Coach Fred’s Solutions to Road ’s Challenges COMBO VOLUMES 1 & 2

BY FRED MATHENY

Coach Fred's Solutions To Challenges Volumes 1&2

By Fred Matheny

Photos by Deb Matheny, Ed Pavelka, Nico Toutenhoofd Cover by Kleppert Design

 RBR Publishing Company All Rights Reserved

Published by RBR Publishing Company, 3255 Embry Hills Dr., Suite A, Atlanta, GA 30341 USA. Copyri ght  RBR Publishing Company. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, photographic including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of RBR Publishing Company. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained in this publication. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained in this publication. http://www.RoadBikeRider.com

2 RBR’s PREMIUM SITE & Newsletter

If you like this eBook, you'll love our PREMIUM SITE! Members receive 10 great benefits, including . . .

• 15% discount on every product in RBR's online eBookstore

• 3 bonus eBooks

• Access to more than 700 Q&A by experts on training and equipment

• Hundreds of product reviews by RBR's experienced Review Crew

• Expert "how to" content, such as the 12-part "Year in Training"

• Our exclusive Roadie Rap forum on key topics of interest to road cyclists

• A searchable archive of 374 RBR Newsletters beginning with No. 1

. . . and lots more in over 285 web pages!

Get all these PREMIUM SITE benefits for the low membership fee of just $24.99 per year. Click for the details and join today for instant access!

Subscribe to the free weekly RoadBikeRider.com Newsletter and you’ll receive a complimentary copy of another great eBook, 29 Pro Cycling Secrets for Roadies. No cost or obligation! See its contents.

Our electronic newsletter—delivered to your e-mail inbox every Thursday—contains news about road cycling, a dash of humor and 3 columns of expert advice to help you ride with more strength, skill and enjoyment.

To subscribe, simply visit our website at RoadBikeRider.com and provide your e-mail address. It’s that easy! No other personal info is required. Your free copy of 29 Pro Cycling Secrets for Roadies will instantly be available for download. Don't worry—we don't spam and your address will never leave RBR. See our ironclad privacy policy.

C’mon and get on the wheel of RoadBikeRider.com. We want to help you reach your cycling potential—starting with your very ride! Visit RBR’s online eBookstore Your No. 1 source for expert "how to" eBooks for roadies!

TRAINING • 101 Cycling Workouts by David Ertl • ACE Training for Cyclists by Arnie Baker, M.D. • Basic Training for Roadies by Fred Matheny • Fred Matheny's Complete Book of Road Bike Training by Fred Matheny • High-Intensity Training for Cyclists by Arnie Baker, M.D. • Indoor Training for Cyclists by David Ertl • Keep it Real - In Your Classes by Jennifer Sage • Off-Season Training for Roadies by Fred Matheny • The Ride of Your Life by David Rowe • Spring Training for Roadies by Fred Matheny • Supercharge Your Training by Fred Matheny • Training for Busy Cyclists by David Ertl

SKILLS & TECHNIQUES • Climbing for Roadies by Fred Matheny • Coach Fred's Solutions to 150 Road Cycling Challenges by Fred Matheny • Cyclocross for Roadies by Darren Cope • Skills Training for Cyclists by Arnie Baker, M.D. • Stop Cycling's Showstoppers by John Hughes • Yoga: A Quick & Effective Program for Cyclists by Joe & Maria Kita

RACING • Professional Road Race Tactics for Amateur Cycling Teams by David Harrison • Psychling Psychology by Arnie Baker, M.D. • Road Bike Basics by Chris Fischer • Strategy & Tactics for Cyclists by Arnie Baker, M.D.

MEDICAL & TECHNICAL • Andy Pruitt's Medical Guide for Cyclists by Andrew L. Pruitt, Ed.D. with Fred Matheny • Bike Fit by Arnie Baker, M.D. • Finding the Perfect Seat by Joshua Cohen PT, MS • Nutrition for Sports by Arnie Baker, M.D. • Rider's Guide to Building the Long Distance Bicycle by David Rowe • Your Home Bicycle Workshop by Jim Langley

OTHER • for Fun & Profit by Ed Pavelka • How to Travel with Your Bicycle by Alan Bragman, D.C. • Strength Training for Cyclists (DVD & workout guide) by Harvey Newton

Also check our expert "how to" eArticles for roadies. Just $3.99 Core Training … Weight Loss … Power … Endurance … Intensity … dozens more! Table of Contents

To see all the subtitles in each chapter, open the Bookmarks tab at the left of your screen. Then click to go immediately to any topic. Also, use Adobe Acrobat Reader’s Find function (binocular icon) near the top of the screen to scour this eBook for all of the infor- mation it contains on a specific word or term.

About the Author Introduction How to Use this eBook 1. Bike Fit and Riding Position 2. Basic Cycling Skills 3. Clothing and Equipment 4. Nutrition 5. Ailments and Injuries 6. Environmental Hazards 7. Indoor Training 8. Group Rides 9. Long Rides 10. Climbing 11. Descending 12. Sprinting 13. Cornering 14. Time Trialing

About the Author

Fred Matheny began road riding in the early 1970s after an athletic career that included football and track in high school and football at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio. He was named his team’s outstanding offensive lineman and made all-league.

5 Fred rode his first bike race in 1976, the Iron Classic from Du- rango to Silverton, Colorado. A category 2 racer since 1978, his top placings include a cat 3 win in the Mount Evans Hill Climb, a world re- cord of 5 days, 11 hours in the senior division of the Team Race Across America (with Skip Hamilton, Pete Penseyres and Ed Pavelka), 2 victories in the Colorado masters time trial championship and a bronze medal in the U.S. masters national time trial championship.

He has written about cycling for nearly 3 decades, including 9 books and hundreds of articles for magazines and websites. He wrote for VeloNews for several years and then Bicycling magazine from 1984 to 1999, including 5 years as train- ing/fitness editor. In addition, he had a 27-year career as a high school English teacher.

Fred has served as vice president of RBR Publishing Company, a corporation formed in 2001 with longtime friend and editorial associate Ed Pavelka. Before reducing his RBR duties in 2005, Fred was a prolific contributor to RBR’s website (www.RoadBikeRider.com) and its free weekly e-mail newsletter. As author of the popu- lar “Ask Coach Fred” column, he answered hundreds of technique and training questions each year. They helped guide the content of this eBook. More than 500 of Coach Fred's Q&A are archived online on RBR's members-only PREMIUM SITE.

In research for his cycling articles, Fred has interviewed (and ridden with) top racers, coaches and exercise physiologists. He also has coached at numerous cycling camps and clinics. Among his other eBooks are Climbing for Roadies and

• Fred Matheny's Complete Book of Road Bike Training • Basic Training for Roadies • Off-Season Training for Roadies • Spring Training for Roadies • Supercharge Your Training

If you like this eBook, you're sure to find lots of useful advice in them, too. All are avail- able in the RBR eBookstore.

Fred has been married to Debbie since 1968 and they have a son, , who is a middle school teacher in Washington state.

Introduction

I began to ride seriously in the early 1970s after finishing college and settling in Montrose, a small western Colorado town. I didn’t have many experienced cyclists to tutor me. But I quickly found that I loved cycling, so I jumped into my first long rides and races with no experience and learned the hard way. It was the same for many American roadies back then.

6 Sometimes it was really hard. My naiveté led me into some mistakes that seem funny now but were, as I look back on them in the light of present knowledge, downright dangerous.

I told a story in my first book, Beginning Bicycle Racing, way back in 1980. The episode is so apropos of how the cycling gods take care of rookie riders that it’s worth repeating in this collection of knowledge I’ve gained since then.

It happened in my second year of cycling, I did a long, solo training ride on the back roads of Colorado. It was hot. I was pushing the hills as well as doing 1-mile, all-out repeats every 10 miles. Bikes in that era had only one bottle cage, on their down tube. A Silca Im- pero pump perched elegantly along the seat tube where modern bikes have a second cage. Bottles were smaller, too. And -style hydration systems were 15 years in the future.

