Last Updated on 17 September 2026:
Whether you have one major Gran Fondo in mind or want to ride every event on the calendar, deciding what matters most is key to training well. This guide will help you prioritise cycling events as A, B or C goals, decide which ones deserve a taper and recognise when an event no longer fits the plan. If you are still unsure which events to target, start with your goal setting first.
Covered in this blog
- The A, B, C of prioritising cycling events
- “A” events
- “B” events
- “C” events
- The bigger picture and your long term cycling goals
- The ideal amount of cycling events in one season or year
- When enough is enough
- My top tips for prioritising your events
The A, B, C of prioritising cycling events
The most common system to prioritise cycling events is to categorise them as A, B, or C. A being the most important, B the next, and C the least important. If you fit into the one big event category I describe above, you know your A event. However, if you fit into the want to do them all category, you might be struggling with prioritising them.
“A” events
As I mentioned above, your A events are your main events for this season. These will be the events that you taper into and put all your training emphasis on. Everything else will be sacrificed for your A events and they are your main motivator.
Ideally, you will have no more than 3 of these in one cycling season. You might get away with more, but only if some of them come closer together so you can maintain your peak between them. Having many more than this means you will be tapering and/or maintaining too much, which will come with some reversibility – where your performance actually drops due to a lack of training.
If you are the want it all kind of person, you may have already spotted your first challenge!
“B” events
Your B events are still quite important to you. You will still do a small (mini) taper for your B events and you might want to be quite fresh for them, but you will sacrifice them for the A events.
I spend time on these with clients to ensure we get the timing of them correct. I have found that timing these to come first week off a build phase (the first week of training after a recovery week) works well as you will be relatively fresh and the mini taper should compensate for the added load from the event. Ideally, though, you will know how your body responds to these sorts of efforts and plan them into your training so that you still get the right balance of training stress and recovery.
“C” events
Your C events are the ones you want to do, but don’t necessarily care too much about. These might be the events you do to test out a new bike or piece of kit, your nutrition strategy, or to get used to riding in the mess of Gran Fondo participants again.
You can generally fit more of these into your calendar as you won’t taper for them. They could, potentially, replace a key long ride in your weekly calendar. Of course, this does depend on how you will recover from them, your goals, and other similar performance indicators.
The bigger picture to prioritise your long term cycling goals
Here’s where a lot of cyclists make mistakes. Often we tend to search for a shorter term, more instant gratification in our cycling (and lives!), and only look at the next cycling season, rather than considering what we want to do longer term.
Have you given much thought to what you want to achieve, on the bike, in the next two, four, or even eight years? Maybe you want to do something like Race Across America or a Haute Route style event. Do the events you have coming up in the next season reflect this? Is there a clear and obvious step from this season to the next?
Your most important events could be a stepping stone towards bigger events in subsequent years. That’s not to say that you should scrap the events that you have already planned, but maybe downgrade them if they were your now redundant A events.
The ideal amount of cycling events in one season to prioritise
As I wrote above, you really can only get away with around 3 A events in one cycling season, a few more if they are close enough together to maintain your fitness between them. For your B events, you shouldn’t try to get more than 1 per block (usually 3-4 weeks of training), and even this might be a bit too much.
You can easily fit a lot more C events in. You might even consider club rides as C events. You aren’t worried about being fit nor fresh, you are just riding them for fun or to test performance or setup or nutrition or anything else.
If you fall into the category of training for one big event, really look to have completed a few events before your big one. It will be a massive confidence boost, and the perfect opportunity to test your tactics, by doing a few smaller events prior. You might identify some key areas to work on in training too.
When enough is enough
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this blog should be that you should take a very objective look at yourself and tie this in with your longer term goals. It can be hard to be unbiased or even know exactly what event is a good fit, which is why working with a coach is the quickest way to reach those long term cycling dreams, regardless of your level.
If you go at this alone, just try to be realistic with what you can achieve. If your longer term goal is to ride something like Race Across America, a logical stepping stone might be Lands End to John O’Groats (LEJOG). That said, you still need to be able to get the right training done for this event too. It’s about finding the right events that suit you and that are realistic to your current and projected ability.
Lastly, don’t be ashamed to pull out of events if they don’t serve you or you notice lingering fatigue. Unfortunately, too many cyclists push ahead with riding events when already fatigued, which has the knock on effect of performance plateauing, with periods of rest becoming more frequent and necessary.
My top tips for prioritising your cycling events:
- Ensure you have accurately set your goals
- Prioritise these goals as A, B, or C
- Consider the longer term
- Set the quantity of events in line with your needs
- Be recovery focused and don’t be afraid to drop events if necessary
Summary
A clear A, B and C plan helps you protect the training and recovery that matter most, while still enjoying the events that keep you motivated. If you would like help building an event calendar and prioritising your cycling goals, Book a Free Consultation.
