Race ReadyThe 6-week cycling race training plan
Race Ready
6 weeks · 4 rides a week · 40–90 min
Get race sharp. VO2 max, sprints, and race simulations teach you to follow the attacks, survive the surges, and win the sprint.
Four rides a week on your smart trainer. VO2 max, sprints and race simulations teach you to follow the attacks, survive the surges and win the sprint.
6
Weeks
4
Rides a week
40–90
Minutes
81%
Easy riding
01Who it is for
You race. Or you want to.
Race Ready is for strong riders who race: online races, criteriums, or the fast group ride that turns into one every week. You already have a solid base. This plan is short and sharp: it does not build endurance, it sharpens what you have.
Each week has four rides with four jobs: a bigger engine with VO2 max, aerobic volume with sprints, anaerobic repeats, and a race simulation. 12 % of the plan's time is above your FTP: a bigger share than in any other plan in AnyMap.
No base yet? Build one first, with Step Up or Winter Build. Want more power before you sharpen it? Take FTP Boost.
A solid base
You ride three to five hours a week already.
Four days a week
Put the zone 2 ride between the hard ones.
A race in six weeks
Or a fast group ride to win.
02The science
Matches, sprints and the draft.
A race is not ridden at one steady pace. It is ridden in surges. (FTP and the zones in full: on the Fit in Four page.)
1. A bigger engine
Efforts of three to five minutes at 112 to 120 % of FTP, like NORDIC FOURS, raise your VO2 max. The higher your engine, the more easily you sit in a fast race.
2. Burning matches
Above FTP, you spend from a small tank of energy that refills only when you ride easier: your anaerobic capacity. Riders call each hard effort a match. MATCHBOX and BURN THE MATCHES teach you to strike one, recover, and strike again.
3. The sprint
Sprints of 10 to 15 seconds train top-end speed. The plan draws them at 200 % of FTP, so ERG gives you a big target, and you go all out.
4. Ride in the draft
The cheapest watts are the ones you don't ride. Behind another rider, the air pushes back less: in AnyMap, up to 45 % less drag. Racers save their matches in the wheels, and spend them where it counts. Move the sliders below and see what the draft is worth.
The physics
Where your watts go.
The air, the climb and your tires hold you back. AnyMap works out all three for every rider, 20 times a second. Move the sliders and see what the draft is worth.
Riders ahead
One kilo more costs you
0.4W
at 36.9 km/h on this grade
The draft saves
78W
31 % of your power
Your speed
36.9 → 42.4km/h
alone → in the draft
Your 250 W, alone
Saved at each grade
Fast on the flat
The air takes most of your watts. Follow a wheel and you save up to 45 % of the drag.
Slow on a climb
Gravity takes almost all of it, and the draft helps little. That is where climbers attack.
Close counts
Full shelter up to 2 m behind a wheel, gone at 20 m. A longer line shelters more.
03Week by week
Four rides, four jobs.
Every week: VO2 max, zone 2 with sprints, anaerobic repeats, and a race simulation. Below is every ride as the app draws it: every block as long as it lasts, as tall as its power, in the color of its zone.
Weeks 1–3 · 12 rides · 12 h 15
Sharpen up
Five times three minutes of VO2 max, sprints in zone 2, 30-second repeats, and CRIT SIM: 40 minutes with a surge every two minutes and a sprint at the end. Week 2 adds an online race simulation. Week 3 is lighter.
Week 1
Week 1 · Ride 1
VO2 PRIMER60 min
Five 3-minute VO2 max efforts. Build the engine that wins races.
Week 1 · Ride 2
ENGINE ROOM75 min
Zone 2 with six 10-second sprints. Go all out on each one: the target is just a floor.
Week 1 · Ride 3
REPEAT BURSTS60 min
Thirty seconds hard, thirty easy, six times per set. Races are won by the rider who recovers fastest.
Week 1 · Ride 4
CRIT SIM60 min
Forty minutes of a criterium: fast laps with a sprint out of every corner, and a sprint for the win.
Week 2
Week 2 · Ride 1
NORDIC FOURS65 min
Four 4-minute efforts at VO2 max, the Norwegian way. Simple, brutal, effective.
Week 2 · Ride 2
SPRINT SCHOOL75 min
Eight 15-second sprints with full rest, then zone 2. Out of the saddle, hands in the drops, all out.
Week 2 · Ride 3
MATCHBOX60 min
Burn a match every other minute. Three sets of five, and the box gets emptier each time.
Week 2 · Ride 4
ONLINE RACE65 min
An online race: a flat-out start, twenty minutes of surges, and a sprint at the line.
Week 3
Week 3 · Ride 1
VO2 TOP-UP50 min
A lighter week: three VO2 max efforts keep the engine tuned.
Week 3 · Ride 2
EASY ENGINE60 min
An easy hour in zone 2. Recovery is part of racing too.
Week 3 · Ride 3
SHARP & SHORT45 min
Six 30-second efforts with long rests. Keep the top end, lose the fatigue.
Week 3 · Ride 4
COFFEE ROLL60 min
A relaxed hour with three quick spin-ups, like the ride to the café on a rest day.
