Ask a coach: 'What’s the ideal heart rate range during a 100km / 60-mile ride?'

Are you looking to blast it just as fast as you can? Or is this part of an endurance focused build up? We explain what BPM range is best for helping you achieve your goals

Image shows a rider completing a long bike ride.
(Image credit: Future)

In this age of online training plans and workouts, do you ever find yourself with a burning question you’d like to directly ask a cycling coach? Well, now is your chance to ask away! In this series, we’ll be putting your questions to expert coaches – send them in at anna.abram@futurenet.com

What’s the ideal heart rate range during a 100km / 60-mile ride? The first thing to consider when answering this question is: What is the goal of the ride? Is it to complete the ride as quickly as possible? Or is it as part of an endurance build towards your first 100 mile ride or long sportive?

Image shows James Spragg.
James Spragg

Sports scientist and coach James Spragg is one of the experts who will be answering your questions in Cycling Weekly's ASK A CYCLING COACH series which comes out every Wednesday. Working both in research and applied settings, he currently runs Intercept Performance Consultancy

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James Spragg

James Spragg is a sports scientist and coach, working both in research and applied settings. When not working with athletes James can be found skiing, climbing, cycling or drinking coffee!


Alongside Dan Lorang and Peter Leo, James runs Intercept Performance Consultancy. Over the last 8 years in various roles, as coaches, performance consultants, performance managers, and sports scientists, Dan, James and Peter have played a role in helping athletes achieve more than 10 World Championship titles, several Olympics medals (including a Gold and Silver Medal in Tokyo 2020) and several Top 5 results in some of the biggest sporting events on the planet (Tour de France, Olympics, World and European Championships). Our single focus is on improving performance in all settings.