72 hours in a pro cyclist’s off season

Go behind the scenes on my pre-season training camp in Spain. See what it takes to be Le Tour’s most combative rider. Thanks to @precisionfandh for bringing the fuel, cameras and banter.

[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Hey I’m Victor campart we’re in space and I invited the guys from Precision Fuel and hydration to follow me during my offseason training days I go out now on the time [Applause] [Applause] Bike To be fast on the time bike the most important thing I would say is to ride on that bike a lot for me when I was a very good time trist the main uh thing I did different than others that I would with my hand on my heart I would say I

Did double the hours on the time TR bike than other good time trist at that moment so so riding a lot on the bike is important but you have to ride in a position that you don’t just find like this but you do proper testing proper

Wind tunnel or track testing the body is very adaptive if you find a very fast position that is not comfortable but when you do it like 15 hours a week it will get comfortable uh with time I started using laces for time TRS because it’s more aerodynamic the main

Reason why I know Rider wants to use laces in a race is because they’re afraid um you can tighten them during the race and that’s true uh but because the pressure is so equal over the shoe uh there’s no need to how’s that how’s the

Session I have like a section that I do it’s a bit more relaxed than always on time there is about 10 minutes that I push like uh Med power it’s like uh 280 to 300 wats in the morning I did a harder session with a lot of building up

Of lactate and in the afternoon I want to do this like um High aerobic uh Pace to actively recover the the lactate I build up in um it was a successful session now I take a shower and I’ll have some dinner it will be quite brutal the last days even the time BR

Um I I was a bit afraid that it would be some what of a climbing time and then I heard it was on the Boulevard and I thought maybe um I can good not super smooth but she she she gets what yeah yeah very Good so day two it’s about 3 hours on the road bike uh this afternoon we go for a hike Easy Ride we go up a nice Summit Porto Del Soul I’ll show you how I prepare my bottles we’re very happy that the Precision fuel made for the team these bags that are

Just the perfect amount for 5 L and I’ll just show you how quickly it’s done so like this I’m good for two maybe 3 days of training very easy you also can do it without a blender but then you need more horsepower almost nothing you want to take two of these or

You going to put two on there I’m going to put two on the bike and take thisare one yeah it’s uh 70k rid will take long about 3 hours because it’s hilly um that’s it let’s go a yeah I am a smart Mouse how do you

Think I wonder where I am Who I Am by now out just started his Easy Ride always a little bit stressful for us trying to catch him very interesting this morning watching his pre-ride warm-up routine this isn’t a guy who just kind of rolls out of bed throws on his shoes and gets

Out the door he’s got a lot of cor ability exercises and activation exercises that he does and he was telling us he does them every day um he had a nasty back injury last year where he crashed and actually um fractured one of his vertebrae so I think that he he

Now has to do some sorts daily prehab type work to make sure that his cor staying strong so he doesn’t get back pain um but like as as we’re sort of learning with Victor in the way he approaches everything he extremely um dedicated and professional in the way

That he does it and even though he admitted this morning he doesn’t really like doing his cability training it’s still so makes time to do every single day before he rides would you swap it for the Belgium training Route so today’s an easy ride about 3 hours keep the fueling quite low at about uh um 60 G an hour 60 to 70 G um for me that’s quite low some atlet will say that’s high carb I prefer when it’s easy to have the chws they

Have more taste to it than the gels gels is more real performance but gel is more easy to take when you’re suffering a chew um is more like a nice moment to look forward to when I would go harder I would Fuel Up to 130 sometimes 140 G to

Reach really push it with all these carbohydrates you also can produce a lot of lactate um people think as lactates uh as bad thing in training it’s uh a really good thing actually to have a lot of lactate because when there’s a lot of lactate there’s also a

Lot of opportunity for your body to aerobically burn that lactate um and like this you boost your V to Max a lot of sugars makes you uh able to produce a lot of power it’s like a car it runs on fuel and when you have no fuel it stops only very

Recently since I have those that I’m listening to a music on training that when I have somewhat of a harder workout I might listen to hoes and stuff like this which I’ve never ever did before in my life I think my Spotify was a bit shocked when I start listening

To that kind of Music descending can be tricky nowadays it’s way more easy with uh your equipment to make it feel comfortable when you take wide tires you put in low pressure like this your filter bump bumps out of the roads that’s uh important thing to do to write with the with the right pressure reading the

Roads very important start outside of the corner go to the Apex again to the outside like this you make a sharp corner wider try not to be too stiff on the bike because when you’re stiff anything will will be STI and you’re also most likely hanging on your front

Wheel you want your weight to be divided as good as possible on your back and on your front wheel don’t sit too much in the saddle wait on the outside pedal and on the inside arm that’s how you go in the corner look where you’re going when

