PIERRE LATOUR
A fter worrying that my injuries were going to keep me out of the races until next year, it seems things have gone better than expected. The team’s put me in for some Italian races - Milan-Torino, GP Beghelli and Tre Valli Varesine, and the Chrono des Herbiers. I’m also the reserve for Lombardy and Emilia, but I’m ready if the opportunity comes. I felt I was ready to race even earlier, but the team wanted me to recover properly before getting stuck in again.
Training’s been going well. Sometimes the weather’s been starting to show signs of autumn, but today for example, I’ve just got back from a three-hour ride and it was 26 degrees out there, so the rides have been a pleasure. My training now is more to pick up a bit of form for the end of the year, and to use that and the races to give me a good foundation for 2018. I’m doing a decent amount of intensity and volume - enough to get a benefit but not too much so I get tired. For example, this week I went out for a couple of easy hours on Monday, then stayed at home on Tuesday because the weather was terrible. Wednesday was four hours 50 minutes in the mountains, then three hours on Thursday with some shorter hills. Friday I did three hours on the TT bike behind my dad on the scooter, a couple of quiet hours on Saturday, then a five-hour ride on Sunday. It’s not complicated.
My dad is a great training helper. Except when he’s not. He was a rider himself, so he’s good at pacing on the scooter, but the thing with dads is that they’re always right, even when they are not. The four hour 50 minute ride on Wednesday, which he also did on the scooter, was supposed to be four, but he had the idea to go and do a hard mountain climb which he swore was closer than it was. I ended up doing 50 minutes extra, and I didn’t let him forget that.
I’m looking forward to racing in Italy. I noticed from my U23 days that the rhythm of racing there is a little different, but those hilly races suit me. Maybe that long ride will give me the fitness I need to do well.