2013 TDF Stage 8 Ax the Peloton
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Audio Master Class 2013 TDF Stage 8 Ax the Peloton Created by Robert Baldi Training Type: Race Simulation Working HR Zones: Zone 3 to Zone 5c Total Class Length: 60 minutes Profile Description After eight days of racing, this is the first real test for the GC contenders of this 100th Tour. There may be larger gaps than usual between them before today’s stage, as a result of the hilly stages in Corsica —which isn’t exactly the usual collection of prologues and bunch sprints! But, even so, expect this first taste of the Pyrénées to be the stage where the initial selection for the maillot jaune is made. The stage finishes at the ski station Ax-3-Domaines, hence the name of this profile “Ax the Peloton”! Objective and Intensity It’s a long approach to the first Pyrénéan high mountain but, although it may appear flat, the road is actually very undulating, so our heart rates will reflect that fluctuation, from Zone 2 to Zone 3 and back again. After Quillan, the gradient increases: it looks flat on the road but your legs will tell you otherwise, taking you firmly into Zone 3. Then we hit the Pailhères, a long climb that begins at Zone 3, steps up to Zone 4, and finishes in Zone 5a. After a quick recovery on the descent, it’s a short final climb at Zone 4/5a with a final attack at Zone 5b/c. Copyright © 2009 - 2012 Jennifer Sage and Indoor Cycling Association Page 1 Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class 2013 TDF Stage 8 Song 1: Introduction and Warm-up Medina, Urban Trad, 4:43, 100 bpm It’s a short warm-up but it’s followed by more flat road, so use this track just to describe the road ahead and get the riders to gradually bring their HR to Zone 2. It’s a long approach to the first Pyrénéan high mountain, so the main contenders will be taking it easy, waiting to hit the Col de Pailhères before ratcheting up the intensity to make the initial selection of contenders for the maillot jaune. Your job today is to make the cut, so no joining that breakaway! We join the action as the TV would do, with the peloton already on their way, so we only have 12 minutes of flat road in this ride. However, the road may appear flat but it is actually very undulating, so our heart rates will reflect that fluctuation. Song 2 & 3: Undulating Approach Every Day of the Week, Jade, 3:44 96 rpm Kiss Kiss, Holly Valance, 3:40, 97 rpm We have just over 7 minutes of undulating terrain, where you can present riders with a choice: either they can maintain their pace and HR or they can simulate the undulating terrain by raising their HR to Zone 3 for short efforts, whether by standing for brief periods or by increasing resistance while maintaining cadence. I use the choruses in each track to simulate the terrain and make the required extra effort for 20–40 seconds, bringing it back to their previous effort level each time. On my version of the first track, these are 1:18–1:38, 2:18–2:47, and 3:07–3:37. On the second track, these are 0:40– 1:00, 1:39–1:59, and 2:58–3:38. Have fun with those excursions into Zone 3, but don’t be too rigorous and demanding. Riders can opt in/out of any of them, just as the peloton may decide to have an easy Zone 2 day all the way to the Pyrénées, while being filmed as they cruise alongside the vast fields of sunflowers! Song 4: Road out of Quillan Slam, Pendulum, 5:44, 88 rpm After Quillan the gradient increases, but at a pleasurable level that lulls you into a sense of security; in real life, it looks very much like a flat road but your legs tell you otherwise and you being to wonder why it’s such hard work! So, although it’s technically a flat road cadence, it feels more of a fast climb. Use the first minute of this track to get the riders to increase their resistance, slowing their cadence by 10% and raising their HR to Zone 3, where they’ll keep it until the big climb of the stage…that is, unless you decide to be Jens Voigt for the day and make other people suffer by taking it to Zone 4! (Jens is one of the toughest riders in the peloton, the quintessential domestique who states that his “job” is to “hurt others”!) Song 5, 6 & 7: Col de Pailhères Rapture (Deep Dish Remix), IIO, 9:58, 66 rpm Sunrise, Etnoscope, 9:13, 70 rpm Suburban