Cycling Training | Stronger Cyclist

Bicycle Racing Tactics

posted on July 18th, 2010 in Cycling, Cycling Tips, Ride Reports by Stephen

If you have been watching the Tour de France you will see some of the top climbers use all kinds of racing strategy (or at least carry-out the directors strategy via their ear-piece). But if the more you know about what is going on the more clear it becomes why some riders make certain moves, which the commentators are so eager to speculate on.

For instance in the 2010 stage 13 of the TdF, in the mountains Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador allowed Menchov to attack them and gain valuable time, while the two of them eyed each other. It’s hard to say what they each were thinking, strategy wise. But as one person put it on twitter:

Strange day. Andy seems happy w/ 30 sec. on Bert, and Bert happy to give time to Menchov and Sanchez. Blunder for both, or smart riding?

The reason that this is so important in the TdF is that they will be facing a Time Trial coming up, where their team-mates will not be able to help, and Menchov will be strongly favored over Schleck and Contador.

It’s amazing to watch the strategy of each racer in the tour as the days go by. Sometimes the strategy changes very quickly from winning to surviving. But rarely the opposite happens. The strategy of a multi-stage race has many differences and similarities to a single day race. A good team will know how to use their strengths for an advantage, and to avoid having a team mate in a tough spot.

This is part of what it is like to be able to ‘read a race’. Knowing how a race is going to unfold before it happens. Two of the best at it that I’ve seen were: at 45 years old 1996 Olympic alternate, Kent Bostick, and Jittery Joe pro, Jeff Hopkins.

Hopkins became notorious for telling a racer on the velodrome that they would be the next one out, then make it happen. He knew the race and the dynamics so well, that it was hard to combat his combination of strength and strategy. He is somewhat infamous for sitting at the back of a local Pro NRC criterium, and crashing because he was waving at some ladies – gets put back into the race banged-up and bloody – and rallies his team to get him into the top 5 for the finish. Later, his team mate said ‘when a guy like Hoppy says get me up there, you do it!’

As I raced with Bostick he would ask people if they were happy with 2nd and if you said no, he would just attack you. He made it in your best interest to say ‘yes’ and gladly work with him to get you to the finish line ahead of the main field. He would make sure that everyone in the break took a turn of pulling and then watch to see who was stronger and who was getting tired. Bostick knew how the race was going to unfold in his mind before it even happened. Even if he was the oldest guy in the Pro1,2 field and maybe not the strongest, he was able to use strategy to overcome his opponents.

1) Create a strategy. Some good ideas for strategy is to have a team meeting before the race starts. See who has the legs and strongest desire to win that day.

2) Plan the outcome. Next figure on a plan that will have the race unfold as you would like to see happen, and a back-up plan in-case it doesn’t.

3) Action. Next, when the time comes, take action! Act upon the plan that the team has created as best as you can.

4) Learn. Regardless of the outcome, always try to learn from what happened and improve your teams results.

Focus on your Motor

posted on April 22nd, 2010 in Cycling, Cycling Tips, Strength Training by Stephen

One of my favorite things about cycling and racing is that the most important part of the sport is the motor. No matter how much someone can/does spend on parts, or fancy equipment – it truly comes down to the motor that is pushing those cranks. What some people don’t see is other peoples love for the sport, their love of cycling. Some folks are into cycling only to be competitive, and attempt to purchase their way to the top.

Take a look at this question for example, “would a compact crank make my bike faster?” The simple answer is no. The compact crank will allow you to spin more on a climb, but is that really a good thing? Check out “Why compact cranks can make your legs weaker” . I did a group road ride recently where a guy was spinning himself off the back of the pack, as I was pulling up beside him, I was going to suggest him to shift & mash – luckily he did just before I suggested it.

Your heart and lungs are the Carburetor, and your legs are the pistons. If you spin the easiest gear all the time it would be like red-lining a sports car in 1st gear on the interstate. For optimal cycling you have to adjust the gears based on A) the terrain and B) on your abilities. Sometimes it is better to spin an easier gear, but sometimes it is better to mash a gear. The thing to remember is that if you always spin an easier gear, then your legs do not get any stronger!

