Reaching highs – How Team DSM benefits from High Altitude Camps

Cycling is a sport that requires athletes to give their all. After the spring classics with harsh winds, cobblestones, and Ardennes stages, the season of Grand Tours awaits. The battle for the pink, yellow, and red jerseys is a true carnage in which only the best of the best teams in the world emerge. To push the boundaries, Team DSM not only challenges established preparations through scientific knowledge in the fields of technical innovations and nutrition but also invests in High Altitude Camps (HAC), a common preparation method amongst professional athletes of all disciplines. We spoke with Team DSM trainer coordinator Steve Benton to learn more.

HACs are quite a common practice amongst athletes, as they intensify standard training. But what exactly does it achieve? “The adaptation process which occurs when somebody – even a normal person – spends any length of time at 2.000 metres and above, where there is less oxygen in the air, forces the body through a physiological process to extract more oxygen and to adapt with what’s available to become more efficient”, says Benton, after which he adds: “Particularly for an endurance athlete, this means that they then become stronger”.

Operational challenge

According to Steve, these training camps demand thorough planning. Not only Grand Tour GC riders will be qualified for HACs, but also riders in one-day races. Long before the start of the new season, the races to be ridden and the associated goals of the cyclists for the coming year are discussed. The best times for HACs are carefully considered after the race program has been established and the riders have been chosen.

There can be some variations, but a HAC will be within a four or five week period before that main goal. “That is because we want to have a 21-day HAC with optimal training and build-up, followed by a recovery period after the camp before going to a race. It’s a time window where we allow the adaptations to occur and allow recovery. Sometimes, we would also use a race after the HAC to complete that process.”

From acclimatisation to race-specific training

Marco Brenner, Max Poole and Marius Mayrhofer visited Tenerife in the Canary Islands in preparation for respectively the Tour de Romandie or the Giro d’Italia. When they arrived, they found a well-planned program which was divided into three major phases. “The first phase that follows touchdown is the acclimatisation phase, which can last two to five days.” Because altitude affects different people differently depending on their experience, age, or other factors, it is not a fixed length. During this time, the emphasis is on building volume, and intensities are typically low. We try to keep them riding, living on the mountain, and not going down the mountain so much.”

When the rider has no setbacks from altitude, the second phase can start whereby quite a few metrics are measured every day, such as oxygen saturation, resting heart rate, recovery status and quality of sleep. “These are all things which could be affected when you live and sleep at altitude. When we are happy that all those are progressing in the right way, we are happy to introduce the planned middle phase and increase volume and intensity slightly.” The riders then proceed to the final phase, which is usually the last week of the HAC but may be introduced earlier where the intensity rises once more. “The sessions become a little more race specific based on the rider profile and goal. As a result, the high intensities that they perform will be more individualised.”

Strength training

Next to the on-bike training, strength training is an important topic on the mountain, Steve explains: “If a rider is on a three-week training camp at altitude, we see a drop-off in strength because of being away and the focus on riding the bike a lot”. This is something that Team DSM measures by the smart device called Fit Lift, which is a system that provides several advantages to optimise the quality of riders’ strength training. For example, this can help with the balance with strength training through all the training blocks, monitoring stress and training load, and supporting the technique of movement.

So strength training is kept up during HAC to prevent a drop-off, but as it’s a HAC, we also have to bear in mind the intensity that this will bring. That’s why the programs might be slightly adapted to high altitudes to also ensure the recovery of the riders. Nelis Koeken, Team DSM’s Biomechanics & Strength Training Expert added: “Strength training will be a bit reduced to not interfere with the adaptation process of the altitude. We still do a specific program to trigger the explosiveness of the riders on HACs and we have our own facilities and our gym. This means that we can ensure that the riders have all equipment needed for good strength training and don’t have to go off the mountain”.