Gravel Race Training
Marie-Christine Ouellet, 40, came into coaching with a strong endurance background. She had ridden mountain bikes since her teens and also had experience in cross-country skiing, giving her a solid base for longer off-road events. Her goals included SBT GRVL, Big Sugar and qualifying for the UCI Gravel World Championships, which made gravel race training the natural focus.
The main challenge was balancing that level of training with a demanding professional life. Preparing for major gravel events requires enough volume and intensity to build endurance and power, but the plan also has to be realistic enough to work around everything happening away from the bike.
That meant keeping the training structured and purposeful without making it unnecessarily rigid. Sessions were built around the demands of gravel racing, while the wider plan could still adapt when work, travel, recovery or everyday life changed what was possible.
The result was a major milestone: Marie-Christine qualified for the UCI Gravel World Championships.
For Marie-Christine, gravel race training was about turning an already strong endurance background into more specific cycling fitness — building the strength, endurance and consistency needed to perform at high-level gravel events while still balancing a busy professional life.
Preparing for a gravel race, qualification event or a major goal like SBT GRVL or Big Sugar? I can help you build a personalised training plan around the demands of the event and the time you realistically have available.
