How much do pro cyclists train? Hours, intensity, rest and more

Riding your bike is one of life's simple pleasures, it’s a great escape from everyday life. But for a fortunate select few, riding and racing a bike is not only their passion but also their job. But for these lucky few, how much do they actually train on a weekly basis and how much do they need to train?

On a personal level, I’ve been racing for a long time and training for around 10 years, I was even fortunate enough to be a part of the British Cycling track programme as a teenager before opting to step away. This opportunity taught me a lot about training as well as the importance of resting, but these days, although I ride for a UCI Continental team, I’m not a pro so like most people, my training needs to fit around my work commitments and life obligations. 

For pros, life obligations still exist, but those work commitments are training, so how much do the real WorldTour pros actually train? 

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to put these questions to Dr Ciarán O'Grady, personal coach to numerous pro cyclists and Time Trial and Aerodynamics Lead of Israel–Premier Tech. 

In an average week for a WorldTour pro, he explained “Weekly training volume can vary hugely but usually averages around 18-22 hours per week across the whole year, but this would include higher volume training weeks over 30 hours of training time, and some recovery weeks which may be below 10 hours of training time.”

Adding in that “The differences between sex when it comes to volume are very individual; it's more about how much load each athlete can handle. However, with women's races being shorter in general, the specific training volumes can be shorter with more focus on intensity.” 

Now we know the rough average of how often both male and female pro riders will train during an average week, I wanted to know if this figure would change depending on the type of rider the athlete is. Unsurprisingly, it does. Different types of riders need different training, tailored to the demands of their required performance. 

“Generally speaking the training volume as a whole would be highest in the climber/GC group, middle in a domestique/rouleur group, and lowest in the sprinter group.” Adding on that “For example; a big volume week for a sprinter might be between 25-30 hours per week, but for a climber/GC it could be over 35 hours a week.”

Circling back to the differences in sex, I wanted to know O'Grady’s thoughts and approaches to menstruating athletes and how he might adapt the training load of a rider depending on their time of the month; something my own coach always considers carefully when setting my training, and which I feel has made a huge difference to my overall ability but previously has been overlooked in general for a lot of athletes. 

O'Grady added, “With athletes that go through menstruation, it's important as a coach to know when these cycles occur and how regular they are.” Delving deeper into the science, he explained that “in general, the days leading up to menstruation, the luteal phase, can be the most difficult to handle high training loads, so endurance rides with no set intensity might be a very welcome addition to the training plan. This leads into menstruation where the training load can slowly build up based on fatigue and symptoms. During the follicular and ovulatory phase, energy levels will generally be higher so training load can increase during these phases. Having a good communication pathway with your athletes allows you to individualise the plan on a day-by-day basis as needed.”

Not only do menstrual cycles affect how much a rider may or may not train, but rest periods will also understandably play a big role in how many hours of saddle time a rider will be completing in a week. 

O'Grady also emphasises the importance of rest: “Working hard during training sessions is only one part of the equation. The other is allowing your body to recover, adapt, and prepare for the next session. This means that minimising life stressors, both physical & mental, is essential for professional cyclists.”

“One of the big advantages of going to a training camp is this fact; the vast majority of daily life stressors are removed apart from training," he said. "Meals are cooked for them, massages are given daily, their bikes are maintained, training routes & sessions are planned, etc. If you want to get better at cycling; get better at recovering!”

Knowing how paramount resting is, it’s also important to know the flip side of the original question: how much do pro riders rest on rest days? This is undoubtedly just as important a question as asking how much they train. 

“For full rest and recovery blocks, a pro cyclist may train as little as a few hours every couple of days; it could be a spin around town on a city bike, or a ride to the beach for some rest and relaxation. For more 'active recovery' blocks, 1-2 hours of easy endurance riding without heavy blocks of climbing are enough to allow the body to recover from heavy training blocks or races.”

Overall, what we can all take from this insight is, WorldTour pros train a lot, but they also take resting periods just as seriously as they do the physical training. Not only that but if you menstruate, then it’s important to work with your cycle and not against it to really get the most out of your training and riding. Therefore, train hard but also approach your rest days with the same importance as your set workouts.