How I Prepared For The Hardest Sportive In The World! | Tour Des Stations Ultrafondo Training Tips

[@andrewpollard3410]

Could we have a Dr Bridgewood dive into exactly what the training plan was meant to be and what you actually did (TSS, Resting Heart rate, recovery scores etc) ?

[@martinraucher2147]

Agree

[@explroutdoors1889]

Yes, please.

[@seanlacson1310]

I'm still stunned ollie, you should be proud. What a great feat🎖️

[@Lamefoureyes]

Absolute legend

[@MrGaryPeace]

the best video on training I've seen by GCN. Would love to see the deets of the plan. Olie, you should be super proud ofyour effort.

[@richardvaughn168]

Outstanding effort - you pushed through the worst at the end, inspiring.

[@breach_x2178]

Easily the best presenter no matter the challenge or content type for GCN. Well done Ollie! Thanks for that comprehensive bit of insight into training smarter for an event.

[@richcrompton6891]

Thanks for the advice Ollie. Truly inspirational ride and now we know how we can train to complete our very own epic.

[@chrisroberts8235]

Yes please. Having watched Ollie overtake Contador approaching Lens/ Crans Montana, I want to know more! Come on Ollie

[@pablodeandresremuzgo200]

Great job explaining how hard it's to prepare an event like this. Ollie you inspire a lot with your videos

[@JonReid]

This was great Ollie - perhaps my favourite of the 3 videos. In terms of creating plans, an opener would be brilliant. Also, it would be very useful to have a plan for the taper. Thanks!

[@BeerMatt96]

GCN's answer to Anna Kiesenhofer - nice work, Dr Bridgewood!

[@davidwrightsr4188]

Well done Ollie! It's all about how far we can each stretch ourselves, not necessarily how much better we are than others (although the self-imposed dropping competition with AC. was additional incentive I'm sure). Your efforts were/are very inspiring, and even though I am waaaay older than you, I can look at you and tell myself I can always challenge myself to go further, harder and higher (if maybe not always faster!). Thanks mate!

[@Solarsystem50]

Great job. I am curious about the logistics: travel, packing, clothing, support through the event. Thank you

[@edymarkonthego4096]

Wow.. You are a machine Ollie..

[@poststuff2]

I watched the video of the ride, fantastic job Ollie! I would like you to go over your nutrition details on that ride, as you stated that you did "bonk". I am curious to know how your take on how and when it happened and what you would change in a future event.

[@gaijinpl]

Yes please to "openers" and other training videos. Maybe it'll help get one of us to Stations next year!

[@dparrigo]

Ollie, you’re officially a stud. Outstanding effort! Congratulations on a job very well done.

[@luisgil5699]

Two thumbs up Ollie. I’m proud of you mate and even more now you crushed Hank with this achievement

[@angusfraser1598]

Fantastic ride, great follow up videos, respect on all fronts! I absolutely love the incredibly positive attitude throughout (well, with the exception of the last clips at the last climb; understandable). No harsh words even for the dog!

[@hucklejoko]

We'd love a special training session with you on the helm Ollie!

[@SioLazer]

Openers with Ollie?! yes please! I use the SUF ap and it has an openers vid but to be quite honest, I liked Angels for my openers. I've got a big one coming up in two weeks. This whole epoch has been super cool to see. Thanks Ollie!

[@DARKTROPICAN]

Outstanding ..yes please for the training

[@djconnel]

Excellent stuff. One thing I like for endurance rides is back-to-back long rides Sat-Sun. Going out tired on Sunday is good practice for the end of the long single-day event. So if I'm doing a double century (200 miles, in US) I might od back-to-back 100 mile rides Sat-Sun.

[@robbchastain3036]

I like your calm and clarity here, Ollie, and congrats on such a good ride. And I have to say that I'd be up for a vid with you hyping every GCN product known to the known universe. You make product placement funny and how long until you interrupt a vid to apply a dab of GCN Hair Gel? And I do like my GCN socks, my big contribution to the whole racing deal for now.

[@sammyngichabe8355]

Super proud of you Ollie👏👏👏👏great video.

[@paulbird4134]

Openers training plan sounds good look forward to seeing them at some stage

[@jetthamilton8131]

Ollie is the best and happiest presenter and great work on completing the Tour des stations keep up the good riding 👍

[@WowRixter]

That was an awesome effort Ollie. Thanks for the 'how to prepare' video too. Good stuff

[@williamroberts6937]

What a ride! Something to be very, very proud of and tell your grandchildren, as by that time all riding will likely be indoors :)

[@lenwilkinson8541]

Amazing. What was more difficult - the mental side or the physical? You conquered both! Horses for courses. Other fine GCN presenters may be faster on the short, inconsequential rides, but you dropped all on this one.

[@njmoddjobs]

FAB effort and well done for getting such a good result. Yes to an openers vid as I’ve no idea so a guide would be good 👍

[@Wolfman1250s]

Yes please, some vids about the specific training sessions would be brilliant 👍

[@chrisjohnstone6164]

Nice Ollie! --- I use a coach remotely and often get my training without an explanation - knowing what is going on, as expained here, I sense already will help me focus more on what I am doing - I have the Dragon Gran Forno coming up in 5 weeks so this vid was a great help

[@mauricetremblay1324]

I would like to see climbing training. And congrats on the epic ride. That was amazing.

