]

100% agree

[@endatheworld]

Insightful, useful and ultimately very, very compelling content. Thank you and good job GCN + guest👏

[@ronb9901]

Agreed 100% this was a great interview!

[@matjohnson8966]

More! No, lots more of this, please. 👌 It’s not just the intrigue behind professional sport, it’s the knowledge and understanding gains for my self that motivate me to comment, which I very rarely do. Thanks.

[@darrensmith8107]

+1

[@guussophie3074]

Excellent stuff! At 64, I’m no longer racing, but focussing on riding for longevity and this interview had lots of good information to help me tune my riding.

[@gcnracing]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the comment 👍

[@guyhartnell]

Love how Dan is using his work time to research how he’s going to survive this epic ride he’s been blackmailed into doing 😂.

[@JonCannings]

Not wrong!

[@niklaskoivunen1138]

All he needs to do is go back 30 years and do low-cadence work while consuming 120 g/h of carbs. Easy!

[@qwill48]

Have spent the last 4 years of my retirement listening to content like this on a daily basis so this is perfect for me as I cling on to my ever diminishing cycling performance.

[@gcnracing]

Hi, thanks for the comment and we hope you were able to take away some snippets to aid you!

[@urouroniwa]

I think us old guys are the real challenge. You can make mistakes when you are young, but the older you get the harder it seems to be to hit that perfect balance of stress and recovery. I often wonder how far away from optimal training for seniors is given the understandable complete lack of interest in typical society. I think of Robert Marchand's world hour record at the age of 107 and wonder (apart from significant luck to survive that long) how much of that is genetic and how much of it was good training. How close can a typical person get assuming similar luck to stay alive? And how much of it is actually luck?

[@garybeck3016]

@@urouroniwa The challenge , as I see it, for us old guys (I'm doing age group racing mostly) is to lose less physically than our competitors year over year.. At age 73 I find recovery to be the main problem. While I may really nail a hard workout one day a week, I need the next day off and a recovery ride after that to recover. My motivation to train hasn't diminished but my recovery certainly has! The question for me is how do I know when I'm doing the maximal amount of training I can handle. I've gone past that point several times and need to take a week of easy riding to get the zip back in my legs. No fun there!

[@Der_Richie]

​@@garybeck3016 youngster here (27). If you don't got the stress of working 9-5 and raising children in your retirement, maybe you now have the resources to optimize everything around the training. I.e. Sleep - it's common that as people age, they tend to sleep less and just say "I don't need that much sleep anymore!". Or also optimizing the strength training, and correlated with that also your daily protein intake.

[@MarquitoRH]

Agree. At 64 my challenge is the seemingly endless stream of minor injuries. When I get a run of even 6 weeks good training I can still get in good shape but just in the last 3 months I have suffered knee, back, foot and ITB issues. Very frustrating but still love riding and still have ambitions to do more events.

[@adrianl4393]

Dan, I think that was one of your best (interviews) thus far, please could you have Jeroen on again. Very informative. Thank you. (I will leave the subject matter up to you and Jeroen...)

[@ianhu943]

What a great show. So many useful insights and ideas👍

[@fylbike]

So much of this is going back to the 70/80' - ask a rider how he feels was 'look at their eyes' - Train hard - race easy

[@MrDazP1adv3ntures]

This was absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for making this happen 👌👌

[@RyonBeachner]

I’ve spoken with Jeroen a couple of times simply via Threads and Instagram when he randomly hopped into another conversation. He’s very good at explaining his areas of expertise and when I realized who he was I couldn’t believe he was allowed by the team to speak so openly about these things, but at the end of the day, none of us are going to beat his riders. 😂

[@lauraorchard4545]

This was arguably GCN's best yet, well done and thank you. I would love to see a follow up interview exploring the art of coaching/training over the science. You can have all the tech and data in the world but if you cant interpret it to enable good decision making then it is worthless. An example might be what to look for in deciding to change training modality/phase earlier/later than had been originally planned, due to diminishing returns or more to be gained from staying in a modality/phase.

