Cycling training improves sports performance

Although cycling is fantastic, there can be no denying it can be a time-consuming sport. Improving means putting in the hours and effort. If you are short on time, this may make you feel that big cycling events such as sportives are out of reach.The good news is that by using specific training techniques, you can see real improvements to your cycling, building endurance and strength two essentials for long rides.Both techniques demand no more than a ninety-minute ride and provide plenty of benefits to your cycling.Although nothing replaces a long spin putting away the miles, you will notice tangible improvements to your physical condition and riding style.

Commuting and Safety

Given the length of the ride, you may feel you can do these techniques on your commute to work. As you’ll be doing this on open roads with vehicle and pedestrian traffic hazards, you must find quiet roads where junctions are minimal, and traffic levels are low. As such, you may want to consider using a turbo trainer for these exercises, especially if quiet roads are hard to find.

Let’s take a closer look at the techniques.

Strength Endurance Training

Strength endurance training for cyclists essentially means riding in a higher gear for a defined length of time. Some professional cyclists have likened this to cycling weight training.To get started warm-up for around five minutes. Once you are on a suitable road, do the following:

Select a high gear. When you pedal, this should feel like you are making a 7/10 effort or using 85% of your maximum heart rate.

Cadence should be around 50-60 RPM

Ride for 5 minutes continuously unless you have to stop for safety reasons.

Recovery time should be just under 5 minutes. Take the opportunity to select an appropriate gear and spin your legs.Repeat between 3-6 times depending on your ability. Try to work towards doing this six times in a ride.If you can't measure cadence and heart rate just go by how the ride feels.To get the most from this exercise you should concentrate on your technique. So with this in mind, ensure you are:

Using your glutes, the strongest muscles in your body.

Keeping your core stable.

Adopting a smooth sustained pedalling technique.

Cycle coaches believe that this exercise increases the power your muscles can produce through overloading and recovery, and it improves neuromuscular recruitment. Put simply, your muscles will be stronger, and you’ll be using them more effectively.If you do the technique correctly, you’ll improve your core, strengthen your glutes and improve your pedalling form.When you’re done, ensure you refuel and rest your legs if possible.

Fasted Endurance Training

Fasted training provides endurance benefits which are needed to ride sportives, long rides, and cycling events. Although fasted cycling can’t replace long endurance rides, they are still highly useful in building endurance and provide other cycling benefits.Riding in a carb depleted state puts your body into fat-burning mode. To ensure you reach this state, it is advised to do this exercise in the morning. Your body burns carbs overnight, and you’ll be ready for your fasted ride.You may want to consider a protein breakfast. Boiled or scrambled eggs are good for this. Any food with carbohydrates in it is a no-no. This includes:

Toast

Honey

Cereal

Fruit

Bread

Milk

The ride itself will ideally be for 60-90 minutes, and you’ll ride at a steady pace, at about 70% of your maximum heart rate. It is important to keep the ride steady and not try anything like high-intensity training due to fatigue. This makes it ideal for commuting as it doesn’t matter if you’re stopping at junctions frequently. Always, however, adhere to road safety guidelines.When finished, ensure you refuel but don’t go overboard.Some pro riders use fasted training as part of their training programmes.

Both of these exercises are good if you want to ride the big events but have limited training time. Both build endurance needed for long rides, and if you adopt the right cycling techniques, you will notice real benefits to your cycling.As well as these two techniques consider using high-intensity interval training to help develop your cycling abilities further.

Most Common Cycling Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

When first starting in cycling, it is easy to make mistakes. If left unchecked, these mistakes can become habits affecting your performances and enjoyment of the sport. So, with this in mind, let’s take a look at the most common cycling mistakes new riders make.

1 Incorrect Saddle Height

An incorrectly positioned saddle leads to all kinds of issues. You are more at risk of injury if you are not seated correctly. You may bob up and down as you ride or bounce on the saddle.All of this is a waste of energy. You should be focusing your energy through your glutes and legs.One way to know your saddle height is to get a professional bike fit. The ideal saddle height should see your leg almost fully extended if you push the pedal down with your heel. You can use this method to work out your saddle height quite accurately.

2 Overdoing It

We all want to ride further and faster, but overextend, and you could find cycling isn’t quite as much fun as you first thought. Take the time to build up gradually. This will not only reduce the risk of injury, but you will grow in confidence with each ride, getting more enjoyment with each mile ridden.

