Sprinting - watch Mark

Mark Cavendish and the tour of Britain.

Probably the best road race sprinter in the world.

Le tour has had a rest and so have I. Not posted on here since Friday to busy with bike riding and family stuff.  I did however post some ideas about learning to sprint in group racing situations for a young lad on an old bike getting excited about racing. In this instance he was still using gear changers on the down tube which was made obsolete for serious racing by about 1989.

"RE tips for sprinting, the best training for this is to go out with a gang that treat village 30mph boundary signs or similar as the end of a bike race. I even know of a gang that has 'ahem' painted finish lines in the road. One great tactic is to sit just behind one of the other riders, this way they are working harder than you and then as you get the close to the finish give it everything and try and get past them. You'll probably need a slightly bigger gear than you need to 'sit on their wheel'   Watch the finishes of the tour stages on the telly.

This type of situation is where your having friction levers on the down tubes is a disadvantage. Modern gears are much easier to change quickly in this type of situation.

If it's you on the front, try and position yourself so they can only pass you on one side. This makes it easier to spot the attack coming, giving you a chance to respond. Again having gears on the down tubes is a disadvantage, if they know what they're doing they will jump as soon as you start changing gear!  My guess is many of the young racers these days wouldn't know this as they will not have raced much against people using these levers.

Danger

What is really important when sprinting, is to 'hold your line' DO NOT come across sideways into other riders that are passing you. Do not close somebody down against the Kurb or force them out into traffic coming the other way. Be predictable for the others. You will be reaching speeds where crashing is horrible.

Best thing, join a good club with people that train for road racing.

And don't blame me or anybody else if this all goes horribly wrong. Racing on bikes is aways a bit risky....    "

New bike

Yesterday I was suggesting you don't need fast modern kit to go fast and have a go at racing. Today I have some new kit. Tour fever and bicycle shop wallet seduction strikes again...

Today I collected the latest addition to my bicycle stable. I've been after a better bike for fast touring and longer training rides for quite a while. I've also been suffering with Cyclist's Palsy and wanted something that would help reduce the battering my hands have been taking on my current winter/training bike.

The specification was:
Comfortable, fast, equipped for pannier rack, steel, titanium or maybe carbon. Affordable.

Given the usual cost of the sort of bike I was after I was in no hurry but luck was on my side. I broke a wheel on my winter bike and given the worn out state it was in I arranged for Tony at Brucie's to build me a new pair of traditional training wheels. This wasn't expensive as far as good wheels go and before I knew it I had some new wheels.

BUT

This did mean I was in the shop a couple of times and a steel framed fast touring type bike they had built up was sitting on a rack seducing me....  To make matters worse Bruce was after an 80's steel race frame and I just happened to have one in the garage that had't been used for more than a year. I also had more or less enough good parts to build a bike up. We agreed a deal,  part exchange on the frames, a few new bit's and the new bike was created.

I now have a new bike Blue Reynolds 631 frame, Campag ten speed gears Shimano brakes and wheels built with DRC rims and Ambrosio Hubs.

I've done the initial sea trials this evening, adjusted the saddle a wee bit and gone up a few hills. Good news is I like it.

Maiden Voyage this weekend and more detailed review once it has a few miles on it.

This sport has history and you can do OK on an old bike.

Cycling has a great history, this photo is my mates mum getting ready to start a time trial back in the day. She was fast and did really well but perhaps the rider that really leads the way in terms of what could be done on traditional equipment, admittedly drilled full of holes to make it lighter is Alf Engers who in 1978 broke the 50 minute barrier for 25miles with 49-24seconds.

What this must mean is that on a modern road bike you can go pretty fast without a time trial specific machine and potentially cause chaos at the local mid week time trial.

Have fun, go race your bike....

Rest Day

Today is a rest day for Le Tour, it's also raining more than makes sense for July in Cumbria so I'm having a rest day as well.

Top tip - you get fitter resting not training. The training stimulates the body to respond which it does best when your resting. Make sure your getting enough sleep, don't train to hard on consecutive days and as you get older expect to need more time to recover from harder efforts.

Time Trial

Richard Bickley in the Grey Stoke Time Trail 2011

Blimey, how good was Wiggins at the time trial stage at the tour today? In our house, put Le Tour on the telly and working is impossible.

You to could have a go at a race something like that. (At least here in the UK) Most local clubs will run a time trial series throughout the summer and will allow potential new members a ride or two to see if you like it enough to get further involved.

Like Le Tour, you will probably find young men and women on fancy machines able to ride at more than 25mph but is is likely that there will be people on ordinary road bikes, children with over enthusiastic parents and silver haired men on time trial specific machines from a different era. It takes all sorts.

