Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Thursday, April 9, 2020

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2019 Tour de France | 2019 Giro d'Italia

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself. - Blaise Pascal

Current Racing:

• April 6-11: Vuelta al Pais Vasco
• April 7-10: Circuit Cycliste Sarthe-Pays de la Loire

Upcoming racing:

• April 12: Paris-Roubaix
• April 12: Kalsika Primavera

Latest completed racing:

• April 8: Scheldeprijs
• April 5: Ronde van Vlaanderen
• April 5: La Roue Tourangelle
• April 4: GP Miguel Indurain
• April 4: Volta Limburg Classic
• April 3: Route Adélie de Vitré
• April 1 - 4: Giro di Sicilia
• April 1: Dwars door Vlaanderen

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World’s top teams sign up for The Digital Swiss 5 race series

Team Sunweb posted this news

The world’s top professional cycling teams have confirmed their participation in The Digital Swiss 5 series of races, which has been created in response to the COVID19 pandemic to keep fans engaged in the sport and give riders an opportunity to compete against each other.

The series, scheduled for April 22-26, is a collaboration between Velon and the organisers of the Tour de Suisse together with the ROUVY Indoor Cycling Reality platform. The races will take place with real video footage of roads used in the Tour de Suisse as the backdrop.

The riders, three per team, will be represented by avatars dressed in their team uniforms and riding their familiar team bikes. Each team’s line-up can change from race to race to reflect the different routes. Some will be in the Swiss mountains, others will be flat.

With riders spread out across the world and most only able to ride on their home trainers, teams have responded enthusiastically to the challenge posed by The Digital Swiss 5 races. Fifteen WorldTour and two ProContinental teams along with the Swiss national team have signed up for the series.

Participating teams:

AG2R La Mondiale
BORA-hansgrohe
CCC Team
Deceuninck – Quick-Step Team
EF Pro Cycling
Groupama-FDJ
Israel Start-Up Nation
Lotto Soudal
Mitchelton-SCOTT
Movistar Team
NTT Pro Cycling
Rally Cycling
Team INEOS
Team Jumbo-Visma
Team Sunweb
Total Direct Energie
Trek-Segafredo
Swiss national team

The riders’ bikes will be connected to “smart” trainers, which have surged in popularity as the COVID19 virus has forced millions of people to stay at home. The trainers pair with the platform and the riders watch the course and their position on their monitor in real-time. As the profile of the course goes uphill and downhill, the trainer automatically applies more or less resistance to the pedals.

Throughout the races, the riders’ data – speed, power and cadence – will be on display.

Graham Bartlett, CEO, Velon, said: “Velon is all about innovation and we wanted to do something on another level – to bring the fans real competition amongst the best teams in the world. We wanted to do something as close to live racing as we could, not just another ‘ride out’, and give the fans some real sport to watch in these tough times.”

Joko Vogel, Co-CEO Cycling Unlimited AG (Organization of Tour de Suisse, TORTOUR Ultracycling & Gravel and Alpenbrevet), said: “We are overwhelmed by how many teams have confirmed their participation in The Digital Swiss 5 in such a short time. This shows us that the need for such events is very big and very much appreciated. The professionals have the opportunity to compete under competition conditions and see where they stand. We are looking forward to this world premiere and thank everyone for having the courage to join us in this adventure.”

Petr Samek, CEO, ROUVY, said: “We are happy to provide the teams and global cycling community with a digital platform for 1:1 simulation of outdoor races. This is a unique experience and moment of the history of our sport. Tour de Suisse, Velon and ROUVY have come up with unprecedented innovation and it is so exciting to be an integral part of it. All cycling enthusiasts will be able to see and compare their favourite team’s performances in real-time. ROUVY is an app where everyone’s dream of being a part of the pro-peloton becomes a reality.”

THE DIGITAL SWISS 5 RACES:

• Race 1: Wednesday, April 22
• Race 2: Thursday, April 23
• Race 3: Friday, April 24
• Race 4: Saturday, April 25
• Race 5: Sunday, April 26

The team rosters and details of how and where to watch will be announced shortly.

Interview with Groupama-FDJ medical director Jacky Maillot

The team posted this:

Since the start of the break caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team’s sport and performance departments have been able to give their take on the situation. Today, it is up to the medical’s one, through the voice of its medical director Jacky Maillot, to raise the issues connected to the current period and more specifically riding on trainers. It is also an opportunity to learn more about the functioning of the team’s health department.

Jacky, the riders have got back on trainers for a week. What are the main risks of this activity?

