(energetic music)
- [Neil] Professional cross-country racers
are elite level athletes, and this is
the Olympic discipline for mountain biking.
They have to deal with undulating circuits,
lung-bursting climbs, and technical descents.
The races are typically an hour and a half long
with no rest, even the descents are hard-fought,
so rarely do racers get to recover.
The physiological requirements needed
to meet these demands are truly elite.
(man grunting)
So how will a pair of mere mortals compare?
- Just how fit are world cup cross country racers?
We're here in Switzerland to find out.
- Yes, we've come all the way out here
for just one day to go to the gym.
- With someone very special, Nino Schurter,
one of the greatest of all time,
seven times world champion, Olympic champion,
winning everything again.
I don't know whose idea this was.
- I have no, Garmin.
- Nino's a Garmin sponsored athlete.
Well, we're Garmin sponsored as well,
so, it was their idea.
Here we are.
This is going to hurt. - It's going to hurt, Neil.
You ready to get your--
- You're looking very blue, Blake.
- I feel very blue, Neil.
- You'll look green in a minute.
- No, you, you're going to get your legs ripped off.
And beaten with the soggy end.
(energetic music)
- There's two parts to this day, gym,
and then on the bike.
Have you seen the video of Nino doing this
that's already on YouTube?
- A little bit.
- So this circuit training is nine things.
Three exercises for legs, three for core,
three for upper body, but there's no rest.
In between your circuit, you have 20 seconds
of, like, cognitive recovery, I think he calls it?
So, juggling balls, standing on balance boards.
- [Blake] Juggling balls.
- [Neil] Juggling.
- [Blake] I can't juggle, so-- - I can't juggle.
- I'm going to have to find some other means
of cognitive training.
Do you know I keep saying this on videos,
nervous, but, do you know what,
I've never been nervous going to a gym.
Goosebumps, because it's Nino Schurter,
and we're going to be following in his personal
training facility, where he gets trained up.
This is a crucial point in his, basically in the season.
He's winning, he's won both his races so far,
and now he's training and getting ready
for those next ones.
And we're here, we've got ropes set up,
juggling balls, we've got balance,
we've got some weights, we've got some crazy wheel thing
that looks nuts, some medicine balls.
Are you ready for Neil and I to throw up on camera?
Because it might happen today.
(pounding music)
- [Neil] Nino Schurter, Olympic champion,
seven-time world champion, six-time world cup champion,
with 32 world cup victories along the way,
and the two-time Cape Epic winner.
Neil Donoghue, me.
A two-time British downhill winner,
with various top tens at world cup downhill
and two UK Gravity Enduro championships.
These days, I don't stick to
any sort of training schedule,
although I do still try to keep fit by riding
a couple of times a week, with a pub stop,
and the odd road ride, and a pushup or two.
Blake Samson, an ex-professional free rider.
Blake comes from the mountain bike family.
that are at home on big jumps on the trail
and not in the gym, and aren't necessarily
known for their training and athletic diets.
Although Blake is no stranger to big ride,
and he's strong as an ox.
Possibly just from fitting heavy accessories
to his beloved Jeep, and a few casual bicep curls,
that's beer.
Nino's going first, I'm then copying
what Nino does.
Blake's following me.
- Ready?
- Oh, you've really--
- There are three torturous exercises for each muscle set.
Jumping and turning onto the box with a bar in your hand
was an absolute killer to start it off with.
(heavy breathing)
(dramatic music)
The squat with a kettlebell on the balance board
took a lot of skill along with the physical effort.
Dragging the weights with your heels
was an absolute killer, because it took
a lot of downward pressure to actually
move those weights.
(heavy breathing)
Holding on to the radiator with your legs
being thrown around was complete sadism
and one I really struggled at.
(heavy breathing)
Some of these exercises were actually too hard.
We had to make it a little bit easier.
That ball twist, holding a dumbbell between your feet,
became just too difficult for me and I had to do it
with the ball by itself.
Also, the bar raise whilst leaning over the medicine ball
really tested out your lower back muscles.
Then, for the upper body, the rope,
the press up on the ball,
and the dips that almost finished Blake off.
- Death.
(grunting)
(upbeat music)
What about if we can't juggle?
Is there something else we can do instead of juggling?
'Cause I, yeah.
- You have to learn.
- You have to learn, cool.
(energetic music)
(heavy breathing)
Thanks, Nino.
That was insane.
42 minutes.
Three reps.
From toe to head.
I can't even...