[@ifthennotagain5195]

You asked so here you go. Some things I'd love to hear about next time: - Where is the line between zone 1 and 2? Reading between the lines, zone 2 sounds like targeting a narrow band of blood lactate that is just before carbohydrate oxidation increases (1.7-1.9 mmol ??) and everything below that would be considered zone 1. Curious if that's how he would frame it. - High intensity work: It sounded like much of Jeroen's historical work leveraged FTP, however today, with the focus on balancing/optimizing internal and external load, along with the type of specificity that each athlete requires, I can't imagine FTP is relevant for everyone. For instance, we just heard from Pidcock for after Stage 5 at Alula that he set a PR for his 5 and 10 min power, so I'm curious how he thinks about high intensity targets and training for them? Does TP focus on 40 min power for TDF climbs while others like Rafa focus on 90 min power for towing? How does this affect the specific above-zone-2 sessions that are selected and how does this impact volume distribution across the zones? - He mentioned it, but nutrition is a big one. In the 90s and 2000s we had athletes doing unsustainable things to maintain a lean body weight that would help them on the long climbs and contribute to performance. Later on many of these athletes after retiring would have severe rebounds that would manifest around food, alcohol, tobacco, mental health issues etc. Obviously its too early to tell for this crop, but many of the athletes appear to carry their lighter physiques with more energy than cyclists of years past. You're seeing more muscle mass at these low body weights and very low body fat percentages that typically impair proper hormone functioning in other sports like natural bodybuilding. At risk of going too long - I am very curious about how they figured out how to keep these athletes in a healthy, non-deprived stated, performing optimally at equally as light body weights as previous decades. - Olav Bu has said that when you look at the contribution of mitochondria to performance, they are never saturated with oxygen, which he has confirmed with muscle biopsy. He suggests that because the cardio-res system is unable to deliver the amount of oxygen to the muscles that would fully utilize the mitochondria, the cardio res is the key limiter. Perhaps not the type of content you're looking to create, but I'd love to hear a comment on that. Separately from these direct questions, I inferred a lot from this conversation that I would love to confirm: - He mentioned a shift to pyramidal training from polarized. He mentioned the pros are now doing ~7 hours of higher intensities per week and avg around 15-30 hours per week of total training volume. Depending on the specifics, I'd like to sort out volume distribution more closely. does that 7 hour estimate represent 30% of volume distribution in an average case? Does the high intensity percentage swing significantly as key events approach (e.g. going from 30% to 50% as total volume reduces). - His entire training approach relies on not overtraining the athlete so recovery rate becomes important to improve as well, what in this view works to optimize athlete recovery?

[@MP48]

Great questions

[@stephenmorris6202]

Had Dan left GCN the channel would have lost a valuable resource. But he seems to have rediscovered himself and the things he is passionate about. And we are al benefiting. He is an excellent presenter, works well with Si, and these interviews are fabulous. He gets the information and it isn't all about him, but his experience has given him an insight and experience that adds to this. I sound like a Fan Boy. I wasn't but fair play. He's doing really good stuff. Bravo Dan. And, I find it really valuable to see a former World Tour rider getting back into cycling and having the fear of the distances that many of us have. Going to be interesting.

[@maximeleleu4558]

Wonderful content, please keep this coming

[@NZ_Surly_Rider]

I spend 90 minutes a day commuting too and from work. What I really appreciated was that this video was added to the GCN podcast. Please do more of these.

[@MP48]

Jeroen has played a big part in my coaching journey. From courses to seminars to learning so much on bike fit. A very very well researched sports scientist and highly successful in terms of results he delivers to his clients. You’ll be blown away at his approach to bike fit. That show will out bike fitters out of business 😂

[@davegonzalez7906]

Thank you Mr. Jeron Swart and thank you Dan! Yes, more please! It would be super interesting to spend some time on just nutrition and how that aspect of training has evolved. I've cycled for over 35 years and long believed that strength training has been over looked by cyclists. This affirms for me that strength training is the secret sauce for longevity for athletes and for longevity in general. Super video Dan, well done!

[@jean-pierreguerneui4147]

Wonderfully well done Dan and GCN. It was a great interview. But in the next one it would be interesting to mention the controversial use of carbon monoxide rebreather.

[@infovidasupps8640]

YES YES. YESSSSSS Can’t get enough of Dan and this sort of content! Than you GCN and Dan PURE GOLD!!!!