If you were training to ride up a 12 mile climb of 12% in France, would you do all your climbing in the easiest gear? I wouldn’t! I would mash 1 gear harder than I would normally – therefore making my legs stronger. Then when I got to France my legs should be used to mashing a larger gear, which would make spinning up the climb easier. So train harder to make your big event easier.

On the flip side of the coin: A friend of mine wanted me to do a 90 mile ride with him, that was going to include three, 7 mile climbs…. a week before he was going to race Twilight a 1K criterium in Athens, GA. My advise, go for a 2 hour spin with very little climbing. ‘spin’ is the key word. For racing a criterium next week your legs are as strong as you can get them before such an event – the key is to do something similar to the upcoming race – which he did – Sunny King Criterium. 1 group ride this week and a couple easy high cadence spins is all that can be done the week before the race. Doing any climbing causes the legs to become accustomed to a lower cadence, not the high cadence required for a crit!

The best way to set-up a training plan is to find out what your target goal is, then plan backwards. That is why it is so important to look at the overall season as early as possible each year. The more time you have for planning, the more you can do the proper training to bring you into optimum form! This is often where a coach will look at your overall schedule and time for training and place the proper workouts in your training plan to bring you to peak form.

First Group Ride of Spring

posted on March 19th, 2010 in Cycling, Cycling Tips, Ride Reports, Strength Training by Stephen

Every spring you may go to the main group ride wondering if you will get dropped – have I done enough homework during the winter? Did everyone get faster than me?

I would usually disappear from October-March, but once the time changed, I would be right back into the mix of a couple group rides… several people have asked me how I was able to suddenly just cruise along at the front of these rides when I hadn’t been doing them all winter. I would just laugh at the question. What they didn’t know was that yes, obviously I was riding. I just wasn’t riding in the same groups through the winter that they were. From their perspective, I wasn’t riding all winter because I wasn’t on the rides that they were doing. Like an iceberg, all they were seeing was where I am today, not what I have been doing all winter.

There are several reasons for this, time change, location of the rides, not being able to ride to a ride, etc. But the number 1 reason they didn’t see me all winter was that they thought they would ‘loose’ fitness if they didn’t ride hard all winter. Some cyclists think that if you are not used to going at the speed of the group year around, then you will get to a point where you will no longer be able to hang on. Although if your goal is to just ride with groups all year, then yes, this maybe true. However, I had races as my goals each year, thus I had different ways of training to attain those goals.

I had learned that it was good to give my body a break after the US 100K race each fall (September). I would actually have to try to take time off the bike and do other things – this was often hard. After awhile I learned to back off and enjoy the changes of the seasons. Not only did I learn that I could do this, but in fact it made me a stronger cyclist – both physically and especially mentally!

I found that I really enjoyed those LSD (Long Slow Distance) rides for aerobic base building. It was a non-competitive rides where you could share some work at the front and chat with friends all while having a relaxed ride. During this time I would either ride alone, or ride with a group that had the same ideas/goals on winter training that I did.

After 2 months of base building, I didn’t just jump back onto a group ride and expect to keep-up with everyone. I worked out in the gym using a structured training plan, then started doing hill repeats and intervals with enough recovery mixed in so that I didn’t over-reach my goals. Another aspect of the training plan, was that I didn’t come into top form in March when the group rides started – they were used for testing, and to add a little speed to my legs. Even though I was out on the group rides, my riding was often reserved. I would stay out of the wind, rarely would I push the pace. Usually the speed of traveling with the group was enough of an adaption to have a successful training day.

When group rides are utilized correctly, they can be great tools for the cyclist training for an event. When they are used as training races, often cyclists will push themselves to the point that they are either A) overtrained. or B) pushing so much that their CNS (Central Nervous System) will suppress their ability and only allow them to ride at a ‘medium’ pace. In order to have great highs, you must also have very Easy days!

However, if a racing cyclist only does group rides, then they are truly missing out on some untapped ability. That is where the over-view of a good training plan can assist the cyclist in specific preparation for the Spring and Summer races.