[@kiwigunner]

Fantastic effort Ollie. Well done

[@cyclingnerddelux698]

I've been watching you on the channel for years now. All I can say about this effort is...Wow. Impressive...No more Ollie got dropped again jokes.

[@paulgibbs4936]

Any and all training videos based around this awesome performance would be greatly appreciated.

[@jayzelbaronda6174]

Me and my team mate were also there and we saw you passing us all one by one😅

[@xtrailz]

Are you saying that you were ... dropped by Ollie?!

[@jayzelbaronda6174]

Yes absolutely yes😂

[@martinandersson5833]

Great job Ollie! That looked like so much fun. A proper suffer fest. I would love to take part some day👍👏

[@DurianriderCyclingTips]

This is where power meters are so handy. Plus 100g or so of sugar per hour. Drink before thirst and aim for clear urine every 2 hours. Avoid stims or use the least amount possible. This is how I can smash out a big day any day of the year.

[@GianchyCRF]

Very good tips !!! Thanks for sharing your experience. Next year I want to try this competition and let' s see what will happen 🤣

[@sarahschira9105]

Great video - knowledgeable but also “don’t stress the real life bumps”. Would like one on openers you mentioned

[@dirtyharry292]

Awesome effort Ollie - well done! Where can I find the video where Ollie talks about his bike for the ride etc?

[@brannmacfinnchad9056]

Brilliant explanation of the training, Ollie. And yes please, training videos.

[@n22pdf]

This is amazing Ollie blown away man awesome job 🚴👍

[@orudis18]

Epic feat - congratulations! What a tremendous accomplishment. Thanks for sharing the experience. Hank's going to need new material - 'drop Ollie' no more! Would love to see you lead out a long training ride, say, 90 minutes.

[@pawepajaczkowski3831]

Nicely done Ollie! Alberto must have been suprised when he got dropped... 😉😎 Could you please share what power did you manage to average throughout the event? And please do prepare a training plan on Zwift, based on your preparations. It would be great to have some help working on my endurance skills👌

[@luisgil5699]

Please do trainings and also create training peaks intervals training for Your People. Men you and Alex are my fav presenters. However Manon have a special place in my heart as well 🤣

[@cb6866]

Ollie , again , Chapeau ! Did you sleep the night before? Thank you , that was great to watch ! P.S. sorry I let the dog out. Peace

[@ericl2339]

Ollie I’d love to try the indoor sessions you did so please post some videos on GCN Training. Cheers!

[@siquq]

Thanks for this.

[@andrewcdwfc]

The four minute set was too much more me which is good because I’ll repeat it until I can do it. Manor is superb motivator 👍👍

[@douglaspate9314]

As a cyclotourist who also does international events, how did you organise and deal with the travel day or days from Bath to the event? How many days before, nutrition and hydration during the journey? Flight or drive? Any tips?

[@Chrisparry3]

Ollie, i'd like to see you do Race Across the Alps. That would be amazing

[@fr6652]

First, yet another great video, so insightful. Would love to see your openers session and maybe how many hours per week you were doing. Thanks

[@g.west2372]

Look at Ollie, so inspirational man!

[@mortenvinther3630]

Hi Ollie. I am participating in the 2024 edition. I'm just wondering how you prepared to sleep before the race start. How did you get your body used to sleeping before normal bedtime?

[@andras.89]

I am not even riding a bike (yet), but greetings and respekt for You Ollie, from Hungary! (Which one is the tech-channel vid of the bike? That'd be great if You could link the mentioned videos below in description each time)

[@riktye8800]

Hi Ollie & GCN - where did you get your electrolyte drinks replenished? I watched your ride video and didn’t see any water/food stations along the route, did you have a team motorbike ( camera bike) or car helping you with food and water?

[@chrissmith437]

Great effort 💪

[@williamhilliard7386]

26th. You rock Olli , big FIST BUMP.

[@bjarkebonke1903]

How to calculate how much to eat? It must be possible to exactly determin by inputting weight, watts, duration, agv hear rate, ect ect. into a program.

[@lucasandino9774]

11 hours -- wow! I thought you did the Everesting in 16 hours. Congrats on that amazing improvement!

[@GCNuser123]

it’s not a huge improvement, it’s more down to terrain. the climb i used for everesting wasn’t good for a fast time. when i did it, everesting wasn’t about speed. was like 340km everesting! and at altitude!

[@lucasandino9774]

@@GCNuser123 I now see it! I understand that at the tour you ascended much more than what you descended and that the climbs were much steeper than the Passo Valparola. Thanks so much for the response!

[@robwilliams9965]

Ollie I can't believe you're saying Bath is flat! The bit I used to live in definitely wasn't! 😉 (true no mountains tho!)

