S1E2: Hitting the road 🛣
In this episode, you’ll hear snippets from my very cool experience training with the EF Pro Cycling team in Girona. As you already know, I am such a cycling baby, so receiving this kind of professional treatment never felt right to me. But if there is something that is very familiar to me, it's the imposter, and here I definitely felt like one.
And don’t take it badly. Sport was one of the few areas in my life where I generally felt very strong because, in my social bubble, I was often among the top athletes in terms of sports achievements. However, I can’t enjoy feeling good for too long and probably missed feeling like an imposter so much that there was nothing better than starting training with the pros, where you’ll definitely be the worst athlete out there. You will be much, much, much worse in terms of training, speed, FTPs, watts, diet, and knowledge than even the most junior nutritionist or the team accountant, who isn’t even into cycling.
If you’d like to know more about my personal notes [cries] on imposter, feel free to continue by following this link. But if you’d prefer to skip the crying part and go straight to the EF camp overview, continue reading here! 👇🏼
Below, you’ll find a crisp overview of our daily and action-packed schedule and you can also check those wonderfully sick routes we rode in Girona, I highly recommend saving them from my Strava. You’ll find the link for each one in this episode. My absolute favourite one is the coastal route, and I can’t wait to be back and ride it again. It’s unquestionably one of the most favorite rides of my life— epic sea, vineyards, lovely roads, beautiful asphalt you want to literally cuddle, and very kind drivers. I can appreciate those very kind drivers, not that I’d like to cuddle them as much as the beautiful asphalt, but I do like them. It’s nothing like the kind of drivers we have in the Czech Republic, who don’t hide the fact that they hate cyclists, stick stickers with a crossed-out cyclist on their cars, and share their hate publicly on social media. For instance my least favorite is “the moment a person puts on a helmet, the level of respect for them as a human being decreases.” 💔
Anyway, how do I jump straight into something positive after getting furious about Czech drivers… 🤷🏻♀️ Let’s explore the very first day.
Day 1️⃣Welcome warmup ride, 50 km
This was the very first day we all met at the hotel and were getting ready for the warm-up ride, supposed to be a very easy and chilled ride. I was curious about the people we would be riding with all week and especially eager to meet our coaches.
Meet the coaches 🧑🏫
Zack Morris
Zack is the hero in our household. It started simply. In 2022, me & my boyfriend Daniel would listen to every single episode that he recorded for the EF Cycling Performance Podcast, and that was our first true source of digging deep into cycling. When we both started to take it more seriously, we left for Tenerife and Mallorca, then to climb some European epic hills like Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux, and just after that my boyfriend Daniel signed up for coaching. He chose the icon, Zack. He’d have weekly catchups with him and a very strict training plan that I was in pain from and blown away just looking at. And if you see Dan now, you’d never recognize him from 9 months ago. He is SO FIT! I used to climb all the hills and wait for him for more than 30 minutes, take all my pictures, and now I have a really, really hard time keeping up with this rocket ship. And Zack had a massive impact on this. Daniel is a super geek; he needs data, he needs science. Then he’s motivated. Zack is all that.
Colby Pearce
Colby Pearce, the legend and the American professional cyclist with an extensive 34-page Wikipedia article detailing his achievements such as National championships or the US records holding. Even though I have to admit, I didn’t do any research beforehand, which is a shame. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that other legends, stars, ex-pros, and Olympic coaches were also attending. So Colby is one of them. You cannot even imagine how privileged I felt after discovering more about his achievements and most importantly, his story. What was the most unique and precious about Colby is how humble this human being is. He never ever bragged. I discovered him more and his philosophical approach in his podcast Cycling in alignment, and he is so kind, so empowering as well as impressive. During the rides, I loved him coaching me, and I wish this person would ever be my coach. I made a wish though! Oh man, just to ride next to him was such a privilege. I loved listening to his deep thoughts, sometimes too deep about cycling, about pain, about focus, sometimes I almost cried. 🥹 I love it when people are so passionate, knowledgeable, and somewhat meta-wise about a specific topic.
