6. A session to improve your power to weight ratio
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Hill reps are an effective way to improve your climbing prowess
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While professional cyclists are secretive about their power to weight figures, Chris Froome and Alberto Contador will both be over 6w/kg (Pic: Sirotti)
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While Tony Martin is no certainly slouch going uphill, his build and physiology are best-suited to the demands of a time trial, where power is more important in relation to aerodynamics (Pic@ Tim de Waele/Etixx-QuickStep)
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Having reach his physiological potential, Bradley Wiggins improved his climbing ability by losing weight, rather than necessarily focusing on increasing his power (Pic: Sirotti)
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Peter Cossins' looks at 'cycling's greatest climb' in Alpe d'Huez (pic: Media-24)
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No matter how good your kit is, you can't escape the suffering that comes from riding uphill in the heat (Pic: Strava)
6. A session to improve your power to weight ratio
As we’ve already covered, the best – and most sustainable – way to improve your power to weight ratio is to focus on improving your power.
Power to weight on long climbs is all about sustainable power – your anaerobic threshold – so here is a session to work on that all important Functional Threshold Power. This session refers to your training zones – find out how to set your zones here.
- Warm up for 15 minutes in zone two
- 2 x 20 minutes progressive zone four effort – start at the bottom of zone four and finish right at the top of zone four/bottom of zone five
- 10 minutes zone one recovery between efforts
- 10 minutes cool down