Peter Hooper – Cycling Case Study

Former 2nd cat roadman, Peter is achieving great performances for Eastbourne Rovers despite having a challenging job.

BACKGROUND

• Peter has been riding for six years and initially raced a lot of road bunched events gaining his 2nd category licence.

• A bad crash followed by a stolen bike meant he was forced to have six months away from cycling.

• Once Peter was back on a bike, he decided to focus on time trialling, particularly endurance events.

• After two years racing long distance TTs, Peter’s performances had started plateauing so he wanted a new coach to take a fresh look at his training and performance.

CHALLENGES

• Running a self-employed business means a lot of his time is taken up leaving small opportunities available to train.

• Being a specialist tiler means he has a very manual and physical job resulting in training sessions being undertaken with residual tiredness. 

• It can be hard to approach training sessions and races with the right mental attitude after a hard week at work.

SOLUTION

• Focused on Peter’s long distance race goals by working on base endurance with integrated Z2-4 intervals. These were kept interesting by variables of time, interval type and terrain.

• Built in above threshold intervals to ‘pull up’ Peter’s FTP – this is beneficial to endurance racers to widen the work ‘range’.

• Worked on Peter’s TT bike position to ensure optimum bio-mechanical and aerodynamic  efficiencies, so no energy was wasted on the longer races.

• Planned pacing and fuelling strategies based on the race course and distances.

RESULTS

• Over 7% improvement in 50 mile TT time.

• 5% improvement in 12 hour TT distance.  

• 11% improvement in 50 mile TT power.  

• 15 watt increase in 25 mile TT power.

• Currently lying in the top ten of the BBAR.

"When Andy started Peak Sports I thought who better to be coached by someone who’s been there, done it, and is still doing it! We discussed my goals, identified my strengths and weaknesses then approached my training from a completely different angle. My all round fitness started to improve straight away. Not only is Andy on hand at all times to answer questions about sessions but he's also a great listener. At one point I was struggling to get through some of the harder sessions, so he adjusted everything to make it manageable for me and not burn me out. Andy has helped me massively with my success this season, looking at race and pacing strategy, he even analyses pictures from my races and offers help with position both biomechanically and aerodynamically. All Andy’s support and guidance has transformed me as a rider – In one season I’ve achieved pbs and competed at a National level in 12-24hr TTS and the BBAR. I honestly thought I'd never get near this level of performance.

RESULTS

WAS

NOW

TIME IMPROVEMENT

% IMPROVEMENT

50 Mile TT

1:53:38

1:45:06

8 minutes
22 seconds

7%

12 Hour TT

276 miles

291 miles

21 miles

5%

CONTACT US

Call us on 07917 617988 or email peakssportsconsultancy@gmail.com