New Member Tips Page 4
The first six weeks, the
first six months
Cycling is a low impact
sport that you can push your
effort until your exhausted
with recovery in a quick
period. The circular motion
of pushing pedals around is
ideal for cardio and amazing
for weight loss, detox and
perfect for gaining stamina.
You can start at any age and
quickly regain fitness...
all thanks to the dynamics
of the bike and how the
human body likes cycling.
The first six weeks,
one or two rides a week is a
nice target frequency. In
this period, try to keep to
flat rides wherein your
efforts are mostly
concentrating on 'spin'.
Spinning whether fast or
slow will get your body back
to accepting movement and
exercise. Start with a
5-10 kilometre trip and
quickly build to 30-40
kilometres per exercise
trip.
In this six week
period, keep your
gearing so that spinning is
easy. Speed will come with a
few months of spin building.
Also, as you may be just
starting out, a low
'pressure' level will
redevelop any 'waifer'
muscle groups and prepare
them for more intense work
as you become fitter.
In a six month period,
you could expect a 15%
improvement in your fitness
level and stamina.
The first six months,
ride twice per week 20 -
40 kilometres with
effort.
You are taking your rides
more serious and trying to
outpace your last rides. Use
a bike computer and record
your sessions, distances,
speeds etc.
Tackle all kinds of
terrain.
Use hills for
strength, flats for speed,
slight inclines for power
sprinting and declines for
rapid spin.
In this six month period
work on understanding how
your bike performs, talk to
other members of the club,
look at the different setup
scenarios of your bike etc.
Slight gains here can give
you kilometres of speed in a
race.
As you ride, work on
active recovery. Many racing
cyclists spend equal amount
of time
'inside' the race resting
and recovering whilst still
pedalling. If you see a
slight down hill, rest, if
the peloton bunches, rest, if
your leading into the wind,
move to the back etc. Active
recovery is a skill.
Learn to attack.
Recover... attack,
recover... attack,
recover... attack!
In the first six months,
learn to attack early in the
race sometimes, later in the
race other times, and
totally unpredictable for
other times. At this stage,
you are developing a fitness
that could be explosive 'when
you decide to be'.
The first six weeks, the
first six months - another
view
In the
first six weeks, ease into
cycling and look after your
body by taking short
powerful rides that increase
your fitness to a level
where you can race in the
beginner grades.
In the first six months....
WIN!
Really go out there and win
a few cycling races in
Melbourne with our club and
move up and down the grades
so that your'e winning.
Being able to win will take
lots of effort and your
fitness, riding skill and
abilities to make the bike
go faster will improve.
Winning is also a great
motivator and with Southern
having 7 grades to enter,
you can settle into a group
(bunch) that pressures your
skill at any given time.
Take a look at the fantastic
calendar of
cycling events in Melbourne
on the Southern website,
attend as many as you can on
a weekly basis for 6 months
and your riding style will
get far better.
A few cycling tactics
Come
back to some of the links in
this article content. Great
reading.
Though the objective of a
race is quite simple – to be
the first rider to cross the
finish line – a number of
tactics are employed
that make you more
successful more often.
Cycling, due its distances
covered often requires rest,
attack, thinking and engery.
Thinking or Tactics can play
the most important sector in
winning a bike race. The
old saying is "First you
win with your brains, then
with your heart, then with
your legs".
Cycling tactics are based on
the aerodynamic benefit of
drafting, whereby a rider
can significantly reduce the
required pedal effort by
closely following in the
slipstream of the rider in
front.
Riding in the main field, or
"Peloton", can save as much
as 40% of the energy
employed in forward motion
when compared to riding
alone. If riding in a
team, some teams designate a
leader, whom the rest of the
team is charged with keeping
out of the leading wind and
in good position until a
critical section of the race
when they can explode and
win the race.
Often you will hear the term
'protected
rider', this is given to
the riding 'favorite'
withing a team of riders for
the event as a tactic to
help the protected rider
conserve energy. This can be
used as a strength or a
weakness by competitors;
riders can cooperate and
draft each other to ride at
high speed (a paceline or
echelon), or one rider can
sit on a competitor's wheel,
forcing him to do a greater
share of the work in
maintaining the pace and to
potentially tire earlier.
