In the not-too-distant old days of the sport, cyclists packed on weight in the off-season, eating and drinking with no qualms about the increasing numbers on the scales.
Cyclists traditionally used the spring classics, the one-day races in central Europe, to get into shape. By the start of the Tour de France in early July, they had whittled their body fat to acceptable levels after riding hundreds of miles a week.
But cyclists did little specific preparation for the biggest race of the season. Strategy tended to be formed on the saddle during the race, not aggressively plotted months in advance. Riders rarely previewed the stages in the months before the Tour. Instead, they glanced at the route profiles, relying mostly on their team directors to tell them the stage nuances.
Then, in 1999, Lance Armstrong brought his analytical American ways to this quintessential European event and won three straight Tour championships, a first for a U.S. rider. With another victory this month–the race began Saturday with the prologue time trial in Luxembourg and Armstrong the overwhelming favorite–he would become only the fourth cyclist in the event’s 99-year history to win four straight.
The consensus is that Armstrong’s training methods leave him better prepared, mentally and physically, for those cold, miserably wet afternoons climbing the treacherous passes in the Alps and the muscle-blowing time trials ridden in hot, sultry weather. These are the stages that break the strongest of wills and generally crown the Tour champion.
“Armstrong is perfectly in control, and he’s better prepared than his rivals,” said noted Tour historian Jacques Augendre.
Added Tyler Hamilton, a former teammate of Armstrong’s: “He pushes himself harder than most riders do. There are no rest days for this guy. Every day is an opportunity to make himself stronger.”
During training, Armstrong rides in the thin air of the mountains in France and Switzerland and at times sleeps in a special tent to naturally boost his blood’s ability to carry oxygen. His U.S. Postal team is the only team to travel with a chiropractor during training camps and at the Tour. Jeff Spencer, a 1972 Olympic track cyclist, also is trained to use an Erchonia Cold Laser, which promotes healing and offers pain relief. He also uses a special athletic technique developed by the Japanese to keep body aches, specifically tendinitis, at bay.
“I think it’s why the team has been so durable,” Spencer said. “It’s a whole different way of looking at the Tour.”
As he has done since winning his first Tour, Armstrong has ridden 100 miles a day, seven days a week since early March. Chris Carmichael, his private coach, sometimes chastises Armstrong for riding too much in the winter.
Armstrong’s U.S. Postal team gathered in Austin in December for the first of four pre-Tour training camps, similar to the mini-camps conducted by most professional football and basketball teams in the United States.
Every day, Armstrong logs on to Carmichael’s Web site and downloads training data. Carmichael scrutinizes Armstrong’s daily heart rate, the power watts he produces on the bike, his pedal cadence and his speed, then makes recommendations.
“Lance’s training is a big deal,” said Carmichael, a veteran of the 1986 Tour. “It’s something that Lance does that not very many other riders do.”
Rather than competing in more classic races, Armstrong has chosen to practice on the key Tour stages in the Alps and Pyrenees–an idea he got from U.S. Postal team director Johan Bruyneel, who did the same thing when he competed in the Tour in the 1990s.
“Stage previews like we have been doing weren’t so common,” Bruyneel said. “Lance was one of the few who did it in 1999. Now a lot of people are copying him.”
The key stages are the six in the mountains, split between the Alps and the Pyrenees, and the three time trials. Every competition Armstrong chooses is geared to make him a more complete rider in the Tour rather than enhance his world ranking. The two events he won this year, the Midi Libre and the Dauphine Libere, were selected because the races had towering mountain stages and long time trials, similar to what Armstrong will see at the Tour.
“It’s definitely just about getting familiar with the route,” Armstrong said. “Back in the old days, I never paid attention [before the start of the Tour] to the mountain stages. I rode in the slow group in the back, just hoping to finish.
“Now, when it’s crunch time, I know I’ll be there. I know that in May and June, I suffered on that climb when there were no crowds cheering me on.”
Armstrong rarely focuses on the flat stages, which are won by the sprinters but rarely decide the overall title. The time trials are so important to him that three days a week he trains on his time-trial bike. This way he grows more comfortable riding in the more aerodynamic, time-trial position–tightly crouched over the seat with his arms at 90-degree angles to his handlebars. He often takes the heavier bike into the mountains during those training rides so he can be prepared for time trials on flat ground and in the mountains.
“Everything about Lance is very strategic,” Carmichael said. “Every training ride has a specific goal.”
One of the final phases of Armstrong’s Tour preparation came in mid-June, when he rented a house in Switzerland for his family–wife Kristin, son Luke and twin daughters Isabelle and Grace–so he could train at 9,000 feet.
When he is unable to ride in the mountains, Armstrong can sleep in a special tent, equipped with a generator that scrubs oxygen from the air, reducing the percentage from a normal of 20.9 to a low as 12. This simulates the thin air at altitude and, in theory, forces the body to add more red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body.
These tents are popular with many cyclists and other endurance athletes. Armstrong uses the system about four times before the Tour, for two weeks at a time.
“The advantage is that when you do hard efforts at altitude, and get used to it, it’s so much easier afterward to perform at sea level,” Bruyneel said. “Also, it’s very useful in recovery. You get used to difficult recovery at altitude, and afterward, recovery is so much easier at sea level.”
Some riders have tried to duplicate Armstrong’s methods, hoping for the same success.
Jan Ullrich, the star German rider for Deutche Team Telekom, was the most prominent rider to mimic Armstrong last year. Ullrich, who admits to a weakness for his mother’s homemade pastries, always gained as much as 30 pounds more on his 6-foot frame during the off-season. But his weight stayed uniform in 2001, and at 160 pounds, he weighed what the 5-11 Armstrong did at the start of the Tour.
Ullrich even hired Austin rider Kevin Livingston, a former close friend and teammate of Armstrong’s on Postal, to be his chief lieutenant during the Tour’s mountain stages.
Still, Ullrich finished second to Armstrong for a second straight year.
“He’s simply unbeatable,” Ullrich said after conceding the 2001 Tour to Armstrong.
Ullrich was unable to train this year because of nagging knee pain and withdrew from the Tour. Gilberto Simoni, winner of the 2000 Tour of Italy and another chief Armstrong rival, failed a drug test in May and was kicked out of the Tour. Beating Ullrich, the 2000 Olympic road champion and 1997 Tour victor, was Armstrong’s main motivation in 2000 and 2001. Now that motivation is missing.
“I think it was always good to have Jan in the race,” Armstrong said. “He was always special motivation for me.”
