Carol
Carol has been coached at Velo Performance for several years now, and what stands out more than anything is her consistency. Not perfection, just consistent commitment to the process year after year.
Now in her 60s, Carol continues to improve and take on some incredibly demanding events, proving that age does not have to be a barrier to riding strong, climbing well, and performing at a high level if you don’t let it.
A huge part of her progress has come from committing to strength training and even adding in bounding plyometric work, which many cyclists in their 60s would never even consider doing.
One of the biggest game changers in her development has been refining the balance between riding easy and riding hard. The focus of keeping the HR low in steady endurance work has meant she arrives fresher for the harder sessions and is able to produce much higher quality efforts in her intensity sessions, such as Vo2, Threshold and Hill Reps. The results speak for themselves.
At L’Étape du Tour 2025, one of the toughest amateur cycling events in the world, with over 17,000 riders tackling 130 km and 4,500 metres of climbing across five major Alpine climbs, Carol delivered an outstanding ride.
“What an event. 17,000 riders on closed roads over 5 main climbs in the Alps. Stuck to plan, riding the climbs at tempo. Felt strong and climbing well. Power only dropped in the last 5 km on the La Plagne climb. Nutrition was good, consumed extra electrolytes due to the very hot conditions. I finished in 8:38:27 official time, placed 10th out of 29 in the F60 category”
This year she also rode the Fred Whitton Challenge, producing another very strong performance, knocking more than 12 minutes off her previous moving time and finishing 1st female in the 60 to 69 category.
But the biggest win for me was seeing Carol ride up Hardknott Pass without putting a foot down for the first time since 2017. That moment speaks volumes about what consistent training, strength work, patience, and trusting the process can achieve.
“Very solid ride and a big day out. Strong climbing all day and great endurance. This felt like a very controlled ride.”
Now on to Marmotte Carol, just don't beat your coach.
Carole