The quick boys and girls will be quick, but you'll still be OK if 10miles takes you 35 or 40 minutes. Let them know you new to the sport and they'll probably organise it so you one of the first riders off. This way you'll be racing with the others who are slow / new to it.

You can expect to be made welcome, an entry fee of a couple of quid, and if you want to do more than a couple of races you'll have to consider joining the club and taking a turn helping out with the organisation.

Go on, give it a go you might even enjoy it!

http://www.rttc.org.uk/

http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/index.php?

PS Don't be surprised if the silver haired men are much faster than they look!

Tour inspired take two (Stava)

Yesterday I talked about how as a small boy I was inspired watching Le Tour on the telly. Forty years on and nothing has changed, Le tour on the telly and I'm out on be bike pretending to race Cadel Evans  and rip it up in the Alps.

Technology has however moved on, Top tip for today is the Stava App. I use it on an iPhone but it can be used with different hardware. What's great about it is that you can have segments of a ride and it will time them each time so you can compare your performance each time you do that segment.

and

It also tells you how others are doing on those segments, who's beating you and who your beating. Loadsa fun - you can, if you want to, turn every ride into a race!

http://app.strava.com/

Tour inspired riding

It's about 1972 and the children have been watching Eddie Merckx doing the Eddie Merckx thing and then, out on their bikes emulating the heroes of Le Tour De France. Le Blagger in the yellow jersey a truly inspired present for an nine year old. His brother on the stunning red Falcon Junior racing bike, 24 inch wheels, 5 speed gears with a real simplex derailleur. Fantastic. Nicola possibly being Beryl Burton

Children can do great on bikes and the top tip today is for those with children showing an interest. Track down a good local club that caters for them and help them join in the fun. A great example of this is our local club the Beacon Wheelers.

Tag Along

Tag alongs are great. 

In this picture Lydia is tucked in behind Le Blagger on a winter training bike.

Heres what I like about them:

• They allow quite small children to do rides they would not be able to do otherwise.
• Children don't have to control the brakes.
• Children don't have to judge traffic.
• Children don't have to choose road position / trail line.
• When the child is tired they don't have to pedal.
• They will fit many different types of adult bike.
• The pace can be much higher than a child will manage on their own.
• Towing the tag along up hill can be hard work / good training!

My daughter has now out grown the tagalong and has now moved onto the back of a tandem. Our experience of using a tagalong is all positive. We did 20 mile round trips, 'Blue' run mountain bike rides at Whinlatter and all sorts of other adventures.

When we started to use it we were making a transition from a child seat on the back of my bike. She often fell asleep in that chair and I was concerned that she didn't fall asleep on the tagalong. As long as I kept her chatting all was well. 

Warnings: 

I think the Adult needs to be strong and confident on the bike. Children will sometime wobble about for fun and this must be something that does not freak out or destabilise the adult.

Whilst I did use it on a number of different bikes, the seat post and frame need to be a strong ones. Personally I would not use a tagalong with a carbon frame or seatpost.

Work less and getting fitter.

A common question is about the how the older rider can get on with cycling. Well this lot are between the ages of 48 and about 55. Le blagger is the one with the cap on and does ride a bike lots, the rest are not what you'd call racing whippets.  They have however, when this photo was taken just ridden 170 miles in three days with a head wind all the way.

Cycling is defiantly an activity that is accessible to all and can greatly help with overall fitness. The top tip for getting into cycling is to start gently. You could just go out and ride your bike and gradually increase how far you go. That will for most people contribute to gains in fitness. 

If your the sort of person that wants/enjoys more structure a great way to control your training is to use a heart rate monitor, but there is more to it than strapping it on and trying to get the highest numbers you can!

Base fitness is what your after, the best way to do this is to ride your bike at 70 per cent of your maximum heart rate. This will feel quite slow but it will stress your body enough that it will respond when you resting and get stronger, fitter and faster. Make a note of the times rides are taking, or your average speed and over time, for the same effort you will start going faster.

You may need to use this tactic for a few weeks, a couple of times a week to start to see improvements. Once you stop getting improvements, if you want to you might want to introduce something else? (beyond the scope of this post)

Warning
Unless your confident your heart is healthy, getting an accurate individual max heart rate is tough, or even dangerous.  A rough alternative is to use 220 minus your age. This will for many people be inaccurate but accurate enough!

example:

Rider age 49
220 - 49 = 171
70 percent of 171 = 120 ish

Therefore, this rider should go for some rides keeping heart rate below 120bpm. In reality if there are a few hills in the route this may not be possible, when this is the case slow down.

Many people new to cycling want to lose weight, one great benefit of this type of training is that it will encourage your body to burn fat much more effectively than riding harder.

