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A few weeks back, I wrote about the physiology of a professional cyclist - based on my work with French pro, Nicolas Baldo. The blog post was very popular, gaining over 700 hits so far and being the centre of a fair bit of  discussion on cycling forums. I have had some nice feedback on the post, and also some lovely words of encouragement for Nic as he prepares for the French Champs at the end of June. Nic has been with us in the UK again this past week, a chance for us to assess how well his recent time trial specific training has gone and also, for some specific work in the altitude chamber at the University of Brighton.
In the 4 weeks since his last visit, Nic has been performing a lot of work aimed at a) improving his time trial power, and b) his efficiency at time trial pace. Sessions have included reps at 420W - increasing the time spent at that target power, whilst slowly reducing the time for recovery between efforts: the desire was to have him sitting comfortably at that power for sustained periods of time. Looking at the data we have collected in race performances during the past week, that aim has been well and truly surpassed! Nic has completed 3 club time trials this week - two ten mile time trials, and one 15 mile. You will remember from his last trip that we set up an aim to be hitting 420W for 20 minutes, and in both 10 mile events Nic achieved this - easily. Most encouraging was how his ability to handle pacing in a TT is fast improving. We have spent this visit really focusing on varying the power according to terrain and the wind - this will be critical on a course like that one he will ride in Boulogne come the end of June. His improved pacing meant some pretty fast times on the local Sussex courses - two, 20 minute 10s with his training wheels and blustery wind conditions raised a few eye brows...including my own when I saw the power data! Last night's assault of a 15 mile TT was the most successful yet - he managed to again average ~420W over the longer time frame of 30 minutes. I drove his (French!) car behind him on parts of the lap, and he was attacking every hill with great ferociousness. It was also the first time Nic has used sodium bicarbonate loading, and I attribute the ride "punchiness" to the buffering that this alkaline substance provided him.
 These performances are all the more impressive given that Nic has been racing tired all week. We are still some 4 weeks out from the Champs, so the priority is still achieving an overload in his training. As well as the evening club events, we have been working on time spent in the TT position (his two rides at the weekend included a 4h zone 2 ride, and the next day a long ride with 3 x 20 mins spent in zone 4 or at 25 mile pace). In addition, Nic has spent each morning a few thousand metres above sea level!
This process started on Day 1 of his visit: we set the chamber to 15% oxygen (equivalent to ~3000m of altitude) and had Nic ride at a zone 2 power of 290W. This the type of power Nic would happily sustain for a 4 to 5 hour ride, and a heart rate of ~145bpm. However, at this altitude, the stress is far greater - asking Nic to ride for 1.5h in the chamber gave us a heart rate of 170bpm, and his blood lactate concentrations looked more like we would see in zone 4 (~3.5mM). To keep a check on Nic's safety, we asked him to wear a pulse oximeter on his finger throughout the trial. When he first entered the chamber, his blood saturation dropped from 98% to ~93% within 10 minutes of sitting at rest. During his ride, this further decreased to ~85% - indicating the level of stress he was under at this 'height'. This was more than adequate on Day 1 of the altitude work....but we would be looking to stress him even more in the coming days.
By Day 3 of the intervention, we had set the altitude at 4500m, the chamber now at 13% oxygen. As hoped, this increased the level of stress on Nic - his saturation plummeting to 81%. The main aim of this type of intervention is that it enables us to stress his metabolism quite severely (even at maximal aerobic power, blood saturation may only reach 92%), but keep the loading on his muscles fairly low (i.e. torque is within zone 2 demands). In the meantime, remember Nic is still performing his evening time trials. So, with the racing and altitude sessions loading him quite severely, his heart rate has begun to look a little suppressed. We need to watch this now - the plan is to freshen him up between now and the weekend; perform a 4d block of time trial work when he returns to France; and then there are two, 4d stage races between now and the Champs. Not ideal to have him racing so close to the Champs, but as I have commented before, when you work with a Pro rider, there are many trade-offs between the perfect prep and the demands on his job.
As well as the training and altitude preparation, Nic and I have had the time to analyse the course lap for the French Champs in Boulogne. Whilst Nic is intending to ride both the TT and the road race, our focus for the route analysis was on the TT loop. on Tuesday, we spent a couple of hours watching the video he and his Dad had filmed during a trip to reccie the course in April. With a Garmin measuring the lap distance both on Nic's bike and in the following car, we have been able to sync the footage and his power data for his reccie ride. Lining up real time / distance means we can work out precise instructions for a pacing strategy: when he is best off applying more power; when he is best easing off and focusing on taking a certain line or recovering from an effort. I will be watching the video a few more times in the next month so that I can design the best pacing strategy for Nic. Dan and I will be making the trip out to Boulogne to be in his following car. Thankfully Nic's Dad will be driving, so that I can concentrate on just speaking with Nic in to his earpiece!
 We've enjoyed having Nic over, and aside from the hard work at atltitude and punishing race programme, I think he has liked being here too! His trip was good timing, as we had a PBscience athlete gathering - it was the Eastbourne Cycling Festival at the weekend. A group of our riders came to the Sunshine Coast to take part in the sportif rides on the Sunday morning. Eastbourne delivered the sun, but unfortunately it was accompanied by extremely windy conditions. The riders did a great job out there: Craig (silver), Bjorn, Lisa, and Mike (all Gold) covering the 50 mile route; whilst Juliette rode the full 106 mile event (in an incredible 7h14 which surely should have seen her getting Gold?). In fact, Mike and Juliette were first man / woman home in the 50 and 106 mile events. Well done everyone!
The festival was a success for the town, and an event that we hope will become a fixture in the calendar. For Dan and I it was a busy weekend, but worth being a part of - at the very least, we enjoyed having our riders all together...nice to see so much PBscience kit! The downside to the weekend was there being no chance to recharge our batteries: I think Dan and I have been caffeine fuelled this week (certainly less decaf being drunk in my office this week!). And, what with the race season being in full swing, I envisage more race duty on the horizon. As I have said before though, it always brings the reality of the coaching role home to me, so not something I ever complain about :-) There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a rider's fitness come to fruition in race performance; and being there to witness it in person is very important to me.
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