Cadence | Stronger Cyclist

Faster cycling by pace-lining

posted on August 19th, 2010 in Cycling, Cycling Tips, Ride Reports by Stephen

Want to ride faster while lowering your heart rate? Then pace-lining is what you need.

I was on a ride, and we started a paceline. How this happened was random, we were going along single-file then the guy on the front ‘slowly’ pulled off the line by easing to his left (since we were on the right hand side of the road) clear of the next rider, then slowed down slightly (just a mile or 2 per hour). The next rider keeps the same effort that the original rider had that was pulling the group, but decided he didn’t want to pull the whole time, so he slowly pulled over, allowing the next rider to come through and do his share of the work.

Suddenly, we had a paceline going, and as it became my turn to pull through the rider in front of me was less experienced (not a problem) he pulled through well, but after he eased off the paceline he didn’t slow down. Now since I was maintaining the same speed/effort for the group I was not passing him – he soon looked to see why not and once he realized it, he slowed down slightly to allow us to pass him, and continue the paceline.

This is 1 of the most common mistakes by novice riders, to either pull through too hard and/or not slow down or to pull for too long and running out of energy and not pulling off the front to allow other riders to continue the rotation.

The 2nd biggest mistake (and more dangerous) is that when a rider is down with their pull, they swing wildly to the side to allow the next rider to come through…. unless you are on the veldrome or your a lead out man for a Pro sprinter, you should not do this. It is just too drastic of a swing to the side, and again others are counting on you to be a safe rider.

If the group is doing a consistent paceline there is no reason to signal that you are pulling off the paceline, each rider knows everyone is doing a pace-line. Just slowly ease to the side as you pass the rider that was ahead of you, this gives the next rider a smooth transition from drafting you, to pulling the rest of the riders. And when you do it smoothly the rider that you are passing should get plenty of time to adjust their speed to comfortably start drafting from you with out any random moves.

Team Time Trial

When riders do or have to make drastic changes in direction or ‘lines’ that they are taking is a main cause of accidents in a group. Unexpected movements is dangerous to the other riders around you, try to minimize them. When each rider in a group moves around the road smoothly accidents are minimized because where each rider is going becomes obvious.

Although it is the responsibility of each rider to not hit the rider ahead of them, it is also good to keep in mind that you have other’s well being in your hands based on your actions. No one is perfect, but there are some riders I will avoid or go around ASAP! Yet, there are some riders that I have no problem drafting behind them as long as possible.

The steadier and consistent of a rider you are, the more respect you will gain from other riders because no one wants a cyclist ahead of them that is unpredictable!

How to get rid of Cement Legs

posted on January 18th, 2010 in Cycling, Ride Reports, Strength Training by Stephen

When I first started personal training, suddenly I found myself standing for several hours a day. I was a young guy, so that didn’t seem to really bother me. However, it effected my cycling greatly! My wattage, training strength, and racing abilities were suffering….. it was like I was pedaling squares. But this was the opposite effect that I was looking for – I wanted a flexible schedule to train so that I could be a stronger racer!

Basically what was happening is that a lot more blood was pooling in my legs that what I was used to. I was in the early part of the race season – April – and this was having ill effects on me.

It took me a couple weeks of figuring out how to counter-act the required number of hours that I now had to be standing all day. It was mainly trial and error that I even figured it out. What I started to note was that by Sunday, I would begin to feel like my usual self on the bike. But that made sense, because I was working Monday thru Friday and training and/or racing on the weekends.

What I had to do was ‘spin-out’ my legs every evening after work.

Whether I went out and cycled mid-day or not, at the end of the day, I had to spin. Even if it was a day off the bike, I would go down stairs and spin on the rollers for 15-20 minutes. I wouldn’t do a hard ride, I would just get on the bike and spin an easy gear. I normally didn’t even get my Heart Rate over 130 or so – I would just get the blood pumping some. The difference that this made for me was huge. I felt like my old cycling self again and not someone that had trouble holding the race-pace.

An added benefit to spinning out the legs was that to occupy your mind, you can do spin-ups and ILT’s. So your spin will get faster, smoother and more effective with less loss of energy all at the same time.