How to Prepare for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships

Preparing for a World Championship as an amateur is not about training more than everyone else. It is about doing the right work at the right time, around a job and a life, and arriving fresh. Here is how we would structure the road to the 2027 Worlds in Haute-Savoie, France (Gran Fondo: August 22–24; Gravel: Châtel, late August).

Our founder Darina Balabai has qualified for UCI World Championships in both gran fondo and gravel in her first four years of cycling. Everything below is what we have learned on that road – and what we now plan with our riders. Read how qualification works →

Know the course first

Everything starts with the course. The 2027 championships are in the French Alps, and the courses are hard:

• Gran Fondo (August 24): 115 km and 3,256 m of climbing from Thônes to La Clusaz, over the Plateau des Glières (with a gravel sector of almost 2 km), the Col des Fleuries, the Brizon climb and the Col de la Colombière, finishing uphill in La Clusaz.
• Medio Fondo for the older age groups: 80 km and 2,150 m, with Brizon, the Colombière and the final climb.
• Time trial (August 22): 12.7 km uphill, 432 m.

That means long climbs, technical descents, a short gravel sector and possibly heat in late August.

Ask yourself:

• How long are the climbs, and how steep?
• How long will I race – 3 hours or 5?
• How technical are the descents?
• What is the weather likely to be in late August?

Your training should prepare you for exactly that day.

The season, month by month

November–December: base and strength

• Steady endurance riding, mostly in Z2.
• Two strength sessions a week (legs, core, upper body).
• Fix your bike fit and position now, not in July.
• Test once: FTP, ideally a lactate test, to set your zones.

January: set the baseline and the plan

• A training camp in the warm is the best start: outdoor volume while much of Europe trains indoors, plus testing and a written plan.
• Decide your qualifiers and backup qualifiers.

February–April: build and qualify

• Add threshold and VO2max work.
• Long rides with climbing, building towards race duration.
• First qualifier in spring; backup 4–8 weeks later.

May–June: specific block

• Long climbs at target power: if the Worlds course has 30–60-minute climbs, train them.
• Altitude training can help – but only if it is timed and dosed for you.
• Practise descending at speed and race fuelling.

Altitude before the Worlds: timing is everything

"It's always individual, but an altitude camp before a World Championship is best finished around 10–15 days before the race, so that your peak form arrives on race day. What matters is your protocol – two weeks, three weeks, a month – how you live and train up there, at what altitude exactly, and what shape you are in now." – Portcycling coaching team

In practice: for the late-August Worlds, the altitude block itself falls in late July or early August. A spring altitude block, like our May camp in the Sierra Nevada, is a strong base for the season and for early-summer goals – but it is not the final pre-Worlds block.

July: sharpen

• Race-specific intensity, shorter but harder.
• One or two tune-up events.
• Heat preparation if the forecast suggests a hot day.

August: taper and race week

• Reduce volume over the last 10–14 days, keep some short intensity.
• Travel early enough to sleep well and ride part of the course.
• Nothing new in race week: same food, same kit, same bike setup.

Five things that make the difference for amateurs

1. Consistency beats heroics. Ten normal weeks are worth more than two heroic ones followed by illness.
2. Fuelling is training. Practise race nutrition on every long ride.
3. Recovery is part of the plan. Sleep and easy weeks are where the fitness actually builds.
4. Skills are free speed. Cornering, descending and group positioning save minutes without any extra watts.
5. Test, don't guess. Re-test every 8–12 weeks and adjust your zones.

How our camps fit the road to Haute-Savoie