Want to race super long cycling races, like the Race Across America or the Transcontinental? We've got you covered. And Eugenio Rezia Loppio’s story is just one example of how INSCYD can help you succeeding in these titanic tasks.Rezia Loppio is an Italian entrepreneur with a big passion for cycling. He doesn’t only enjoy the classic weekend ride or the hard high-intensity training session — he loves going long, crazy long.
Last year, the 43-year-old from Rome took part in several sportive and in his first ultra cycling race, the Race Across Italy. You may be familiar with the format by now: from A to B in the quickest time, although the road to get from one point to the other is not short. In 2018, to be precise, the RAI (also the acronym for Italy's state-owned television) was conceived as a big loop from and to Silvi Marina, a small sea resort in the region of Abruzzo.The race snaked from the Adriatic coasts all the way to the Tyrrhenian sea for a coast to coast Made in Italy of 750 km (480 miles) and 10,000 metres (32,000ft) of elevation gain. Not exactly a walk in the park.In his first ultra cycling event, Rezia Loppo finished in the top 20 and took one of the slots available for the Race Across American — making the RAI one of the world’s qualifiers for the big American crossing. Lucky result? Nope. Random? Not that either. Good performances never are.Rezia Loppo was tested for the first time by INSCYD coach Marco Orsini on 14 November 2017 and since then has been tested several times within a regular time frame. In that occasion he scored a VO2max of 47.43 ml/kg/min and a VLAmax of 0.73 mmol/l/s (for 76 kg of weight and a body fat percentage of 10.9). Fast forward to April 6 April 2019 and his physiological profiling looks quite different: VO2max of 55.3, VLamax of 0.47 mmol/l/s and bodyweight of 72.8 (8.10% body fat).
“With INSCYD we worked the whole season by keeping our focus on the optimisation of fat burning,” says Loppo. “It was this aspect that fascinated me the most when I followed INSCYD presentation from Marco Orsini.”Orsini, based in the Italian region of Umbria, had to work from a long way out. His athlete’s former training hinged on high intensity sessions and relatively short time frames. Not exactly the optimal approach for a long endurance event like the RAI.“The Ultra cycling races are races where the fat max power and the functional strength for cycling long are fundamental,” says Orsini. “INSCYD helped him to improve his maximum fat power and also helped him to plan the correct nutritional strategy by reducing the impact of his glycolytic power (VLaMax).”
Rezia Loppo's training schedule — despite having a good amount of volumes for an amateur (17 hours average per week) — was not only focused on long sessions though. His weekly routine included gym sessions to develop his strength, workouts on the road for his muscular endurance and specific sessions to target his VO2max with the Billat protocol, as well as other sessions to target his lactate shuttling and FatMax.“It was pretty clear that as an ultracycler and randonneur, it is not that important to do a 5km climb flat out,” says Rezia Loppo. “As a long-distance cyclist with a focus on races that last more than a day, it’s crucial to keep a good pace for many, many hours.”If you have big long-term goals too, don’t waste your precious training time. Understand your exact physiological needs and optimise your training schedule with INSCYD.
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