3 Fuelling

Getting your nutrition right is important, and there is a balance to find. Too much food and you’ll overload on carbs and feel sluggish. Too little and you’ll run out of energy and ‘bonk’. Take the time to get to know how much food and drink you need to pack away to keep the pedals turning on longer rides. It is good practice to take more food on long rides than you think you’ll need. You can check out our cycling nutritional posts for advice.Always take plenty of water with you on every ride. The importance of keeping hydrated can’t be overstated.

4 Carry Spares

It is essential you prepare for a puncture or two on every ride. Being stranded miles from home is no fun should something go wrong with your bike. Being able to change innertube is an invaluable skill. As a minimum, ensure you pack:

Two innertubes

Tyre levers

Puncture repair kit

Lightweight pump or gas canisters

Multitool

It is good practice to take a bank card and a note just in case you run into issues.

5 Maintain Your Bike

Although this is obvious, routine bike maintenance can be ‘something I’ll do later’ especially if you have a full, busy life. Poorly maintained bikes develop more faults, and there is a significantly increased risk of breaking down mid-ride.

Essentially, you want to ensure that your bike is well lubricated, and you inspect your tyres for wear, and you keep the brakes and gears in good working order. While you’re about it check for rattles in the handlebars. If you are super busy, you may want to schedule maintenance with your local bike shop a few times a year.

6 Braking Too Hard

Braking is a cycling art in of itself. If you can learn to control your speed using your brakes only when you need to, then you’ll find your cycling will be more efficient. In other words, it will be faster and more enjoyable.A common mistake is to slam on the brakes hard rather than applying them just enough to keep at a manageable, safe speed. If you learn to use your brakes effectively, you will not lose valuable momentum and expend less energy.Slamming on the brakes and almost coming to a stop slows you down, requiring more effort to get back up to speed and this eats into your energy. Unless you have to do an emergency stop or have to stop dead for junctions and the like, try and keep the bike moving as much as you can.Cycling mistakes are common; however, once you’re aware of them, you can work on eliminating them to ride more effectively. One of the best ways to avoid cycling mistakes is to cycle with us in Mallorca on one of our holidays and training camps. This is where the pros train, and after a week’s cycling with our pro coaches, you’ll soon be riding mistake-free.

Winter Training Guide: Ways to Become a Faster Cyclist

Now autumn is here we know that winter is not far behind. The colder months bring shorter days and a nip in the air. Nonetheless, with a little planning, you can keep the pedals turning to keep your cycling skills sharp and your condition great.With this in mind, let’s take a look at some winter training tips that will help you prepare for next season and excel.

Set Goals and Commit

The first step when putting together a winter training plan is to set goals. You may want to work towards riding a sportive such as Marmotte Alps or the Mallorca 312. You may want to achieve a distance or a power output figure. Whatever your goals may be, write them down. This will help give you focus.

Next, take some time to reflect on how well last season went. Identify things you were good at, and areas you feel need strengthening. This could be your endurance, sprinting, climbing, and so forth. Improving these areas could be part of your goals.Your goals don’t have to be this detailed. If you’re a new cyclist, your goal could be, for example, ride a local sportive.

Plan and Progress

Once you have your goals, write down available training weeks between now and your goal. In other words, if your goal is to ride the Mallorca 312, work out how many weeks you have to train before the start of the event.Next, try and workout available training time during the week. If you commute, include your ride to work as you can use this to train. This exercise will give you a clear picture of how many hours you have to train in a given day and week.Now you have a good picture of when you can train you can start putting together a training plan. This should be a good mix of intensity and distance rides. If you are trying to sure up your weaker areas, factor this into your training plan. So if you feel your climbing needs work, ensure you use training techniques to improve it.

Progression in Cycling

There are, in essence, three ways to progress in cycling. They are:

Volume – Train for longer

Intensity – Train harder

Frequency – Train more often

Ideally, try and balance these elements when planning your training. Increasing either volume, intensity, or frequency, ensures you are training harder.

Recovery

It is important to build recover into your training plan. It is a good idea to read our post, 8 Pro Recovery Tips to Enhance your Cycling Career in the first instance. Pro cyclists have recovery plans and so should you.As you improve, you’ll be able to ride further and faster with less recovery time needed. You might, for example, find you only need one rest day per week rather than two. Listen to your body and adjust your training plan accordingly.

