Hey guys,
what plan would you take to train please?
152 km with more than 4,100 metres of accumulated positive elevation gain
Climbing road race or gran fondo ?
Thanks !
How are you going to ride/race it? If trying to stay at the front and there are accelerations and selection points that require intense (VO2max or anaerobic) efforts, climbing road race. If you are trying to do your own best time, do grand fondo.
Just want to be finisher 
Ok I see, If I plan to just ride at my targeted power without attacking = gran fondo,
otherwise if I wanted to race following attacks etc like a real race = climbing road race
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Nice goal! I was thinking of watching the TdF at Morzine.
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Woudn’t VO2max efforts be the icing on a very big cake? I’d venture that you need a huge aerobic base to even think about accelerations like that in a such a long and hard race. Else you will likely burn carbs way faster than you can replenish them. Then there is heat and elevation.
To be at the front you need to do way more base than trainerroad suggests or be a freak of nature (probably a bit of both)
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Hi all, i’m also signed up here.
I’d be interested to hear of tip from people that have done this before.
What is the recommendation wrt accommodation? Is it best to stay near the start or finish?
Do you know if there are shuttle buses or something to get people back to the start line after the race etc?..
I did it last year. Loved it but god it’s a beast. I’m a decent recreational cyclist - not a racer. Took me about nine hours.
What I wish I’d done is 1. More long days in the saddle. I’d only done one century before this, and it was pretty flat. 2. More sustained climbing practice. Hard to do that where I live. Did a lot of Alpe du Zwift but it’s really no comparison. Maybe some more sustained sub threshold work. Those climbs are looooong and hot. 3. Trained my stomach better - half way I was totally sick of sugary stuff. Maybe I should have thought out my eating strategy better. More savoury stuff.
There’s no denying that the logistics are a total shag with a point to point. I stayed near the start. Had a mate staying at the end. Day before, I drove to the finish and parked my car at his hotel and got a cab back with him to mine. We stayed there the night before. Then when I finished I had my car ready to get myself home. As I was driving home there were guys just heading off into the dark on their bikes. Madness. I was glad I did what I did, but the logistics took up the whole of the day before. Best you could do is one of the tour operators sorts you out a hotel at the start and the finish and transfers your stuff between the two, but that’s pricey.
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Oh and if it’s not too late you want to try to get yourself in as low a number pen as you can so you’re not hanging around for ages before the start and you can break the back of some climbing before it gets too hot.
Make sure your brakes are good because the descents are very long.
And remember roads close early so if you, like I was, are staying a few km up the road from the start it have a relatively late start time you have to get up early to get there before they close the roads to you = more hanging around.
Thanks, for your feedback, how manyn hours/week did you train?
I was probably doing 120-140 miles per week on average.
I think I did the climbing road race program on TR but nothing on TR will prepare you for long hot alpine climbs if you aren’t used to them.
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