How To Get Fit For A Bike Tour In Italy

First thing is to put the brakes on any worries of being able to ride as good as ‘x’, or as fast as ‘y’ or worse yet, being able to keep up with ‘the group’. Generally bicycling tours are not hammer fests, they are adventures at a more leisurely pace (and rightfully so), so you can actually enjoy the ride.

Next, however is the hard truth that Tuscany is hilly. There is no getting around or out of climbing. You will be delightfully challenged to pedal uphill, perhaps daily. Some hills will be steep and short, others are gradual and longer climbs, but you can expect to sweat your way up one side — only to be truly amazed and absorbed by the views on the descents.

The sites are fully captivating and every corner reveals something you’ve never seen before.

So how do you make sure you won’t bonk, or get overly fatigued on a cycling tour of which you’ve never seen the courses or climbs?

Practice.

Yet, the truth is, if you are an avid cyclist and enjoy riding anyway, you’re way ahead of the game. Taking your bike on vacation is just sharing the road with new friends in a new area. It’s not that different. However, depending on how long you’ve been bicycling on the road and how many miles you log a year, it could be a quick road to fitness in a few weeks or months, or you may have to do an honest job of preparing.

My general recommendation is that you should be comfortable on your bike to ride
at least 3 hours at one go without feeling fatigued. I’m not talking about 3 long and hard hours. Simply put: Can your body endure sitting in a saddle for 3 hours (pit stops included), without hurting or feeling wiped when you get home? If the answer is yes, then you are prepared.

It truly doesn’t matter how fast or challenging the effort is during that 3 hour block. I like to call it efficient fitness. It’s a bit like base training for any sport. You simply need to get enough time on the bike in all varieties of terrain, such that the ride is something you happened to do that day, rather than something you need to recover from.

Here’s a general guide to getting fit for a bike tour in Tuscany:
If you can’t ride your bike at all right now in these Winter months, hit the gym. Do some weight training and some cardio weekly. I’d suggest being active at least four times a week. The aerobic preparation plus the increased muscle strength will make it much easier and faster for you to get fit on the bike. If you do have access to cycling, you have plenty of time to prepare.

Definitely ride uphill as preparation. Start with longer gradual climbs and work your way up to a sustainable climb for 30-45 minutes. For most avid cyclists this is status quo. However, you should know, I’ve not climbed anything in Tuscany for more than one hour straight. The excitement and distraction of the tour and team effort will easily give you that extra 15 minutes you may not have trained for, should you need to grind your way up for an hour.

You’ll see courses with anything from 6% – 10% gradient. Generally the steeper the grade, the shorter the climb. I’m rather fortunate. Just outside my doorstep in Boulder, Colorado, I have the luxury of riding uphill for 2hrs straight on a gradual incline with slight flats mixed in, as well as some really short and much steeper grades that could take anywhere from 2 – 10 minutes to ascend. For my particular body and experience, riding this course once a week (with it’s 30 min descent) is sufficient to pass the Tuscany tour test. Listen to your body as a guide.

No matter what you do, just get out and pedal! In the rare instance you do not have any mountains or hillsides in sight, do seek them out and incorporate hills into your routine once, if not twice a week. In the rare instance you live in an entirely flat state, just ride.

Intervals are another way of improving fitness. I’d suggest you get your legs spinning fast once a week, or definitely the last two weeks before you head to the tour. You can also effectively use intervals any time in your training once a week. They certainly help open up the capillaries in your legs and boost your cardiovascular endurance and recovery. You can start with simple sets of 15 second bursts on 1 min rest and repeat them six times. Work your way up to 1 or 2 minute high paced efforts. Its really up to you. This is not about ‘working’ up to anything. It’s about getting prepared enough to recovery quickly and be in shape enough to complete anything that may come your way. Increased fitness should net quicker recovery. And you’ll want that during the tour so you have that additional energy to enjoy the sightseeing events, and other activities after the daily bike ride.

Once you feel good on the bike, increase the time you are riding and definitely incorporate one long ride a week. It may be that 3 hours IS the long ride. Work your way up to it, just pace yourself so that within two weeks from the tour, you can do that long ride. Generally, on bike tours, you are not riding a set or consistent pace non-stop for three hours. It’s a vacation. Just make sure you can do that long ride one week before you fly to your trip. If you can do it in practice, you can certainly do it during the tour.

I always say: it’s better be over prepared than not enough for a bike tour. While it is not a race in any way and there are plenty of breaks along the course, you certainly want to be eager to ride the next day and the next and so on. You’ve paid for the trip, you’ve traveled a long way to get there, you may as well give yourself the full treasure of it.

As for those riders who are fitter than most, and are eager to welcome the challenges… the routes are there for your discovery, your pace and any repeats up hills you may want to take. Do know that it is a group ride. No one gets left behind, and no one darts too far off ahead. There are regroup spots along the routes for water refills, restroom breaks, top of the hill or bottom of the hill photo ops. Plus the stops for lunch are generally lengthy. It’s Italia! Every meal is a timeless social hour. Perhaps after lunch the group chooses to partake in a passeggiata to check out the town square, or grab a gelato.