Base Miles and Intensity

Although it would be lovely to be able to train like a professional and do base mile training week in week out, the fact is that life is not just for cycling even though you want it to be. Family, work, and everything else ensure that you never have a dull day.

Winter nights means less daylight and this impacts on your training time too.

As such, try and do longer rides at weekends or when you have more time and do specific exercises to on your ride to work or turbo trainer sessions. (Take a look at our turbo trainer posts and videos as a guide.)

To progress, look to increase the intensity of the specific exercise as and when you can. The progression here is important, and as you become fitter and stronger should become easier over time.

Preparing for Bad Weather

Preparation and flexibility are key to coping with bad weather. Clothing should include overshoes, gloves, and a waterproof jacket. If you can stay dry, you will stay warm.Flexibility is needed during the colder months. If the roads are icy, high winds, torrential rain, and so on, think about jumping on the turbo trainer to train. Not only could a crash result in serious injury, but even a minor crash can set back your training considerably.It is worth checking the weather forecast for a week and planning your rides around the weather if possible.

During February and March, our Early Season Cycling Camp in Mallorca allows you to increase your strength, power, endurance, VO2 Max, and develop your FTP.

Core Strength

Core strength is essential to cycling. So when off the bike, consider doing core exercises to strengthen the muscle groups needed for strong cycling.

With a good winter plan, you will find that when the new season starts hitting your final goal will be much easier, and you will be a fitter and stronger cyclist as a result.

How to ride faster on the flat

No matter your level in cycling, it is fair to say you want to be able to ride faster. How fast you cycle, together with how far you can ride is how most of us chart progress. By using certain training techniques and equipment, you’ll become stronger and subsequently a faster rider on the flat. Let’s explore in more depth.

Your Bike

There is a world of difference between a pro-level bike and your average road bike aimed at the beginner market. The pro bike is built for the highest level of competition. Rider position is designed for speed rather than comfort. The pros spend hours in positions which demand a high level of condition to maintain.

Your average road bike is designed to give a less harsh, more comfortable ride.

If you do one thing to your bike to improve speed, invest in good quality wheels. The better quality ones have faster hubs, are lighter, and are more aerodynamic. It will feel like a different bike with better quality wheels.

Classic Rider vs. Climber

Pro riders give us clues to who is an excellent climber and who is excellent on the flat. The stronger, bulkier riders, are more suited to flat roads. Here, there power and endurance come into play to propel them along the road at speed. It is their physical presence and strength that sees this rider do well on the cobbles of Paris Roubaix.Climbers, on the other hand, are lighter than their bulkier counterparts. They are able to put out the same power, and their lighter weight allows them to ascend faster. Here, kilos count. The fewer this rider has, the faster he or she will climb.

Training for Speed

Endurance and power are needed to perform well on flat roads. As such, consider these two cycling techniques to help you build your speed on the flat. They are:

Lactic Threshold Riding – Here, you’ll ride at the fastest speed you can for 60 minutes. For professional riders, this is just under the red zone of their maximum heart rate.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) – This training technique will increase your lung capacity which is needed for both flat riding and climbing. We have a whole post dedicated to HIIT training and is well worth a read if you want to ride at speed.

If you carry out HIIT on a turbo trainer use the correct resistance to emulate flat road riding.

Pedalling

In essence, if you spend most of your training, climbing, the pedalling technique will be geared towards climbs and not flat riding and vice versa. See our article on pedalling and cadence for valuable information on the subject.

To maintain speed you need to be as still as possible on the saddle, maintaining a fixed position, turning the pedals. It is important to ride in a gear that allows you to accelerate while maintaining a steady cadence. Too high and you’ll struggle, too low and you’ll lack effectiveness.

Undulating Roads

Flat roads are rarely completely flat. Most undulate, and the right approach is to keep a consistence cadence and power level to give the smoothest ride possible. You will naturally go a little faster on the descents and a little slower on the ascents.

