There’s a week until your event. The perfect preparation, if this is an event you’re quite serious about, is to continue training as normal until a few days before, then back off the volume, doing just some short rides with a couple of high intensity bursts to keep your legs in ‘ready to go’ mode.

The temptation is to absolutely obliterate yourself, in an attempt to get super fit in seven days, or to back off completely, so you reach the start line feeling – well – a bit sluggish.