This plan is for: Riders aiming to take on long-distance sportive events or simply to build their endurance capabilities.

This plan will: Make you fitter, leaner and faster for long-distance events lasting over five hours. The structured sessions will help you improve your climbing, speed and endurance, enabling you to tackle epic challenges with confidence and determination.

Before you start, you will need: A good level of base fitness — you’ll have cycled consistently, three or four times a week, over the previous six months leading up to start of structured training.

How it works: This plan will build your aerobic base and improve your aerobic capacity. It targets those aspects of performance that increase endurance and the ability to complete longer events strongly and confidently. The initial phase is focused on building muscular strength and developing cadence, which in tandem boost fatigue resistance and reduce muscular fatigue. In the next phase, volume is increased to enhance aerobic fitness by stimulating greater mitochondrial biogenesis (production of mitochondria — the powerhouse of the cell), enhanced capillarisation in the muscles (blood supply), and the development of slow-twitch muscles fibres. The low-intensity sessions help train the body to more efficiently use fat as a fuel source, while the higher aerobic efforts, in sweetspot and tempo ranges, improve economy.