Training and Racing with Team High Road’s Marco Pinotti
21 March 2008
Team High Road’s Marco Pinotti has been training with an eye on recapturing the lead in the Tour of Italy this May, just like he did in the 2007 edition of the race. Marco proved he can race with the world’s best stage racers in 2007 as he held the lead in the Italian grand tour for five days. Marco is also the reigning Italian National Time Trial Champion. TrainingPeaks asked Marco to provide some insight to his current training and racing program, which is managed by coach Max Testa.
Following a February team training camp in California, Marco started his race season February 23rd in the 183 km Trofeo Laiguelglia in Italy, where he finished 40th in the group sprint. Feel free to view Marco’s race file by clicking here. Pull down the menu at the top right of the file and download it for additional analysis in WKO+). If you need WKO+, get a free trial here.
In the Trofeo Laiguelglia Marco averaged 420 watts for five minutes on the steepest part of the last climb of the day, called the “Passo Balestrino.” He also tried several attacks in the final 30 minutes of the race which were well above 500watts.
Marco describes the race and in particular, the last steep part of the ‘Passo Balestrino’ climb, “where I averaged 420w for 5′ and stayed with the leading group. I finished in the main group and tried a couple of attacks in the final stretch (peak of more than 700 watts)”. Marco highlighted the climb in his file, the details of which may be viewed only in WKO+.
Above is the highest 6-minute stretch of time within Marco Pinotti’s Trofeo Laiguelglia race file. Marco averaged 414 watts on the day’s hardest climb.
Marco then raced the 197km Tour du Haut Var in France on February 24th and finished in the field with a time of 5:08. Marco explains how the race progressed:
“The following day (after Trofeo Laiguelglia) I raced another one-day race in France, always up and down and I was dropped from the first group on the last steep climb, where I averaged 400 watts, whereas the day before I was able to keep 420, but I was tired from racing two days in a row. The other riders were still fresh, having done only one of the races.”
Marco … was able to maintain an average of 370w for 30-minutes. Want to know how many watts (based on your weight) you would need to maintain in order to match Marco’s speed on a climb?
The following week Marco’s training included hill repetitions, “I have been following Max Testa’s advice and I am working on improving aerobic power, working a bit less than my lactate threshold. On the 27th of February I performed a test at the end of the training on a 4 km climb where I averaged 390 Watts. This is a test I perform to gauge my fitness level. I did this test after a hard training session and the results were good.”
Marco regularly performs a 4km uphill test to help him and his coach gauge his fitness. In this test above, he averaged 393w for 10 minutes.
Can You Match This…?
Marco weighs 68.0 kg (149lbs) and he was able to maintain an average of 370w for 30-minutes in the Trofeo Laiguelglia on February 23rd. Interestingly though his Normalized Power for the max 30 minutes was 386w which is a good indicator of what he can maintain within a 30-minute time trial. This translates to a power to weight ratio of 2.59 watts per pound of body weight, an enormous amount indeed.
Want to know how many watts you would need to maintain in order to match Marco’s speed on a climb? Just multiply your body weight in pounds, times the value of 2.59. This is the equivalent to see how many watts you would have to maintain in order to stay with Marco in an uphill time trial.
The next race for Marco is the Settimana Internazionale from March 25th to 29th. However, his main goal is to prepare for yet another successful Giro d’Italia which is May 10th to June 1st.
TrainingPeaks is a proud partner of Team High Road. Stay tuned to the TrainingPeaks blog for more of Marco Pinotti’s training and racing.
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