In this article, we look at the first five days of the Bahrain-Victorious winter training camp through the Strava files of Matej Mohorič which included lactate testing, a VO2 Max power test, and team time trial (TTT) practice.
Prelude
Credit to David Hunter: cycling media has a lack of post-race analysis. How did he or she win? What factors affected this race result? How did the winner execute their attack, and did they win with more power, timing, luck, or skill?
Take Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, for example. Tiesj Benoot won with timing, mostly.
A quick analysis of the final result looks obvious: Benoot wins with a final-kilometer attack on the right side of the road. Now, we don’t know their exact power numbers or how many carbohydrates were left coursing through their bloodstream; but it certainly seemed like Benoot was on his last legs before that final attack.
The Belgian was tired, and the others looked more sprightly. Perhaps Benoot thought he only had one effort in his legs, so he had to use it late. When you’re running on empty, you save putting the pedal to the metal for the final 500m. If you attack at 2k to go, your tank will go empty as you pass under the red kite.
His rivals were looking over their left shoulders as Benoot attacked on the right. Two seconds of hesitation was all it took for the Belgian to secure the victory...
Of course, there are some commentators out there, but they are mostly in the video space. They make excellent YouTube videos, streaming content, and Instagram reels. I’m not a Tik Tok expert, but I don’t think there’s much post-bike-race analysis there, either.
The post-race Power Analyses are my attempt at filling this void. I could always write more, but writing is becoming a lost art when everyone’s attention span is 60 seconds or less.
Somewhere, maybe there is room for longer analyses and in-depth articles. But if there’s not, I’ll post them here. I enjoy writing, and I could talk about bike racing forever. So might as well marry the two.
How do professional cyclists train in the off-season?
How many hours do they ride per week? Are there more café stops or threshold intervals? What’s the deal with lactate testing, and do pros go to high altitude in the winter?
In this article, I set out to learn what a WorldTour team does at their January training camp. And who better to learn from than Matej Mohorič, the 28-year-old Slovenian who posts all of his training and racing on Strava…with power data! Thank you, Matej.
From what I’ve heard, November and December training camps are for sponsors, base miles, and socializing. After the New Year, training gets a lot more serious, and many riders are already racing by the first week of February.
Bahrain-Victorious held their January camp in the Comunidad Valencian in Spain. Situated on the east coast of the country, the area is known for great cycling and beautiful winter weather.
Training Camp: Day 1
It’s typically an easy day at training camp, as riders don’t want to go hard too early and lose their top-end after a few days at training camp. Perhaps this was easy for Mohorič, but his 4-hour ride included a ~25-minute interval of sustained Sweet Spot power with 15 to 20-second VO2 surges every three minutes.
For Mohorič (whose FTP is 400w), Sweet Spot is ~370w (5.1w/kg) and VO2 is 650w (9w/kg).
Intervals: 20min Sweet Spot with VO2 Surges [6x (3’@370w, 15”@650w)]
Quick note: this article (as well as most articles in existence) contains a number of inferences and assumptions. I wasn’t there – boots on the ground – with Bahrain-Victorious at their training camp. Thus, my assumptions about their training are educated guesses. But they’re usually right.
You can tell from Mohorič’s power files that he has a huge engine, i.e. super-high aerobic fitness. Based on a maximum heart rate of around 185 bpm, Mohorič should have a Zone 2 heart rate cap (the limit of his aerobic threshold) somewhere around 140 bpm. During these rides, he is routinely pushing 310-320w at 140 bpm.
Training Camp: Day 2
This looks like the lactate testing day at Bahrain-Victorious’ training camp. While I am not an expert at lactate testing, I do know the basics of the testing protocol.
Riders are instructed to ride up and down a single climb, which is best for simulating repeatable laboratory conditions. The efforts start easy, under the aerobic threshold, until the aerobic threshold is reached somewhere around 2 mmol per liter.
Once the aerobic threshold is passed, blood lactate begins to increase at a rapid rate. Though for professional cyclists, this rate is still quite low as their bodies are well-trained to quickly and efficiently clear blood lactate.
The climbing repeats (usually 5-10 minutes in length) are performed, and blood lactate readings are taken immediately following each effort. Most teams have a coach or doctor standing on the side of the road with a lactate meter. All it takes is a quick prick of the ear or finger to get a reliable reading.
Not all testing protocols are the same, but Mohorič kept going until he reached maximal effort on the final step of the test. You can see he really squeezed out every ounce of power with a sharp acceleration in the final moments of the test.
