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The coach's perspective: It's all about recovery
You know that feeling you get on a hot summer afternoon, when there’s as much heat coming off the road as from the sun? When the only breeze you get is the hot exhaust from cars? When it seems like sweating is a fruitless endeavor because it doesn’t feel like it’s cooling you down at all? That’s what it’s like to climb mountains in the Pyrénées.
The only benefit to racing counter-clockwise around France is that you get the Pyrénées over with sooner. These mountains drain the energy out of riders, and today’s stage covered five of them. Recovery is going to be critical tonight for anyone hoping to reach Paris.
Recovery begins on the bike. Lance learned his lesson in 2000 when he bonked on the Joux-Plane. He didn’t eat enough on a long mountain stage and he cracked on the final climb. He had to dig very deep to haul himself over the top of that mountain pass, and he never wants to be in that situation again.
The food eaten during the stage is not only to prevent bonking, but also it helps to minimize the stress put on muscle tissues and the immune system. Immune system function is very important in a three-week stage race. The stress on riders’ bodies is so great; a slight infection that would normally go away becomes a big deal and often knocks the rider out of the race.
Lance Armstrong is sponsored by PowerBar because he likes them and they work for him. During stages, he eats PowerBars in addition to sandwiches and fruit. Following the stages, many of the riders, including Lance, are handed bags of food. There is almost always a baked potato in the bag, and the guys eat them like apples.
The bars, sandwiches and potatoes are all geared toward replenishing glycogen supplies within the first hour off the bike. During this glycogen window, the body is most efficient at transporting glucose from the bloodstream into muscle tissue, and storing it there as glycogen. They also depend on their trusty blenders for protein smoothies on the bus ride to the hotel and later on. In the evening, you will almost never see a Tour rider without some form of food or drink in his hand.
Tomorrow’s stage is in the rolling terrain between the Pyrénées and Mont Ventoux. For some riders it will be a chance to sit in and attempt to recuperate from the past two days in the mountains. For riders who feel strong, tomorrow is a great chance to win a Tour de France stage in a breakaway. After today, the fourth placed rider on General Classification is over 5 minutes behind Lance Armstrong. The Postal Service should not have any problem letting a breakaway go up the road to compete for a stage win.
The Tour de France is by no means over. There are still five mountain stages remaining, including Sunday’s barren climb up to the summit of Mont Ventoux. Lance looks strong and capable of handling all challengers, but Joseba Beloki is proving to be a phenomenal competitor this year. He did a lot of work since last July and it definitely shows. Lance has been able to get away from him near the end of stages so far, but this year the Spaniard is leaving behind riders who left him behind in 2001. Beloki is amply filling the role Jan Ullrich left open.