Back to Day 1️⃣, though. What I vividly remember from this day is the very steep 17% hill where everyone dropped me. I was supposed to be the youngest, lightest, and fastest, but I was completely smashed. Everyone was crushing it, and many riders were over 50 years old. My confidence level was very low, but now it’s gone for good. 👋🏻 I might have an excuse, considering I was also a bit scared by the coach’s speech about the second day, where we were testing our DPT (dynamic threshold power). We were introduced to the points structure system, and all the points were crucial. So, I can say I was pacing it and taking it easy, except for that really steep hill where everyone dropped me.
From this day’s briefing, I only wrote down this: “Addiction is all you come repeatedly do and doesn’t solve your problems.” And I have no idea why I wanted to be this special. I wrote nothing about the route, points structure rules or anything else but I have to admit that notes to understand some weird shortcuts such as DTP, CDA, EDA for the next days or the instructructions for the upcoming drills would be way more helpful.
Day 2️⃣ Threshold test day, 85 km
Okay, this was the day I was so afraid of. My heart rate was at threshold even before any test due to how nervous I was. It was my first time doing the DTP (Dynamic Threshold Power) test, and it felt like my entire life depended on it — similar to the anxiety before my final university exams. Zack & Colby looked very serious about it; they were talking about the ‘cave of pain’ associated with this climbing test. You go all out, and it’s so intense that you can’t see, and you might end up vomiting by the end of it if done correctly. I was very scared. They call DTP to be the new FTP, and to be the future of cycling.
Still, I have to admit, this was the most beautiful ride of them all and one of my favorites of all time. A stunning one through hills to the coast, with the scent of pine and sea in the air. The sun was caressing our faces, as if telling us, “DTP test is going to be just fine, calm down!”.
If you are curious to see the data from this ride, you will find it in the third episode. Overall, it went okay. By the end of the first test, I felt like I could talk properly, and my asthmatic lungs were just totally fine. It seemed like I wasn’t working or pushing hard enough, and the pace felt too easy, especially compared to Daniel, who was coughing and trying to catch his breath. I also maintained a really low cadence, which didn’t make me breathe as hard. It was definitely not my cave ride, and I felt a bit disappointed about all the fuss surrounding it. I still reached my (not only) 5 mins power personal record. 🥇
I thought you might want to see the collage of our DTP faces.
After this test, I felt liberated and free to conquer all the hills, determined not to let anyone drop me again. I went about my ride, sprinting and thoroughly enjoying the experience. I ate as many rice cakes as the amazing EF team had prepared for us. Later, I treated my legs to a massage by Saka, a Japanese therapist — something my legs had deserved and needed for a long time. My legs met Saka a few more times, and I am 100% sure I wouldn’t have been able to survive such an intense week without him!
Our schedule was super-packed; you’d find yourself constantly eating, receiving massages, learning about the technical aspects of cycling, and more. Sounds like heaven, right? What made the second day even more perfect was the opportunity to experience Colby’s bike fitting. He explained a lot about my foot position, a puzzle I had been trying to solve for a long time. I finally learned it should be flat. 🦶 Since then I stopped trying to unnaturally put my toe down, and thanks to that, I gained some more watts.
But I didn’t mention the most important thing that I found the most useful out of this whole camp. Yes, it was fun to meet Ben Healy and try to overtake him on the last day, but nothing compared to the powerful moment of analyzing our tests and examining the data with coaches and other cyclists by the end of the second day. Once again, you can learn so much about yourself and your untapped potential. You might feel like you suck and your DTP test wasn’t great, placing you last and earning the least points. On the other hand, you realize that you can improve. If you enhance this, you’ll be so much faster and more efficient, with plenty of things to work on and grow. My growth mindset is stunned. I talk more about the data in Episode 3.
Day 3️⃣ Skillz n drillz n hillz, 92 km
Today, we hit the road to work on our aero positions. We learned this while practicing pacelining, enhancing our situational awareness, and honing our team skills. Our friend Eric, a professor at Oxford, remarked at the end of the ride that his brain worked as much as his legs, a sentiment that definitely resonated with me.
We also drilled the standing technique, which was absolutely mind-blowing for me. I realized that when I attempted high cadence and got out of the saddle, I tended to lose the smooth, steady movement and ended up looking like a monkey. I had always relied on torque in a big ring and avoided switching to a smaller ring to maintain balance. I learned that’s not how it’s supposed to work.
This was fun.
