John Wakefield is a cycling coach and bike fitter. He is a coach and Director of Development at Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, and coaches riders at the World Tour level, as well as working directly with and managing the U23 and younger development teams. In this interview, we dive deep into John's thoughts training and coaching, as well as his approach to bike fitting in detail. 

HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS: 

• John's training philosophy
• The importance of focusing on recovery and adaptation to training
• Using a submaximal test to measure training response and readiness
• The volume and intensity of world tour cyclists' training
• Why and how to use torque training
• How to balance comfort, power production, and aerodynamics in a bike fit
• Common ailments and injuries and how to solve them with a good bike fit
• The role of technology in bike fitting
• Common issues in bike fits among amateur cyclists
• Listener questions

DETAILED EPISODE SHOWNOTES: 

• We have detailed shownotes for all of our episodes. The shownotes are basically the podcast episode in written form, that you can read in 5-10 minutes. They are not transcriptions, but they are also not just surface-level overviews. They provide detailed insights and timestamps for each episode, and are great especially for later review, after you've already listened to an episode. Naturally, as great as they are, they do not cover absolutely everything in as great detail as we can do in a 45-90 minute podcast episode.  
• The shownotes for today's episode can be found at www.scientifictriathlon.com/tts465/

LINKS AND RESOURCES: 

• John's website (Science2Sport), Instagram (personal and business), and X
• Markers of overreaching, and the LSCT cycling test with prof. Robert Lamberts and Annemiek Roete | EP#299 - in this interview we discuss the science and practice of the original submaximal fatigue test, which forms the basis for John's submaximal fatigue test

WHAT SHOULD I LISTEN TO NEXT?

If you enjoyed this episode, I think you'll love the following episodes: 

• Dr. Guido Vroemen – Training Talk | EP#460 - an in-depth training discussion, with a special focus on triathlon cycling performance and torque training
• Anna Kiesenhofer – Olympic Champion | EP#454 - a deep-dive into the training of the Olympic Champion from the women's road race in Tokyo 2021
• Bike fitting, equipment, and triathlon bike training with David Bowden | EP#287 - for more information on bike fitting, specifically for triathlon, this is a great place to start

You can find our full episode archives here, where you can filter for categories such as Training, Racing, Science & Physiology, Swimming, Cycling, Running etc.

You can also find separate archives for specific series of episodes I've done, specifically Q&A episodes, TTS Thursday episodes, and Beginner Tips episodes. 

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• The Scientific Triathlon website is the home of That Triathlon Show and everything else that we do
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NEW BASE TRAINING PLANS - 60% LAUNCH DISCOUNT

We have just launched a set of brand new base training plans. There is a low-volume (7 hours per week average), mid-volume (10 h/wk) and high-volume (14 h/wk) version available. 

For a limited time only, until the 31st of August 2025, these plans are available on a massive discount of 60%, meaning you can purchase a plan for 30$ instead of the regular price of 75$. Use the code "BASE1" at checkout to apply this discount code. 

The plans are only available on TrainingPeaks. You can learn more about each of the plans (and purchase them, if you so desire) through the links below. 

• Low-volume Base Training Plan
• Mid-volume Base Training Plan
• High-volume Base Training Plan