So I was riding 90 miles in 90-degree heat with only one bottle of water. It never dawned on me that hydration was important. This was the era when football players weren’t al- lowed water during practices. I had been schooled in that “gotta be tough” environment. Thirsty? Doesn’t matter. I just kept hammering.

Then I began feeling light-headed. As I sat up after one hard hill, eyes misty with sweat and vision blurred from fatigue and effort, a large peacock ran into the road and stopped in front of me, multi-colored tail feathers spread in all their shimmering glory. I braked abruptly and swerved to the left. When I looked back the road was empty. I shook my head and continued. Gotta be tough.

A hundred yards later I rounded a bend and came face to face with a full-grown male buf- falo, shaggy mane billowing as he clattered off the road and disappeared up an embank- ment.

That was it—the last straw. Some water-starved section of my brain decided that this menagerie couldn’t be real. There’s a significant shortage of free-roaming peacocks in western Colorado, and the only buffalo ranch was miles away.

I turned around, pedaled home slowly and ate a big dinner—with lots of water.

Our Un-Simple Sport

It’s pretty simple to ride a bike. It’s not simple to ride a bike well.

When all sports are considered, cycling falls into the category of those that are technical and somewhat complicated because human physiology interacts with a highly refined ma- chine. And this interaction takes place on roads with cars, dogs, wind, hills, the occasional peacock and other riders. In races (and often in group rides) some of those riders are try- ing to beat you.

In short, road cycling is full of challenges. In the century or so that people have been on bikes, certain ways of doing things have developed from trial and error. In the not-so-

7 distant past, the best way to learn this lore was to ride with a cycling club, soaking up ac- cepted methods from experienced riders who had been taught by their own mentors.

Learning from grizzled vets is an elegant method, sort of like Yoda on wheels. It worked for generations. But now, with road cycling enjoying unprecedented popularity, there aren’t enough old-school roadies (or hoary Italian coaches) to go around. That’s why I wrote this book. It’s going to solve dozens of challenges that roadies encounter, thereby accelerating your learning rate and helping you ride better faster.

This isn’t just for newcomers. Not by a long shot. Few riders, regardless of how long they’ve been in the sport, do everything well. Even those who’ve been riding for decades can benefit from a refresher course and different perspectives. Any roadie can learn new things.

I’ve been writing about cycling for nearly 3 decades and have had the opportunity to inter- view and pedal with some of the best riders and coaches in the world. I’ve attended train- ing camps for pro teams, national teams, fast recreational riders and long-distance specialists. I’ve poured the knowledge gained into books, articles, presentations and more than 30 annual volumes of my personal cycling diary. This book now pools it for you.

Although the emphasis is on road cycling technique, I do include training tips when they’re appropriate to the challenge under consideration. They can help you improve starting on your very next ride. For year-round training programs for fitness riders, fast recreational riders and racers, please see my eBooks in the RBR eBookstore. They contain workout schedules plus advice on nutrition, equipment, clothing, injury prevention—all the informa- tion you need to get the most from your cycling potential.

How to Use this eBook

Each of the 14 chapters covers one category of challenges that road riders face. I haven’t attempted to cover every possible challenge within each category. Take nutrition, for ex- ample. I could write a book on this subject and here I’m covering it in one chapter. So I stood back and considered the principal challenges roadies encounter in their on- and off- bike eating, based on my years of answering questions in print and in person. I ap- proached all 14 chapters this way. I trust the information will solve a large majority of your concerns on the issues I tackle. If you feel I missed an important challenge, write to pub- [email protected] so it can be considered for the second edition.

I use a short anecdote to introduce each challenge. Many are derived from my experi- ences or those of riding partners. Others come from RBR newsletter subscribers. All are designed to make it easier for you to connect your personal cycling-improvement needs to each challenge and its solutions.

There’s no need to read this book straight through. Instead, jump around to the chal- lenges that nag you in general or that you encountered on a recent ride. Use the Adobe Acrobat Reader "find" function (binocular icon) at the top of screen, or the bookmarks at the left of the screen, to find the words or topics you need. If you're online, click the words 8 in blue to access web pages. Make this your resource for riding better, avoiding mistakes and getting more fun and fitness from your road bike.

CHAPTER 1

Bike Fit and Riding Position

ike fit has been a hot topic in recent years. As more is learned about physiology and B the biomechanics of cycling, riders want efficiency and power as well as comfort and freedom from injury. The only way to get it all is to sit properly on the bike.

Cycling is a unique sport because of the close harmony between a human and a machine. But vanity often introduces discords. Many riders want to look like pro road racers. In their minds this means a flat back, low handlebar, and the slid fully to the rear. But for many people, this position is a recipe for discomfort. Weekend hammerfests are full of suffering riders who have sacrificed comfort and power to Dame Fashion.

The problem is simple—your body isn’t especially adjustable but your bike is. The solution is just as apparent—make changes to your bike rather than force your body into a position that’s out of bounds.

Most roadies eventually realize the importance of fit over fashion. Some have been in- jured because of a poor position and they’re frustrated by losing riding time. The average age of road cyclists is climbing, too, and with age comes less flexibility—and less patience with fashion.

How do you get a good fit on your bike? This chapter includes a number of methods and sources. But nothing works quite as well as a personal fitting by an experienced cycling coach, bike shop technician or sports medicine expert who is knowledgeable about cy- cling. This one-on-one assistance will help you find an optimum position, and it’ll happen faster than with your own trial and error. You can locate fit experts through shops, bike clubs and by checking at www.usacycling.org and www.bicyclecoach.com.

The bike fit pioneer is Andrew Pruitt, Ed.D., director of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. As we’ll see, most fit systems are static, which means po- sitioning takes place while the rider is stationary. They are usually based on leg length and other measurements. They don’t consider what happens when the body moves dur- ing the pedaling motion.

To make fit correlate to real-world conditions, Pruitt developed his dynamic technique. He has you pedal your bike on a stationary trainer while being videotaped for computer analy- sis. The resulting fit recommendations incorporate the motion of pedaling. Some other fit systems, notably the SizeCycle Fit System, combine static and dynamic meas- urements.

9 You can fit yourself using expert instructions. An eBook I co-wrote with Pruitt for RBR Publishing Company, Andy Pruitt’s Medical Guide for Cyclists, may be the best single reference. At least that was our goal. I won’t attempt to repeat here what that eBook cov- ers. Instead, I’ll provide generally accepted guidelines and list several fitting systems. I’ll also discuss common cycling-specific aches and pains that arise from poor fit. (For other medical and physiological issues, see chapter 5.)

Fit-Related Injuries

Some years ago, I got an acute case of tendinitis where my right hamstring attaches to my glute. In other words, where the muscle on the back of my leg connects to the butt muscle. It hurt when I was stretched out on my time trial bike. It hurt when I was on my road bike in a conventional position. It nagged at me all season. It hibernated in winter when I rode less; then it returned with a vengeance in the spring.

I consulted my training diary for the previous 3 seasons, looking for patterns. I found one. I had progressively raised my saddle and slid it to the rear while at the same time lowering my handlebar and going to a longer .

Why did I make these changes? In the mid 1980s I read about French studies claiming that a higher and more rearward position increased power. At that time I had ridden with the same bike setup for years. It worked. I didn’t get injured, and none other than 3-time Tour de winner Greg LeMond pronounced my position to be “excellent” when I at- tended a camp he hosted. When Greg said that, I should have welded my seatpost in place. But I was tricked by the “more is better” syndrome, so my saddle began its move to the stratosphere. The result, in retrospect, was predictable—injury!

The muscles of the low back, glutes and hamstrings, coupled with the ligaments at the back of the knee, act like a bowstring. When you raise the saddle, the bowstring stretches more tautly as you pedal. Move the saddle to the rear and the bowstring is pulled even tighter. Put on a longer stem and lower the handlebar—hey, you could shoot an arrow with your hamstrings. No wonder injury is only one long ride away. Once I realized what I’d done, I went back to my old measurements. The pain went away.

CHALLENGE! You’re confused by the various fit systems and can’t decide which to use. Two shops positioned you on your bike—and the results were different. You need guidelines for do-it-yourself fitting.

SOLUTIONS

What I learned from my fit-related injury is an introduction to the general rules for proper position on a road bike.

