Context

Last year was full of life and surprises, especially the end of it. In one month, I met my biological dad for the first time, raced my first World Championships after over two decades in the sport, and finally, the woman I thought would be my future wife broke up with me. It was undoubtedly a period of intense emotions.

Following this intense period, I found myself grappling with a profound sense of nihilism. However, I refused to succumb to it. Instead, I poured myself into new projects, working intentionally to build a better future.

I made some changes during this phase despite struggling to find meaning. One of them was starting my own business. Also, sometime before Millau, I quit social media. After reading many arguments against it and reflecting, I concluded that stopping was the right choice. I found that social media was a distraction and was not contributing positively to my life and goals. With the advent of short videos, social media is proving itself a well-engineered prison for people’s attention.

Preparation

I now approach cycling in a balanced way. High-level sports should not be detrimental to our health at all. It’s always been my belief that a life well lived supports our health. With this in mind, my cycling integrates perfectly with the rest of my life. For me, it means riding around 12 hours a week and pushing volume occasionally, typically the week before a race. I always want to lead by example, treating myself like I would treat a person I am responsible for; it’s my way of honoring God in every one of my decisions. I don’t believe in training myself into the grave.

For my preparation, I did a big 25-hour week a few weeks before the event. Honestly, it was helpful. I needed to do some volume as I didn’t train enough at the beginning of the year, but 22 hours would have worked equally well.

Many of the rides I did during this preparation were easy rides. Note that I do all my endurance riding without looking at any data. I ride at a naturally easy pace.

For the intensity part of my training, I did a 5×3 minute workout I hadn’t attempted in ages. This workout was crucial in getting me ready for the race. Otherwise, I mainly focused on tempo and overunders.

Execution

We started the day early. Things got serious as we kicked off the race with a 20-minute climb. I stayed with the front group until the last few hundred meters of the climb. My body decided it was a more intelligent move to slow down before the top, as we still had over 135 km to go.

After some time alone, keeping a reasonably high pace and considering the rest of the race, I was joined by a group, and we tackled the second climb together. The middle of the race is always challenging in Millau as we make our way through the military base, which is very wind-exposed. It’s hard to make echelons on the gravel there, as you cannot ride the middle of the trail well with the accumulation of gravel. It didn’t matter because the guys leading the group didn’t protect anyone from the wind by staying on the side.

After a moment that tested my resilience, I made my way out of the military base with this group, but I did not go much further with them. I was dropped right after the first technical zone. I found myself alone for the second time. This time, I wrestled with my mind for an instant, but then I managed to refocus and set a new pace to recover until another group would catch up with me.

After much time, some guys caught up with me, so we formed a new group. Thankfully, I was with strong guys with whom I was able to stay, but if they had ridden 1% harder, the story could have been a different one. The solid pace of the group meant that we caught up with many riders until the finish.

At the end of the day, I crossed the line in 11th place in my age category (19-34). After such a hectic time, I was delighted to secure my ticket once again to race at the World Championships.

Nutrition

I drank about a bottle of Maurten 320 an hour during the race. Each bottle contains 79 grams of carbohydrates. I noticed that my body was asking for fewer carbohydrates this year than last year. On top of that, I only ate very little solid food.

Lessons

Anything we do in life, whether a success or a failure, can be analyzed to learn and grow. Only with this self-awareness can we become the best version of ourselves. Do you take the time to self-reflect?

Since Millau, I’ve integrated more medium and high-intensity work into my training regimen. But recently, I noticed something. I needed to push myself more during training. It made me think that we should always listen to our bodies, but at the same time, it can prevent us from getting outside our comfort zone, so a balance must be struck.

One strategy that worked well for me in the past was to include intervals in the latter part of a ride, usually the last hour. So, I’m doing more of this at the moment. Moreover, I also replaced my tempo work with threshold work, again making things a little more challenging.

Up Next

The end of the season will be busy as I will tackle three championships in four weekends. Nationals are on September 22nd, the Worlds are on October 6th, and the Europeans are on October 13th. Until then, I will continue applying the new knowledge I acquire daily about myself and the world to my training and life schedule. Every day is an opportunity to be better than yesterday.