Train, DJ Tiesto, 9:16, 70 rpm We now hit the Pailhères: a stunning and relentlessly long climb, with the only saving grace being that it has a fairly consistent, albeit high, gradient. By maintaining solid pressure all the Copyright © 2009 - 2012 Jennifer Sage and Indoor Cycling Association Page 2 Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class 2013 TDF Stage 8 way, most of the peloton will crack and lose touch with the select leading group, failing to make the cut. Our climb is 28 minutes long, so riders will start at Zone 3. If you were at Zone 3 from Quillan, it’s just a case of increasing resistance and letting cadence decrease, maintaining that balance of intensity. Or, if you were having a “Jens Voigt day” in Zone 4, use the first track of this climb to bring down the HR to a steady Zone 3! So far, so good. You’ll be starting to drop the big riders—the sprinters of the peloton who hate anything that goes uphill—just by riding a steady tempo on the mountain. You want to shake off more of them, so in the second track, up the cadence and intensity by 5% to take them into a Zone 4 effort. They want to play with the big boys? Then they have to be willing to keep up with your pace! This track has a wonderful rhythm that, to me, just screams: “Enough of this Sunday stroll, let’s get a move on!” The selection process continues in the third track. Maintain Zone 4 initially but, at around the 3-minute mark, impress on your riders that you don’t want to be carrying the group all the way to the final climb. This is their chance to see who has the guts and determination to make the cut by attacking the peloton at 4:08–5:04 in the song. This will take you above threshold. There will still be some riders remaining but they dug deep into their reserves to keep up with your attack. You’ll want to make another attack at 6:48, this time all the way to the summit, to shed all but the “Heads of State,” who will fight it out on the final climb. Song 8: Recovery / Descent Days Go By, Dirty Vegas, 3:30, 99 rpm Over the top of the Pailhères, a very technical descent down to Ax-Les-Thermes, before your much-reduced elite group explodes as it hits the short but always exciting climb to the ski station of Ax-les-Trois-Domaines. No quarter will be given, no holds barred! Having made the cut over the Pailhères, it’s now about crushing your opponents by going for the stage win and opening up big time gaps in the GC. So make sure you recover well before the big bang! Song 9: Ax-les-Trois-Domaines Supernova, Transa, 6:23, 69 rpm Although it’s “only” a Category 1 climb and looks like the Pailhères’s little brother, any climb is as hard as you want to make it; a fast-paced attack on a Category 1 can have a harder impact than a long HC climb. This will be the chance to inflict savage attacks on your rivals and open up some decent time gaps ahead of the Alps in the final week of the tour. Aim to hit the climb at a Zone 3 effort and use the first minute to bring HR to Zone 4—an effort that should feel strong and uncomfortable. At the 3-minute mark, there is a build-up in the music that sounds like a spring being coiled, ready for an explosive attack. Here you have about 30 seconds to prepare the riders psychologically: You’ve got your opponents on the ropes, it’s do or die, it’s now time to deliver your killer punch, the blow that could win you the Tour de France! Take it up to Zone 5b, whatever is their absolute best, all-out, 3-minute breathless effort. Celebrate your victory at the top! Although he may be discredited, Lance Armstrong used this tactic in every tour he rode, attacking on the final climb of that year’s first stage with a mountain-top finish, to gain time over Copyright © 2009 - 2012 Jennifer Sage and Indoor Cycling Association Page 3 Indoor Cycling Association Audio Master Class 2013 TDF Stage 8 his rivals. He later would increase the time gaps during the time trials, securing the maillot jaune before the final week. Lance would leave it up to his rivals to attack him…and all he had to do was follow. [By the way, if any of your students object to referencing his achievements, point out that all of his top ten competitors were also subsequently found or strongly suspected to be doping, and regardless, his tactics are nevertheless valid.