• Look like yourself. It's tempting to adopt the long, low, so-called “pro position.” But if your body doesn't fit that model, you won't look like a pro, you'll look awk-

10 ward and uncomfortable. The ideal position is the one that's correct for you. Forget about style points.

• Use numbers as a guide, not as gospel. Below, I compare the saddle height numbers produced by some popular fit systems. Typically, these systems use cookbook formulas to establish a basic riding position. They derive saddle height recommendations from measurements of successful riders (Fit Kit) or by computing some "ideal" (the LeMond formula). As you'll see, these numbers can vary significantly.

Because all fit systems produce approximate recommendations, you are ulti- mately responsible for your own best fit. View fit formulas as a starting point, a way to get saddle height and other measurements into the ballpark. Then make adjustments based on how you feel.

• Aim for comfort. The assumption that a position has to be painful to be effi- cient is simply false. To be fast, you don't have to be stretched out like a heretic on the Inquisition's rack. Speed follows comfort. Speed doesn't follow a painful and overly elongated position—but injury often does. If you're not comfortable on a 3-hour ride, something's wrong.

• If your position causes injuries, get a new position. When American roadie turned pro, some European racers told him to his saddle back for more power. He did—and promptly injured his back. He couldn't train or race for several months. When he returned to his normal position, he recovered and went on to a career that included 7 Tours de France. He was able to withstand the incredible demands of 3-week stage races because he adopted a position his body tolerated well, not the position that style or peer pressure dictated.

• Your position must not compromise bike handling. If your handlebar is too low and you're stretched too far, with straight arms and locked elbows, you won't be able to control the bike well. If you're bumped from the side by another rider, your rigid arms will transmit the shock through the handlebar to the front wheel. You could crash. Bent, shock-absorbing elbows and relaxed arms are a natural result of a balanced position.

• Don't make frequent changes. When you make a tweak, give it time to settle in. Ten hours of riding is a good rule of thumb. If you then feel another adjust- ment is necessary, do it and then give it the same amount of time. Frequent tinkering never allows your body enough time to adapt. You must give each change a chance.

• Don't make large changes. If your saddle needs to come down 1 cm, don't lower it all at . Take it down 4 mm for a week, then another 3 mm and fi- nally the rest of the way. Bodies don't like sudden large changes, even when they're the right changes.

11 • Record your numbers. Finally, when you settle into a position that works, write down the key dimensions: saddle height and setback, stem length, distance be- tween the top of the saddle and top of the handlebar, distance from the tip of the saddle to the handlebar and to the tips of the brake lever hoods. Whenever you set up a different bike, you'll be able to duplicate your best position without all the trial and readjustment.

Sources for Bike Fitting

If you need or want fitting assistance, here are various ways to get it.

• Your local bike shop. Many good shops have personnel who have been trained in bike fit and use one of the systems listed below.

• A cycling coach. Coaches certified by USA Cycling have had training in bike fit.

• The Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. As mentioned, Andy Pruitt has de- veloped what may be the world’s most sophisticated fitting system. If you have long-term fit problems, it’s definitely worth a trip to Boulder, Colorado, to get them worked out. Also check Andy Pruitt’s Medical Guide for Cyclists, avail- able in RBR's eBookstore.

Bike Shop Systems

• Serotta SizeCycle. Bike-builder Ben Serotta’s fitting experience goes back to the 1970s when, as a budding builder of custom frames, he wanted to make sure his customers got the best fit possible. He invented the SizeCycle, an ad- justable stationary bike that is now used by more than 250 technicians in bike shops around the world. The cost of a fit typically ranges from $75 to $150 de- pending on the complexity. See www.serotta.com.

• Serotta/Pruitt/Specialized. Ben Serotta and Andy Pruitt combined their exper- tise to create a simplified fitting system for use by Specialized bike dealers. It provides figures for frame size, seat height, seat setback and reach to the han- dlebars.

• Fit Kit. This is the original fit system, developed in 1982 based on measure- ments taken from scores of top cyclists. Bike shops offer a 15-minute Quick Fit or an hour-long Performance Fit. The cost ranges from $25 to $100. See www.bikefitkit.com.

Software and Online Resources

www.bikefitting.com www.billbostoncycles.com

12 www.johnhowardsports.com www.wobblenaught.com www.zinncycles.com

Saddle Height Formulas

CHALLENGE! You want to find your best saddle height, but every “ex- pert” you consult or formula you see produces a different number.

Of all the ways that a human body (yours) fits a mechanical contrivance (your bike), saddle height is the most important. Get it right and you’ll produce the most power that your heart, muscles and peripheral circulation can muster. You’ll escape most of the injuries inher- ent in doing a repetitive motion (pedal- ing) for hours at a time. And you’ll have the best chance of doing it all in comfort.

But while there’s widespread agreement on a general saddle height “window,” there’s certainly no consensus on the ideal for any given rider. To illustrate, I used myself as a guinea pig and calcu- lated my saddle height using 7 systems. I’m 5-foot-10 and have a crotch-to-floor measurement of 34.6 inches (88 cm), which is relatively long for my height.

How to Measure Your Legs

Measure saddle height from the center of Before we begin, you should know how the crank axle to the top of the seat, in to measure crotch-to-floor distance. It’s line with the seatpost. Use a metric tape the key measurement in determining for millimeter precision. saddle height:

1. Stand barefoot, with your back to a wall. Feet should be about 8 inches apart.

2. Put a carpenter’s square or large thin book or record album (remember those?) between your legs. Snug it into your crotch with the same pressure you feel on a saddle. (This is difficult to get right, as I discuss below.) One edge of the carpenter’s square should be flush against the wall, the other sticking out in front of you.

13 3. Have someone measure from the top of the square to the floor in centimeters (easier to work with than inches). This is your crotch-to-floor measurement. Note that this isn’t the same as the inseam length of pants you buy—unless you wear them snugged tightly against your pubic bone with the cuffs brushing the ground.

Calculations

Now as an example, let’s plug my 88-cm crotch-to-floor measurement into several formu- las for saddle height.

Heel-on-Pedal Method. With your bike on a trainer, pedal comfortably until you’ve settled onto the saddle in your normal position. Then unclip your feet and put your heels on the . Pedal slowly backwards. Your heels should just keep contact at the bottom of the stroke as your legs straighten, with no hip rocking necessary. This is dependent on the thickness of the sole and pedal body, so saddle height will change along with these factors. After setting my saddle this way, I measured from the middle of the crank axle along the seat tube to the top of the saddle and got 76.2 cm

109% Formula. Multiply the crotch-to-floor measurement by 1.09. Set the saddle by measuring from the top of the saddle to the top of the pedal when the crankarm is straight down in the 6 o’clock position. This ancient formula gives me 95.9 cm, which results in a saddle more than 2 cm higher than method No. 1. Measured from the center of the crank axle along the seat tube to the top of the saddle, I got 78.6 cm.

Fit Kit. The Fit Kit was created by measuring dozens of good riders’ physical di- mensions and bike setups, then extrapolating a recommended saddle height from this data. However, these measurements were taken more than 20 years ago when pedals and were different from today. The upshot is that the Fit Kit produces a slightly higher saddle than it probably would if its database was built from riders using 21st century equipment. It allows a range of about 1 cm and says my height should be 77.2 cm.

LeMond Method. Greg LeMond says to multiply your crotch-to-floor measurement by 0.883. This figure was determined about 25 years ago by LeMond’s French coach at that time, . Back then, everyone was on cage pedals with toe clips and straps and wearing leather-sole shoes. LeMond recommends sub- tracting 3 mm from the number produced by his formula if you use clipless pedals. I take off another 2 mm because shoe soles have become thinner, too. Height is measured from the middle of the crank axle along the seat tube to the top of the saddle. The result is a saddle height of 77.2 cm.