[@gcnracing]

Very kind! 🫶

[@hjm4364]

Phenomenal interview, touching on a lot of interesting aspects and definitely worth digging into a bit deeper. Please do 😊! The openness and insights (without disclosing company confidential information) helps to support the idea that the recent advances in GT performances are based on science and better understanding of physiological and psychological process of the cyclists. Similar to TP’s interview end of last year, the transparency and openness to talk about specific training values (which of course will probably be available to competition anyway) should generate trust in the community and might let us enjoy the performances of the upcoming season with less doubt and scepticism. Therefore, also the timing of this interview is perfect, as you would expect from a team as well organised as UAE.

[@gcnracing]

Thanks for the feedback, we will try and get some more longer style interviews with coaches and riders to dive deep

[@bradleymoreland5586]

This is gold! Thanks for posting the entire conversation

[@donball370]

Tremendous content; an eloquent expert.

[@andrewmaske]

Absolutely loved this! Would be amazing to know how he would recommend training if you only have 8-10 hours per week.

[@gcnracing]

Great suggestion! We will try and get someone who can provide insight into maximising training time for those who are. It time rich. Thanks again

[@MP48]

5 hours of endurance, 2-3 hours tempo , 1-2 hours of vo2 and higher. Tempo is where you do the low cadence work

[@kristenbrook897]

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much for producing. It's really nice to understand the reasons behind the step changes in.performance of the peleton and GC riders as it helps to remove the old "they must be on drugs" mantra. I must say I was taken aback at how only recently the pros have been keeping up their carb intake in races as amateur riders like me have been fanatical about taking on sufficient fuel on long hard rides for decades. I'm keen to hear more on the type of functional strengthening work they do on and off the bike. Thank you once again!

[@julianmortel560]

absolutely brilliant interview. Wish I had all this info to hand 40 years ago. More of the same please Dan

[@APKManagement-rg4px]

Just a big thank you for putting this up....

[@gcnracing]

Our pleasure!

[@davidg72]

Great stuff Dan, keep it up. The more content that provides transparency from pro teams and explains the science behind the speeds and endurance that the top pros achieve can only help the sport 👍

[@bensmith2609]

Great stuff. Really looking forward to future deep dives!

[@leighgoodwin1726]

Brilliant interview. Worth saving to rewatch. I’m also going to up the zone 2 and low cadence on-the-bike muscular durability work!

[@chlan1536]

Thank you for another valuable video! Should you continue the discussion with Jeroen, here are two suggestions for topics, I'd find interesting: (1) The concept of durability was mentioned several times. Especially for longer events (be it Manchester-London or Vätternrundan or something like that 😏) this seems important; I'd love to hear more on how Jeroen includes it and what (besides functional strength and torque) units are used for reducing fatigue. (2) Nutrition would deserve more time, and especially nutrition during a race (120 g of carbohydrates/hour 😳) would interest me. But I will certainly listen to other topics, too, it's very informative stuff!

[@xGshikamaru]

Spot on questions and the answers are just eye opening to me, thank you so much Dan!!! Definitely going to implement what has been said here. I already experienced pyramidal training over polarized training noticing that polarized training does not yield the results I was expecting, I'm watching a lot of the metrics like HRV, sleep quality and freshness with the Coros app, but I'm lacking in strength training, although I do low cadence work on the bike. I would be very glad if you could do another interview with focus on other aspects such as nutrition cause I feel that's an area that's progressed a lot over the last few years. Best interview since the one you did with Inigo San Millan

[@federicomurero]

One of the best interviews ever done! Thanks!

[@Koal-x1j]

I would like to ask if there are any videos on the topic of riders' health after falls or injuries? In terms of their rehabilitation and treatment time, it seems to me quite irrelevant. I haven’t been following this sport for long, but I’m only now thinking about it. It’s just that everything I could find on this topic was not enough. Well, perhaps the top most unpleasant injuries with the greatest consequences

[@rsrackstraw1140]

Love this content Dan, thank you

[@gcnracing]

Glad you enjoy it! We will try and do some more!

[@chrisridesbicycles]

Thanks a lot for releasing the long interview. Now we have seen what the pros do but what‘s more interesting is what this means for us average riders. It would be great to have some sort of podium discussion with would tour performance people but also coaches who work with everyday people.

[@hiccusz]

Very interesting and informative chat, well done Dan!

[@roberteastwood6937]

Great interview. Interesting info.