Drafting may not
be used to gain advantage in
an
individual time trial,
unless it is a team time
trial.
A group of riders that
"breaks away" (a "break")
from the Peloton has more
space and freedom, and can
therefore be at an advantage
in certain situations.
Working together smoothly
and efficiently, a small
group of 4 - 12 riders can
maintain a higher speed than
the full size Peloton, in
which the remaining riders
may not be as motivated or
organized to chase
effectively. Rolling in
turns, a rider will use
energy for 1-4 minutes, then
the next rider in line will
take over the attack, as
each rider maintains a
shorter but faster burst,
the 'break' can gain time
and their aim is to win the
race from this small bunch.
If you see or suspect the
break is strong enough or
organized, ride hard to
catch and hold on. A break
is a common tactic and often
produces the winner.
Usually a rider or group of
riders will try to break
from the Peloton by
attacking and riding
ahead to reduce the
number of contenders for the
win. If the break can
achieve a 600 metre clear
gap, and... then continue to
maintain the Peloton pace
speed, they will place a
winner by 600 metres. Watch
out for these style of break
4-5 laps out. If the break
continues further by an
additional 1-2 kmh faster
than than an unorganized
or disheartened Peloton,
they will soon add lots of
gap between themselves and
take the win. You will often
see this on television.
If the break does not
succeed and the body of
cyclists comes back
together, a sprinter will
often win by overpowering
competitors in the final
stretch.
Sprinting at the last 500 m,
200, 100 or sometimes 50
metre mark produces the
winner. Teach yourself how
to ride in a bunch and
'explode' with leg and crank
speed. If you can raise your
sprinting power by 5-10 revs
per minute at the last
stage, it will add 10-20
kilometers per hour speed to
your sprint. Use sprinting
as tactic. See the SMCC
gearing chart to help
you learn how to sprint and
what a few extra revs can do
for you.
Teamwork between riders,
both pre-arranged and
ad-hoc, is important in many
aspects: in preventing or
helping a successful break,
and sometimes in delivering
a sprinter to the front of
the field but Payment
Collusion of Race or
Club or Team Riders is not
accepted. Riders should race
on their merit, not
collusion as a way to gain
money tactic. Many clubs
will place a life ban on
such collusion.
To make a course more
selective, races often
feature difficult sections
such as tough climbs, fast
descents, and sometimes
technical surfaces (such as
the cobbled pavé used in the
famous
Paris–Roubaix race).
Stronger riders are able to
drop weaker riders during
such sections, reducing the
number of direct competitors
able to take the win. This
can be a tactic for
advantage and disadvantage,
a lesser hill climbing rider
can break away individually
knowing the hills will
cantilever the bunch, a
stronger less sprinting
rider can power up hills and
gain time, losing on a flat
stretch. Knowing your skills
is a tactic worth practising.
Endurance or short fast
pacing is a tactic applied
to both long and short
races. A typical 1 hr
Criterium may find a rider
capable of twenty minutes
hard effort, enough to
exhaust the best sprinter,
whilst a short series of
bursts from a sprinter may
be all that is needed to
discourage and dishearten an
entire bunch. Being
unpredictable, being boring,
being explosive, are all
genuine tactics that you can
employ in a cycling race.
Crosswinds. Crosswinds are
known as the great leveler.
You can not hide in a line
of cyclists when wind is
sideways. This is a great
time for a breakaway and
often happens. When you know
that wind is sideways or
side/ahead - break!
The next time you race....
watch those around you
riding and understand what
they are doing.
When you understand... do
it.
If you are riding with SMCC
or riding with other
cyclists in Melbourne, come
along and try racing. It is
great fun, very easy to
start and gives you heaps of
rewards beyond being on the
bike. Talk it over with your
family and start today.
Training is a tactic too.
When you go out riding, or
before you join, train like
a race for a while. Train to
increase your
speed, your abilities
etc.
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