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// RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Cole Paton’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colepaton
- Free cycling nutrition calculator: https://www.trainerroad.com/landing/cycling-nutrition-calculator
- Free W/kg calculator: https://www.trainerroad.com/landing/watts-per-kilogram-calculator
- How to Qualify for Kona: https://www.trainerroad.com/blog/how-to-qualify-for-kona-2027/
- Kona Bike Course Breakdown: https://www.trainerroad.com/blog/the-kona-bike-course-how-hard-is-it-and-how-hard-do-athletes-actually-ride-it/
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// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) Cole Paton Wins Little Sugar: What the Win Means
(00:02:31) Six Years Without a Win: How He Kept Showing Up
(00:04:53) Too Hard at Worlds, Too Safe at Chequamegon
(00:08:13) Tires, Casing, and PSI That Survived Little Sugar
(00:15:28) How to Ride Rocky Trails Without Flatting
(00:16:56) Cole's Race Power: A 4-Hour Criterium on Dirt
(00:23:56) How the Winning Gap Opened
(00:25:55) Which Early Attacks to Follow and Which to Let Go
(00:30:57) Should You Pace by Power on a Variable Course?
(00:34:08) Carrying Momentum Through Rollers and Punchy Climbs
(00:42:26) Scared of Hard Workouts? Mental Strategies That Work
(00:50:37) What Altitude Camps Do to Your Heart Rate: The Data
(00:59:54) How Pros Approach Altitude and Training Camps
Cole Paton just won Little Sugar, one of the most technical mountain bike races in the Life Time Grand Prix, and his first win in six years. He joins Jonathan Lee from Bentonville to break down exactly how he did it: tire setup, race power, pacing, and the mental reset that finally got him across the line first.
You'll hear the Vittoria Mezcal casing and pressure that kept air in while the field flatted around him, why his file looked like a four hour criterium, how the winning gap opened without a single attack, and which early moves are worth burning matches for. Cole also shares how to carry momentum through rollers and punchy climbs, and what he tells himself when a hard workout scares him.
To close, we look at TrainerRoad data on altitude camps: how much heart rate rises at the same power, how long it takes to settle, how fast it drops once you're home, and where the 7,500 foot inflection point sits. This comes from a filtered sample of 3,000+ athletes, and the findings are associational, not causal.
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