Aerodynamics

One way to ride faster is to improve aerodynamics. You can use more aerodynamic bikes, but this can be an expensive way to stop wind resistance holding you back. More budget-friendly yet still effective options include:

Ride lower on the bike – Riding lower enables the wind to pass over your body. So tuck in your elbows and make your back as flat as possible. See our sprinting article for more guidance. If you adjust your riding position, ensure it is suited to your anatomy.

Gadgets – Try and ride as gadget free as possible. This adds unnecessary weight and may cause wind blocks. Don’t tie your jacket to the bike for the same reason. Make sure everything is tucked into pockets in places where it will not slow you down.

Kit - Ensure your kit is not flapping or is wrinkled. A well fitted, positioned over your forehead and aerodynamic helmet will help improve your speed.

Tyres - A lot of research has been done into rolling resistance of tyres. Independent lab tests have discovered significant power savings from different tyre brands. Although controversy has sprung up over the subject, as different brands make various claims about their tyres, the data seems to be solid in this regard.As such, you may want to invest in tyres that have a lower rolling resistance, especially if you plan to hit speeds of 40kph.

Bear in mind that tyre grip and puncture resistance are important factors to consider when making tyre buying choices. If you want to change your tyres do some research and use your own judgement. See this Velo News article for more information.

Peloton Riding

Peloton riding considerably increases your speed. For pelotons to work well there has to be good organisation with riders moving up and down the line taking their turns at the front.When the peloton goes into a descent, it is a good idea to separate and then regroup once on the flat. A crash on a descent could see the whole group come off the road and the ride ending in disaster.To get faster on the flat, it is important to train for speed. After a few months, you’ll be surprised at the results. The more disciplined you are when training the better you will be.

9 Upgrades To Make Your Bike Faster

Although it is your power and endurance that determines how fast your bike travels, a few well-chosen upgrades will give you marginal speed gains improving how the bike feels, and indeed how fast you go. If you are considering upgrading parts of your bike, this post will give you insights into where to start.

With this in mind, let’s look at upgrades you may want to consider.

Wheels

Wheels are the most significant upgrade you can make to increase your speed. Given the considerable speed gains afforded by good wheel design, prices vary, and generally, the more you pay the faster you go.

The world of road bike wheel design is competitive. Companies strive to make wheels lighter, more aerodynamic, and stronger, that crucially have less rotating weight. It is not necessarily the case of paying more to go faster.Anything that turns on your bike, such as wheels, chainrings and the like, has a rotational weight coefficient. You are working against this coefficient as you turn the pedals. The better wheels have faster hubs which reduce this coefficient, and thus your speed is improved.

When combined with good tyre choice, your bike will feel brand new after fitting new wheels. If you only make one upgrade to your bike, improve the wheels.

Skewers

As well upgrading your wheels it is a good idea to look at the skewers. These are the quick release mechanism that run through the axels of your wheels. In a sport where every gram counts, lighter skewers make a positive contribution to your speed.

Chainring

Your chainring is another part of your bike that turns. Having a lighter one brings marginal gains to your speed. As well as improving efficiency, you may want to select the right chainring ratio for the kind of cycling you do.

If your rides involve a lot of steep climbing, you may go for a smaller chainring than if you spend most of your time on the saddle riding flatter roads. According to Friction Facts, who conducted a lab-based study on which chainrings reduced friction, the larger chainring comes out on top in this regard.The study is interesting and talks about chain angle and how that increases friction in some circumstances and, in turn, slows you down.The better chainrings will be lighter and have more precise gear indexing.

What this implies is that the right chainring for the terrain, good gear use, and a good working drivetrain is essential to a more energy-efficient ride than the weight of your chainring. That said, having a lighter one will bring some speed advantages.

Brakes

It may seem counterintuitive that brakes bring speed improvements, but good brakes give you more control over the bike. In turn, this allows you to be more precise with speed control allowing for better acceleration out of corners.

With good brakes and good brake use, you avoid slowing too much and wasting energy building back up to your natural riding speed. If repeated throughout your ride, this inefficiency depletes your energy levels considerably.

Good brakes and good brake use allow you to cycle more efficiently. Crucially the better brakes are lighter, and the quality of braking is better. By using brakes of this kind, you’ll optimise your energy levels providing marginal gains to your speed.

Tyres

Tyres are a controversial speed upgrade, but lab test data indicates that tyres designed for less rolling resistance allow you to go faster. If you are planning a tyre upgrade, then it is a good idea to look at this Velo News article to get some insights on the subject.Most of the gains from less tyre rolling resistance come from speeds upwards of 40 kph.