The first one can be dehydration. When you train for one or two hours a day, you sweat a lot and lose a lot of minerals. To avoid this, we created a note with the trainers to provide hydration advice to the riders, whether it would be for minerals or electrolytes. The second risk would be to make, in particular through new software, unusual, intense and extended efforts because you are caught up in the game of virtual racing. Riders can reach quite high intensity levels and the trainers, unlike the road, don’t permit a rest period or “freewheeling”. If these efforts are combined with insufficient carbohydrate intake, for example, you can put your immune system at risk. This is also the case with dehydration. In this period of viral epidemic, this is something we really want to be careful about. We want to enable our riders to keep their good physical condition, or get it back, but without compromising their immune system, which is a priority.

Are there other traps to avoid?

In addition to staying well hydrated, you should avoid making efforts on an empty stomach. When there is no intake of carbohydrate drinks and nutrients for muscles and the intestine, the body is mistreated and secretes a hormone, cortisol, which is well known for its immunosuppressive effects. If you are not careful and do 1h-1h30 on the trainers on an empty stomach in the morning in order to try not to gain weight, which is another problem in this lockdown period, you risk weakening your immune system and therefore to be very vulnerable in case of contact with the virus.

Is there also a risk of overtraining on stationary trainers?

It’s not necessarily about overtraining. That being said, the rider has habits of eating and hydrating on the road. On the trainers however, he can sometimes forget about it thinking that it will not last long or that there will not be too high intensities. But then, he gets into it… And when he produces high intensities over long periods of time, this is when he must be very careful about intake of carbohydrate drinks and electrolytes. He sweats a lot; he loses a lot of iron, magnesium, sodium, and potassium. His homeostasis (metabolic balances) can therefore be unbalanced and lead to immune deficiencies. In this case, he gets very vulnerable to microbes, and we already know that in normal times, the heavy training loads of a sportsman weaken his immune system. The risk of overtraining is not high on the stationary trainers because we quickly get to the saturation point. However, repeating very intense workouts can indeed put the immune system at risk.

What are the ideal conditions for the stationary trainers practice?

It all depends what context you want to practice it in. When you just want to get back to training and do some workloads, there is not point of being demanding with the conditions. Most importantly, the rider must feel comfortable whether he’s outside or in his garage. However, it is still necessary to have a bit of ventilation if he is indoors, either by standing next to the window or by using a fan. Otherwise, you breathe stuffy air and this creates toxins more quickly. Body temperature rises very fast. We know that after 45 minutes, it already reaches 38.5-39°C because of the effort that is produced. Knowing that this type of effort is likely to be repeated, the rider shouldn’t create imbalances that could set in for several weeks and that you would pay later. For now, comfort is the priority, but it is possible that the rider will find himself in slightly more extreme conditions in a few weeks to get him used to efforts in hot conditions. When we’ll resume racing, it will certainly be summer, so we will have to be acclimatized. Also, the brightness is not necessary but it is for sure more pleasant and mentally stimulating to ride on the trainers outside when the weather is nice.

Are there specific risks of injury?

You can indeed put yourself at risk of injury, particularly tendinopathy, tendinitis, when you don’t have a suitable nutrition. There is also a risk of tendinomuscular damage when you don’t hydrate enough. You also have to be careful about all the bike’s settings, which you also do in normal times. Riders give so many pedal strokes that the slightest defective adjustment can lead to injuries, like tendinopathies around the knee, low back pain and gluteal muscle pain. These are the usual risks but the stationary trainers increase them due to the lack of positions changes. So, of course, the injuries mentioned above can occur more easily. The quality of the saddle is therefore very important, in particular to avoid all lesions of the perineum, but also to work on all the gluteal muscles, which don’t get massage at the moment. Because of that, we have also set up, with our physiotherapists, video sessions of core strength, general physical preparation and above all stretching. They are reminded what are the good moves for stretching since they cannot benefit from recovery massage at home at this time.

We understand that the general physical preparation should not be left apart in this period.

It is indeed important in many ways. There is a need for sufficient abdominal, gluteal and lumbar strengthening for two reasons. Firstly, to prevent injuries. If a rider is not strengthened enough, his pelvis endures multiple movements with each pedalling effort, which can cause pain on muscles and ligaments and become very harmful in a race. A lack of general physical preparation can also lead to pain in the gluteal muscles but also in piriformis muscles, which can potentially cause sciatica, which is very complicated to solve in addition to being troublesome. At the moment, there is a double interest in the general physical preparation because all these muscles (thighs, calves, gluteal) are not massaged. The more the riders will be strengthened, the less they will use these gluteal muscles and the less the will have sciatic pathologies or gluteal pain. It is therefore important to stay fit. We usually do ‘GPP’ sessions during training camps in December and January. Riders have less time for it afterwards, but many still do it to stay in shape. We took this opportunity to give a reminder on core strength and stretching, which keep the riders busy in addition to being useful. It also creates sort of a dynamic between everyone and the medical service.

