The British Cycling 12-week Century Ride and Advanced Sportive Plan is designed to progressively build your cycling fitness with an end goal of a Century Ride or a strong performance in a challenging sportive or Gran Fondo.

If you want to extend the plan to 16-weeks, check out our discipline specific 4-week bolt ons which will fine tune your final training block for climbing, time trials, sprinting and circuit racing.

The plan and the workouts within it are most suited to power users but can be adapted for heart rate. All of the cycling workouts are fully built within the plan and so, it’s compatible with smart trainers and many head units. The midweek sessions are also scripted to be used as custom workouts on Zwift.

To start the plan, you should ideally be riding three or four times a week, be familiar with structured training and be capable of riding for 3 hours.

The volume of training is between 5-10 hours per week. If you’re already familiar with TrainingPeaks and its metrics, weekly TSS is between 160-515.

The training during the first four weeks of the plan is typically broken down into three rides; two mid-week and one at the weekend. The mid-week rides are more suited to an indoor trainer but can easily be completed on the road. The weekend rides focus on building your endurance and allow you to practice and refine your fuelling and hydration strategies.

From Week 5 onwards, you will required to complete an additional weekend ride but the maximum duration of these is 2 hours.

There is also an optional session that gives you the opportunity to do some cross training. Cross training, although optional, should be part of your training. Don’t worry if you can’t manage dedicated sessions, even doing regular mobility work at home will benefit your riding. Cross training helps to prevent boredom, provides options if you are unable to ride and builds all-round injury preventing robustness. Be aware though, especially from Week 5 onwards, that, with the increased number of rising sessions, you might need to make your cross training more restorative or even take an extra rest day.

The plan is fully supported by content on the British Cycling Insight Zone, where you can find advice on skills, training, nutrition, equipment, clothing and maintenance.
www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge