Stephen Barrett is a cycling coach from Ireland, working as the head coach of the UCI WorldTour team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, and coaching several of the riders on the team personally, including GC contender Felix Gall. In this interview we discuss the inner workings of a WorldTour team, and a lot of nuts and bolts training topics right from the top of the world of professional cycling.  HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS: Stephen's training principles and coaching methodologyPeriodisation strategies and training through race blocksTapering for important one-day races like the classics and for Grand ToursThe importance of VO2max-trainingIndoor training, altitude training, training for durability, torque training, and more...Advice for amateur cyclists and triathletesThe coaching structure in Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, and Stephen's role as head coachThe development pathway from U19 to U23 to WorldTour DETAILED EPISODE SHOWNOTES: We have detailed shownotes for all of our episodes. The shownotes are basically the podcast episode in written form, that you can read in 5-10 minutes. They are not transcriptions, but they are also not just surface-level overviews. They provide detailed insights and timestamps for each episode, and are great especially for later review, after you've already listened to an episode. The shownotes for today's episode can be found at https://scientifictriathlon.com/672/LINKS AND RESOURCES: Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale website, Instagram, and YoutubeIncluding sprint training in cycling – training responses and peformance improvements with Nicki Winfield Almquist, PhD | EP#300Tour de Physiology: The Exceptional Power Outputs and VO2 of Climbing in the Tour de France - Ole Kristian Berg 2025Pebbles of Perception: How a Few Good Choices make All the Difference - book by Laurence EndersenWHAT SHOULD I LISTEN TO NEXT?If you enjoyed this episode, I think you'll love the following episodes:Anna Kiesenhofer – Olympic Champion | EP#454Luca Zenti – UAE Team ADQ coach on Tour de France Femmes and bike training for triathletes | EP#469John Wakefield of Red Bull BORA hansgrohe – cycling coach and bike fitter | EP#465Dajo Sanders, PhD | EP#384You can find our full episode archives here, where you can filter for categories such as Training, Racing, Science & Physiology, Swimming, Cycling, Running etc.You can also find separate archives for specific series of episodes I've done, specifically Q&A episodes, TTS Thursday episodes, and Beginner Tips episodes. LEARN MORE ABOUT SCIENTIFIC TRIATHLON: The Scientific Triathlon website is the home of That Triathlon Show and everything else that we doContact us through our