Pruitt Method 1. Andy Pruitt checks leg extension by using a large protractor-like instrument called a goniometer. It measures the angle of the knee when the pedal is at dead bottom center. He says saddle height is right when the bend is between 25 and 30 degrees. My saddle height when my knee at DBC is bent 28 degrees: 77.0 cm

14 Pruitt Method 2. Pruitt also does a dynamic bike fit, as I described above. He pastes reflective dots on anatomical markers such as the hip, kneecap and ankle bone of each leg, then video tapes the pedal stroke from 3 angles while you ride your bike on a trainer. The result is converted to stick figures on a computer. Among the collection of biomechanical data this produces is a measurement of how much your knees bend during actual pedaling. This process gives me a saddle height of 77.0 cm.

Serotta SizeCycle. Ron Kiefel of Wheat Ridge Cyclery near Denver fit me on the sizing device available to Serotta dealers. The SizeCycle recommends a saddle height of 77.0 cm.

Notice that while Pruitt’s 2 methods agree with the Serotta SizeCycle, those 3 recommen- dations differ from the older methods. One reason is that new pedal systems and shoes put you closer to the pedal axle. For example, in the early 1980s I used Campy cage pedals and Duegi shoes with a thick wooden sole (yes, you read that right). As a result, the sole of my foot was at least 1 cm higher on the pedal than it is with my current Shi- mano PD-7750 pedals and Specialized Pro Body Geometry shoes. I need to lower my saddle a centimeter to get the same knee bend I did in, say, 1982.

So where have I put my saddle, given the varying recommendations? It’s at 76.0 cm measured from the middle of the crank axle along the seat tube to the top of the saddle. Why is it lower than almost all the recommendations?

• With Look pedals I had my saddle at 76.5 cm. But the platform on the Shimano PD-7750 pedals is even closer to the pedal axle. So using them makes it proper to lower the saddle 5 mm.

• I’m not sure about the accuracy of my crotch-to-floor measurement. I need to really pull a carpenter’s square into my crotch to get 88 cm. Ouch! The saddle probably doesn’t push up that hard, but it’s tough to be certain when comparing the thin edge of the square with a seat’s pressure. However, 88 cm is what both LeMond and Kiefel came up with using specialized equipment.

• I’ve moved my shoe cleats rearward in the last 10 years. They aren’t all the way back, but they’re perhaps a centimeter closer to the heel than they were when most of these saddle heights were calculated. Moving cleats back has the effect of shortening the leg/foot combination. Thus, it requires a lower saddle.

• I feel more comfortable and powerful with a slightly lower saddle. I first noticed this while riding my . I lowered the saddle for ease in dismounting and greater agility while pedaling on technical terrain, and a byproduct was bet- ter climbing power. In fact, on long, relatively smooth dirt hills I could keep up with some guys who usually dropped me on climbs during road rides. As a re- sult, I lowered the saddle on my road bike and climbed better. No guarantees here—this may not work for you because different riders respond in different ways to height changes.

15 • Finally, I have a built-in warning signal that my saddle is too high—that ham- string/glute pain I mentioned earlier. With the saddle at the recommended 77.0 cm, the red light in my butt’s dashboard comes on. When I go down to 76.0 cm, the pain disappears.

What should you make of this odyssey? Simply this—use saddle height recommendations not as an end in themselves but as a basis for your experiments. You have at least a 1- cm window to work in. Use it and you’ll arrive at your most efficient, comfortable and pow- erful position.

Frame Size

CHALLENGE! You’re shopping for a new bike and frame size has you stumped. Some bikes have the standard frame design you’re accus- tomed to. You could simply buy one the same size as your old bike. But the shop also has a selection of non-conventional road bikes with sloping top tubes, and these are offered in only 3 or 4 sizes.

A bike’s size is more important when it has a conventional diamond frame. With a horizon- tal top tube, standover height is more crucial than with a sloping top tube. When all bikes had quill stems and threaded steerer tubes, seat tubes had to be fairly long in order to get the handlebar high enough in relation to the saddle.

SOLUTION

• If you're getting a standard diamond frame with a horizontal top tube, the size is important although a centimeter one way or the other shouldn't matter. The dif- ference can be taken up with the seatpost, by cutting the fork’s threadless steerer tube to the correct length, and by choosing a stem that angles upward, downward or is level.

• With sloping-top-tube frames, seat tube length is all but meaningless. It's the top tube length that's important. In fact, some makers of these "compact" frames offer only 3 or 4 general sizes. They fit customers by installing appropri- ate seatposts and stems.

• The best way to make sure you're getting a frame of the correct size is to have a pro fit. Full-service bike shops can do this for you, as can cycling coaches. Many shops use tried-and-true commercial systems that have proven to work well for most riders. Again, tweaking is accepted and even expected following a fit that puts you into a good, basic position.

16 Threadless Headsets

CHALLENGE! You just ordered a new bike that, like most nowadays, has a threadless headset. You’re not sure how to set up your position—a critical decision before the fork’s steerer tube is cut.

I was confused by threadless headsets when I bought my first bike with one. I'm still not sure they're better than the traditional system with a threaded steerer tube and quill stem. (But I am sure I'd rather carry a 5-mm allen key to adjust a headset than 2 giant wrenches.) The downside to threadless is that once you’ve cut the steerer tube to the length you’ve chosen, it’s impossible to raise the handlebar without changing the stem— or worse, starting over with a new fork.

SOLUTION

When you buy a new bike, don't let the shop mechanic cut its steerer tube until you've positioned the stem and handlebar just as you like them. Here’s my technique when I build up a new frame. First, I put the fork in the frame with the wheels installed and the saddle adjusted to the right height. Then I try a variety of different spacers on the steerer tube with a couple of different stems until I have my ideal saddle/handlebar height differ- ential and reach to the bar. (I get these measurements from my old bike.) Only then do I have the shop cut the steerer tube—and I mark it several millimeters too long, just in case. It can always be cut shorter after I've ridden the bike for a few weeks.

Many road bikes come with an 80-degree stem that provides a slight of rise. You can also get stems that angle more so they end up being parallel to the ground for less bar height, or angled up for more height.

Leg-Length Inequality

CHALLENGE! You get saddle sores—but only on one side. Your over- use injuries are one-sided, too. Whenever you have a sore knee, twing- ing Achilles tendon, aching hip or hamstring tenderness, it’s almost always on the same side of your body.

Unilateral injuries often result from sitting crooked on the bike. This puts excessive pres- sure on one particular part of your load-bearing anatomy. The cause is usually a leg- length inequality. Few people are perfectly symmetrical, but when the difference is more than a centimeter or so, your body may shift hips to one side to compensate. One leg gets loaded and so does one sit bone.

17 SOLUTIONS

If you suspect a leg-length inequality is causing problems, you need to find out what the difference is. The best way is with a scanogram x-ray, which is made with meter stick next to your legs. Then a technician can actually measure your leg bones.

Practiced therapists or physicians can also check leg length by manipulation. While not as accurate as a scanogram x-ray, this method works fine when competently done.

Leg-length inequalities aren’t always caused by leg bones of unequal length. Sometimes there’s a “functional” inequality, meaning your legs are the same length but a tilted pelvis or badly pronated ankle makes you sit crooked on the saddle. These often can be cor- rected with therapy or orthotics (custom shoe insoles) made for cycling.

If you do indeed have a leg-length inequality, you can correct it with a shim between the and shoe sole of the short leg.

How to Install a Cleat Shim

The main difficulty is finding suitable shim material that’s the right thickness. Shims aren’t available commercially—you have to fabricate your own. It would be wonderful if pedal manufacturers would supply shims that fit their cleats, but they don’t. Nor do companies offer sole plates that would accomplish the same thing. (Are any entrepre- neurs reading this?)

Some pedal systems can be shimmed easier than others. Look pedals and the Shimano Dura-Ace PD-7750 and PD-R600 pedals are readily shimmed because the cleats are relatively large. Smaller cleats, such as Shimano SPD, are more difficult. The shim mate- rial has to be hard enough not to compress under pedaling pressure but soft enough to let the cleats bite into it so they don’t rotate as you twist your foot to click out.

You’ll need longer cleat bolts, available at hardware stores such as True Value. Take a stock bolt and nut (or your shoe) with you to be sure you get the right threading. It’s probably metric. The bolt head may not be exactly the same, but that won’t be a problem as long as bolts don't protrude above cleat level.

