Coach's Tips for... Giro di Coppi Road Race

[ed: Here's another article by BJ Basham, part of the series called "Coach's Tips for... ", in which BJ will give you all the inside track on how to race a specific event. BJ knows all these races, and he probably also knows most of the racers hellbent on beating you at them. If you like BJ's contributions, let him know in the Comments section below. You can even ask him questions in the comments, which he'll answer there as well.]

Coach's Tips for... Giro di Coppi Road Race
by BJ Basham
USA Cycling Level II Certified Coach

Delayed but not forgotten. The Giro road race is a great and selective course. There are enough tough rollers and hard little pitches to ensure a deserving winner.

The thing about bike racing is that the strongest and fastest riders are not always the ones that win the races and on this course, the deserving winner will be the rider who is not only strong enough to get up the climbs, but also smart enough to save their energy until it counts.

We have all heard riders talking about "matches".  In a race like the Giro di Coppi, everybody's goal is to conserve their matches so that they will be able to put out the power that they need to in order to cover the late attacks or even sprint to the line. The trick is that not everyone has the same number of matches in their book of matches, but once you use up all your matches, your energy will be gone and the likelihood of a win is pretty low.

When it comes to training, one of the goals of any workout is to learn what you can do. How many times can you do 500 watt for 50 seconds and still be able to do it again? How hard can I ride a 3 minute climb and still be able to put out enough power to stay in the field? What do my matches feel like and how many do I have? If you are doing hill sprint in your training and each hill is 1 - 2 minutes and you can do 10 of them as long as you don't go harder then 475 watts, then you will know that attacking a 4 minute climb at 500 watts may be a bad idea. Training is not only to prepare you physically, but also to let you learn what you can do so you can use that knowledge when racing. When training, even with power, it is important to pay attention to your rate of perceived exertion so that when you are racing, when you need to pay attention to what is going on in the field and not staring at your power meter or HR monitor, you will still be able to keep track of the matches your are burning.

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to burning matches is that sometimes an effort can burn more than one match and in the worst case scenario, you could burn through your whole book of matches with a single effort. If that effort comes at the end of the race it could mean you did it right and you win the race. But if you burn up your book of matches too early in the race, the day may be pretty short.

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BJ Basham is a USA Cycling Level II Certified Coach with Peaks Coaching Group. He lives in Fairfax, VA and competes in most of the same races you do. To learn more about his coaching practice and philosophy, visit his website at PowerTrainingCoach.com.

Comments

[Jesse]

So the tip is to make the final selection while keeping some in reserve for the final sprint? You're letting BJ off easy on this one....

[Mike May]

That's not how I'm reading it, Jesse. I think the tip is to *train enough* so that you can make the final selection and still have some in reserve for the sprint.

To that point- anybody want my reg spot in the Cat 3 event?

[bj]

Making the final selection with enough in reserve is the tip for everyrace. The tip for this article is to learn how many matches you have and how big those matches are so that you can avoid burning them all in one go or even slowly thoughout the race and ending up empty when the crunch comes.

It is easy to say "make the selection with enough in reserve" the challenge is know how much you have to work with at the start of the day by paying attention to what you can do in training.

If your training is a bit off then knowing that you might have fewer matches to burn is important on race day. You may feel great, until you don't. The key is avoiding an early onset of "don't feel good".

When it comes to the Coppis course, the short hard climbs might feel OK even when you ride hard on them, but keep in mind that everytime you have to close a gap or move up in the field or punch the gas on a climb, you might be burning a match.

[Mike May]

"You may feel great, until you don't." Love that. Sounds like my day at Tour of Washington County. Or Poolesville, for that matter.