Stephen says: “Every cyclist, young and old, has had the pleasure (or displeasure) of riding in a breakaway with fellow sufferers in an attempt to forge a gap that will take you to the finish line with a chance of a win or perhaps you have simply jumped away from your training group hoping to get the best seat in the café before the others arrive.

“No matter the reason for this effort the principals of your development stay the same – boosting your threshold and ability to go slightly ‘over’ your threshold and slightly ‘under’ your threshold as you take turns in the pace line and keep up the speed of the group.

“One of the best ways to develop your threshold, which is an essential objective to all endurance cyclists, and also your ability to go over/under your threshold, is using specific pace/intensity changes during a tailored interval session. This is normally done at an elevated effort than that which you would ride in a breakaway but the adaption and development brought by such training sessions see great gains in not only your threshold riding but your three to five minute maximum power.”

The training session – lactate tolerance efforts

Ten minutes warm-up (zone two)

3×30 second fast cadence efforts, 120rpm+ (zone three), with thirty seconds recovery (zone one) between each effort

4×5 minute lactate tolerance efforts. Each effort should consist of:
– one minute VO2 (zone five)
– one minute threshold (zone four)
– one minute tempo (zone three)
– one minute threshold (zone four)
– one minute VO2 (zone five)

Seven minutes recovery (zone one) between each effort

Five minutes cool down