[@stanislaogerman3743]

For all the talk about aero gains, gearting & bike frames contributing to the speed of the modern day peloton it is apparent after listening to this in depth interview that the level of modern day training is OPTIMIZED to the highest degree like never before. Bike riders today are simply ready to GO weather it's the tour down under, the spring classics, World Tour races, 1.0 races, it simply doesn't matter. My other take away is that training is now INDIVIDUALIZED so that each rider is able to be at their best and the training to get there is a different for every rider. Add modern day nutrition and it's no wonder the moder day cyclists are breaking records; even those set during the doping era. Fascinating and you should take him up on his offer to chat again.

[@mcaxz]

One of the best episode ever. Love you guys. Tks

[@waydefinch3523]

Absolutely love this content!

[@joehopfield]

The old racers I rode with in the early 80s encouraged grinding up hills on training rides... As you both said, many of the pieces were known decades back, but now, with evidence, everything comes together.

[@PeterFairhurst-dl3hj]

Great interview more on recovery protocols, what is active recovery, management of mental tiredness, how short are short intervals, injury prevention, anything on bike handling skills they work on, management of training loads on the older riders 34 years old and over

[@Will-kr5kw]

Brilliant interview. The insight into professional training was terrific, and as a 61y/ with a progressive neurological disease helpful in terms of how I-can use cycling to remain on my feet...

[@chrisfendt7488]

Great one Dan ! I need this ! This is great advice and from this I have taken the following : Do the strength training but don’t become a bodybuilder! The gym is great for functional muscle strength for your physical body protection. Squats, lunges, press-ups, rowing and burpees are great for core and strength stability and your intensity sessions but make sure you recover from these exercises fully - they are important and you must do them but make sure you do the cycle training hours as the majority of time ( as you want to become a good cyclist !) but in the off season at a low rate and incorporate walking outdoors as this is great way for relaxation and recovery and muscle realignment . Consistency is the key with rest periods built in .

[@matskelton9589]

Fantastically informative and useful stuff - such scientific processes and proven to make gains 👌

[@rtwf2773]

Great chat, Dan! Please ask if training for a pro can be scaled down for amateurs with fewer training hours… probably what most of us weekend warriors wonder 😊

[@Ton7o]

Great guest & episode 👍👍

[@lukepaulson3428]

Fascinating! Thanks for this and looking forward to similar content.

[@phenderson68]

Great content. Truly an enjoyable experience.

[@danieldugal4057]

Great interview please do more

[@pamoise9988]

.."Great access with on point questioning and clear and concise answers, absolutely fascinating and I'm certain a superb help to keen riders everywhere, perhaps wishing to improve to the next level, extremely well done Dan, a first class watch"..

[@boudoir00]

Brilliant content - more of it please!

[@AZ-vg6li]

Extremely interesting interview!Thank you

[@rcdogmanduh4440]

This is definitely the biggest bang for your buck video. The older riders want to limit/slow down the inevitable!

[@chris-n5v5u]

Great chat Dan, would love to have more

[@nmuchmore]

More more more of this. I love these interviews

[@danpautler2101]

Nice content Dan. Great content for GCN Racing. Nice to see GCN using your industry position to get interesting perspectives from cycling professionals.

[@TheGagnonRx]

Keep it coming. Brilliant

[@ericl2339]

Love it. Please do more long interviews on training, tech and pro racing

[@gcnracing]

That's the plan!

[@1TimeRunner]

loved this! Thank you

[@alainpfammatter8224]

Very interesting video. Thank you

[@joeldavidpalmer]

Excellent, yes, more! Part 2. Whatever Mr. Swart would like to share.

[@archkod]

Will definitely listen to a 2nd time. Brilliant - thanks Dan!

[@darrensmith8107]

Much more please!! the more nitty gritty details the better.

[@harrymtb7018]

Volume is the king and recovery is the queen!

[@bluuubber]

Great content - more please!

[@halwye]

Super interview. Ultra bummer that we'll not be able to follow the tour this year, for the first time in half a century. This interview: would love to hear the equivalent for amateur cyclists (particularly for virtual racers) who are in their 70s. But assume (lack of funding) that's not going to happen.

[@claire2088]

ITV will have le tour this year (last year with them though )

[@martinwiire]

This deeper level stuff is dope! Keep it coming - I'd be really interested in different training concepts: training for general allround cycling fitness vs for specific targets, events. Sometimes its really difficult to know where to focus with info overflow of new concepts as covered this great video and small marginal gains talked back to back. An idea - proven training concepts for a) hobby cyclist, b) fitness oriented cyclist, c) competitive group cyclist, d) amateur racer, e) pro. What should each's main focus be?