Here are the results of Matej Mohorič’s lactate testing (probably):
Lap 1: 6:44@291w, avgHR 126bpm
Lap 2: 6:02@320w, avgHR 135bpm (probably his aerobic threshold)
Lap 3: 5:32@349w, avgHR 142bpm
Lap 4: 5:14@380w, avgHR 149bpm
Lap 5: 4:52@411w, avgHR 156bpm
Lap 6: 4:31@442w, avgHR 162bpm
Lap 7: 4:12@470w, avgHR 171bpm
Lap 8: 4:07@518w, avgHR 174bpm, maxHR 185bpm
After the lactate testing, Mohorič rode another 3.5 hours at a normalized power of 270w. Most of the riding was done under his aerobic threshold (<300w), but he did do some Tempo and Sweet Spot in the final 60km of the ride.
Tempo Interval: 24 minutes@326w (4.5w/kg)
Sweet Spot Interval: 15 minutes@298w (NP 328w)
Training Camp: Day 3
Another big day, but this time, the hard efforts came in the second half of the ride. The day began with 3.5 hours of easy riding (NP 263w) before some serious climbing intervals.
First up was a full ascent of the Taberna, which Mohorič rode at over 400w. But the intervals were a lot more complicated than that. Here’s what Mohorič had on his computer screen (or taped to his handlebars):
Climbing Intervals: 3x (3’@370w, then 3x 40/20s@515w/285w)
Do those numbers look familiar? 515w and 285w. Those are almost certainly numbers taken from the previous days’ lactate testing. ~515w is Mohorič’s VO2 max power, and ~285w is just below his aerobic threshold.
After a long descent and 30 minutes of stopping (at the cafe?), Mohorič repeated the same set of intervals, but this time, on an uneven climb. His power was all over the place during the final of three repetitions, but this interval set was identical to the first.
Training Camp: Day 4
Mohorič doesn’t have any data posted from this day, so we can assume that it was a rest day. Damiano Caruso (also on Bahrain-Victorious) went out and rode for four hours with climbing repeats. But as we’ll see with Mohorič’s upcoming rides, it’s safe to assume that he took at least one rest day during the team’s training camp.
Training Camp: Day 5
Most of the time, professional cyclists are riding at less than 200w. WorldTour pros put in tons of hours (15-30 per week), but most of their riding is done at a very low intensity. Just look at the first hour of this ride, for example.
First hour of Day 4:
Average power 209w
Average HR 115bpm
On some of the descents, when Mohorič coasted for 30 seconds, his heart rate would dip to the low 70s.
Following the warm-up, I can only presume that Bahrain-Victorious had their riders jump onto their time trial (TT) bikes since the next set of intervals was done along the Spanish coast at speed of 50-60kph.
Each effort got progressively harder and faster. Based on Mohorič’s spiky power output, I am guessing that these were team time trial intervals. During these efforts, we can see 30-second sections of 500-550w from Mohorič, which seems to be the gold standard for pulling in a WorldTour TTT.
You can even see his power steadily rising as he moves through the group. As he nears the front, he is saving fewer watts in the draft; thus, he has to work harder to maintain his position.
Each TTT effort was 15-20 minutes long, with the second and third repetitions at a higher intensity. Here’s what it looked like from the power meter of Matej Mohorič:
Bahrain-Victorious TTT Intervals:
Lap 1: 18:49@281w, avgHR 132bpm, avg speed 48kph
Lap 2: 16:39@325w, avgHR 148bpm, avg speed 54kph (tailwind)
Lap 3: 18:09@320w, avgHR 148bpm, avg speed 51kph (headwind)
Stay tuned for Part II of Bahrain-Victorious’ January Training Camp. Here’s a summary of what we’ve seen so far:
Matej Mohorič at Bahrain-Victorious’ January Training Camp:
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DAY 1: 4 hours with 1900m climbing, NP 284w
Intervals: 20′ Sweet Spot with VO2 Surges [6x (3’@370w, 15”@650w)]
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DAY 2: 5 hours 13 minutes at an NP of 295w
Intervals: lactate testing, including a maximal 4’ effort at 518w; some Sweet Spot and Tempo in the second half of the ride
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DAY 3: 5.5 hours with 3000m of climbing, NP 290w
Intervals: two sets of 3x (3’@370w, then 3x 40/20s@515w/285w) with 30’ recovery
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DAY 4: rest day (probably)
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DAY 5: 4 hours with 2000m of climbing, NP 284w
Intervals: 3x (~18’ TTT intervals, pulling at 500-550w for 30”)
Header imager: Getty Images