We Tried The Toughest Tour De France Training Session (Visma-Lease A Bike)

Ollie travels to the French Alps to check in on the reigning Tour de France champions – Visma-Lease A Bike and their training camp. To prepare for the Tour de France, pros need to do horrendously hard training sessions there. But what exactly do their training sessions look like and how hard are they really? …Can Ollie survive one of them?

00:00 How hard is Tour de France training?
00:41 Why is Visma-Lease A Bike training in Tignes?
01:45 What does the training session look like?
03:47 First set (19km climb)
06:09 Why does Visma-Lease A Bike use intervals like that?
07:25 Training your gut too
08:53 End of 2nd interval
09:15 Why don’t pros only train TT efforts?
10:16 2 hours of Zone 2
12:58 Last hour

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[Music] I’m in the French Alps with reigning Tour of France Champions Vima Lisa bike now the Tor of France is incredibly tough It’s the hardest endurance race on the planet and to compete in this event the Riders do horrendously hard training sessions at altitude here in the Alps but what exactly are their training sessions and how hard are they well as an amateur cyclist I’m going to see if I can complete the hardest Tor of France training session how hard is it really let’s find [Music] out I’m actually in teen in France because this is where Vis meisa bike is doing their pre-tour to France training camp and they’re here for a number of very good reasons firstly it’s in France which means that they’re able to Recon some of the climbs that are going to be in the race preparation and the other reason is that it’s at altitude so where we are here at teen laac is 2,200 M which means they get the benefit of altitude adaptation sleeping and training at altitude is a well established way for endurance athletes to become fitter and stronger and we’re able to come here uh today because of our clothing partner AO so big thanks to them because they’re also the clothing partner of vimma Lisa bike we’ve got so much in common I mean they’re cyclists I’m a cyclist have the same AO [Music] God hi mat Ollie Hi how are you going I’m good man is this my training for today I have your training for today yeah wow wow is it really top secret no not at all I’ve got the session from vizal bike I banged it in to the Wahoo head unit so we’re going to go do it now um and it begins with a nice easy warmup for an hour just spinning down the valley so that’s one of the other things I’m going to show you is how the team actually do their training sessions in an environment like this and how they make the roads work for the training session let’s go this is going to be tough beautiful though isn’t it look at that so this session begins with a nice 1H hour warmup where I’ve got to keep the power below 250 WS I can’t see that being a problem for me and in total this is a 5-hour training ride they go off time a lot of the time pro riders and you might be wondering why isn’t it longer surely they do longer rides than that well they do but speaking to the guys they say their longest rides are around 7 hours and the reason for this is specificity the longest stages of the tour a less than seven hours so don’t really need to go longer than [Music] that I spoke to the guys and they said that on the the longest 7 hour rides they don’t actually do intervals they just keep that as like a an endurance ride so a shorter ride like this is where they do some of the harder work and it’s yeah a harder training session Co I just got to finish my warm up on this [Music] descent right we’ve come off The Descent we’ve just come onto a climb which is the called the Petty San Bernard don’t know why they call it that there’s nothing Petty about it it’s 19 km long but the reason why we’ve done that is because I’m about to start the main set the real meat and potatoes of today’s session and this is what pro riders do they often use climbs for their intervals and the reason for that is because on a climb you’re often uninterrupted for a long period of time you have something to push against and it’s representative of what you’re actually going to be doing in a race races are often won and lost on the climbs anyway enough of my yaking let’s uh let’s get to to this I’ve got 15 minutes started in a minute and it’s 3 minutes above threshold followed by 2 minutes just below threshold and that’s repeated three times lovely stuff right first interval starting now this for me has got to be around 340 350 Watts for 3 minutes going to be [Music] tough now I got to do two minutes about 290 300 WS [Music] all right now 3 minutes done 2 minutes it’s 300 again I’ll tell you why they do this when I finished it [Music] after the 15 minutes done oh the good news is I’ve got 30 minutes of recovery now so about 180 wats active recovery all right now a session like that is all about lactate and it’s something that a lot of Pros will be doing similar sessions to that these days and the reason is you do that hard above your lactate threshold effort and that quickly just fills your legs full of lactate and then you