[@paolofrazzarin6781]

Thanks for the great video! Maybe the next indoor training session on the channel could be, instead of "Drop Ollie like a pro", "Prepare like Ollie for a Granfondo", as he seemed to be quite successful :)

[@velodavid1287]

Well done Ollie. Would definitely be interested in a video on ‘Openers.’ Surely the GCN Shop needs to add a t-shirt line that says “I just dropped Alberto Contador” Dr Bridgewood 2021. You can only buy it if you can prove you’ve dropped Bertie!

[@neindanke1629]

I am interested in the training of the last 5 days before the big race day. 5 days before you had your last efforts and then you just rested until you did your opener?

[@simonguard5087]

Thanks really informative and as always with you fun, are you fully Dogma disk now?

[@pbandjosh]

The audio is a bit odd in this video - but not in others recently - has a tunnel / echo / tin can kind of sound and perhaps a touch of clipping / distortion.

[@bittersweethood]

Doing endurance ride has always been my biggest weakness and a thing that I can't get it done. Anything longer than 3-4 hours continuously. My body just start to get tired, wanna close my eyes and sometimes even a little drowsy and just want to sleep. And I can't ride z2 up hill, my high z2 is like 120 watts. Any hills that are above 6,7% just forces me to ride at a higher zone just so I don't look like a snail getting pass by people in wheelchair. Nutrition wise, I always struggle to eat continuously on the bike, even just a bunch of gels, my stomach after 3 to 4 hours, will just stop absorbing any more gels and crave for real food. Like gels won't give anymore energy I needed to continue. And bars are starting to get too hard to swallow, I'm talking about cycling specific bar, like those from SIS and other. I've tried many different brand. I just don't know how I can get pass this obstacle. I just get tired, and I can't ride at a lower zone up hill

[@kstethespokes1051]

Interesting, great tips, will be using them. How did you prepare mentally for this because it was brutal and there were obstacles in the race you had to overcome?

[@kstethespokes1051]

Just watched again for more tips; question - what if any off bike training did you do? Any strength based (gym 😱) sessions or core work?

[@Doktor_Al]

Respect! Do you think Connor could do it?

[@lokelaniyee8466]

Would be good to see what specific training Ollie did to help others

[@HoldenAdventures]

Openers 100% please!

[@chrisridesbicycles]

Great effort Ollie! 👍 Riding uphill simulations on the turbo sounds like a good idea. I do a lot of structured workouts recently and back on the road I find it really hard to pace myself. Did you retest your FTP during the training phase? I am about 2 months in my training plan and I feel that I have improved a lot and it gets much too easy. Should I retest? #askGCNtraining

[@mathewrose2951]

I feel like I would need a riding partner of equal fitness to help keep me in check and under 250 watts for an event that long. The temptation to go too hard early on has bitten me more times than I care to admit.

[@Zyhmet]

So you said you have the GCN job full time and training besides that. Is there some time allocated for training in the job? I mean a substantial part of your job is being ready to do tours like that.

[@GCNuser123]

nah, not really. occasionally ride for work, if filming a video where there is an epic ride, but 95% is in my own time.

[@MagicM0e]

I would ride with virtual Ollie

[@tunaficiency]

Legend has it that ollies hair has applied for citizenship and a visa

[@boriss.861]

What Support Team did you have through out the event?

[@kingaroykid]

Ollies comment on training - "holding onto the tail of Andrew Feather" :)

[@chrisbaum998]

What training programs did you use Ollie? Sufferfest, Zwift, CTS, TP, or did you have a personal coach for this epic ride?

[@nickridiculous]

Leaner? Yeah you did. Take care of yourself Ollie. On the “day after” segment for Route des Stations you look gaunt! Deffo leggy it all out on course. Good work getting down to race weight, now go eat chips!

[@richardharris8538]

Ollie, have you ridden a 10 since completing the sportive? I wondered if, despite the non-specificity, it might've made you faster.

[@GCNuser123]

did one a week later. power was a little low, suggesting some residual fatigue. 19:38, 326w.

[@richardharris8538]

@@GCNuser123 Not bad, Ollie. :-)) Was that a PB? I don't know how long ago riding that 10 was, but, with any residual fatigue now surely fading, and if the conditions are right, are you looking at clocking an even faster time?

[@GCNuser123]

@@richardharris8538 goal is an 18min 😉🤞

[@richardharris8538]

@@GCNuser123 You're making my p b of 23-37 look pretty crappy. Anyway, good luck with the sub-19 ride.

[@oldanslo]

Why do you think you bonked so hard?

[@steveballs901]

I had the same question. Given he discussed eating during the event I can only assume he didn't eat enough. Personally I wasn't convinced by the liquid only diet.

[@oldanslo]

@@steveballs901 Agreed. For long distance training and events, I separate fueling and hydration consuming 25 gr of carbs (gel, bloks, or cereal bar) every 20 minutes like clockwork where elapsed time is a key data field and drink water as necessary. With proper training, pacing, and fueling one should be able to complete events like this.

[@dominicbritt]

First

[@Koga-Ed]

Beside some useful tips, this is unfortunately one big commercial.

[@davecarroll666]

Another GCN nothing

[@moonaxolotl1794]

Content on training plan (climbing and endurance) would be great. Even better, if GCN can design a plan in Zwift to improve climbing and endurance of athletes