Cent Cols Challenge: the tricks of tapering

Cyclists in La Vuelta, the Tour of Spain, take on a climb in the Pyrenees that will feature in the Cent Cols. Photograph: Gaizka Iroz/AFP/Getty Images

In less than a week I will start the Cent Cols Challenge – a bike ride of frightening proportions.

Over 10 days, with around 20 like-minded cyclists, I will climb more than 50,000 metres, cover more than 2,000km and summit 100 French cols (mountain passes). We will travel west from Perpignan, across the Pyrenees and back, riding for up to 10 hours a day in a near permanent state of ascent or descent.

Only a handful of riders have ever completed the ride, and they tell me the gradual but constant assault on mind and body is hard to foresee; not quite like an ironman triathlon or an ultra-marathon, but a slower, more drawn out exhaustion that requires constant attention. By day three, they say, it is an almost entirely mental endeavour.

That said, there is much that can be done in the weeks or so before a major event. Tapering has long since entered the vocabulary of professional and amateur cyclists, but there remains little agreement on how best to achieve the perfect start-line condition. Most agree that the training load should diminish significantly in the days before a sportive or gran fondo, but for a multi-stage event is there a risk that slowing up could shock the body into lethargy?

Alex Dowsett, the former world hour record holder on the track and professional rider for Movistar, says the key to successful tapering is honing the “top end”.

“The majority of the work’s been done and it’s time to fine-tune,” explains the 27-year-old who runs his own training programme called Cyclism. “The strength and endurance phases should be done, and in weeks three and two there’ll likely be fewer hours spent in the saddle but much more quality within what you do; so shorter, sharper but harder intervals with bigger rests between them.”

As the workload reduces, he says, so too should food intake. This view is supported by Charlotte Kennedy, a nutritionist with Etixx, the sports nutrition company that works with a host of pro-teams. She says tapering riders’ training should be matched by a slightly reduced intake of carbohydrates, and a dramatically reduced intake of all things on the treat list. Alcohol, she says, should be wholly eschewed for the final fortnight, if not before, and now is the time to sacrifice that slice of cake on the weekly cafe ride.

Dowsett says: “Your food intake should reduce a little, but don’t overdo it; you need to make sure you’re well fuelled to make the most of these sessions but not too much that you’re gaining weight, considering the mountains you have ahead of you.”

In the final week, it is all about rest. “The last week is where you won’t gain anything but can certainly ruin it all. This is really the taper week,” he says. “It should be a mix of easy rides and a few leg-loosener intervals in there, just to maintain what you have.

“This is where you really freshen up for the event. Train too hard and you’ll enter the event tired, so you may as well not have prepped so well. People often panic-train in this instance but remember, it’s always better to do less than more. This also applies to your weight and everything, nothing radical should be done in this week and certainly nothing you’ve not tried and tested before.”