The shim material depends on the thickness you need. In most cases you can go to a shoe store and get a scrap piece of leather, rubber or Neolite sole material, then trim it to size. Sometimes you may need to glue 2 layers together to get enough thickness. Other possibili- ties are a piece of fairly rigid plastic or even aluminum stock, depending on the shim’s thickness, type of cleat This thick shim between and curve of the sole. There's no one way. Be creative. the sole and a red Look cleat corrects a 12-mm Generally, you want the shim to be half of your inequality leg-length inequality. or just a bit more than half. Your body has already com- 18 pensated to a degree and fixing 100% of a large inequality (say 1 cm or more) is usually too much, at least for the initial correction. It could throw things off the other way. Over time, as your body compensates, you may want to increase shim thickness. Let your per- ception be your guide, along with physical indications.

Tip! The RBR eBook, Andy Pruitt's Medical Guide for Cyclists, has additional informa- tion about leg-length inequality and shimming, as well as other foot, knee and leg issues.

Knee Pain When Climbing

CHALLENGE! You’ve relocated to an area with lots of steep hills—you can’t find a flat road anywhere! You figure (rightly so) that lots of climbing will make you stronger. But after attacking the hills with enthusiasm, the main thing you have to show for it is a pair of painful knees.

Many riders suffer from knee pain brought on by climbing. Even when using low gears to reduce pedaling resistance, climbing still puts a huge load on the knees. And if you’re jamming those hills hard, the pain will come sooner rather than later.

Quite often, knees in this predicament are suffering from poor bike fit as much as the strain of climbing. Sure, climbing makes the pain worse, but poor position is the trigger.

SOLUTIONS

• Check your bike fit. Of course, saddle height is key. It should be checked closely and adjusted, if necessary. But also check saddle setback. A saddle that's too far to the rear can put you too far behind the crank, causing knee problems.

• Check your cleat position. Even with cleats that allow your feet to pivot slightly (“float”) as you pedal, their orientation is still important. Set them so your normal, neutral foot position is in the center of the rotational range. This takes strain off the knees by allowing feet to point toes-in and toes-out.

• Check your pedals’ float. Climbing is a relatively low-cadence, high-torque activity. This can force your ankle to pivot inward or outward unless it’s stopped by the pedals rotational boundary. And as we all know, the ankle bone is con- nected to the shin bone, which connects to the knee bone. Too much foot rota- tion increases tibial rotation and adds shearing force to the back of the kneecap. If you suspect this is what’s causing your pain, reduce the rotation range if your pedals provide this adjustment. If they don’t and float is more than 4 degrees, consider switching brands.

• Check your gearing. If you're attacking hills in a big gear thinking it will make you stronger, think again. Sure, high-gear/high-resistance intervals have their place, but not every day. Who will be the better climber in 2 months—the rider 19 who spins on hills except for occasional big-gear intervals as part of a consistent program, or the rider who muscles a big gear on every hilly ride, try- ing for strength but straining his knees instead? That’s not a tough question.

Ilio-Tibial Band Pain

CHALLENGE! You've been training well and feeling strong. But on the second of 2 long weekend rides you feel pain along the side of your leg at the knee. It hurts like someone is stabbing you with a dagger, and it's continuing during shorter and easier rides.

According to cycling expert Andy Pruitt of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, this is an ilio-tibial band injury. The IT band is a wide sheath of fibrous connective tissue that ex- tends from the hip to just below the knee along the outer side of the leg. Pain occurs when the IT band rubs across the knee’s bony protuberance. It’s usually brought on by a saddle that's too high. Contributing factors are bow legs and incorrect cleat placement.

SOLUTIONS

• Lower the saddle. This is certainly the first step if the injury occurred after an upward adjustment. You’ve al- ready done damage, but in some cases the pain will Area of ilio-tibial vanish when the saddle is restored to its former band pain. height.

• Adopt a wider stance. Some riders suffer from IT band pain on their road bikes with a double-chainring because their feet are too close to- gether. If they switch to a bike with a triple crank, which has a longer bottom bracket axle, the resulting wider stance helps eliminate the pain. Bowlegged riders or those with wide hips often experience this situation. Of course, you can’t install a triple crankset in the middle of a weekend tour. But you can move your cleats fully to the inside edge of your shoes. This shifts your feet outward on the pedals, widening your stance. You can also put 1 or 2 washers between the pedals and crankarms.

• Take your medicine. Use an anti-inflammatory pain reliever, such as ibupro- fen, according to directions. Apply ice for 10-15 minutes several times a day.

• Stop riding. If the pain continues, don’t force it. IT band damage can require a lengthy healing process. By continuing to ride despite the pain, you may de- velop a chronic injury.

20 Knee Pain after a Crankarm Change

CHALLENGE! You just got a new bike with 175-mm crankarms instead of the 170s on your old bike. Now your knees hurt. Are the longer cranks to blame?

It depends on what sort of knee problems you’re having, so the short answer is—maybe. When you switch to longer crankarms, your knee must extend more at the bottom of the stroke in order to reach the pedal because it's farther away (5 mm, in this example). But your knee also bends at a greater angle at the top of the stroke because the cranks are 5 mm "taller" than they were before.

Both of these situations add stress to the various structures of the knee. One fix that some riders try when they install longer cranks—lowering the saddle 5 mm, again using our ex- ample—takes care of the added extension at the bottom of the stroke but means their knees are bent even more at the top.

SOLUTIONS

• If you developed knee problems after switching to longer cranks, try re-installing your original cranks to see if the pain stops.

• Stick with the longer cranks and ride easily to let your knees adapt. Keep in mind that many riders switch back and forth from 170s on their road bikes to 175s on their mountain bikes and don't have knee problems. Perhaps some other factor is irritating your knees. You'll have to experiment to eliminate poten- tial factors one-by-one.

Numb or Tingly Fingers

CHALLENGE! Cycling makes your hands buzz like a beehive or, worse, it puts your fingers to sleep.

Hand discomfort is usually caused by improper bike fit. But poor riding technique also plays a role. Gripping the bar in one position for long periods is a sure way to make hands and fingers feel like an electrical current is running through them.

SOLUTIONS

• Check bike fit. As noted above, it’s always tempting to make your bike look like your favorite pro’s mount. If your handlebar is low in relation to the saddle, or your reach to the bar is too great for your arm length coupled with your torso length, you’ll need to tilt forward excessively. This puts too much weight on your hands. The result is compressed nerves that cause numb fingers.

21 There's no accepted formula for top tube/stem length on a road bike. It’s always safer to err on the side of a bar that’s too high and too close. Many road riders have evolved to a slightly more upright position for greater comfort. With a higher bar, more weight is borne by your rear end rather than your arms and hands. You can always change stems to increase the reach.

• Move your hands frequently. Rest on the brake lever hoods. Move to the bends (as described next). Switch to the tops as if you are climbing. Go down to the drops. Then repeat the sequence. Move your hands in response to the ter- rain and road conditions. If the road is flat and straight, cultivate the habit of changing position every couple of minutes.

• Use more padding. Consider cycling gloves with thicker padding or gel inserts. Some gloves are ergonomically designed to make a channel where nerves pass through the wrist into the heel of the hand. Check at your local bike shop for padded handlebar tape or wrap padding (foam or cork) under the tape. Even a moderate amount of additional padding can make a big difference in comfort. • Consider aero bars for long solo rides. Aero bars are not welcome in paceli- nes, but if you often ride by yourself, you might want to install a set. Aero bars eliminate all hand pressure because your weight is borne by your forearms on the armrests. As a bonus, your speed may increase by 1-2 mph on long rides with no additional effort.

• Try the Kiefel grip. Here’s the hand position advocated by 7-time competitor Ron Kiefel, who operates Wheat Ridge Cy- clery in Denver. Ron puts his hands on the curve of the bar behind the brake hoods. Each index finger's knuckle is near the hood but not quite touching. The thumb goes inside the bar and rests near the base of the hood. The index and Ex-pro Ron Kiefel uses this grip to middle fingers are wrapped avoid nerve compression. around the bar under the brake hoods, while the ring finger and pinky are under the bar, too. Finally, the underside of the knuckles con- tacts the bar just behind the hoods. Notice that in this position, weight is borne by the bony part of the palm behind the knuckles. The wrist is in a straight "hand- shake" position. The result alleviates most of the nerve compression that causes numb hands. Try this grip to see if it helps.