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Put it in the car

Quick tip today.
When traveling with your bike on the cross channel car ferry, the ferry companies charge for the height of the vehicle.  On this trip I saved £200 by putting the bikes in the car and squeezing people in on the back seat.

Healthy Food

Top Tip number 3
Interesting quote on the telly this week. Apparently Le Tour riders need to eat between 7000 and 10,000 calories a day during the race. We probably don't!

Riding a bike uses energy if you don't put enough energy in you will run out. Traditionally in the world of cycling running out of energy is called the 'bonk'. If you believe all the marketing hype the thing to do is buy sports drinks, energy bars and gels and you have it sorted. Whilst these things are great for topping up your energy levels they are dreadful for your teeth and I don't think they do your insides a lot of good either.

I find that for less than a couple of hours all I need is my normal food, a bottle of water on the bike and a little bit extra afterwards.

If I'm going to be out for a longer period of time I need to eat as I ride or dive in a cafe. Bananas, flapjack and cereal bars are a good energy source and can be had fairly cheaply. On talking to the legendary Gethan Butler about ultra distance food I understand he eats cold sausage as it has plenty of energy and doesn't upset his stomach. Ultra distance feeding is really another issue which I may write more about another day.

Energy products do have a place, I usually  carry a couple of energy bars or gels but rarely use them. I would guess I if I buy a gel it may two or three weeks in my pockets before I get round to consuming it. But they get me home when I find I need one because if missed lunch, got lost, taken longer than expected etc. etc.

Racing is a different story, in this situation I'll risk the damage on my teeth and have bottles of energy drinks and a couple of gels. I find, at least in the races I do, eating isn't going to happen as I struggle to breathe,  keep up and get energy in. I can manage to sup on a bottle or gulp a gel. Gels can be carried tucked up the leg of your cycle shorts. This makes them easy to grab and is much less hassle than your jersey pockets especially if your hands are wet or you have gilet/cape on.

My advice would be eat ordinary healthy food. If your trying to get fit and loose a little weight don't make the mistake of thinking that because you've riden a bike for a couple of hours you need the same amount of energy as Mark Cavendish after winning a stage of the Tour (which he did yesterday)

In the mountains, carry a cagoule (cape)

Quick blog entry today, other more important things to do like ride me bike up hill in the rain.
Top tip number 2. Perhaps for the less experienced rider.
Riding up bigger hills/mountains keeps you warm. Going down the other side, (or back down the way you came for us today) instantly puts you into a situation of being in a 25 - 55 mph wind, this will also cause the water/sweat your covered into to evaporate more quickly and you rapidly get quite chilly. (If you've got the time and inclination google windchill and have a look at the numbers)  On days like today (see photo)  as a minimum, carry a light cape/cagoule for the descent.

Even on a dry summers day I would recommend at least a gilet as the weather high up is often more sporting than down in the valley.

Mud Guards

Top Tip number 1.

I'm often asked by my less experienced friends for tips and ideas to help them with their cycling adventures. One of the features of this blog will be to offer these tips to anybody that can bothered to read it.

A couple of years ago I was riding with an Australian rider who had done enough cycling to come to Europe racing and do OK. He had managed this having only ridden in the rain four times and had not seen bikes with mudguards! Here in the UK and I guess elsewhere if your going to be a keen cyclist you going to be riding in the rain quite a lot. If you do this on a race bike of a race bike 'look alike' the wheels are going to throw dirty water contaminated with whatever is on the road all over you. Depending on where you ride this could include, animal shit, diesel and asbestos from car brakes amongst any number of other less savoury things.

Here in the UK most experienced club riders will have a bike built up for riding in wet and dirty conditions. So todays top tip is have a bike that you can ride in the rain without all the filth and water off the road spraying over you every time it rains. It won't keep you dry but it will keep you a lot cleaner and if the weather is really bad can make quite a difference in stopping you getting to cold. Having mudguards has the added benefit of reducing the filth thrown over anybody following you and is a requirement in many clubs for riding in the rain/winter.

If your bike frame is designed to have mudguards fitted, you can fit mudguards. They will stay put and work well. From what I've seen most of the mudguards designed for 'race' frames are rubbish. They rattle lose and offer much less protection for both you and the expensive components on your bike.

So, if your looking to get a all purpose bike and you'll be riding in the rain make sure the bike has or can have 'proper' mudguards fitted.

Cycling jargon buster
Look alike bike, a bike that is made to look like a real racing bike. Buyer beware but it is fair to say that these have got  lot better in recent years.


Winter Bike, a bike that is set up for winter use. Traditionally these have often been put together using old parts that the owner is less concerned about looking after and often called a hack bike.