THOMAS DE GENDT

L O T TO S O U DA L

I had trouble getting used to sleeping in my altitude tent, because every seven seconds it makes a really loud hissing sound

T he last month or so has been Tour build-up time for me, meaning many long rides and plenty of kilometres. In past years, I’ve usually gone to altitude but this year I changed it a little by staying at sea level in Calpe and sleeping in an altitude tent instead. My coach Paul Van Den Bosch believes in sleeping high and training low, so I thought this year I’d try it properly and see. I actually like to train at altitude, like on the Stelvio or the Sierra Nevada, because it prepares you for stages which go really high, above 2,000m, but in the Tour it hardly ever goes that high. I don’t really feel so different, just a bit fresher perhaps.

When you train at altitude it feels like it takes longer to recover. I have to be in the tent for 10 hours, which isn’t really a problem - basically a good night’s sleep and a nap after training give me my ration. I did have a bit of a problem getting used to the tent because every seven seconds it makes a really loud hissing sound. Even with earplugs, I had some really bad nights’ sleep getting used to it.

Over the past three weeks, team-mates have been around and about, so there’s always someone to train with. Tosh Van Der Sande lives about an hour away by bike, so one day I rode up to his place, picked him up for a five-hour ride, then rode back afterwards. It was a good 200km day that knocked us both flat. It’s been hot too - one day we had 41C. Three weeks of perfect Spanish sun, in fact.

There’s everything I could need here in Calpe to keep my training load high, but I take a pretty simple approach to training and recovery. I don’t take a massage, for instance. I think I’ve had one so far this year. Over the years I’ve had soigneurs who have tried fast massages, slow massages or really deep massages and it’s made no difference to me. For a lot of riders I think it’s a psychological thing – they like 40 minutes or an hour of peace and quiet. I’m quite happy just lying on my bed.

Now the hard training block is done and I returned to Belgium for a few days before the Dauphiné. It gave me a chance to ride with the Scheldepeloton, which is a local institution near my home. It’s a motley crew of fit cyclotourists, gran fondo riders and the odd pro as well. It’s basically out and back along the bike path beside the River Schelde. They meet in the same place every day. In summer it can be up to a hundred people and in winter it’s the real hard core – down to 10 or something. It can be pretty wild sometimes, but it’s a good way to get the heart rate up when I’m back home. There’s always a sprint for the line and I always give it a go: you’ve got to keep the guys on their toes.