Three hours after crossing the finish line of a Grand Tour stage, most riders are not celebrating. They are managing fatigue.
Recovery is often misunderstood as rest. But at the elite level, it is something far more deliberate—a process that begins the moment competition ends and continues until the body is ready to absorb training stress again.
The Physiology of Coming Back
Hard efforts deplete glycogen stores, create muscle damage, and elevate stress hormones. The body's response to these stressors follows predictable patterns, but the timeline varies between individuals.
Some athletes bounce back quickly. Others require more time. Understanding your own recovery profile is as important as knowing your threshold power or lactate curve.
Sleep as Performance
No recovery intervention matches the effectiveness of sleep. Yet many athletes underestimate its importance, treating it as time away from training rather than an essential component of it.
The best teams now employ sleep coaches. They track sleep quality with the same attention they give to power files. They understand that the gains made in bed rival those made on the road.