Spotted on Strava: While Van Aert is still taking it easy, Bernal and Formolo are already doing crazy things

Hello, here we are again! After a final episode in November, the riders have been gradually building up again since December as we head towards the new road cycling season. Mid-January is always a good time to review the first efforts of the past weeks. Three riders did not disappoint on Strava...

Without the regular distance champion Annemiek van Vleuten, it is a bit of a search this winter for notable performances. While the Dutchwoman enjoys her retirement in Uganda, we saw the cycling world awaken from a short November slumber in December. The name of the game in this first month was building up, and then stepping things up in January with usually a first, serious training camp.

Bernal trained more than ever before

We start with Egan Bernal, a man who has dazzled the Strava app frequently over the past few years. Regular followers would know that the Colombian of INEOS Grenadiers occasionally pulls off an 'Apocalipsis' in December and January. By which we mean a monstrous training ride in terms of distance, elevation and/or speed. For example, on December 31st, he rode a staggering 272.36 (!) kilometers with a group of friends. A day that accounted for a total of 3,082 meters of elevation gain, all at a crazy average speed of 38.7 kilometers per hour...

"Every New Year's Eve, my friends and I conclude the year with a very tough ride. It's more than a training session, it's a moment when we want to leave everything behind. Everything that we face daily, we leave it on the road. We reflect on the bad things that have happened, enjoy the bike and look forward to the new year. Apocalypse: more than a training, it's a release," Bernal explained his actions via Instagram.

But that's not even all for the climber, who we hope to see return to his former level in 2024, after crashing into a bus in early 2022. He spent the rest of that year rehabilitating, rebuilding his form in 2023 and seems to have big plans for this season. Bernal recorded more kilometers in December 2023 than ever before. 3,667 kilometers, 56,159 meters of elevation gain, and a total of 124 hours and 15 minutes on the bike. This was not just a little more, but much more than the 3,239.7 kilometers he did in December 2022, 3,220 kilometers in the last month of 2021, and slightly more than 3,000 in 2020. The last time Bernal did such an insane amount of riding was in December 2019, the winter after his stage victory in the Tour. Back then, with 3,643.5 kilometers, he was still 23.5 kilometers short compared to 2024... That certainly is promising!

Formolo starts monstrous training at Movistar

Bernal was not the only one going beast mode in the past period, although he was the most consistent. In 2024, Movistar has Davide Formolo, who didn't share much on Strava during his time with UAE-Team Emirates, but since joining the Spanish team, he's been providing a detailed glimpse into his training. For instance, his climbing record (KOM) on January 6th, on Località Peidaigo. Formolo hammered up the 2.27-kilometer climb with an average gradient of 9.3 percent in 7 minutes and 20 seconds - six seconds faster than the previous best time.

However, what was even more striking for us was January 15th, recorded around El Teide on Tenerife. That day, Formolo cycled 'only' 147.8 kilometers, but still spent a hefty six hours on the bike. The reason being that the Italian racked up a whopping 4,569 meters of elevation gain. We did a brief search to see if this is normal in other riders' training at this time of the year, but we quickly reached the conclusion that - no, it definitely is not. "It's a fucking hard sport," Formolo rightfully captioned his monstrous training on Strava. Even Bernal usually keeps his trainings 'limited' to 3,000+ meters of elevation gain, with maybe an occasional spike towards the 4,000-meter mark...

Van Aert is already doing more than a year ago

Finally, Wout van Aert, along with Remco Evenepoel, is the only major cycling star who neatly tracks and shares all his efforts on Strava. The big question is: what are the consequences of the Belgian's shorter cyclo-cross program for Visma | Lease a Bike on his training in this phase of preparation? In terms of workload, December was almost identical to a year ago. 2,698.1 kilometers and 24,553 meters of elevation gain in December 2022, compared to 2,787.0 kilometers and 21,916 meters of elevation in December 2023.

The significant difference, however, will not lie in the last month of the old year, but mainly in the first months of the new one. Not yet in January, though. Although Van Aert continued cyclo-cross last year until Zonhoven on January 8th (and this year only until Koksijde), he went to Spain in the second week of January both times. Last year, this resulted in 1,696.6 kilometers ridden over the course of fourteen training sessions. This time, up to the Benidorm cyclo-cross coming Sunday, he accumulated 1,456.06 kilometers, also across fourteen training sessions. Last year, he added a ride of over 160 kilometers, a day after Benidorm. So who knows...

In short: Van Aert's training for the 2024 road season so far doesn't differ much from a year ago. The greatest gains Visma | Lease a Bike and he aim to achieve lie in the coming weeks, during which he will skip the World Cyclo-Cross Championships, and commit to even more training. This is intended to ensure a fresher mindset towards the classics, but above all, an extra training stimulus towards the Monuments, which the Killer Bees now finally want to win. To be continued...