After all your hard work the time is coming to taper down your training to ensure that you arrive at the start line fresh and ready to perform at your best.

Many people are scared to back off their training in the approach to a big event, believing that all their hard work in the previous months will slip away. However, just as it’s important to incorporate rest into your normal training regime, a well-planned taper can give a real boost in your performance on the day, ensuring that you arrive fit, fresh and in the best possible physical condition to get a fast time.

The key to a good taper is to gradually reduce your training load overall while maintaining some of your more intense riding.

This ensures you remain sharp for the climbs you’ll face on the Etape while minimising fatigue. You can include an extra rest day per week in the final 7-14 days but in general, maintain the frequency of your training, instead reducing the overall volume and number of harder efforts.

For example, if in the weeks leading up to the taper you have been doing 40-45 minutes of threshold level training to work on your climbing, reduce this to 20-30 minutes of work in these final weeks, but maintain the intensity.

None of these sessions should leave you feeling overly tired so, after a last long ride aiming for a distance close to the Etape duration with 10-14 days to go, begin to back off your training. A good rule of thumb is to back off to a weekly training volume of around half your peak training volume in the final week leading up to the Etape, but maintaining the proportions of endurance and higher intensity rides.

Diet

During this period your energy needs will decrease quite a bit from your peak training weeks and with the amount of climbing in the Etape you’ll want to modify your diet as well to avoid any weight gain in this final fortnight.

Your appetite should decrease due to the reduction in training load but if you’re the type of person who likes the fact that cycling allows you to eat more than usual be especially careful in this period to not overdo it.

For most of this period cutting down on your portion sizes will be the best way to ensure you’re not taking on too many calories while still having enough carbohydrates, protein and fruit and veg to stay healthy.

While we want to avoid weight gain during this period of reduced training, as we mentioned in the previous article it’s important to ensure you are well fuelled with carbohydrates in the day or two before the Etape to maximise your performance on the day.