Cycling Weekly | July 25, 2019 | 29FEATUREThese April and May camps in
Tenerife are crucial for Ineos’s Grand
Tour preparations, with tried and
tested camps used for final and early
preparations for Giro d’Italia and Tour
de France campaigns. It ’s also about heat
acclimatisation and team building before
coming back down to race build-up races
such as the Tour of the A lps for the Giro
or Tour de Suisse for the Tour de France.
“Sometimes between that period and
the Tour we’ll do recons and altitude
top-ups,” says Kerrison. “Or we’ll do a
little bit of a block at Isola 2000, which is
close to Nice where most of the guys live
and they can drive up and are at 2 ,000m
within an hour and a half of home.”
Body over mind
It isn’t just Grand Tour contenders
heading to the high mountains to prepare
for the crucial crunch points of the Tour.
The demands of this year’s race even
led Mark Cavendish to train at altitude
in Austria the week prior to the British
National Championships before his non-
selection for Dimension Data. However,
Thibaut Pinot revealed to L’ E q u ip e that he
has given up on altitude training as it was
making him sick and he said he wasn’t
seeing the benefit. Sports physiologist
Steve Faulkner is aware that this is a
common thought throughout the sport
but argues the physiological benefits
outweigh the psychological negatives.
“ You always hear about people who
say they do or they don’t respond well to
altitude training, but what you probably
detect there is more of a perceptual
benefit as to whether you believe altitude
works,” explains Faulkner, adding,
“if you look at their blood markers
and physiological adaptations from a
prolonged period of an altitude camp,OXYGEN DEPRIVATIONThe human
body at altitude
The air that we breathe is always the
same (21 per cent oxygen, 78 per cent
nitrogen, one per cent argon and a
minimal amount of carbon dioxide);
however, at altitude the atmospheric
pressure decreases so there are
fewer oxygen molecules available to
breathe. Consequently, blood oxygen
saturation — typically around 98 or
99 per cent at sea-level — drops to
around 90 per cent.
This is why breathing rates are
increased at altitude as the body
tries to compensate for the decrease
in oxygen uptake. But despite this
response, there is still less oxygen
throughout the circulatory system
so less oxygen reaches the muscles,
limiting physical performance. That’s
why it’s recommended that altitude
training be done at 75 per cent of
the maximum effort and 60 per
cent of volume compared to training
at sea level.
Water loss can also increase at
altitude leading to dehydration.
That goes hand in hand with an
increase in metabolism of around six
per cent at 3,600m and appetite is
also suppressed, making it feel like a
chore to take on much-needed fuel.
That can catch many a rider out at
high altitude.
Altitude training over several
days or weeks can result in the body
acclimatising to the low-oxygen
environment, leading to up to a six per
cent increase in haemoglobin mass
— crucial for transporting oxygen —
in the blood. Other benefits are an
increase in blood vessels, changes
in the function and structure of the
muscles and an optimised buffering
capacity for lactic acid.
Psychologically, the struggle of
riding at altitude also prepares a pro
cyclist for the challenges they will face
in the mountains come race time.“Each altitude training block is
unique for each rider”