{"id":608713,"date":"2026-05-28T15:49:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608713\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:49:16","slug":"saunas-endurance-blocks-and-racing-track-how-sprinter-ethan-vernon-trains-every-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608713\/","title":{"rendered":"Saunas, endurance blocks and racing track: How sprinter Ethan Vernon trains every week"},"content":{"rendered":"

You started the season with a stage win in Australia. Was it a good winter’s training?<\/p>\n

Really good. I shut down last season in early October, as I knew I was doing the Tour Down Under<\/a>. In November, those of us going to Australia had a two-week training camp, riding 30-hour weeks. I came off that big endurance block<\/a> well, and then did some track races at Grenchen [in Switzerland] in December. The plan was to copy a similar build-up to what I did with Quick-Step<\/a> a few years ago: a big overload training camp into an intense track block. It worked well again.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How is this team different from Quick-Step?<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

I was the third sprinter in my two years at Quick-Step and it was the perfect stepping stone to where I’m at now. At this team, I have been given the opportunity to become a leader and have a more tailored race programme.<\/p>\n

The best thing about NSN<\/a> is that some of my best mates are here and the culture is really similar to what it’s like on the track squad.<\/p>\n

Profile<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ethan\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Age: 25
Raised: Bedford
Lives: Andorra
Height: 6ft 2in
Rides for: NSN Cycling Team
Best results: 2nd – Olympic Games team pursuit (2024); 1st – Tour Down Under, Stage 4 (2026); 1st – Tour de Romandie, Stage 1 (2023)<\/p>\n

What are your aims for this season? <\/p>\n

On my day, I can comfortably beat second-tier sprinters, but I want to be beating the very best. Finishing second twice in Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a <\/a>stages last year really fired me up, and my goal before I retire is to win a stage in all three Grand Tours, alongside an Olympic gold medal. I’ll ride the Giro d’Italia <\/a>and maybe the Vuelta this year.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

How will you fit track into your calendar in the coming years? <\/p>\n

Claiming team pursuit silver in Paris<\/a> and being so close to gold gave me a taste of what it could be like, so I want to be at Los Angeles 2028. But I won’t ride too much track until 2028, as my focus is on the road and winning Grand Tour stages. That said, if it fits, I may ride track at the Commonwealth Games this summer.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ethan\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Zac Williams\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

ETHAN VERNON’S TRAINING DIARY<\/p>\n

The week: 5-11 January
Training for: Tour Down Under
Location: Andorra<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

Monday
AM: Endurance ride; PM: Sauna<\/p>\n

Today was a basic five-hour endurance ride on the flat roads in Spain, where it was 10 degrees warmer than in Andorra. In the afternoon, I spent 25 minutes in the gym’s sauna to acclimatise<\/a> for Australia.
Total riding time: 5hr<\/p>\n

Tuesday
Rest day<\/p>\n

I tend to alternate what I do on rest days: completely off the bike for one – like this one – then a small ride on the other. To prepare for the time difference in Australia, as a team we were using an app called Timeshifter<\/a>, which calculates when you should start adapting to the time zone. It meant going to sleep and waking up 30 minutes earlier every day during this week. Did it work? A bit.
Total riding time: Ohr<\/p>\n

Wednesday
AM: Tabata Intervals; PM: Sauna<\/p>\n

My coach Liam Holohan calls this the Tabata Mix. It consists of three 10-minute blocks behind an e-bike<\/a> to replicate race pace. In the first one, it’s 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off; the second is 30-30s, and the third block is 20-40s. Later in the day, I went in the sauna again for 25 minutes.
Total riding time: 3hr 30 mins<\/p>\n

Total riding time: 3hr 30min<\/p>\n

Thursday
AM: Sprint session; PM: Heat training<\/p>\n

Most weeks, I do a 10-minute ramp effort to threshold – my FTP is around 400 watts – up a climb, then watch my heart rate drift for 90 seconds. It’s to check how I’m progressing. After doing that, I had a Zone 2 tempo session<\/a> that included seven finishing sprints of 10 to 20 seconds, with a team-mate leading me out at peak speed for 20 seconds. Half of our team is based in Andorra, which allows us to practise our leadouts. In the afternoon, I rode really easy, sitting at 140 watts for 45 minutes on the turbo in the paint suit.
Total riding time: 3hr 30min<\/p>\n

Friday
AM: Endurance ride; PM: Sauna<\/p>\n

I did a basic ride sitting between Zones 1 and 2, with an average of 230 watts, followed by 25 minutes in the sauna. I’d like to do more heat training,<\/a> but I do suffer quite a bit, so we have to manage how much. It clearly works, as I went on to win in Australia on the hottest day of the year<\/a>.
Total riding time: 4hr<\/p>\n

Saturday
Cafe ride<\/p>\n

This was just a very easy spin to the cafe with some mates<\/a>. In the winter, there’s too much snow to do much else in Andorra, but on rest days in the summer I’ll often go into the woods and tracks around La Massana and ride my e-mountain bike<\/a>. I’ll put it into turbo mode and barely turn the pedals – it’s a lot of fun and doesn’t tire me out. Total riding time: 1hr<\/p>\n

Sunday
AM: Recovery ride and heat training; PM: Gym<\/p>\n

I rode outside for an hour really easy, and then did 45 minutes in the paint suit. In the afternoon, I went to the gym for an hour and 15 minutes, doing all the usual stuff: squats, leg press, calf raises<\/a>.
Total riding: 1hr 45min<\/p>\n

TOTAL RIDING: 18HR 45MIN<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ethan\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

WEEK’S WISDOM <\/p>\n

Heat adaptation doesn’t require high-tech methods. Look at how Vernon prepared for Australia: simply by adding short sauna sessions and easy turbo rides in a paint suit. The principle is straightforward: expose your body to heat<\/a> regularly so it learns to cope. It won’t be long before the UK weather starts to warm up – why not get ready for it? Who knows, it might give you the edge on those first sunny club rides!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You started the season with a stage win in Australia. Was it a good winter’s training? Really good.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-608713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}