A sportive training plan for your first big ride

What is a sportive?

A sportive is an organised road ride you enter, usually somewhere between 50 and 160 km, with a signposted route, feed stops along the way and a start and finish line. It isn’t a race. Nobody wins, you set off in waves rather than as one bunch, and you ride at your own pace. Most events offer a short, a medium and a long route on the same day, so a first-timer and a seasoned club rider can enter the same event and ride different distances. That, plus the feed stops, is why a sportive is the classic first goal for a new rider: all the occasion of an event, with nobody chasing you.

How many weeks do you need to train for a sportive?

Between 8 and 16, depending on the distance and where you’re starting from. If you already ride a couple of times a week and you’ve entered a 50 km route, 8 weeks is plenty. A first 100 km from a low base is more like 12 to 16, and a 160 km ride wants the long end of that. Etapa builds the plan backwards from the event date, so once you tell it which sportive you’ve entered, the number of weeks is set for you and the plan is shaped to end on the start line rather than a week early or a week late. Every plan runs through the same phases.

1. BaseMostly easy riding at a pace where you could chat. This builds the engine and, just as importantly, the habit. The weekend ride starts at a distance you can already do.
2. BuildThe long ride grows most weeks, and a few harder efforts turn up midweek, short enough that you can’t dread them. This is where the distance stops looking impossible.
3. Peak and taperYour longest rides, then a week or two where the riding drops right off so you arrive fresh. The taper feels like slacking and it’s the bit most people skip. The plan holds the line for you.

What does a typical week look like?

For a first 100 km sportive on three rides a week, the shape barely changes from week to week; the numbers do. One longer ride at the weekend that grows. One steady midweek ride of about an hour. One shorter ride with a few harder efforts in it, or a strength and mobility session if your legs need a break more than your lungs do. Etapa builds two to four sessions a week around the days you give it, and every session sits in the calendar with a plain note on what it’s for.

Weeks go wrong. You’ll get a cold, a work trip or a weekend that vanishes. Tell the coach, or let the empty week speak for itself, and the plan rebalances around what actually happened rather than stacking the missed rides onto the next fortnight. The taper stays protected whatever else moves. If you’d like to see the whole thing before you commit, the 100 km sportive plan is laid out week by week.

What about the day itself?

Eat a normal breakfast two to three hours before the start, something you’ve already had before a long ride. On the bike, eat little and often from the first hour: a banana, a flapjack, a bar, whatever you practised with on the long rides. Drink regularly rather than waiting to feel thirsty. Use the feed stops, but don’t try anything new at them; the day is not the time to discover that you and energy gels disagree. And start slower than feels right, because everyone around you will be going too fast and most of them will regret it by the second feed stop.

Haven’t entered yet? The events directory lists sportives by date, distance and location, each with a free sample plan, and in the app the find-a-goal search will suggest one from a rough idea of what you fancy and when. One honest note: Etapa is an app, not a human coach, and it isn’t a medical service. If you have a health condition, check with a professional before you take on the training.