Spinning class: Tour de France - Stage 15

Today (or this week, as I teach at different gyms and so change my profile once a week), we're heading into the Alps after a rest day and four days of flat stages. I'm expecting this stage to be one where the pace will be kept high by the leading contenders, to separate themselves from the mere mortals. No suicidal attacks, as the stage to Alpe d'Huez will be foremost in their minds...

Profile



We start off in the neutral zone, the bit between the depart fictif and the start of the stage... known to our Spinning classes as a warm-up! Quite short but don't worry, we have plenty of time to get into the ride with a steady seated climb, gradually increasing resistance to find our climbing legs. With that same resistance, we continue up the same long climb, varying between seated and standing to make sure we spread the workload and make it more manageable while adding resistance if able to do so. For the final five minutes of the climb, we can afford to keep that strong resistance, knowing that a downhill recovery awaits. Breathing will be heavier and more rapid as we get closer to the summit, as is evident from the heavy breathing of the cyclists on the "Tour de France" track. The air is thin up here but push yourself even harder for the final two minutes.

Phew! Almost 20 minutes of climbing and we're not done yet! Luckily, we can recover during the fast downhill and, if we want to, the flat section too. However, it's not really flat - we keep the tempo high but, for two 30-second periods, we turn up the resistance as the incline rises slightly and push harder to use that momentum to get us over that hill and back to the flat road. Can be challenging if you want it to be - riding along with a tailwind at 110rpm, then the resistance kicks in and you try to maintain a high cadence... HR will rise rapidly but it's over soon enough. That takes care of the Sprint and 3rd Category climb.

Then we begin our second and final climb - again we build that resistance up to our previous high levels until, with four minutes to the summit, we take a turn off the main road and head up a steeper gradient. We can't take anymore in the saddle, so we stand up to use the power of our quads to push through that resistance and keep our momentum. No attacks on this stage but we should be pushing to our very limits (and beyond!) right to the line. HR will likely be 85-90% for the final section. Strong, hard effort - simple profile but by no means easy!

Warm-up - 4 mins
Seated climb - 6 mins
Strong climb, alternating seated and standing - 8 mins
Hard climb, seated to standing - 5 mins
Downhill recovery - 3 mins
Flat road with rolling hills - 3 mins
Hard climb, seated to standing - 9.5 mins
Cool down - 6.5 mins

Playlist

Life in mono - Mono
Twisted by the pool - FAC15 feat. Cathi Ogden
Love on my mind - Freemasons feat. Amanda Wilson
Tour de France - Kraftwerk
You don't love me - Dawn Penn
Sans papiers - Bandabardo
Future (Evolution mix) - Magic Solutions, Randy Garcia & Rube
Don't cry - Seal