Retired pro cyclist Tom Danielson who cycled for world tour teams like Discovery Channel, Slipstream-Chipotle developed into a general classification rider (GC) for these teams.
Tom’s preseason training program looked like:
Day One: 4hr ride with 3x 20min efforts on mountains @ sub threshold power (approximately 95% of FTP)
Day Two: 5hr ride with 3x 40min efforts on mountains with a lower cadence @ sub threshold power (approximately 90% of FTP)
Day Three: 6hr aerobic ride with no calories before or during.
Day Four: Same as day one but with 5-10 watts extra
Day Five: Same as day two but with 5-10 watts extra
Day Six: Same as day three
Day Seven: Full rest
Tom trained using the threshold training method. He dedicated a lot of his effort to “power control” with the aim to sit on a set watt and not move from it despite what the weather or terrain was, his goal was to be the best in the world at power control.
Side Notes:
I translated these sessions to FTP to give context to Tom’s training. Tom didn’t do FTP tests, like most pro cyclists everything arrived from lactate field testing and VO2 lab testing.
Tom was also suspended for doping twice in his career.
TRAIN SMOOTH 
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