With the beginning of spring We're starting to prepare the appointments for the second part of the season, which as a main course sees arriving Tour of Italy e Tour de France. Spying on various social media we saw that most of the riders, those not committed to running, are in retreat. Another detail that aroused our curiosity was provided by Astana: the Kazakhs, in retreat on Teide, were the only team that worked as a group. Driven by Claudio Cucinotta, Nibali and companions, pedaled hard on the roads of the volcano most sought after by cyclists.
Hi Claudio, let's start by asking you how long you were on retreat.
We staff stayed on the island for three weeks. The riders, however, were squeezed in between various commitments and stayed with us for two weeks. They arrived in small groups; we generally worked with six or seven athletes at a time.
A good period of work…
Yes, this April training camp for us was the second of the season, dedicated to the riders who will be racing the Giro and the Tour. The destination (Teide, ed.) was chosen thanks to its climate, It allows us to sleep at high altitude and work at sea level with temperatures between 15 and 20 degrees..
Although, to best prepare for the Giro, a high-altitude training camp of about ten days is usually held two weeks before the start.
You said this is your second retreat of the season. How did you work?
So, being a high altitude retreat, it changes a lot compared to the winter retreat. In December we go to Spain for the milder climate but we work and live at sea levelIn this case, however, sleeping at an altitude of 2.100 meters changes the type of training we do significantly.
Explain to us…
The first 3-4 days are for adaptation, the body must learn to live at altitudeHeart rate and respiratory rate increase at rest, and consequently, they also increase during exercise. To give you an example: If at sea level my heart rate is 120 beats at medium intensity, as soon as I go up in altitude it increases to 135We do work below medium, we work on the intensity of slow or long.
Have you overcome this adjustment period?
You sleep on top of the volcano and then go down to sea level to train, This allows you to work at higher intensitiesFrom this point of view, Teide is perfect because to get back to the hotel you have a nice one hour climb where you exceed an altitude of 1.800-2.000 metres.
What jobs are done?
You train as you would at home: you do a lot of aerobic capacity, aerobic power and a little bit of strength workWe take advantage of the opportunity to gain a significant amount of altitude, but this is almost inevitable given that the hotel is at 2.100 meters.
Are the values collected in winter used for work or do they change?
The data collected in winter is used to identify training zones and understand which values to work on at the beginning of the season. Obviously The numbers change from December to March, also because we're starting to compete and the levels are rising. For this reason, when we were in training camp a few days ago, we did more tests.
What is one of the tests you took?
That of lactate. This is a multi-step test on a climbing section, with a difference in altitude of 100 metres. Repeats are performed at increasing intensity levels, measuring the level of lactic acid in the blood and the anaerobic threshold is found and new data is found to work on in the future.
You said that those who participate in the Giro go to high altitudes close to the start. What changes compared to this withdrawal?
On Teide we did not do any high altitude work and we did not add many high intensity works, That's what competitions are for (Today some of the riders who were on Teide are at the Giro di Sicilia or in Turkey, ed.). The riders who want to do well at the Giro will do a short training camp at high altitude to get their legs up to speed and train for the changes in altitude during the race. Obviously, to do this, races like the Tour of the Alps or Romandy.
