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Bicycling in Europe is far more challenging than the average athlete from the US or UK has experienced it. There are some exceptions of course and you can find steep climbs and scary descents everywhere in the world. One of the scariest place to ride a bike does not even need to be hilly if you have a look at Manhattan or the city of London, but that does not count here.
From our experiences with guests over the past five years and based on their feedback we like to give you some basic guidelines in order to optimize your cycling experience during a camp with EuroCycler.
Triathletes who wish to bring their own bike should leave their aero handle bars or TT-set up at home. And if you bring your own bike, have it equipped either with compact cranks, standard triple, or if standard double you should consider a 27 cog. Our rental bikes all come with triple chain rings. Also, there is no need to bring your disk wheel or deep carbon rims. This is a training camp and your race equipment can stay at home. Use regular wheels that are stable enough for the many climbs and you rocking around on the bike. If such wheels are a bit heavier than your race gear, don't worry, that gives just an additional training effect and is even for free.
Our cycling routes are comparable to IronMan or Half-IronMan courses in Switzerland, France or Lanzarote, and these courses are known as the toughest IronMan bike splits. So this is the perfect training ground to get used to racing in Europe. This is not to say that all other courses are a piece of cake, but you will advance much faster and further having trained and ridden in Europe. Here you find a profile comparison of one of our rides and the Half-IronMan race in Switzerland.
NOVICE
You have completed a minimum of three triathlons of at least Olympic distance, or are an experienced athlete in one of the three disciplines who would like to begin competing in triathlons. If you have done Half-IM, your total time was 6.5 hrs or over (7 hrs or over for women) with a bike split of 3.5 hrs or more. You don't feel comfortable riding in close packs with other riders yet, and you are often sitting on your breaks around bends and on downhills. If you are hungry, you stop, grab your sandwich or energy bar from the pocket, unwrap it and start eating while you get back on the bike at slow speed. On uphills you mostly push your pedals and don't have a feel for the upstroke yet, and your upper body is rocking.
INTERMEDIATE
You have finished several races over three years or more and would like to advance to faster splits in Half-IRONMAN or even compete in long distance races. Your PR for a Half is around 5:30 (6 hrs for women) with a bike split around 3 hours (3:15 for women). If you have done an IronDistance event, your PR was around 12:30 (13 hrs for women) with a bike split around 6:30 (7:00 hrs for women). You are somewhat comfortable riding in groups, have an understanding of drafting and rotations during group rides, but never really practiced it much. You can ride free-handed for short sections and don't need to stop to grab your sandwich from the pocket. You are somewhat fine leaning into fast turns and downhills, but don't quite understand how to optimize speed and safety and what the best line around a bend should be. You can do longer uphills, change rhythm, ride in and out of the saddle, but are not pushing evenly on the up-and downstroke leaving your body rocking, and often you find yourself hyperventilating on the hills.
ADVANCED
Intermediate to advanced triathletes have competed in several races over five years or more including long-distance and would like to reach their next level of Olympic-distance (ITU), Half-IRONMAN or IRONMAN racing.
Your PR for Half is around 5 hrs (5:30 for women) with a bike split of 2:30 (2:45 for women) or faster. You have done at least one full IronMan around 11 hrs (12 hrs for women) with a bike split around 5:30 hrs (6:00 hrs for women). If you are into Olympic distance triathlons, your PR is around 2:30 hrs (2:45 for women) with a bike split of 1:10 hrs (1:20 for women). You feel very comfortable in all sort of terrain and race situation but realize that a you are not fully using your potential. Your heart rate spikes here and there on the bike, your acceleration out of turns is not quick enough, and there are other situations where you loose momentum. You are trying to find your optimized pedal cadence and stroke smoothness to maximize effectiveness while conserving aerobic power for the run split.
The above is a rough distinction between the three levels which might not be applicable in every case. Of course it also depends on the terrain of the various courses. If you have a personal question regarding your level and best fit, please contact us so we can consult you. We also give some guidance to prepare yourself at home for one of our camps in Spain which can help optimize your experience and maximize your race result later in the season.
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