In the current situation, is your support towards the riders even more advanced than usual?

We have prepared several things for them, such as general physical preparation and stretching instructions as I have just explained. We obviously remain available for them for any question or request, and we also offer them more psychological support. During this period, some may feel a little more vulnerable, which is why a psychotherapist and a mental coach are there to help them if necessary. We also take advantage of this period to set up dietary support at two levels. For both the Conti and the WorldTeam, we are starting to carry out nutritional evaluations in order to correct some things if necessary. At the same time, they are given advice on how to avoid gaining weight, which is also a problem because they do less exercise. Usually, they can go out for up to six hours, so the energy expenditure is really high. It is obviously less on the trainers. Dietetics is important to maintain good health with strong immune system during an epidemic. The nutritional quality of what the rider will eat during or outside of the effort will determine his immune system’s state and performance. This is something well known to the most experienced members of the team, to whom we just give little reminders and suggest taking food supplements. For the youngest, whether they are from the Conti or from the WorldTeam, we emphasise the good practices and the support is more extensive. Emails have been sent to them to remind them of the importance of dietary supplements and certain nutrients in shaping a better immune system. We were also able to start analysing their daily calorie rations to find out if everything was well balanced in terms of quantity and quality.

Are there any changes in the relationship between the medical service and the rest of the team given the context?

The relationship is the same than usual, it has not decreased. On the opposite, there are more exchanges. For example, I had a video meeting with Fred Grappe (performance director) and a cook in order to provide culinary advice to our young guys from the development team. They get in our team at the age of 18-19 and do not necessarily know how to cook. We also want to bring them these kinds of skills and this is an opportunity to implement all of this. As soon as they will return to Besançon, they will therefore have lessons to learn how to cook food and know the nutritional quality of it. Our relationships with all services, and especially with the performance department, remain very strong. We exchange on a daily basis. For example, eleven workouts have been defined. From there, we established nutritional advice for each workout. We try to take advantage of all this time to do things that we don’t have time to do in normal times, because of racing and traveling. Generally speaking, I think this break could bring some good as the team is trying to implement things in every area. It can also strengthen ties and show the riders that they are not left behind, that everyone is committed to support them as much as possible and make them as comfortable as possible. This is an important period and I think we can come out of it with an even more united group and team spirit, if there were ever a need.

In “normal” times, how does the medical service operate within the team?

When a rider has a health problem, he gets in touch with me. There are then two options. Either I can fix the problem and it doesn’t have an influence on his performance, or the problem can affect his participation in a race. I then notify both the performance department and the sports management that the rider is unavailable for a certain period of time. Information must be brought in as quickly as possible. Then, it is up to me to exchange with the rider’s trainer and sports director to adjust, depending on the injury or illness, the training load, which can be zero or progressive. We communicate urgently when there is a scheduled competition and we then move towards very constructive and regular discussions between the three departments to monitor the rider’s recovery.

Is it difficult to find the right balance between health and performance?

To be successful you obviously have to be in good health, this is the sine qua non condition. It is therefore up to us, within the medical service, to make sure of it with the riders. But we also know that to be successful, you must accumulate important training loads, which can be harmful to health at some point. It is up to us to study and monitor all of this, which we do thanks to questionnaires, interrogations and quite extensive biological results. We are trying to study the markers that show that the impact of the workload is satisfactory, or on the opposite too high. In the latter case, we get in touch with the coach and the sports director to tell them that a given rider is in the “yellow-orange” zone, that he must therefore ease off, skip a few races so that he can rest and get competitive again. We must define control markers to be able not to bring our riders towards overtraining. Because once this level is reached, it’s a disaster for the rider, as he must stop racing for 3 to 6 months. Within the medical service, we must anticipate the impact of workloads on the rider’s health. As soon as it exceeds certain areas, it can lead to injury or infectious disease. I’ve talked a lot about the immune system, but that’s because it’s very important to us. If a rider catches a virus, whatever the virus may be, he no longer performs well. A virus can be completely harmless for anyone but lead to several weeks off for a rider. It is therefore up to us to keep him healthy so that he can, later on, perform well.

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