I'm done, but we're not done.
We've got loads more to do.
We've got to go cycling.
(raspberry noise)
- Some of that was actually impossible for me.
I couldn't complete the exercises.
I didn't have the strength on circuit one, nevermind three.
- The end of circuit two , I was, the core twist
when you hold the weight between your feet.
- That was another one, I couldn't actually hold the weight.
I've burned 512 calories.
- I've burned 500.
- And 29 hours of recovery.
Except we're going to an interval session afterward.
- If that was hard--
- VO2 Max interval sessions, so I know what this could be like.
- There's going to be throw up.
- Yeah.
- He's setting up more stuff.
That's the squats, Neil.
We're not done in the gym, Neil.
- [Neil] I literally felt like throwing up in the other one.
- [Blake] Did you?
- [Neil] Yes.
- Did you hear me coughing?
(coughing)
Oh no, Neil.
(energetic music)
- Easy.
- So, Nino's just 100.
- And I'm going to do 70.
- I would recommend that, Neil.
So, he did 130.
Okay, go.
(grunts)
(energetic music)
- Good.
- Out of breath.
- Five minutes.
Six times, five minutes in V02 max.
- 35 minutes in V02 max and you guys just try to follow.
- Nino's V02 is like 410 to 450 watts.
Mine was 320 about ten years ago, so it's not looking good.
- I've never had one.
- You guys ready?
- Don't forget to start your computer.
- And let's go.
- Mine's 450 watts.
(energetic music)
(mumbles)
Nino behind him, kicks his ass.
- Push, push, push, almost to the top!
- Doing great.
Go, go, go.
- I will chase you.
(energetic music)
- On the bike we did V02 max intervals.
V02 max, simply put, is the amount of oxygen
that your body can consume during intense exercise.
Along with functional threshold power
is a figure that shows just how good your fitness is.
The highest ever recorded V02 max is 96.
That's milligrams per kilo, per minute,
associated with a male cross-country skier.
And it's 77 for women.
It does get lower with age, but generally speaking,
anything above 50 puts you in a very high fitness bracket.
Back when I was a pro Enduro racer, mine was 69,
but it's much lower now.
Blake has never done a V02 max test,
and whilst Nino was really open with his data,
this was one figure he wanted to keep close to his chest.
- Second interval.
- First one went quite well, I averaged 445 watts.
- Second interval, Neil.
I was way over my V02 max, so I'm going to pay the price.
I was 100% out of my comfort zone.
In these intervals,
Nino can normally produce between 410 and 450 watts,
depending on the conditions.
That's what he's aiming to do.
Monitor his power on his Garmin computer,
and sit at that consistently for the 5 minutes, then it's a four minute rest.
That includes riding down a steep, rough, downhill track.
Anytime leftover is used spinning in circles
on flat, then repeat.
The problem for myself and Blake, we ended up
taking much longer than 5 minutes to get up the climb,
so we're only getting a minute or so rest at the bottom.
Nino's actually riding much further up the climb,
then spinning back around and coming down the descent.
What about the data for those six intervals?
It was six times up the hill,
designed to take 5 minutes each time.
Nino's average heart rate for those six intervals
comes out at 166 BPM,
which is about 86% of his maximum heart rate.
His power stays really consistent,
445 up to 454 and only gradually starts to dip
on that last couple of intervals, down to 432 watts.
Over to me, you can see on that first interval,
I tried to stick with Nino, unsuccessfully I might add,
and my power was 312 on average for that first interval.
But, if you see just how much higher my heart rate is,
I was up to about 95% of my max heart rate.
Then you can see on the subsequent interval,
how much my power starts to go.
Second interval was 265 and it goes down,
down again to 232.
My average heart rate was about 95% of my max,
my average watts was 254.
You can see how Blake didn't take the bait
of Nino in front and he's much more consistent than I am.
Actually, for those last three intervals,
he beat me to the top.
His average heart rate was 175, and his power 220.
Well, thanks very much Nino.
I'm not sure I should be thanking you
because that was ridiculous.
- I hope you enjoyed.
- It was torture.
(laughing)
Absolutely wrecked, I feel like I used to train quite hard
but nothing like that.
Thanks for that, and I see what you actually do.
A couple of weeks now until the next race.
Now we know what it takes to have them stripes.
It's not easy.
- So if you want to see a video a few years old now
of Nino racing Marc Beaumont, an ex pro downhill racer, click over there.
For Nino pro bike, click over there.
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