Weeks 4–6 · 12 rides · 13 h 10
Race sharp, then the start line
A VO2 max ladder, attack repeats, a breakaway simulation, then the hardest week: BIG VO2 and RACE DAY SIM, with climbs, surges and a sprint. Week 6 tapers, and START LINE is the day before your race.
Week 4
Week 4 · Ride 1
VO2 LADDER70 min
Up the ladder and down again: 2, 3, 4, 3, and 2 minutes at VO2 max, with equal rest.
Week 4 · Ride 2
ENGINE & SPRINTS90 min
Ninety minutes of zone 2 with three sets of three sprints. Speed on tired legs.
Week 4 · Ride 3
ATTACK REPEATS60 min
Attack for 40 seconds, recover for 80, eight times. Make every attack count.
Week 4 · Ride 4
BREAKAWAY SIM75 min
Bridge to the break, then hold it together. Three times, and a sprint for the win at the end.
Week 5
Week 5 · Ride 1
BIG VO275 min
Five 4-minute VO2 max efforts: the hardest session of the program. Suffer well.
Week 5 · Ride 2
LONG ENGINE90 min
Ninety minutes of zone 2 with sprints along the way. The aerobic engine behind every attack.
Week 5 · Ride 3
BURN THE MATCHES65 min
Four sets of four 1-minute efforts. Burn every match, then find one more.
Week 5 · Ride 4
RACE DAY SIM75 min
A full race: a hard start, three climbs, surges in the bunch, a long attack, and the sprint. The key session.
Week 6
Week 6 · Ride 1
RACE PRIMER50 min
Taper week: four 2-minute efforts keep the engine hot while the legs freshen up.
Week 6 · Ride 2
LOOSE ENGINE60 min
An easy hour in zone 2. Nothing to prove until race day.
Week 6 · Ride 3
OPENER SPRINTS40 min
Five 20-second sprints with long rests. Wake up the fast muscles.
Week 6 · Ride 4
START LINE40 min
The day before the race: three short efforts and two sprints. You are ready. Go get them!
04Then and now
Racing, then and now.
“As long as I breathe, I attack.”
Racing has always been about the surges: the attack, the chase, the sprint. Today we can measure every one of them, and train for them on purpose.
1890s
Six days in New York
Six-day races fill Madison Square Garden: riders lap the track for six days. Later, teams of two take turns, and the format keeps the name of the hall: the Madison.
On the track
The sprinters' game
Track sprinters stand still on the banking, watching each other, then explode for the last 200 meters. Races are won in seconds, with power most riders never use.
After the Tour
Criteriums
In Belgium and the Netherlands, the stars race short laps through town, again and again: hard out of every corner, a sprint at the end. Many amateurs race the same way today.
Today
Race files
Riders read the power file of a race: how often they went over FTP, for how long, how many times. Training copies it, surge for surge. This plan's race simulations do the same.
05In the app
Your trainer does the counting.
You don't need a spreadsheet or a coach to ride this plan. Open AnyMap, pick Race Ready, and ride the next ride. Here is what happens on the way.
Connect in seconds
AnyMap finds your trainer, heart rate strap and Zwift Click over Bluetooth by itself, and connects again next time.
Devices
KICKR CORE
Trainer · Connected
Polar H9
Heart rate · Connected · 84 bpm
Zwift Click
Controller · Connected
SCAN FOR DEVICES
ERG mode holds the watts
In every block, the trainer sets the resistance for the target. Pedal faster or slower: the watts stay. Here is CRIT SIM, played fast, at an FTP of 150 W.
ERG · FTP 150 W
CRIT SIM
135Target watt
Your FTP stays true
After every ride, AnyMap checks your FTP. Ride a new best, and it goes up at once, with every zone. The next ride is already a little harder.
New FTP
156W
+6 W
Your zones moved up. Every workout now uses 156 W.
Watch the weeks add up
Every ride is saved, second by second. Your week shows time in each zone, and your month shows rides, kilometers and time against the month before.
3h 45min
This week
6
Week streak
1417%
Rides
41834%
Km
13h 5021%
Time
Make a ride your own
Copy any ride of the plan into the workout builder and change it. Try it here: tap a block, drag its top for more watts or its side for more time, or tap + for a new block.
New workout · FTP 150 W
My workout
33:3010 blocks
Tap a block to change it, or + to add one.
06FAQ
Before the start.
You can. A race can replace the week's race simulation: it does the same job, better. Keep the other three rides as they are, and don't race in week 3, the lighter week.
The plan draws its sprints at 200 % of FTP, so ERG gives you a big target. Get out of the saddle and go all out; for 10 to 15 seconds, give everything you have, whatever the number says.
Week 6 is the taper: less riding, but still a few sharp efforts, so your legs stay awake. START LINE, the last ride, is meant for the day before your race: easy, with a few short openers.
The engine is the same. Online, the draft and the power numbers are exact; outside, there are corners, wind and tactics. The plan trains what both ask for: the start, the surges, and the sprint.
Ride easy the next day, or rest. After a hard race, give yourself two days before the next hard session. In this plan, the zone 2 ride with sprints is a good next ride.
Yes. The first ride, VO2 PRIMER, is free, with no account. AnyMap Premium opens the other 23 rides, and every other plan and workout, and lets you race in AnyMap's world.
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