The best insight into Chris Froome's mentality was his running up Mont Ventoux in last year's Tour after a crash. Now we get another glimpse inside his psyche.
Chris Froome’s six-hour training rides at night
Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has revealed he once tried doing two six-hour spins within a 24-hour period.
He said as a younger rider he would experiment will different forms of training in a bid to make him better.
And for a brief period of about a week he decided not only to do a six-hour training ride during the day, but also to do another that night.
“You have to learn to be driven, but moderate it,” he said in a piece in shortlist.com.
“I once convinced myself that just training once a day was stupid. So for a week all I did was train, eat, sleep, train, eat, sleep.
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“And ignored things like the changing of the day, down-time and so on. I’d get back at 2pm, eat, sleep, then wake up at 8pm and go out for another six-hour ride, then repeat the cycle.
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“I was riding all through the night and sleeping during daylight, like a vampire who ignored the world around him.
“I only lasted four or five days, then I crashed and burned. It wasn’t healthy.”
He also said the biggest sacrifice for him as a pro cyclist was having no social life.
“Even when I’m at home, it’s hard to go out for dinner, because I have to be so careful about what I eat. And I need to be in bed early for training the next day.
“It’s great when I get a month off and can go out with mates.
“I’m a pretty cheap night out. Our bodies are always on a knife edge with fuel needs and nutrition.
"So anything you put in there you feel pretty fast. Let’s say one pint of beer has a pretty big impact.”
He added that staying motivated on the task at hand has never been a problem for him.
“Focus has always come easy to me. Some people work with sport psychologists on it, some call it a flow state.
“Even when people threw urine at me during a race in 2015, I genuinely barely noticed. I was in that mental state.”
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