Rory Sutherland

“I use training peaks to have access to all my info in one hit. If my computer crashes, all my data is on the wedsite. Its also a great tool for my trainer. He can log in, see what I've done, and change plans based on fatigue, power output, heart rate etc. The biggest thing I like AND don't like is that with using a power meter, a heart rate monitor and having all the data uploaded to TrainingPeaks, I cant cheat..... my trainer will see it all!"

Links to additional Rory Sutherland interviews and race data:

• View Rory's 2009 Tour of California SRM power data
• View Rory's 2008 Asutralian National Road Race Championship power file

Interview...

Congrats on winning yet again the US national racing calendar series. This is your 2nd season in a row where you have been the most consistent pro in North America. What do you owe your consistency to? How can you stay so competitive for so long?

This year has been very different for me than last year. A better lead up, and also more of a balanced program. Being competitive for so long has been pretty tough. I started racing on the 2nd of January in Australia and had my first real break in mid june. I put a lot of it down to monitoring my recovery and listening to my body. This has been a huge step for me in my training. Recovery has become more important to me than actually intervals, milage. When you race a lot, this is so so important to staying on top of your game physically, but most of all mentally.

What result are you most proud of this season?

You know, I'm most proud of my team. I'm lucky enough to have a really good group of riders around me during the season. We've been a little short on fire power sometimes, but the motivation and camaraderie is what we've gotten through on. I'm honestly just happy with being competitive for a long period of time, and having learnt more about myself and how I work.

What will you be focusing on next season? What would you like to achieve in 2009?

I'd like to keep taking steps to becoming a better rider. I have things I need to improve on, and thats something I will concentrate more on during the winter. I think I am a good few years off challenging for GC in the big US tours, so taking steps towards this is the goal.