OLD WINTER TRAINING TRICKS MADE NEW

For pioneering pros of a bygone age, winter was a time to roll out radical new training ideas. Chris Sidwells assesses whether their eye-popping methods still stack up today

- Chris Sidwells

Modern training is a sophisticated process for world-class cyclists. Peak performance doesn’t just happen, it takes planning, built on a firm foundation of knowledge. Winter is a key part of that plan. Before the end of each road season, team training staff are planning for the next, and first up is how each rider will make the best use of winter. But it’s not always been like that.

Until quite recently, even big teams and successful cycling nations left riders to themselves for the winter, not coming back together until the pre-season training camps. The rationale was that they were professionals – cycling was their job, so they were expected to know how to prepare for the following season and come out of winter in good condition. And do you know what? Some of them were very good at it.

Most would follow a generic training plan, largely continuing with what they did as amateurs, but with more miles – because they were pros now, it was their job. A select few did things differently.

The very best riders in each generation thought about their sport and how to prepare optimally. They analysed the demands of cycling, the muscles used and processes involved in performance, and they came up with their own ideas for how to make sure their winter training sowed the seeds of summer success.

In this piece, I’m going to recount some winter training protocols of bygone stars – not their whole programmes, of course, just some specific methods they used in winter – and I’m going to ask current experts for their assessment. How effective were these methods, and how can they be brought up to date with modern equivalents? My first example goes back to the 1940s and 1950s, to a training method used by one of the alltime greats of the sport.