Get to know… Roger Hammond (Sports Director)

How did you get into cycling? 

My dad was an amateur cyclist, so I grew up in a bit of a cycling family. But I played football until I was about 17. And then I had an injury and the rehabilitation to get back into football was cycling. I did a lot of cycling that year. Eventually the injury was in September and then following January I've done enough that I won the cyclo-cross World Championship. Once I'd won a world championship, it gave me a lot more focus and I never played football again.

Is there a favourite race you have done either as a rider or as a DS? 

My favourite race has always been Paris-Roubaix. I've always wanted to win it. When I was a little kid, I remember sitting at the table having just watched Paris-Roubaix on the television and telling my parents one day I'm gonna win that race. That was long before I had the opportunity to be a cyclist. It was always something that got me out of bed and made me train. Everything I did once I became a rider was always with that in the back of my mind: how can I win this race?

And why Roubaix? What made it special for you?

When I was a kid, we had limited television coverage of cycling. It just wasn't on terrestrial TV and my dad worked out that if we could get this thing called Eurosport, we could watch cycling. So, the two of us spent the whole afternoon: I was up a ladder on the roof of the house moving a dish and my dad was downstairs shouting whether he had images or not. I remember coming down and thinking we're never going to do this and what a waste of money this dish thing is because it wasn't working and we almost gave up. Then we just said: OK - we will give it another ten minutes. I went up the ladder again and then we turned on the dish and suddenly we had these images and there was this massive excitement. We turned the TV on and the next day it was Paris-Roubaix. So, one of the first visual images I had as a child of watching television is dust and chaos. It was just pure entertainment.

How did this excitement for Roubaix grow once you raced it?

Roubaix is not just about power. There's direction, there's tactics, there's skill - for me it's the extreme case of all the attributes you need to be a really good cyclist. That's what appealed to me because I was never a rider with the most power, but as a system I could be quite good. I did cyclocross every year of my career so I could be good at Roubaix. I played table tennis because I wanted better hand-eye coordination to ride on cobbles and to improve my reaction time. I did judo to learn how to fall down and get up again. 

I never won it – that's the other thing. If I'd won it in my second or third year, it might have made a difference. But I got close enough (note: 3rd in 2004) to know that on the right day, in the right conditions, if I maximised my skills... That thought was enough to keep me hungry. 

And have these thoughts changed as a DS?

As a sports director you want to feel that you've had an impact on the performance of the rider. There are certain races where you can have a huge impact, and the easy ones to have a huge impact are races like Roubaix. But since I've been sport director, my focus on that has diminished. I have ambitions in a lot more races now. Stage races, for example, are a different challenge than supporting the one-day classics. There's so much we can do and I've diversified since becoming a sport director.

La Vuelta is the third grand tour of the year. How many have you done as a rider and as a DS?

This year is only my second Vuelta. I didn't do many as a rider because I did the spring classics, and I'd have my lower period in the middle of the season before I built for the end of season classics. I ended up doing one Vuelta as a rider. I wanted to do a grand tour, just to be able to say as a rider that I did it. Then as a sports director I just always did the Tour de France, and to do the Tour and then Vuelta just didn't really work out. Also, I'm British, so the Vuelta clashes with the Tour of Britain.

The Tour de Suisse was your first race with Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe. How long does it take to adapt to a new team?

It varies and also depends on how accepted you are as a person. I feel like I'm getting there pretty quickly here, but every team has its own way. It's not so much the time you've been with the team, but the number of race days you do with the team. I've only done a dozen race days so far, so it's still early days. That is why the Vuelta is such a good opportunity for me. I get to spend the next three-and-a-half weeks with everyone, getting to know the dynamics and how things work.

Did it help that you worked with key people of the team before you joined?

I joined Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe and it has a lot of meaning behind it. It means I'm joining your structures; I'm joining your way of working - it's for me to adapt, the team doesn't have to adapt to me. It's good to have someone you've worked with and understand their philosophy. I felt more confident about going in that direction knowing that Rolf was here. With the history I've had with Rolf, he was my sports director and we were colleagues. I've certainly developed a long-standing respect for his philosophy. 

Was there a special moment in your long DS career that you'll always remember?

