TrainingPeaks member Dan Fleeman wins Tour of the Pyrenees
27 August 2008
TrainingPeaks member Dan Fleeman won the UCI 2.2 four day Tour of the Pyrenees, placing him among the ranks of riders like Bernard Kohl and Frank Schleck, who also made their mark in this race. In an interview with PezCycling, the British cyclist commented on how his new training plan, guided by TrainingPeaks and Hunter Allen, has helped him to stay focused and achieve the results he wants.
“I used to have a coach a few years ago, but this year I became aware of a web site, www.TrainingPeaks.com, which provides a fully computerized training plan you download the data from your SRM cranks into it,” says Dan. “Hunter Allen is one of the guys who invented the software and he coaches me now. This winter, I changed my methods, with a lot more emphasis on intensity rather than volume. I still do four or five hour runs, but even if I do that kind of duration, I will incorporate interval work within it. The training I did the weeks before the Pyrenees was much harder than actually riding the race!”
In addition to the Tour of the Pyrenees, the Vuelta Ciclista a Extremadura in Spain also went well for Dan and his British Cycling team. “We won the TTT in the Extremadura Tour and we worked hard for Dan Lloyd to win that one overall. With two days to go, I had a bad day and unfortunately, so did the rest of the squad, we left Dan isolated and he could have lost it. I was really annoyed at myself for letting him down, but on the last day I was really ’stomping’ and I set a tough tempo on all the climbs so that no one could jump him. I was proud of the way I rode that day and Dan was very grateful, he did a lot of work for me in the Pyrenees and I think that was his pay back for Extremadura.”
The rest of the 2008 season was also good for Dan. “I was riding well in the Volta da Ascension in Spain, too I was third on one stage. Apart from the Pyrenees, my best ride was probably 21st in the Tour of Belgium; all the Pro Tour guys were riding and on the hilly Ardennes stage, I was rubbing shoulders with Barredo and Gesink. I had a crash, but for that, I think I would have been top 15.”
Congratulations, Dan!
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