TrainingPeaks Member Janez Brajkovic Gets Second at Tour di Lombardia
21 October 2008TrainingPeaks user and team Astana professional cyclist Janez Brajkovic has used TrainingPeaks for several years and wrapped up his 2008 season last weekend with an impressive second place finish in the Tour di Lombardia in northern Italy. Janez placed second, by only 24 seconds, behind race winner Damiano Cunego.
Janez also placed 3rd overall in the Tour of Germany, as well as 8th place in the World Championship time trial in Verese, Italy. He describes his final race of the year as being “super fast all day, which really suited me. I had super legs Saturday and an even better team, especially Chris (Horner) did an amazing job. He’s such a good rider.”
Janez explains how he uses TrainingPeaks: “TrainingPeaks software is just amazing. I love every single feature of it, especially the Performance Management Chart. A week before the race, I predict my training for the next 7 days and create manual workouts within TrainingPeaks WKO+. I can then see what my Chronic Training Load (CTL), Acute Training Load (ATL), and Training Stress Balance (TSB) will be on race day. Normally I have my TSB at about 10-15. It works better than any other technique for predicting performance.”
Having used TrainingPeaks now for several years, Janez has taken the data and fine tuned his tapering approach leading into his important events.
“My TSB is always positive (on big race days), which does wonders to be honest. Before I used to always train hard until two days before the race, having only a rest day the same day I was traveling. Not a good idea. Now it’s different. Tapering really is awesome, though I get the feeling I’m not training enough, but that’s just a feeling I guess.”
Janez tracks his data with the SRM and his plans for 2009 include riding well in at least one Grande Tour, most likely in a support role for either Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador or Levi Leipheimer. He also finds the classic Liege-Bostogne-Liege, the Tour of Switzerland and the Dauphine Libere very suited to his racing style and natural climbing ability.
Look for more updates on Janez Brajkovic to come in future TrainingPeaks blog posts.
One Response to “TrainingPeaks Member Janez Brajkovic Gets Second at Tour di Lombardia”
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:40 am
Normally I have my TSB at about 10-15.
When one day before a Race?