I’m in a technical descent I like to like sing a song to myself and uh to be a bit relaxed thinking about lunch yeah what are we having uh what are we having just uh the same as yesterday some uh re some humus and stuff maybe some Nutella so that was it for the bike today now we have some lunch and then we go for a nice hike I hope I can keep up with you with you guys they are easy rides like today but instead of riding 5 hours today we ride 3 hours and we go

For a 2hour hike but when let’s say halfway December it’s about getting the hours in on the bike and uh as said before there’s no secret to riding hard on the bike uh it’s riding a lot on the bike makes you ride Hard so we take some G yeah GS and some sh I Reon so now we go it there like close to 1,000 altitude M something like that we are uh with two 2.6 km along the track so like a quarter of the total distance probably half about half of the climbing I think

Yeah yeah yeah ni so far so Good about 1 hour and 20 up here it’s been nice my reward is half a chew it’s quite cool but when you walk you easily switch because on the when you’re riding up hill with a bike you’re not going fast but still somewhat fast compared to Walking Back at the start oh look at that move goal achieved I passed my move goal without put to Apple anyway Victor when you do a day in the offseason like that where you ride in the morning you hike the afternoon I I presume a lot of the time you’re

Measuring your like overall training stress and it’s quite easy to do that on the bike how do you quantify your training stress or something like that is it just guess work or is there any metrics yeah I would say it’s more guess work I don’t really have data of it of

Course I upload my file uh on my training Peaks account um but to have like the Performance Management chart with the TSS sces and stuff like that uh yeah it doesn’t really fit in there no if if I would do something um when I’m more like in January I would

Give estimated TSS sces to my if I do a Long Core workout or stuff like that yeah to make it all fit in properly and that you have some kind of an estimation of your chronic training modat yeah but now at this time I don’t uh don’t really

Care too much much if I would have done a six-hour ride with uh I don’t know uh two cims at around 400 watts I would wake up easily tomorrow yeah um after this 2hour hike I would um I will feel my legs when I get out of bed Tomorrow so today is uh day three of the Precision guys in Spain and um yesterday I got my ass kicked in a in a hike not really kick but I you guys made me sweat yeah saw you right now a swimming session this morning so you have a plan

For us yeah plan will be to to to get as fresh as possible to the to the small race We Do 50 m freestyle race will you break 30 seconds today depends if we start out of the water or we start from the starting oh okay in the water I Reon

We do an in the water start I think that’s in your in your advantage yeah that’s what I’m suggesting it yeah I think it will be somewhere around 30 second yeah this could be close Victor and I said earlier you have a reputation for competitiveness need more time in your

Speedos Victor get that to line even Out hard to see what happened at the turn there’s a lot of Splash Emer go this camping arts for the win at least it was close oh one second one second I need one big recovery one second we just landed camping Arts can still swim we’re 50 m

We’re 50 m at least this say it’s 31.4 7 is that one so that was you finishing after I smoke my cigarettes yeah yeah but it’s it’s not about the time it’s about the results you know Yeah we just got to the physio Clinic Training Center where Victor’s going to do his prehab type session I’d initially thought that he was going to have massage and maybe some light mobility and that but it does sound like it’s going to be almost a little bit more

Like cross training like uh a sort of um coordination strength and speed type workout so I think it could be quite Dynamic cycling is very like a small range of motion you have and when I’m going into the season when the races are coming I will be focusing on that small range of motion because in that small range of motion that’s where the on the short term you will actually make benefit this

Is more like long longterm um I’m somewhat older but still I hope to have a a care we that’s not ending uh this year if you keep on sitting always forward in the bike uh keep on making those hipping extension short extension extenders shorter keeping always this

Back like this you want last super long and today was more like coordination uh some speed workor which I’m actually very bad at in the coordination like the color thing which is nowadays quite popular I’m very bad at that and that’s you know in the Pelon you have to react

Often very fast and that’s highly cor correlated with that um and then just try to use different um muscles in the body or the same muscles you use on the bike but in total different angles if you create that range of motion and you work in the smaller range of motion

You’re way in your comfort zone is this smaller range of motion if you keep on working it in this this also becomes your limit and you’re actually riding on your limit all the time Victor it’s been a great three days thank you for having us um we’ve got to

Get back to the airport so do you like to get a taxi from here uh I’ll run like yesterday yeah good stuff good enjoy the good weather in the UK and uh I’ll do the same here yeah we’ll see you in the season mate enjoy thanks for having us have a good fight

Yeah we ruined It with you [Applause] Guys get says bring bring your camera kit Dave we just go for a [Applause] Hike oh my God Victor campon Arts is so good at swimming he’s actually despite what he says really quite an Adept Runner and we know what he can do on the bike so if he decides at any point in the future to sack in the cycling and

Take on Triathlon then there’s a lot of triathletes out there got to be worried CU I think that blow could do some damage so try athletes beware I reckon victim camping Arts might be coming for you in the future