A 12-week 100 km sportive training plan for beginners
For riders who can comfortably ride for an hour or two and have entered, or are eyeing up, their first 100 km sportive. Three rides a week, four in the middle of the plan, with the long ride growing from an hour and a half to about four hours. By the start line you’ll have ridden most of the distance, practised eating on the bike, and learnt how to pace a long day.
Who this plan is for
A sportive is an organised, non-competitive ride: a signed route, feed stations, a number on your bike and a lot of people who look more serious than they are. One hundred kilometres is the classic first target, and it’s very achievable if you build to it over three months.
This plan assumes you already ride once or twice a week and can manage an hour or two without it wrecking you. If you’re not there yet, start with the 8-week 50 km plan and come back. If you’re already riding three hours regularly, you could start at week five.
If you’re new to exercise, have a health condition, or get any pain that isn’t ordinary muscle soreness, speak to a doctor before you begin. This is general guidance rather than medical advice, and the Etapa app, which builds a personalised version of it, isn’t a medical service either.
What the twelve weeks look like
The plan runs in three phases. Base (weeks one to five) is about riding more, easily. Build (weeks seven to ten) adds hills and longer stretches at the pace you’ll ride on the day. The taper (weeks eleven and twelve) is the bit people skip and shouldn’t: easing right off so you arrive fresh. Week six is an easier week between the two, because fitness is built in the resting, not the riding.
Three rides a week in base; four in build if you have the time, with the fourth an easy hour or a strength session, never another hard one. The long ride grows by fifteen minutes a week and peaks at four hours in week ten, which for most people is 70 to 80 km: enough to know you’ll get round, without spending your best legs in training.
| Weeks | Focus | Long ride grows to | How it should feel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Base: three easy rides, one of them longer | 1 h 30 → 2 h | Easy. Chatting pace on everything. |
| 4–5 | Base: a steady section appears midweek | 2 h 15 → 2 h 30 | Mostly easy. The steady bits are short-sentence pace. |
| 6 | Easier week | 1 h 45 | Fresh. Less riding, all of it easy. |
| 7–8 | Build: hills, and riding at sportive pace | 2 h 45 → 3 h | Purposeful. Climbs are hard-ish but never all-out. |
| 9–10 | Peak: the two longest rides | 3 h 30 → 4 h (roughly 70 to 80 km) | Long and steady; a proper rehearsal with food and stops. |
| 11 | Taper begins | 2 h 30 | Easy, and shorter than you’d like. |
| 12 | Taper and the sportive | The 100 km | Two short spins, two rest days, then ride. |
Tuesday: 45 minutes easy on flattish roads. Thursday: an hour easy, with a few gentle hills if you have them. Saturday: an hour and a half, easy, with a stop for a coffee if there’s one on the route. Four rest days. Week two is the same with fifteen minutes added to Saturday.
A sample week
This is week eight, in the build phase, with four sessions. If you only have three days, drop Wednesday.
| Day | Session | How long | How it should feel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Rest | — | Off the bike. A walk or a stretch is fine. |
| Tuesday | Hills: 4 × 4 min climbing | 1 h | Easy to and from. The climbs at an effort you could hold for ten minutes if you had to; roll down easy between each. |
| Wednesday | Easy spin or strength session | 45 min | Genuinely easy, or twenty minutes of squats, lunges and planks and a stretch. |
| Thursday | Sportive pace: 2 × 15 min steady | 1 h 15 | The steady bits are the pace you’ll ride on the day: short sentences, not chatting. Easy before, between and after. |
| Friday | Rest | — | Pump up the tyres, plan the route. |
| Saturday | Long ride | 3 h | Easy throughout. Eat something every 30 to 40 minutes from the first hour. Practise stopping and getting going again. |
| Sunday | Rest | — | Legs will be tired. A walk is fine. |
How to adjust it when life happens
Missed a week? Resume at the week you missed, not the next one. If you missed two, go back two. The long ride should never jump by more than fifteen minutes from the last one you actually completed, and it’s fine to shift the whole plan later if the event date allows. If it doesn’t, it’s also fine to arrive with a longest ride of three hours: the sportive has feed stops and you’ll be riding easy.
Feeling wiped? Heavy legs on an easy ride, poor sleep, a mood you don’t recognise. Take the easier week now rather than pushing on. Keep any week’s total riding time within roughly ten to fifteen per cent of the week before.
Ill? Sniffles above the neck: ride easy if you fancy it. Anything in the chest, a fever or aches: rest until it’s fully gone and come back with an easy ride. A week off for a cold costs you almost nothing. Riding through one can cost you the event.
Weather? Swap days around, shorten rather than cancel, and don’t ride in ice or a gale. A session on an indoor trainer counts.
The Etapa app takes the guesswork out of all of this. Give it your event, the days you can ride and how much you ride now, and it puts a personal version of this plan in your calendar. Miss a ride and it reshuffles the week instead of stacking sessions up. Wondering whether a niggle is worth resting for? Ask the coach; it replies any time, in plain English.
Kit, food and the basics
By week seven you’ll want padded shorts if you don’t already have them, two bottles, a small saddle bag with a spare inner tube, tyre levers and a pump, and a way of fixing a puncture that you’ve practised at home once. Food matters more than any piece of kit on a ride this long: eat from the first hour, something every 30 to 40 minutes, and drink before you’re thirsty. Use the long rides to find out what you can stomach. More in our guides to beginner cycling gear and eating on the bike.
The week before and the day itself
In week twelve, ride 45 minutes easy on Tuesday and 30 on Thursday, then rest. You can’t get fitter in the last week, only more tired. The day before: check the bike, pin your number on, eat normally, and go to bed early. On the day, eat breakfast two to three hours before the start, begin slower than everyone around you (they’ll come back to you after the first feed stop), eat and drink from the first half hour, and use every feed station. Ride your own pace on the hills. Finish with a smile and ask yourself what’s next.
How long does a 100 km sportive take a beginner?
Most first-timers take between four and six hours including stops. A steady 20 km/h on the road with a couple of feed-station breaks lands you at around five. Sportives aren’t races, there’s no leaderboard that matters, and the people at the back are usually having the best time.
Do I need a road bike?
No. A road bike is quicker and more comfortable over 100 km, but plenty of riders complete sportives on hybrids, gravel bikes and flat-bar bikes. What matters is that it fits you and is in good working order. If you’re buying, our guide to choosing a first bike will help; if you’re not, ride what you have.
What if I can only ride twice a week?
Keep the long ride and one midweek ride, and make the midweek one the hills or steady session. You’ll build more slowly, so give yourself two or three extra weeks if you can, and don’t skip the taper. Two rides a week done consistently beats four done occasionally.
Should I ride 100 km before the event?
You don’t need to. A longest ride of about four hours, or 70 to 80 km, is plenty. On the day you’ll have fresh legs from the taper, feed stops every 30 km or so, and other riders to share the wind with. Riding the full distance in training mostly makes you tired for the event.
How many weeks do I need to train for a 100 km sportive?
Twelve weeks is a comfortable amount if you’re already riding an hour or two. If you’re fitter than that, eight is enough. If you’re starting from half-hour rides, do the 8-week 50 km plan first and give yourself around twenty weeks in total. The app builds plans up to 24 weeks long, so it can stretch or shrink this to fit your date.
Build your sportive plan around your calendar
Pick your event in Etapa, tell it which days you can ride, and it builds a personal version of this plan that ends on the start line and moves when your week does.
Free to download. 7-day free trial on every plan.