Lighter Components

Pro cycling teams strive to make bikes as light as possible. No aspect is overlooked. As such, you may want to consider the following upgrades to squeeze as much speed as possible out of your bike:

Lighter saddle – Ensure that the saddle is still comfortable when making your choice.

Lighter seat post – As your saddle is lighter, it makes sense to replace your seat post. Try a carbon seat post for speed gains.

Lighter stem – Consider a carbon stem rather than an alloy one.

Carbon pedals – Again lightness counts.

Carbon bottle cages – A gram saved is a marginal speed increase.

Water bottles - If you use 750 ml water bottles you may want to switch to 500/600 ml bottles instead. This can save you a gram and over a 21-kilometre climb that is significant.

Don’t Forget Maintenance

Keeping your bike clean and well maintained keeps it operating at maximum efficiency. Mostly this only requires your time and know-how and is highly cost-effective. Keep your bike in tip-top condition, and it won’t let you down.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, it will be your power, endurance, and riding skill that determines how fast you go. If you want to improve, our dedicated cycling technique articles will help you perfect your riding skills.

Tips for Finding New Bike Routes

Finding new and exciting places to ride keeps life interesting. Training remains fresh and gives you new places to explore. New routes offer the chance to ride a previously unknown pleasant stretch of road or be greeted by a fantastic view. New routes avoid exercise boredom and help to increase distance avoiding cycling laps.Let’s discover ways to find good local cycle training routes.

Things to Consider for Good Cycle Route Planning

It is best practice to put together different routes for different types of training. With this in mind, consider:

Safety – Where possible, you want quiet roads that are as traffic free as possible.

Distance – Ensure that you are riding within your limits, but the distance is not too easy. You want some challenge in your riding.Terrain – Try and assess aspects such as climbing involved and whether certain parts of the route could be subject to high winds. You may want to use Google Street View.Training – Plan routes suitable for your training for the day. For example, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) will be different from say fasted riding. Try and find appropriate roads.

The following ideas should generate some new routes to ride.

Route Planner Apps

There are several cycle training apps you may want to try to find a good one for you. Most work with your phone, although some, like Garmin Connect, work with a Garmin enabled cycle computer. Phone-based apps require your phone to be secured to the handlebars rather than tucked into your jersey.

This may cause speed issues, however, and for more advice on this, read our post: Wear Lightweight Gear for Cycling Speed Improvements. 

Explore Strava

You’re probably familiar with Strava. If not, it is a sport app that among other things, tracks your cycling routes and provides data on your speed, power, distance ridden and road information. You can also use it to plan routes either by looking at the provided maps of where you’ve ridden, or use the Explore tab to find local segments.

Segments are where other riders local to you have marked a stretch of road as particularly challenging or interesting. You may want to look at this and incorporate it into your route if you see something you like.As well as using segments you can see other routes your followers are riding as well. You may want to give them a try or incorporate part of it into your next training session.Consider taking on the challenges provided by Strada to maintain motivation.

Ride a Local Sportive

Riding a sportive is great for your cycling as you have a training goal and the event itself is often exciting. Often, there is a real buzz riding with other cyclists. The chances are you’ll be riding on new roads, and this may give you good cycling route ideas for the future.

Turn Left See What Happens

Taking an unfamiliar road and exploring where it leads is a great way to find a new route. It is pot luck what you’ll find to a large degree. You may find a fantastic view or delicious climb, or find yourself approaching a motorway, and you have to turn around. Either way, it keeps things interesting, and if the cycling gods are smiling at you, you can find a great new place to ride and explore.

Join a Cycling Club

Cycling clubs offer camaraderie, encouragement and great cycling routes to discover. Most active club know every road in your local area, and after a few rides, you’ll learn them too. The advantages of a club are many and if you don’t think one club is right for you, leave and join another.The better clubs organise rides by distance so you’ll never be stretched too far or held back.

Google Maps

You can explore your area street by street by using Google Maps using specifically the Street View feature. Not only can you pinpoint good quiet roads but by using the navigation arrows, you can research the streets before you ride.

