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Average Customer Rating:

Perfect for finding the motivation over winter

Customer Rating:

Many cycling books touch on the subject of Cyclo Sportives such as the increasingly popular L'Etape du Tour and some even go as far as to tell you how to to train for one. Unfortunately, this extends only to what amounts to lots of mileage, with no real reason as to why. Nor do they cover any of the specific points for the sportive newcomer to consider. If you are absolutely BRAND NEW to cycling (ie you have only just bought the bike!) then something a bit more basic and straightforward such as the LANCE ARMSTRONG PERFORMANCE PLAN would be a better start. Once you've read that and gone out and done more than a 20 miler (both acievable on the same day!!) then you should take a look at this book. It covers EVERYTHING the aspirant sportivist needs to know about training and preparing to put him (or her)self through the several hundred miles these events usually clock up. It includes training plans for the rookiw and advances cyclist alike which will prepare you over the winter months for the summer sportive season and also covers in great depth what you need to know about nutrition. In fact, few books I've read achieve this level of detail for this specific subject matter and its worth a read for this alone. It also covers the 'handy hints' a rookiw sportivist would need to know for his or her first sportive. All in all, its very thorough. I would DEFINATELY recommend this book to anyone who is looking to enter this type of endurance event next summer (this is written as at Oct). It will supply you with the requisite motivation to get out and spend hours on end on your bike over the cold and wet winter months in order to ensure you are fit enough to enjoy your event. That said, could I say anything negative about it? Well, YES, actually. The authors seem to have a professional sports coaching and fitness testing business which is repeatedly referred to throughout the text. Is this because they wish to merely substantiate their credentials or is it an effort to advertise themselves and thus the book serves as a marketing tool for the business? Either way, the necessary info and knowledge is all their and should not stop you from buying this book.