• Try the split-finger grip. When riding with hands on the brake hoods, put the hoods between your index and middle fingers. This is a relaxing position for 22 cruising when braking won’t be necessary. It shifts your hands slightly inward where bar pressure is on the fat part of your palms in line with your ring fingers. Contact is shifted from the palms’ center where nerves lie.

Saddle Discomfort

CHALLENGE! Endurance on the bike is limited by your crotch, not your legs. Your expensive saddle is comfortable in the first hour of a ride, but at 2 hours it’s painful and at 3 hours it feels like a medieval torture in- strument. What’s worse, you sometimes experience numbness in your nether regions.

The human body is supported on the bike by only 3 contact points—hands, feet and crotch. Of the 3, pain from the saddle is often the most debilitating. Along with excessive pressure and abrasion, cyclists can suffer genital numbness and, in rare cases among men, erectile dysfunction.

But there’s no reason for cycling to be a pain in the butt. It won’t be with good bike fit, an appropriate saddle and correct riding techniques.

SOLUTIONS

Find a saddle that’s compatible with your anatomy. This is highly individual, of course. Some riders swear by narrow, lightly padded seats and can ride centuries on them without flinching. Other riders wouldn’t make it around the block. Because of this, specific brand/model saddle recommendations are all but useless. Despite how comfortable a saddle might look or how highly praised it might be by a riding buddy, there's no guaran- tee that it will suit you. You need to ride it to tell for sure. First, narrow the field with these guidelines.

Width. Squat and sit on a low stool or curb. What you feel supporting your weight is your ischial tuberosities, the points of the pelvis that are commonly called the "sit bones." These are what should support your weight on a saddle, too. A seat that's too narrow will place your weight on the soft tissue between your sit bones—for men, on the perineum where the penile nerves and blood vessels are located. Women also need to put a high priority on width because, on average, they have wider sit bones than men. Anatomically designed women's are a bit wider in the main sitting area.

Curvature. Looked at from the rear at eye level, a seat should be flat or only slightly domed. A significant curve causes your sit bones to be lower than the sad- dle's center, contributing to crotch pressure.

Dip. Looked at from the side at eye level, a seat should be nearly flat from nose to tail. A slight dip (say 6 degrees or less) is helpful to give you a feeling for the sad-

23 dle's center while riding. More dip creates positioning problems. That is, when the nose is set level, the tail sticks up and may be uncomfortable to sit on; when the tail is set level, the nose goes up and exerts pressure right where you don't want it.

Padding. Some is good, more is not better. You want enough foam or gel to cush- ion your sit bones for comfort. But thick padding can actually increase crotch pres- sure. As your sit bones sink in, this has the effect of making the center press upward.

Special sections. These are what set the new generation of saddles apart. These sections range from gel-padded areas, to -shaped cutouts, to holes through the top. Rider reactions to these innovations are all over the board. Do they lessen contact or pressure? No doubt. Do they absolutely, positively prevent numbness or worse problems? No saddle can guarantee that. Are they comfortable? It depends on whom you ask. The innovative saddle that one rider swears by will be the same saddle the next rider swear at. Again, there's simply no way of knowing until you ride on a given design. Some bike shops have a test ride program or will allow you to return a saddle that you simply can't stand.

Saddle position. Even your “perfect saddle” will be uncomfortable if it isn’t posi- tioned correctly or if your riding position is out of bounds. Riding position, as we’ve seen, starts with correct saddle height. If your seat is too high, you’ll rock your hips as you ride, sawing your tender tissue across its nose. If the seat is too far to the rear, you’ll tend to sit on the narrow nose. Same goes if the handlebar is too low or too far away. So, once saddle height is established, you need to deal with tilt and fore/aft location. There’s no secret about the best way to get these things right in the context of an overall sound riding position—have a professional bike fit. But for you do-it-yourselfers, here are the rules of thumb:

• Tilt: The saddle should be level, which you can check by laying a yardstick along its length and comparing it to something horizontal like a tabletop or windowsill. A slight downward tilt may be more comfortable, but be careful. More than a degree or so could cause you to continually slide forward, put- ting pressure on your arms and hands.

• Fore/Aft: Sit comfortably in the center of the saddle, click into the pedals, and set the crankarms horizontal. Hold a weighted string to the front of your forward kneecap. For most of us, the string should touch the end of the crankarm. This is known as the neutral position. Loosen the seatpost clamp so you can slide the saddle to get it right. Seated climbers, time trialists, and some road racers may like the line to fall 1-2 centimeters behind the end of the crankarm to increase pedaling leverage. On the other hand, track and criterium racers may like a more forward position that breeds leg speed. Remember, if your reach to the handlebar is wrong, use stem length to cor- rect it, not fore/aft saddle position.

Of course, don't stop at the saddle. Go though all of the fit steps to get an overall well- balanced riding position. If your saddle position is right but your handlebar position isn't,

24 you still might run into problems. In general, most road-bike riders do well with a handle- bar no more than 1-2 inches below the top of the saddle.

Tip! For some guys, a saddle that's slightly off center (compared to the top tube) feels more comfortable. If the nose keeps pressing you in the wrong spot, try a bit of left or right angle. Always remember Andy Pruitt’s advice: “Make the bike fit your body. Don’t make your body fit the bike.”

Riding Techniques

The rule is simple: Don't sit statically in one place for more than a few minutes. When you keep moving on the saddle, as well as on and off the saddle, you avoid constant pressure and compression. Blood keeps circulating, nerve transmissions keep flowing, and the risk of sore spots or numbness is greatly reduced.

Moving is pretty easy to do off-road, where terrain changes and body English keep your crotch from locking into a set position. It's harder on a road bike unless you cultivate some good habits. For example, get out of the saddle for at least part of every hill. Stand when exiting every turn or any other time you need to accelerate. Even just a few seconds is helpful when repeated often.

On a ride in flat terrain, shift to a higher gear so you can stand and pedal out of the saddle for at least 30 seconds every 15 minutes. When sitting, keep your butt far enough back for your sit bones to be supported by the seat's wide rear section. Beware of the tendency to creep forward onto the nose and dwell there, especially when pushing hard or riding in a low position.

Other Pointers

• If you use aero bars, you'll tend to lock into a low, forward position for minutes on end. It's a nuisance, and it takes effort, to break this position to stand. But it's risky if you don't. Also, try to stay back on the wide area of the saddle. Tilting the nose down 1 or 2 degrees can reduce crotch pressure, but more will tend to make you slide forward onto the skinny nose.

• Ride like a jockey when you come to anything rough. By leveling the pedals, flexing your knees and holding your butt an inch above the saddle, you'll avoid impacts that can cause bruising and pain. A shock-absorbing seatpost is an- other way to reduce the risk, but don't let it lull you into remaining seated all the time.

• Carry stuff on your bike, not on your body. This isn't always possible, but realize that when you ride with a backpack, or back-mounted hydra- tion system, you are adding weight to your seat. This makes a wide, supportive saddle even more important. The same goes if you're overweight.

• Be smart when riding indoors. With no terrain changes or other natural op- portunities to move your butt, you need to invent some. Pedal out of the saddle 25 for 1 minute in every 5. Consciously move to a different sitting area every cou- ple of minutes. Keep sessions short and varied rather than long and steady. Us- ing bigger gears lightens saddle pressure because your feet must push harder, levitating your butt a bit.

• Consider an all-leather saddle. These are relatively heavy and won’t win you many style points, but saddles such as the venerable Brooks B17 from England are a favorite among tourists and other long-distance riders. The B17 is wide in the rear (17 cm) for ample sit-bone support. It and other Brooks leather saddles break in to adapt to your unique shape, with slight depressions for your sit bones. This lets the saddle fit your butt like your old ball glove fits your hand. It does take a few hundred miles for this to happen, though, so initial rides aren’t likely to be nearly as comfortable as later ones. Stick with it.