Go Old School – Use an OS Map

Despite the advances in mapping technology, there is something satisfying about spreading a paper Ordnance Survey map over a table and taking the time to study the roads around you.

Maps give a great overview of what is around every corner, and from here you can take a pencil and mark out a good cycling route. You can fold up the map and take it with you when you ride. Ensure you become proficient at folding and unfolding the map when you need to.

Group Rides Cycling | How to Master Group Rides

Group riding brings many benefits to your cycling. You cycle further for less effort, experience camaraderie, learn from others, and there is a particular skill set to riding in a large training peloton to master. To ride effectively in a group, there are rules to follow to avoid accidents and to ensure that the training session is effective.

Why Group Riding is Effective

Group riding creates a slipstream. The rider or riders at the front hit the wind resistance as on a solo ride. For the rest of the group, this breaking of the wind resistance allows them to ride at the same pace as the lead rider for less effort. Riding in this slipstream or drafting, as it is known in cycling circles, is believed to save up to 30% of energy which is significant.With this in mind, let’s take a look at group riding to understand how it works.

Group Riding is Not a Race

The first thing to understand is that a group ride is not a race. It is not an opportunity to show your prowess as a rider. Instead, it is a training ride where you cover more distance for less energy because of the group dynamic. To avoid accidents and be effective, you follow the rules of the group ride to the letter.

The Role of the Lead Cyclists

The lead cyclists ride at a consistent speed that everyone in the group can maintain. Should a hazard become apparent, the lead cyclist or cyclists should indicate a hazard either through a shout or hand signal and ride around it.

It is important here not to flag every hazard. The rule of thumb should be to warn of hazards that can cause an accident.Depending on the group’s skill level, you may want to have the stronger riders taking more turns at the front.

Switching Lead Riders

When it is time to switch riders at the front, the lead two check that there are no overlapping wheels; they split left and right, slowing their pace. This allows the peloton to ride through the middle. The two former lead riders then join at the back of the peloton, where the last rider will call ‘last rider’, signalling that the riders can join the peloton.The new leaders will maintain the same pace and position so not to disrupt the flow of the peloton. If this is you, do not brake or hesitate. Just fulfil your role at the front of the peloton.

Hazards

Should you see a hazard, a hand signal in the direction you are taking to avoid it should be sufficient. If you see it late, ride through it as last-second movement could bring down the whole group.

Focus, Discipline & Position

For an effective group ride, it is important that you ride within a few inches of the cyclist in front. If you are riding in pairs, you will ride within a few inches to the cyclist to your left or right. Bar to bar if you will. This tightness allows the slipstream to be effective.

When cornering, the tight bar to bar position should be maintained. Never inch ahead of the rider next to you; this is known as ‘half wheeling’ and is unacceptable. You should never disrupt the flow of the peloton.

When riding close to the other riders, it is important to stay aware of where you are in the peloton. You must follow the rider in front and maintain your position.

Should there be an uneven number of riders, one cyclist will ride in the centre of two others with the front wheel slightly inside the rear wheels of the two cyclists in front and not hang on the back wheel of one rider. This helps maintain the slipstream. The riders behind the solo cyclist will ride with their front wheels overlapping the solo rider’s rear wheel.

As the ride progresses, the cyclist at the front will warn of hazards with hand signals and shouts. Your role is to follow the peloton as it weaves around hazards that can cause crashes.

A loss of focus may result in a bad accident.

Speed Adjustments

When riding in pairs, your front wheel should be just to the side of the rider in front. So as they slow down, there is a buffer zone between you. This gives you time to adjust your speed accordingly and maintain the flow of the group.

It is important that there are no sudden speed changes such as those caused by yanking hard on the brakes. This will almost certainly result in a crash.

Dealing with Gaps

Should a gap appear ahead of you, increase the pace slightly until the gap is closed. You should not increase speed dramatically and then slam on the brakes. This is quite dangerous.

Group rides work when movement is steady and gradual. Sharp, sudden movements will result in accidents.

Pace Lines

The pace line is where the peloton rides single file. This may be adopted should riding two abreast not be possible, or there are a small number of riders. Again, the same principles apply when switching lead rider.

Descending

When the peloton goes into a descent, your group may want to break the group ride and reassemble it once on flat roads. Depending on the speed of the descent, it can be difficult to maintain position and the leaders have less time to warn of hazards.