That's a tricky question because you learn to roll over the highs and lows and those emotions. Almost every day is crazy, but even at the end of a chaotic day I feel alive. No day is the same - no day is exactly what you expect. I've picked up riders that have had horrific crashes and I had joyous experiences like winning Paris-Roubaix as a sports director two years in a row, and then Cav taking yellow at my first ever Tour de France as a sports director. They stand out. But I never really visualized standing on the podium - I visualized the journey it was going to take me to get there. It's the same with working with the athletes now. You go on a journey with them. The part I really enjoy is already done, whether he crosses the line first or not.

4 Questions for Dan Lorang (Head of Performance)

When is the best time for a training camp?

The time for a training camp depends on the goals of the camp. For a good base preparation, it makes sense to go in February or March to a training camp to accumulate some solid number of training hours in good weather conditions and without any other duties to do. In a camp you can do more load as at home because you don´t have to do your regular job, what has a big impact on a better recovery. A second good spot for a two-week training camp is 4 weeks before your main event. 

How do I get fit when I don’t have that much time during the week?

Training load is a combination of volume and intensity. So, for session where you don´t have a lot of time, it makes sense to do an intensity session like for example a VO2max training. On the weekend you can do your long endurance rides.

What kind of training should I do indoor and what maybe not?

Indoor training is perfect to do the hard and short sessions, especially when you don´t have a lot of time. You can start with the program from the first minute on and you don´t lose time by riding through the traffic before you can start your real training session. On the indoor trainer you can precisely adjust the intensity and adjust it according to your training goals. For long rides and for learning technical skills like downhill riding, cornering, accelerations, …, I would recommend to do this sessions outside and to enjoy the beautiful nature.

Does riding slowly in winter make me faster in summer?

A good endurance performance in the summer needs some good base work in the winter. Slow training allows you to do longer rides which are also important for example for capillarization and for metabolic adaption. But that doesn´t mean that you just have to go slowly in the winter. A good combination of different training intensities is the right cocktail to be successful in the summer. A ration of 90:10 with easy:hard training is an optimal choice. But be careful, too much intensity in the winter is much harmfully as too much slow training at the period of the year. 

5 Questions for Robert Gorgos (Head of Nutrition)

How do I get rid of the Christmas/winter weight (in a healthy way)? 

Losing weight is only possible with an energy deficit, you need to expend more than you put in your body. The healthy way is a slight deficit over a longer period of time (until you reach your desired weight), not more than 10%. If you cut more than that the risk of overeating later, a vulnerable immune system, a decrease in training quality and recovery, muscle loss and even a shift in hormonal balance is possible. Therefore you need a plan! 

What can I do to boost my immune system during this time of the year?

That´s a good question... and is discussed a lot. From a nutritional standpoint a healthy diet rich in vegetables and fruit, for example broccoli, onions, berries, fresh herbs and spices and the inclusion of fibre from whole grain, nuts, seeds and some probiotics (in kefir, kombucha, apple cider vinegar, natural yogurt, sauerkraut) is a good idea. Try to eat a diet containing some of those foods every day to "support" your microbiome, maybe check your vitamin D status and take some zinc and vitamin C (this might help in case of a mild infection to shorten the time of sickness, maybe...).

What and how much should I eat during my rides? 

Depends... on your performance level and therefore energy and carbohydrate expenditure. For a medium trained cyclist with a Vo2max of let´s say 55 and a bodyweight of 75kg I would recommend to have around 40g carbohydrates from carbohydrate drinks, bars and gels in easy workouts (base training) and around 60-80g if doing harder workouts like sweetspot or Vo2max training. This is per hour! Drink enough, especially when training indoors, this can be between 0.5 and 1.5l, per hour...

Nutrition for an indoor workout

Normally you don´t train that long, therefore the energy expenditure is not super high. If you go 1hr around 40g carbohydrates will be enough, even if doing intervals. Focus on a varied healthy diet in the meals around your workout. Like already said, if only doing 1hr the expenditure is not that high. If you go longer, comparable to outside, it is pretty much the same like training outside. You might need more fluids due to more sweat loss though.

Nutrition during a training camp: Mistakes and No Gos

Eat enough carbohydrates, fuel your workouts well, have a recovery shake after your workouts, never really get hungry on your rides. Eat frequent meals and don´t center all your energy intake around dinner. The higher training load is a big stress, not only for your muscles but also for your immune system. 

No Gos: alcohol, fasted trainings, low carb, low protein, no vegetables/fruit... no training nutrition.