Being a pro cyclist of any discipline is really, really hard work, but Alban Lakata – the former 3x men’s XC World Champion (2010, 2015, 2017) – shows just how much dedication it takes to be at the top of the game, clocking a frankly insane 1,158km, 43.5 hours and 25,309m of riding in just one week.
The 40-year-old Austrian clocked up these impressive stats across six rides during a training week (20th > 25th January) on Gran Canaria.
It’s worth pointing out that all bar one of these rides was over 200km long.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B703XJkHr5-/
The longest day of the six involved a 269km circumnavigation of the island that took 9.5 hours and included over 6,000m of climbing. He completed the ride at an average pace of 28.3km/h with an average power of 245 watts and an average weighted power of 272 watts.
While plenty of riders out there – including, no doubt, many of our readers – will have clocked up similar stats, it's his pace that is most impressive. He is not hanging about!
More alarmingly, the Albanator rated his perceived exertion for this day as moderate. I think even attempting a ‘moderate’ effort like this would probably kill most of the staff on BikeRadar.
We can only assume that the effort is in preparation for Cape Epic, which Lakata is due to race with fellow Team Bulls rider Karl Platt next month.
A win at this iconic mountain bike stage race is the only notable exception from Lakata’s impressive palmarès and this effort should put him in good form for the event.
What is your biggest week on the bike? Are you training for any big events this year? Or are you still picking your jaw off the floor after looking at these stats? Let us know if in the comments.
