1001 Road Bike Tips

Thanks for picking up 1001 Road Bike Tips. This special edition is crammed from cover to cover with expert advice. Here, you’ll find fitness, training and riding techniques for beginners and experienced riders alike. We’ve also got a dedicated nutrition section which will help ensure you put the right fuel in your body before you ride and maximise your recovery. Almost as vital as looking after yourself is taking care of your bike, so in the latter pages we show you how to keep your trusted steed running smoothly and efficiently Together with Cycling Plus, the UK’s bestselling cycling mag, and a host of pro riders, coaches and experts, we’ve brought you the best and most up to date advice around. Our aim is that 1001 Road Bike Tips will…

A RIDER ‘IN THE CORE’ OF THE PELOTON CAN REDUCE THEIR DRAG SIGNIFICANTLY “Average speed is one of those metrics everyone likes to brag about to their friends,” says Liam Holohan. “If you want to travel further in your allotted training time, there are a series of factors to consider and apply to your training routine.” Making those improvements through drills and structured sessions, tweaks to your kit and riding style, along with routine ride-outs needn’t detract from the enjoyment of the ride, and when training alongside other riders can ensure every ride has a purpose. You can work on raising your speed out on the road or indoors on a trainer, reducing your body weight if needs be. Other useful ploys to engage include… 01 ROUTE PLANNING “The less…

CHRIS BENNETT, HEAD OF BEHAVIOUR CHANGE AT SUSTRANS “First things first, get out of the gutter. Riding too close to the kerb can give drivers the green light to overtake when it’s not safe. While it may seem like a sensible option, riding in a more assertive position – about an arm’s length away from the kerb – is much better practice. This means you’re more visible and, if someone does overtake, you have more space to move into on the left. “Eye contact’s invaluable, too. You’re looking for the driver’s recognition – it cuts through the barrier or ‘bubble’ some road users have. So when approaching a junction, a roundabout or turning onto a different road, making eye contact with drivers can help you work out if they’ve seen…

ROB WAKEFIELD, LEVEL 3 COACH, PROPELLO.NET “For a newbie cyclist the most important thing is just getting out on the bike frequently, having fun, exploring routes, getting to know your bike and understanding how your body feels when you put in certain levels of effort. Three rides a week is a good place from which you can make progress, gradually increasing the duration of your longest ride each week. Don’t worry about mileage as this will be very dependent on topography. Start with say three times 60-minute rides in a week and build up to two times 90-minutes with one long weekend ride of three hours. Once you have progressed the volume of your riding to four to five hours a week you can then think about increasing intensity by…

“In many ways, working with professional athletes is easier when it comes to the prescription of training. Each week they have a blank slate from which to work from,” says Liam Holohan. “All day, every day, is available to them for training.” The challenge comes for the ‘time-crunched cyclist’, who must also fit in family life and a normal job to their week. “When it comes to training, you can only control two things; volume and intensity; or, how much and how hard. For a lot of amateur cyclists, this ratio never changes. They do the same training in November as they do in July. The key to being on form on the day of your target event is periodisation. Essentially, this is how you organise your season, or macro-cycle.”…

ROB BROWN SPECIALIST CYCLING PHYSIOTHERAPIST, CENTRE FOR HEALTH & HUMAN PERFORMANCE, “The secret to making big climbs easier comes down to your power to weight ratio – being able to produce as much power as possible, while remaining as light as possible. Along with the input of a nutritionist to help identify the right diet to manage your weight, one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve power off the bike is by performing weighted leg exercises at the gym. “Choose simple leg exercises such as leg presses, squats and trap-bar deadlifts. The goal is to keep the weight as heavy as possible and the number of repetitions (each single exercise) low, for example three to four sets of two to four reps. See a qualified trainer to…