drop down to just below your lactate threshold and when you first start that interval your legs feel terrible but then it’s teaching your body to clear and utilize that lactate more efficiently and this is absolutely crucial because the limit of your FTP is down to lactate and when your body can’t saturate hydrogen ions as as quickly as it produces them through lactate then well that’s when you get the burn and your leg sees up and your performance drops off your threshold so it’s about raising your threshold right I’m going to uh have a bit of food now but this training isn’t just about training your Aerobic System and stuff you got trade your gut as well and I’m going to use this rest as an opportunity to refuel get some Precision in about to start the next 15 minutes of intervals and these ones are going to be a bit more spicy because as you can see we’re at altitude we’re over, 1600 M now and at this altitude most people lose 10% off their ft GP uh and if you’re trained or like uh you know adapted to the altitude it can be five or 4% but I don’t think I’m that right let’s get ready [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] that is done we got a rest period again oh that was horrible [Music] [Music] W that was uh that was very pleasant this is the top of the uh Petty San Bernard like I said nothing Petty about it it’s like 24 km and we’re at 2,200 M you feel the air is thinner it’s definitely harder doing your intervals when you’re up here but altitude gains now you might be wondering why aren’t the pros doing like for their hardest session like time trial efforts where they just batter themselves the whole way up a climb like this well the answer is that’s that’s too much even for a pro because doing a fullon time trial effort for an hour like that just takes too much out of you and it means you’re diminished in what you can do training the next day and the day after that so they do shorter intervals like what I’ve just been doing right going to uh descend now cuz I’ve got two and a half more hours to go bloody hell also Pros don’t stop for cafes just ride [Music] right off The Descent now in the Valley Road and heading back up to te we got another 2 hours to do of solid zone two got to keep the chain tight and keep it around 240 250 Watts but after having done all those intervals I’m yeah I’m feeling it a bit what’s crazy is that pro riders will do their intervals on a climb like that a massive climb and then go into like active recovery still on the climb they can ride slow and recover on a climb at a pace that faster than most Mortals would ride up the climb it’s nuts [Music] the temperature difference at the top so when you’re down here in the valley and climbing is Big so it’s good to have some arm warmers or something you can take off I’m going to drobe now on the [Music] bike so to give you some context in those intervals I was doing those 3 minutes above threshold you know I was trying to do 350 I was sort of averaging 340 while vanard i’ be doing over 400 and for me that’s that’s my absolute sort of Max I I that’ kill me you know those guys they are an absolute another like several levels above someone like me but the beauty of cycling is you can still feel the same Sensations that they feel on the same roads and the views the same it doesn’t get easier you just get faster so the saying [Music] goes all right I’ve done four hours now one more hour to go I’m actually pretty close to team but but I’m going to have to do the pro thing and put a loop on just in the last 4K up to te now and like I mean I’m holding top of Z to power but cuz the Air’s so thin up here you know the rate of perceived exertion is it’s much higher altitude what an amazing place to train this is look at that and when the weather’s like it is today and you have scenery like this the efforts are so much easier I find anyway cuz the environment just inspires you a thisas training session completed it mate look at that view fling amazing so there you have it what a place to finish a ride now uh let us know what you thought of that and if it’s harder or easier than what you were expecting now the Riders tell me that they do a whole different range of training sessions one of the interesting things they also do which uh Mato Jorgenson said he finds particularly tough is split days which I think is alluding to the sort of Norwegian method which Runners and triath have been doing where you do a sort of tempo session in the morning and then another Tempo session in the evening but if if you know of a harder pre-t France training session than this one let us know in the comments section and well there’s a good chance we’ll give it a go and also remember that the idea isn’t to absolutely batter yourself uh when you’re a pro Rider doing one session you’ve got to string several sessions together it’s about consistency and that’s one of the big differences between pros and me because cuz after doing that yeah I was able to complete it but I don’t think I’d be able to do it again tomorrow so there you go right I’m going to go now and try and find a crep love a massive crep love you bye