Tadej Pogačar Tour De France Training
Iñigo San Millán is the Head of Performance at UAE Team Emirates and the coach of two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar. Global Cycling Network sat down with him at the Grand Départ in Bilbao to find out what goes into training for and winning the biggest bike race in the world. You may be surprised!
Key-Takeaways:
Altitude helps, but must be closely monitored to prevent overtraining. Focus on z2 and threshold intervals, with only recovery rides/rest days inbetween. No bunch rides, no tempo. Train by yourself to ensure steady effort. At a high level, once your z2 gets above 250w, 4 hours of focused zone 2 is more effective than 7/8 hours teetering between z1/z2/z5. More volume when preparing for grand tours. His riders ride 23-28 hours/week (he's said in other interviews that the split of threshold/z2 is about 20/80). 80g-100g carbs per hour are optimal at race level intensity, 2x-3x the guidelines from 2005. Carb intake for racing should be matched in training (he doesn't exactly say that it should be 100g/hr in training, but a good bet is at least 60-70%). Just like on the bike nutrition, off the bike nutrition should be matched to training load. Eat more on long days BEFORE the ride, eat less on off days.