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Sonni Colbrelli, professional cyclist of Team Bahrain Merida, was protagonist of an excellent test in Hamburg in the classic race made for sprinters and who saw the Italian champion Elia Viviani triumph for the second time.
It was an attacking race that saw Sonni as a leading actor up to a few kilometers from the finish line. It is he himself who guides us in a series of considerations and that refer us to the theme of this period. After a stage race how do you keep your physical condition high?
But let’s go in order starting from Hamburg.
“The German race is a race that has some unique characteristics and that in the years has seen the winner take the lead only in the last 5 kilometers“.
Despite his strength is the sprint, Colbrelli decided to try the surprise shot with an attack on the last climb.
“It’s like that. I felt good, a race like this, easy and with a climb that also the sprinters can afford is usually marked to end with a sprint. Many team such as Groupama – FDJ and Quick Step have great domestiques that work for their leader. I’m disadvantaged because I do not have a team so equipped in the sprints and I have to jump on the wheels trying to untangle it myself “.
The Brescian however has not lost the fighting spirit: “I wanted to try. Many times it has happened that the pursuers instead of catching the leader have looked at each other for a moment and maybe … you get to the finish line. At one point I believed in it. On the run with me there were important cyclist able to ride very fast like Van Poppel, Stannard, Roelandts, Teuns, Kristoff and Tratnik. However, as happens in the crucial stages of the race, someone starts to skip the substitution and so the peloton return to the lead”.
The Tour de France has been finished for a month. How is it possible to keep the physical condition and still go strong?
“First of all, you will have to see how you finish the Tour de France or a 3-week stage race. These are slaughtering commitments, from a mental and physical point of view.
At best, that is, if you get out well, then just take a week off, even avoiding the bike for 4-5 days. The important thing is not to put on weight, maybe a pound, but trying to be controlled “.
How do you understand if the body is tired?
“You have to feel it, the body sends signals. If you feel empty and do not go on then you are very tired. Then there is the support of the coaches. They too have their parameters. The simplest is the one tied to the heart that maybe does not rise in beats. (With the SPH platform there are also the TSS fatigue index and the stress index)
And how do you behave at this stage? You are showing a nice condition, also in September the calendar have important dates.
“There are specific workouts to be done, but I can say that at this point of the season you can live on rent until the end of the year. Let me explain better, this does not mean that you are not training. The fund is there, the important thing is to know how to manage. For example, I have been in the hills for a week and now I’m going back for another regenerating period “.
How do these workouts take place?
“In the mountains you train in a reasoned way, managing your strength. No major efforts are made, they are not good for the body. Personally I have to do some work on strength with the insertion of sprints “.
What is never lacking is intensity?
“Quite right. I work on the intensity with 40×20 series (40″ of major effort and 20″ recovery) with some series and other specific workouts like the sprints. Otherwise, I do medium-long runs on the plains with a quarter of an hour sprinting.
This is the work that will bring Colbrelli to the September races with some clear goals in mind. “There are the World Tour trials in Canada, then France in Plouay and the Italian races where I have always done well …”.
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