Watch: Andrew Yorke’s monster bike workout ahead of Rio triathlon

For 27-year-old Andrew Yorke, competing at the Olympic Games has been the result of over 10 years of hard work, laser focus and patience. The Caledon, Ontario native secured his spot on Canada’s Olympic triathlon team thanks to a ninth place finish at this year’s WTS Yokohama, eighth at last year’s WTS Edmonton and seventh at last year’s Pan Am Games in Toronto.

Yorke trains in Guelph, Ontario under the guidance of the Regional Training Centre’s head coach, Craig Taylor. There’s a large community of elite triathletes who train in the area, so he constantly has top training partners around him to push him during workouts. In this video, Yorke gives us a glimpse into his Rio prep during a ride with fellow ITU athletes. The Rio bike course promises some difficult climbs repeated over the course of several laps, so Yorke and his training partners take on their local hills for some hard effort repeats that simulate race conditions. Yorke takes on a 10.1% graded hill for 16 x 800m repeats. This workout helps build power and speed and can be easily simulated on a trainer or outdoors on a hill on your usual route. Intervals of this type are beneficial to short course athletes like Yorke but also deliver great results for long course athletes when performed consistently over a training block.

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