This stage of the 2022 tour promises to be epic, 3 climbs among the most mythical of the tour, including 2 at more than 2000 m of altitude, 4500 m of positive vertical drop and only 42 km of valley between the climbs. So before you tackle the myth, here are the main advices that Watts Your Feelings can give you:
1) Prepare the D-day with attention: Locate the key points of the course and learn them or at least note them: Km of beginning and end of the climbs, difficult kilometers in the passes, water points, feeding zones, portions of more technical descents, find them on our analysis of the course of the Etape du Tour 2022 and Ideally carry out a training course of recognition of the stage of the tour.
2) Prepare yourself physically, an individualized training according to your potential, your constraints and this mountainous course will allow you to wait for your objectives and to live fully and positively this stage of the tour. To do so, discover our different training follow-up formulas and contact us!
3) Manage your effort and your level of concentration, the long climbs, even interminable will have to be managed not to finish by zigzagging in Alpe d'Huez and the descents will have to be too. You have the objective to make a good classification, the objective in the descents will be to go down quickly without going to the fault or to start your physical capital, Objective finisher by taking pleasure, your objective will be here to ensure your descents to recover physically without going to the fault. Read our article dedicated to effort management on the 2022 Etape du Tour and adopt the winning strategy!
4) Beware of altitude, past 1000m hypoxia (Decrease in the amount of oxygen that the blood distributes to the tissues) leads to a decrease in your maximum performance (minimal at this altitude, but still present) and past the 2000m mark (which will be the case on the last 8.6km of ascent of the Galibier) you can feel the effects even at rest. To adapt to this, it is impossible for you to do an altitude training course like the professional runners do, these require a first exposure of at least 3 weeks to be effective. You can however plan a weekend in the mountains, a reconnaissance course or even a cyclosportive at altitude in your calendar to know your reaction to the effort at altitude.
5) The diet before and especially on D-day will be one of the keys to the success or failure of your stage of the Tour. The key will be to be able to save as much as possible of your glycogen reserves for the final stage (intramuscular sugar), in fact the first factor of decrease in performance is a decrease in glycogen reserves. To do this you will need to consume a lot of carbohydrates on the day, but to be able to do this you will need to test and train yourself to support this type of nutritional strategy as the pro riders do. To find out more, follow the link: How to manage your nutrition on the Etape du Tour.
6) Last point, adapt to the weather, the long descents can be cold at 2000m of altitude, even frigid if by misfortune it is a rainy day, on the contrary a hot day can await you. In any case, it will be necessary to adapt your clothing, effort management and nutrition to the climatic conditions of July 10th 2022.
All you have to do is prepare yourself and to go into more detail on the different subjects follow the links (course analysis / effort management / diet management) and don't hesitate to follow our different blog articles on training and performance in cycling.