What you do the night before a sportive and on the morning of it can hugely improve or damage performance (Photo: Lorraine O'Sullivan - Inpho)
Most of us train for months before a major event and we even aim to peak for a particular period of the year or specific date.
But do we put enough thought into our routine the day before a major race or sportive or on the morning of the big event?
Ideally, we should be as mentally and physically rested as possible. And if we are, we’ll maximise the fitness and form we have towards doing a top ride.
Related reading - Sean Kelly’s advice to sportive riders: “Don’t train on climbs” and other top tips
But even tiny things going wrong can really impact us mentally and cause huge stress.
Being caught short for, say, toilet paper at an event site or a spare tube out of the road can spell disaster.
Related News
The clip below talks us through 10 things we can do to make the day of a major event as smooth and stress free as possible.
- Get organised by packing your bag the night before.
- Pre prepare your breakfast and event drinks the night before.
- Have you bike, spare and tools ready to go to avoid stressing on the morning of the event.
- Make sure you have two bottle cages; it will minimise the need to stop for drinks too frequently.
- Stick with what you know when it comes to food.
- If you get high energy food freebies in a goodie bag by all means try them out, but on the training days after the event.
- Get a tight saddle bag and stick spares, tools, rain jacket and vest.
- Make sure you have the right gears for the event, especially for hilly sportives.
- If you need to change gears, do it at least several days before your event and train on the new sprockets to make sure everything is working properly.
- Bring your own toilet paper. Just trust us on that!