Day 4️⃣ The race simulation I screwed up
For the fourth day, we were served with the Breakaway drill day, joined by pro riders Colby Pearce and Chad Haga, who chased us the whole time. I started fifth and had to chase Daniel who was about to collaborate with me to then win the sprint. However, I somehow misunderstood the instructions. At the point where the sprint was supposed to finish, I started to sprint, only to realize that I had dropped everyone else. I put in my max effort to win the sprint, except I learned along the way that the sprint had finished about 3 minutes ago, and now I was about to race uphill. I felt super sad and also empty, contemplating what to do (probably not cry) as everyone passed me. All in all, a learning experience! Interestingly, I found that I actually loved how the fast pacelines in headwind work 💨.
Big fun!
Day 5️⃣ The Queen stage 👑👸🏻🌧️☔️
This is how I thought I looked.
And this is how I actually looked.
Obviously, one of my most favorite days ever. A very, very hard day. It was rainy and cold, my socks soaked up about a litre of rain within the first 20 minutes. I constantly needed to pee as I was super wet and frozen. On this day, we had to split into two teams to execute a team pursuit. Each team chose a protected rider as the leader. This, of course, made me nervous as I was ‘the chosen one.’ The race was about 12 km to the top with an uphill finish. I was in the first team, followed by the second fast team of beasts chasing us and closing a 3-minute gap 🥵. My team was super strong and determined. They helped me not make a strong effort on the flat. Although I could not see anything, the raindrops felt like someone threw little scissors straight into my eyes, and I was doing 30/40 km per hour blindly and drafting. When the climb started, it was just me and my friend, an unbelievably strong cyclist who recovered from a hard injury, Todd. He helped me up the hill but left me for the last 3 km. It was only me. You know this is the worst, as I cannot be by myself with my clouds of thoughts. I may need a therapist more than a coach, but fortunately, Colby the coach happened to be next to me and helped me fight by real-time coaching. He transformed into the therapist role for me and helped me to fight all the clouds that would stop me. I really tried hard. It felt like Demi Vollering in the worst rain fighting for her victory, for my team. It felt like giving birth and I am sorry I said that on the camera 😂 afterwards.
I knew that the second group of strong riders would soon be breathing down my shoulders, and I couldn’t afford to lose any seconds by getting distracted. So I kept fighting. It seemed like the climb would never end. It ends. And we won.
The evening after that ride was also epic. We got to meet and interviewed the founder of the EF cycling team, Jonathan Vaughters, the famous “JV” or “El Gato 🐱”. This year, when I started to follow the “historical” cycling and doping scene and read all the books from that period, I couldn’t miss JV’s audiobook One-Way Ticket, and that one was definitely my most favorite. I recommend it to everyone. The laughable storytelling of the outsider kid getting through data and hard work training in snowstorms to the Peloton of the Tour de France and then through the scandals to build his own pro cycling team was something I enjoyed. I love that this team transformed from outsiders, as the EF team does not have a huge budget like other teams, and Jonathan Vaughters always needs to think outside of the box to keep the business alive.
Day 6️⃣ Zone 2 spin with the Pros 🏆
Really enjoyable ride with the men’s and women’s pro team. It was super cool, and no photos were allowed as they were in the new season kit. Our mechanic, the loveliest person on the earth, Fred, told me at the beginning of this easy ride that if I launched an attack and won, I’d get a contract.
I initially thought this was the stupidest thing I had ever heard, and I didn’t want to look like a complete idiot who would be enormously embarrassed by being dropped within 0.1 metre after launching an attack next to Ben Healy. So, I hadn’t planned to launch anything.
However, by the end of our ride, Fred drove up to me with his van and then winked. That wink triggered something in my warrior spirit, and I started sprinting. I think he actually made one of the pros help me get somewhere, but the pro didn’t know what we were doing, so it was super funny and ridiculous. Then, Ben Healy started to chase us, but he was so fast that I didn’t even see him passing me. Anyway, they stopped racing at some point, I learned how to do vanpacing and actually got home first, but still there’s no contract on the table yet. 😂
Now you know pretty much all about the EF training camp schedule, but my much more favorite part is digging into the data and numbers behind these hard drills. So stay tuned to learn more about how I analyze them with the coaches! See you in Episode 3. 👋🏻 And thanks for stopping by.