[@gosselinchristian]

thanks a lot, this is great insights from pros

[@aaceytuno]

Good content . Thank you for real reporting

[@timfit33]

Super interesting and fascinating insight. It would be great to hear another interview with him but asking how these methods would be implemented when considering an amature that works full time and only has 10 - 12 hours a week to train. I imagine the conversation would look very different.

[@mattsammekull780]

Ah, - so there it is, - now everyone of us will fight Tadej on the tour next year. A great interview, GCN!

[@budlacombe]

Great conversation 👍

[@jameswillett118]

Brilliant! Really enjoyed that chat. Where is Hank? Is he leaving to work full time on his manor.

[@chrismadge7292]

Good video, some interesting discussion 😊

[@russellbrown8760]

jaw drop over the machine learning/AI aspect

[@Eirikkinserdal]

Do one with Javier Sola. And what they changed from San Milan 🤔

[@nikgracanin6180]

Yes, I would like that interview, too. I mean it's no secret Sola actually added intesity intervals into the training plan of Pogačar and sorted out his diet, but I would still love to hear nuances and how much Tadej actually improved.

[@michaelhilbert6919]

Very interestig - thank you!

[@LiveOutLoud2024]

Great video Dan. I would like to hear the expanded conversation on nutrition.

[@aldrinborja6799]

Dan, are your wrist watches the same? Hahaha.. This seemed like an affirmation of the same stuffs you guys have been talking about. Only this time, a real expert on the field speaks. Great output from you guys. Thank you very much for this.

[@hkesim]

Great interview

[@shawsugar]

Great video thank you..

[@kenvenn1848]

More please!

[@markfrost2003]

Really great interview Dan... Thanks.

[@gcnracing]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@_muzzles]

The ways of measuring performance and training and how that is used with AI is so interesting. Gonna be some big individual gains with that approach

[@Tourrider99]

First, it is great to see World Tour team coach-personnel sharing what they are actually doing, which gives me greater confidence the pro peleton is cleaner. I still remember old pro teams going hush hush, we can't talk about this, can't talk about that etc. just couple of decades ago. We know why this was the case, not all but some who were into dodge business. Awesome stuff. BTW, wonder what the 3 changes Tadej made for 2024 TDF...

I live for interviews like these

[@H15W1T5END]

Great video 👍

[@MichaelRideout]

I’d love to learn more about on bike positioning. Aside from lowering CdA, I want to dive into saddle height, fore/aft positioning, and crank length.

[@gcnracing]

Sounds good! We will try and get an expert on to talk about this too. Cheers

[@smAshomAsh]

Love it, shared it, and our smartest viewers will love it. The bicycle, it's the most efficient means ever devised to transport humans. We prefer building riders over bikes. The pun is intentional! 🚴⚡🔥🐉

[@gcnracing]

Thank you so much it is really appreciated

[@Highway_95]

Excellent interview. If you have him on again I'd like to know which blood tests they get every 4 days at training camp and what they look for. He also said that Tadej made 3 changes between 2023 and 2024. I'd love to know what changes if he will divulge.

[@janzalar6024]

if you need a signal, to create more content like this - this is it

[@scottreckless3151]

I've never figured out how to stay in zone 2 on the road. There is some hope on the trainer.

[@joehopfield]

Q's for next time: What are th different training / measurement goals / etc for different roles? Sprinters, domestiques, climbers, gc... Managing injury recovery during the season? Bike handling, peloton comfort, accident avoidance: Tadej is almost always poetry in motion, in peloton, climbing, descending... Froome at his peak was the exact opposite (vogon poetry?)... Roglic somewhere in-between. Is there any training of handling, focus, positioning? I don't know how to measure that, but know it when I see it. :-)

[@teef7526]

Love the talk and informations,looking forward to hear more info.Maybe will be great to to make some example training plan for hobby/amateur rider? 🤔💪😉🙌

[@francoporco9780]

Great interview Dan great work

[@grantwilliams2912]

Great conversation.. More on nutrition would be great 🙂👍

[@capflamme]

I definitely will integrate more strength training, particularly low reps (6-8), and low cadence works in my training routine.

[@gcnracing]

Nice! Let us know how you find it

[@mrcycling7007]

Fantastic! 🙏🏻