Lifting the Lid on Visma-Lease a Bike’s Secret Winter Training – Outside Magazine

Powered by OutsideBe one of the first to try our new activity feed! Tap “Home” to explore.Team Visma-Lease a Bike’s Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard (C) stands next to teammates at the presentation of their team for 2025 at a hotel in La Nucia, near Alicante, eastern Spain on January 14, 2025. (Photo by JOSE JORDAN / STR / AFP) (Photo by JOSE JORDAN/STR/AFP via Getty Images) Photo: JOSE JORDAN/STR/AFP via Getty Images
Team Visma-Lease a Bike is one of the most secretive teams in the peloton.None of its riders post power data, and a few of them don’t post any of their training publicly. Jonas Vingegaard and Cian Uijtdebroeks, for example, haven’t posted a single Strava ride in years.But if you do the right amount of digging, some of the secrets start to surface.I’ve spent many hours combing through power files, Strava segments, podcasts, videos, and social media posts to learn how the best cyclists in the world train.In the first three articles of this series, we followed Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates at their training camp in Calp, then Jonas Abrahamsen’s insane indoor training program, and then we analyzed lactate testing and 40/20s.Now, we’re going to take a deep dive into the secret training of Team Visma-Lease a Bike.  A post shared by Wout van Aert (@woutvanaert)We don’t often see the intervals that V-Lab riders do in training, but there was a short preview recently posted on Instagram by Wout van Aert.The Belgian posted a video of Sepp Kuss riding up a climb at about 50 rpm, but it wasn’t just a normal low-cadence interval. It looked like the American was pushing as hard as he could, almost like a sprint effort at 50 rpm.By now, you have probably heard of torque intervals.These are intervals done at a low cadence and high power, resulting in high torque. Some torque intervals are three minutes long, while others are 20 minutes long. But have you ever seen a high-torque sprint interval?That is exactly what Sepp Kuss was doing on a climb in Spain. You could call each interval a force-velocity test.Kuss begins each sprint at a low cadence, somewhere around 50-60 rpm. Based on the video, it looks like Kuss stays in the saddle during these efforts, at least for the first few pedal strokes.The goal here is to get up to speed as fast as possible. In order to do this, you need to put a massive amount of torque into the pedals. Power is calculated by multiplying power and cadence, so if your cadence is very low, you need a lot of torque to produce a high-powered sprint.There isn’t a ton of science behind these ‘peak force velocity’ intervals yet; but if V-Lab is doing them, then they probably work.It is impossible to know exactly how long Kuss’ intervals were, but I am guessing they were relatively short.I have heard of coaches prescribing 7-10 pedal strokes during peak force velocity intervals, but you can also go a bit longer. Based on his file, it seems like Kuss sprinted for roughly 20 seconds before he began to decelerate. If you are going to try these intervals at home, start with shorter efforts at a higher cadence.I recommend beginners start at 60 rpm before sprinting for 7-10 pedal strokes, while advanced riders can try sprinting from 40 rpm for up to 20-30 seconds.Some of the potential benefits of peak force velocity intervals include: increased muscle recruitment, synchronization of muscle contractions, and increased neural drive (the signal that the brain sends to the muscles in order to generate force and tension).Sepp Kuss – 20sec Power StartsMatteo Jorgenson has said that every rider at Visma-Lease a Bike has their own training plan. Even when they are riding together, they will do their own efforts when the time comes.At team camp, it seems like the riders all start out together, they will ride out to a climb, and then each rider will go off and do their own intervals until it’s time to ride home. Some riders will do two-minute intervals, others will perform 30-second sprints, and some will do 40/20s.A few weeks ago, Visma-Lease a Bike held its January camp in La Nucia, Spain. All the big names were there including Vingegaard, Van Aert, Jorgenson, and Kuss. Most days included long hours on the bike, but we also got a glimpse of some of the intervals the riders were doing.On Day 5 of team camp, Tiesj Benoot completed a classic Visma-Lease a Bike training session: short VO2 Max intervals.While we don’t have his power data, we can see from his Strava laps that Benoot completed three sets of VO2 Max intervals during the three-hour ride.The first set of intervals was 2min on, 2min off, and then 4min on. Both the second and third sets of intervals were 4min on, 2min off, and then 4min hard. We can see that Benoot is climbing at ~1500Vm/h during the “on” intervals, each done on a ~6% grade.That level of climbing speed requires a high power output, as we have seen in comparable efforts. Based on my calculations, Benoot is probably pushing between 6.4-6.8w/kg during each VO2 Max effort.Benoot – 4min VO2 Max EffortsVAM: ~1500 Vm/hEstimated Power: 6.4-6.8w/kgOur best guess is that these VO2 Max efforts are designed as pre-fatiguing intervals. The first effort fatigues the legs without completely destroying your legs. The short recovery in between the intervals (likely ridden in Zone 2, or ~300w for these riders) only allows for partial recovery before you are hit with the second VO2 Max effort which is done on tired legs.This type of interval is perfect race preparation because it simulates the hard moments of the race before a key attack point. The peloton doesn’t roll into the bottom of the Kwaremont at 200w — they race into it at well over 400w, fatiguing the legs before the climb has even started.During other training sessions, Benoot completed intervals of 3min on, 1.5min off, and 3min on. My best guess is that these were also VO2 Max intervals, but with a slightly different interval duration.VO2 Max is the latest training trend among Visma-Lease a Bike and most WorldTour teams. The winter is no longer reserved for Zone 2 training, that is only part of it. In order to reach their highest levels ever, riders are completing VO2 Max sessions year-round.In the next installment of Team Visma-Lease a Bike’s secret training, we will take a closer look at one of the team’s youngest riders, Thomas Gloag, and how Visma-Lease a Bike helped him return to the highest level following a serious injury. We will also tell you why nearly everyone on Visma-Lease a Bike is running in the morning before a four-hour training ride.Power Analysis data courtesy of Strava Strava sauce extension Riders: What’s it like to be an American cyclist living in France? Watch to get professional road cyclist Joe Dombrowski’s view. © 2025 Outside Interactive, Inc

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