Competing in a punishing marathon like the Tour of Britain requires special levels of strength, fitness and stamina. Kent cyclist Kristian House told how he was preparing for the Tour of Britain by carefully combining a concentrated training regime with his racing schedule.

House, 26, from Aylesham, near Canterbury, will be racing for Team Recyling.

He said: “I regularly ride against guys who have loads of talent but haven’t, for whatever reason. become full-time cyclists.

“It’s hard racing at this level when they have full time jobs and families but anyone who wants to race seriously has to think about training in blocks so that one session builds on the good the previous one has done.

“Lots of riders take Monday off after a race to recover.

“Instead I do a fairly good ride that day to build on Sunday’s race, then have your recovery day on Tuesday, followed by two more good days on Wednesday and Thursday, cutting back for the weekend’s racing again.

“Training in blocks helps to build deeper form than training one day, easy the next and then going hard.”

House also accepts that he has to focus on top performances in particular events, rather than going flat out to win every time.

He said: “I pick the races I know I will do well in as my targets, train through the other races and do blocks where I train through a race using it as a hard training session."

House spent three years racing in Belgium without making a breakthrough to the elite professional ranks, but is determined not to give up on his ambitions.

He said: “It’s tough, and in Belgium it just didn’t happen for me, but I came back here and carried on racing.

“I won some World Cup track medals and still my ambition is to be a pro in Europe.

“I could have gone to university and run track in the USA but made a decision when I was 16 to come to Europe and try to be a cycling pro.

“I believe I can do a good job in a team and am showing this now with Recycling."

He added: “I want to race well in the Tour of Britain and a Canterbury stage win would be superb."