Today's stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California involves significant climbs along the route from Livermore to San Jose. Who better to discuss this race than Tour de France legend Hennie Kuiper:
Dutch native Kuiper won a gold medal in the individual cycling road race at the 1972 Munich summer Olympics. As a professional cyclist, Kuiper rode in twelve Tour de France races, finishing second twice and winning the arduous Alpe d'Huez stage twice. Kuiper retired from pro cycling in 1988 and began working as a coach and team leader for various teams including five years as the Team Leader for the American Motorola team that included Lance Armstrong. He currently is working as a public relations agent for the Rabobank Pro Cycling Team.
The Netherlands is famous for its flat terrain. How did you become such a good climber?
"I didn't know I was a climber. My muscles were not for sprinting but for long-distance sports. For a hard climb, you need conditioning for long distance. It doesn't matter if you come from mountains or a flat country, the most important thing is how big is your engine. It's like cars. You can never win over a big car if you are riding in a small car. My engine was strong and then you have to work with your possibilities and train hard. And that's what I did."
How many hours a day and days a week did you train?
"To prepare for a really big race I trained six to seven hours a day, sometimes twice a day, 3.5 hours in the morning and 3.5 hours in the afternoon. You cannot do that every day, because you have to recover. You have to listen to your own body. When the moment is there, you have to kill your body. Then you have to rest so that your body can recover and then you come to a higher level. And then you start your hard training again."
What are the differences between how you trained and how cyclists currently train?
"They know much more about everything, about the bikes, about the food, about the training because there is much more money in the sport. The teams stay in contact with professors in every kind of discipline."
Tune in tomorrow as we continue our discussion with Hennie Kuiper.
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