• Wear high-quality, lightly padded cycling shorts. These, plus a skin/shorts lubricant such as Chamois BUTT'r, Balm, Assos and others, increase com- fort and reduce the risk of developing raw or tender spots. These can stop you from shifting position to all parts of your crotch and the saddle.

• Consult your doctor, or even an urologist or gynecologist who has an under- standing of cycling, if these ideas don't help enough. Never ignore genital prob- lems that seem to be saddle related.

Foot Pain (“Hot Foot”)

CHALLENGE! You’re on a long ride or tour. After several hours on the bike, your feet start feeling hot and uncomfortable. This isn’t the first time. Standing on hills makes it worse. You start looking for a roadside stream in which to douse your sizzling dogs.

I developed a bad case of hot foot on a transcontinental PAC Tour, which covered 3,400 miles in 24 days. During the final week, my feet felt like some fiery-eyed devil was attack- ing with a blowtorch on every pedal stroke.

Hot foot is a common malady on rides that last 3 hours or more, so it affects century rid- ers, tourers and cyclists who just like to go long. The primary cause is the tendency of feet to swell during long rides. This increases pressure inside the shoes, which, in turn, com- presses nerves. The result is a burning sensation in the ball of the foot and tingling or numb toes.

SOLUTIONS

• Avoid snug-fitting shoes. You may never suffer hot foot if your shoes allow normal swelling without become restrictive. Try on new shoes while wearing your riding so you can get an accurate fit. Do it later in the day when feet

26 are a bit fatter. Most shoes come in half sizes. If you’re on the fence opt for the larger pair.

• Spread the metatarsal bones. These are the 5 finger-like bones of the forefoot. When I re- turned from PAC Tour, I made a beeline to Andy Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine with my tale of woe. He ordered cus- tom cycling orthotics with a small dome just behind the metatarsal heads. This bump spreads the bones to prevent pressure on the nerves that run between them. It worked great The blue area on this in- for me and has been the solution for many sole is the metatarsal other riders. Pruitt later collaborated with Spe- bump, a key to cooling cialized to develop the Body Geometry line of "hot foot." shoes, which have a metatarsal dome built into the insole.

• Make an emergency dome. If you’re on a tour and suffering, check the foot- care section of a pharmacy. You may find “metatarsal buttons” that you can stick to your insoles. If not, you’ll see a number of foam or moleskin products that you can adapt. Remember, the insole buildup goes in the center, just be- hind the metatarsal heads in the depression adjacent to the ball of the foot. This is about one-third of the distance between your toes and heel.

• Move cleats rearward. This has been the salvation for many long-distance rid- ers. The idea is to reduce direct pressure on the ball of the foot by moving it in front of the pedal axle. For most riders, simply sliding the cleats to the rear of the sole slots will do the job. Some riders, however, need to drill new cleat- mounting holes to get back far enough for this trick to work.

• Loosen straps. Even if a metatarsal dome is in place and your shoes fit per- fectly, they’re likely to begin feeling tight as a ride wears on. As soon as you sense it happening, loosen the straps and/or laces. In the typical road shoe with 3 straps, it’s mainly the top one nearest your ankle that makes the shoe feel se- cure during pedaling (like an old-fashion toe strap). You can keep it snug be- cause it has the least effect on forefoot pressure. The lower straps can be loosened a lot without harming pedaling efficiency.

• Wear thinner socks. And if that doesn't help enough, switch to thinner insoles or don’t use insoles at all. Your shoes will be roomier, allowing feet to swell without compressing nerves.

27 CHAPTER 2

Bike-Riding Basics

n most sports, athletes focus, sometimes to the point of obsession, on the basics. I Football wide receivers are accustomed to snagging passes one-handed with 2 defend- ers draped across their shoulders and a snarling linebacker taking dead aim on their midsection. But they devote endless practice hours to such simple drills as keeping their eyes on the ball as they catch it. World-class hurdlers, who skim over the barriers with mi- crons to spare, drill endlessly to get their trailing leg to come over the hurdle a millisecond faster. Coaches in these technique-oriented sports talk about being “fundamentally sound.”

So why do so many cyclists neglect to drill the basics of their sport? Racers often “just ride” in training rather than doing skill-building drills, content to hone techniques in compe- tition. And we recreational riders are even more lax. When’s the last time you practiced cornering or making a controlled panic stop?

Novice riders need these basic skills. Their safety depends on them. And every experi- enced cyclist—from Tour de France rider to weekend hammer—needs them, too. Funda- mentals such as starting up from a traffic light or riding a straight line seem so basic that anyone can do them. But look around during a group ride and you’ll see cyclists flounder- ing at moves that should be ingrained and reflexive.

Novelist Joseph Conrad’s fussy sea captain in The Secret Sharer says it best: “Exactitude in small matters is the very soul of discipline.”

So don’t blow off this chapter even if you’ve been riding a while. Read it and think about how proficient you are at each basic skill. Then each time you go out, choose one and practice it at least 5 times during the ride. Soon you’ll be fundamentally excellent.

Starting

CHALLENGE! You haven’t ridden since you were a kid. Bikes are very different now and you suddenly realize that you don’t even know how to get on one correctly. Do you run along pushing the bike by the handlebar and then vault onto the seat like you did when you were young? Or do you put your left foot on the left pedal, push -fashion with the right foot to build momentum and then swing your right leg up and over the rear wheel? What’s the right way?

One thing you know as you pick yourself up and ponder how long it’ll take your bruised crotch to heal, neither of those approaches seems to work very well.

28 Getting onto a bike seems so obvious a skill that there’s no technique at all. Until you really think about it. Then it’s not so intuitive after all. Running or pushing off with one foot can be a problem with cleated road shoes. They're slippery. Clicking into those new- fangled clipless pedals without looking down isn’t easy, either. Let's see how to mount up right.

SOLUTION

1. Stand next to your bike’s left side, a couple of feet away. Hold the left side of the handlebar with your left hand. Tilt the bike toward you to effectively make it lower, then swing your right leg over the rear wheel so you can straddle the frame.

2. Engage your right foot in the pedal. Pull it up to the 2 o’clock position.

3. Gently push off with your left foot as you simultaneously push down with your right foot and lift yourself into the saddle.

4. As you roll forward, engage the left pedal. This is a no-brainer if you’re not using toe clips and straps or a clipless pedal system, but you'll miss the security they provide.

• With toe clips, the pedal will hang upside down. Put the toe of your shoe on the back of the pedal, rotate it upright and slip your foot in. This is easy with practice. But if you fumble, make a couple of strokes with your foot on the back of the pedal to build momentum, then try again.

• With a clipless pedal system, you must click your cleat into the retention mechanism. Generally, most systems use 1 of 2 techniques. With Look pedals and similar designs, you put the tip of the cleat into the front of the pedal and then push down to click in. Other types, such as Speedplay, only require you to place the cleat on the pedal and push down.

Regardless of which brand of pedal system you have, practice until you can click in quickly without looking down. Do it in a long driveway or empty parking lot—some place without traffic or other distractions. Keep at it until you can click in using either foot without fumbles. Once you have it down to a reflex, try not to think about it—you’ll mess up for sure if you do.

Tip! If you wear shoe covers in cold weather, the hole in the sole must be large enough to expose the cleat completely. If the sole material is too close to the cleat, it can bind in the pedal mechanism, making entry and exit difficult. It might also reduce the amount your shoes can freely pivot on the pedals before they click out. Restricted float could lead to knee injuries.

29 Stopping

CHALLENGE! Great—you can smoothly mount up, click in and get mov- ing. But what happens when you need to stop? Mess this up and you’ll plop over on one side, legs gyrating wildly as you try to get free of the pedals. It’s not only embarrassing, it’s dangerous. Reaching out to break a slow-speed fall has broken many a wrist. Collarbones, too, as a stiff arm transfers the impact. And then there’s the damage to the palm of your hand (which is one reason to ride with the protection of cycling gloves). Of course, if you fall into traffic you might have lots of additional injuries to worry about.

Modern clipless pedal systems are designed to hold your foot securely no matter how hard you pull up. But pulling up is exactly how people are used to taking their feet off ped- als. Doesn’t work, and over you go. The trick is to pivot your heel outward in the horizontal plane with no vertical force at all. Snap—instant exit!

