Some Numbers from Tour de l'Avenir

I recently had an athlete compete in the Tour de l'Avenir (literally Tour of the Future), the equivalent of an under 23 Tour de France. The best under 23 racers in the world go here to fight for a spot on a World Tour squad. I was very pleased Conor received the opportunity to race because he is 19 years old, the youngest a rider can be to compete in the Tour de l'Avenir. The race consisted of 10 stages ranging in distance from 12 miles to 112 miles. There were flat stages, rolling stages, mountainous stages, and a team time trial. Throughout the race Conor burned a total of 19,494 kiloJoules.

Heading into the race I wanted to be sure that Conor was fresh and ready to work hard. He headed into the race with an all time low for the season chronic training load (CTL) of 92 and a training stress balance (TSB) of +16, and throughout the 10 stage race his CTL rose to 104 and his TSB dropped to -44

         Conor's Performance Management Chart
                  Throughout Tour de l'Avenir

Conor had some good days and some bad days throughout the race. He learned a lot about himself. He had some days where he was doing 348 watts for 16 minutes and 332 watts for 35 minutes. On the ninth stage he got dropped doing 352 watts for 16 minutes up the first climb of the race, and that was it for him for the race. Like I mentioned these guys are the best under 23 riders in the world. They ride quick!

He always tries his hardest and pushes to his limits. Near the end he experienced pain and fatigue but could not sleep and sometimes had the chills. This is all normal stuff when you are pushed to your limit. The performances he did deep into the race were close to or at his FTP. As a coach I could not ask for more, and I am super proud of Conor. Next year we will go back and he will ride even better with the gains we will make this winter.

           Conor and I before the USPro Road Race