Hi guys i'm really new to cycling and next year the father in law in treating me to a holiday in frace to see the tour and as told me we will be cycling up alpe d'huez so was wondering what's the best way to train to get me ready for this.is it just get the miles in or are there certain ways i should train?
Alpe d'Huez
- Thread starter bainy16
- Start date
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hills hills hills and more hills
black'n'yellow
Guest
There isn't a hill in the UK which will prepare you for the alpe, but it doesn't matter anyway. With the appropriate gearing, you could probably ride up it now - but the faster you want to go, the more aerobic fitness you will need. The short answer is just ride your bike a lot, and get used to riding at a high intensity for up to an hour at a time - you can do that on the flat if needs be...
jdtate101
Ex-Fatman
- Location
- Boring Birmingham
Try and do lots of endurance rides at higher tempo than you normally would, you need to build up your strength over longer periods of effort. I'm doing Alpe D'Huez next yr as part of the Marmotte. The 1st 2KM is the hardest at 10%, then it backs off to between 7-8% for the other 11KM, so make sure your gearing is appropriate. Most will use a compact chainset with something like a 11-26 or 11-28 depending upon your abilities.
black'n'yellow
Guest
You will need to be able to endure a sustained high effort for about an hour or so, or however long it takes you to get up the Alpe (Pantani rode up it in about 36 minutes, I think). So combine some 2-3 hour steady rides with some shorter, harder 20-60 min efforts. Like I said though, you could probably ride it now at the right speed and with the right gearing, so it all depends on how fast you want to ride up it when you get there...
i beleive mine is 11-28
Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
If the climb is going to take an hour, and you intend to get up it as fast as possible, you need to be able to ride at or just below your current limit for an hour. To do this, you will need to ride at your current limit for increasing durations and/or raise your limit by savaging yourself at an intensity above your current limit at shorter durations. It is best practice to do both. Add in some longer rides, i.e. your 100k road rides as a basic endurance ride and you should be good to go. Training for a hill like this is basically the same as training for a 25 mile time trial. The intensity will be comparable, but the speeds will be lower when going up hill.
If you don't care how fast you go, then riding your bike is all you need to do.
If you don't care how fast you go, then riding your bike is all you need to do.
ayceejay
Guru
- Location
- Rural Quebec
I always wondered how this Alpe was so called. I drove up it once and right at the top was a guy taking a wiz.
True story.
True story.
so riding at 80% of mhr for an hour or is this the wrong way of thinking?
Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
Your limit should be much higher than 80% MHR, I am talking 2x20 min efforts at 90-95% MHR (if you can not hold 90% for 20 mins, start with 2x10 mins). The even harder efforts for shorter period, just ignore HR and make damn sure you are suffering. If you want to go fast, you need to play the gain game, not pussying about at base ride efforts (i.e. 80%, save that for your 2-3 hour endurance rides)!
oldfatfool
Guru
Ride over to Holmfirth and tackle Home moss, then freewheel down and do it again, and again. when you can summit Holme moss in 15 ~20 minutes on each occasion then you can aim to tackle the alpe in under an hour.