With all the other things you need to think about as you come to a stop sign or cruise up to a convenience store, that crucial heel pivot can fall victim to old habits. So the trick is to practice, like you did your starting technique, to make it reflexive.

SOLUTION

1. As you approach the stop, but before you actually get there, pivot out of your left pedal but leave your foot on top. If you’re right-footed, it will probably feel more natural to exit the right pedal instead. But this means you’ll be putting your right foot down. When you do, you might bump your calf against the chain or chainring, getting oily black stuff on your skin. This is a rookie mistake and racers derisively label the tell-tale marks “cat 5 tattoos,” referring to the lowest racing category.

2. Come to a stop and put your left foot down to prop the bike. Remember to lean slightly to the left just as your momentum ends or you’ll fall toward your clicked-in foot.

3. Slide off the saddle so you can stand over the top tube with your left foot on the ground and your right foot still clipped in. You could stay seated and still reach the ground with your left toe, but that’s uncomfortable while waiting for a long traffic light.

4. Just as it’s time to go again, slide back onto the saddle and onto your left tiptoe. Bring the right pedal around to 2 o’clock, push down firmly to get moving and clip in with your left foot. Alternatively, you can remain straddling the top tube, bring your right pedal up and lift yourself onto the saddle as you push it down to roll forward.

30 Riding a Straight Line

CHALLENGE! You’re riding on a wide shoulder when suddenly it ap- pears the highway tax fund got depleted. The shoulder vanishes and you have to ride along the white line with cars zipping by on your left and a jagged road edge on the right. This could be a disaster if you can’t ride a straight and narrow path.

Two-wheeled vehicles are inherently unstable and they don’t necessarily want to go in a predictable direction. Poor technique makes your bike wander from a straight line as if it had a mind of its own. That’s bad when you’re riding solo in situations like just described, and it’s grounds for expulsion when you’re in a group. You can’t even ride side-by-side with a training companion if you aren’t smooth and steady.

SOLUTIONS

• Relax. To ride a straight line, you need a loose, supple upper body. Tension in your neck, jaw and shoulders fights the bike. It’ll move jerkily rather than track- ing smoothly. Of course, staying loose is easy to say and hard to do when you’re riding between an 18-wheeler and a guardrail. Concentrate on relaxing your breathing as well as your shoulders.

• Keep your eyes up. Staring at the pavement just ahead of the front wheel guarantees you’ll ride like a drunk trying to pass a sobriety test. You need to avoid potholes, glass and other debris, of course, but you can do it by using the “split vision” technique. This puts most of your visual concentration on a swath 30-100 feet up the road. When you see a pothole, don’t focus on it as it gets closer and closer. Instead, adjust your line to miss it and keep your attention up the road. Let your lower peripheral vision monitor the pothole and other passing dangers.

• Look where you want your wheels to go. Off-road riders quickly learn that if they look at an obstacle in the trail, like a rock, they plow right into it. But if they look instead at the good line around the rock, that’s where their wheels will go. This technique works just as well on the road. Focus on the line you want your bike to take. It will adhere to that track almost magically. Train yourself to look at the safe path, not the hazard.

• Practice. A fun way is to ride on the white line that separates the main road from the shoulder (traffic permitting). See the effect of looking well ahead vs. right in front of your wheel. Feel the benefit of keeping your shoulders and arms loose instead of trying to steer the bike straight. On most roads there’s instant feedback because the white line feels smoother under your tires than the pavement. This lets you know how well your straight-line ability is developing.

Tip! Another effective way to eliminate wobbles in your riding style is by practicing on rollers. This stationary cycling apparatus makes you balance on the bike. If you pedal jerk-

31 ily and your bike veers, you fall off (fortunately onto your carpet instead of the highway). Rollers train you to relax and pedal with smooth, round strokes.

Standing Safely on a Climb

CHALLENGE! You’re tucked behind another rider at the beginning of a hill, making sure to leave about a foot between your front wheel and his rear wheel. As the grade steepens, he stands abruptly and your wheels nearly collide. It’s as if his bike stopped momentarily and the gap evapo- rated. You’re lucky he didn’t nail your wheel and take you down. What happened?

This is a common climbing problem. It’s also scary and dangerous. It happens if a rider lurches forward as he stands. Pedaling action is interrupted and, because of the grade, the bike slows abruptly. Some riders pull back on the handlebar to lever themselves out of the saddle, making the problem worse.

SOLUTIONS

• Anticipate a rider standing up. Many riders stand on short hills to maintain momentum and avoid shifting gears. On longer climbs, it’s common to stay in the saddle on the lower slope but stand part way up or when the grade steep- ens. In both cases, be ready for riders in front to jump abruptly out of the sad- dle, shooting their rear wheel backwards. It’s always a good rule to automatically increase the distance between you and the rider ahead when approaching a hill. It’s smart, too, to move several inches to one side. Keep your eyes up the road because the riders in front of him may cause a problem he has to react to.

• Don’t panic if your front wheel is bumped. A knock on the front wheel doesn’t mean an automatic trip to the pavement. Steer into the offending wheel, not away from it, to keep your balance. That's counterintuitive, so it’s effective to practice bumping wheels at slow speed on a grass field. You’ll soon develop the reflexes to save your skin when your front wheel is hit.

• Relax your upper body. You’re much more likely to fall if you’re tense. And muscles tend to tighten under the stress of climbing. You start pulling on the handlebar to balance greater pedaling force. The result is an upper body that resembles concrete rather than rubber. And that’s a big problem. A front-wheel bump is transmitted to your handlebar, where tense, rigid arms send it right back down, upsetting your balance. Relaxed arms absorb the shock. You’ll wa- ver but you won’t lose control.

• Stand smoothly. What if a rider is behind you? Make sure you don’t ruin her day. The key is to push your bike forward when you stand. The opposite— pulling it back as you make the transitional pedal stroke—is just like hitting the

32 brakes. Instead, have your hands on the brake lever hoods and extend your arms as you rise. This isn’t natural, which is why so many riders do it wrong. It takes a conscious effort that’s helped by practice. Best results come when standing coincides with a pedal passing over the top. This prevents a short, weak stroke that slows the bike.

• Sound a warning. Some riders say “Standing!” just before they get out of the saddle. This can save the day for daydreaming riders behind. But it isn’t a substitute for standing correctly.

Pedaling

CHALLENGE! You can spot experienced accomplished riders by watch- ing them pedal. They’re smooth and relaxed. Their legs go around in fluid circles while their upper bodies are quiet. But most novice riders (and too many veterans) have a pedal stroke that can most charitably be called rough and unschooled. It’s vertical rather than circular. They push hard on the downstroke, rock their bodies from side to side and generally look unpolished. If this sounds like you, let’s fix it.

A smooth pedal stroke has traditionally been attributed to pulling up on the backstroke. The theory was that you could help the downward-pushing leg exert a more even force. However, studies using force-measuring pedals have shown that not even champion road riders actually pull up. The best they can do is get that leg mostly out of the way so the one pushing the down isn’t also pushing the other leg's weight. Interestingly, mountain bikers have the best ability to pull up on the pedal because they often climb at very slow cadences.

So a smooth pedal stroke is really a kind of optical illusion based on cadence (faster looks smoother up to a point) and on maintaining a quiet upper body (excessive shoulder move- ment makes the stroke look labored). Still, it pays to learn how to pedal as smoothly and economically as possible. It establishes you as a talented cyclist, and even a slight un- weighting of the opposite pedal lessens the work the pushing leg must do. Over the course of a long ride, a smooth stroke uses substantially less energy.

Conventional wisdom says that a smooth pedal stroke also makes you faster, but studies argue that it’s the other way around: fitness contributes to a smooth pedal stroke. The fit- ter you become, the easier it is to pedal smoothly at a given intensity.

It’s pretty simple to look elegant when working at only 70% of capacity. Things go to pieces when you’re at your max. Therefore, one way to pedal more smoothly more of the time is to increase fitness so you’re not always on the edge when the pace escalates. Check my RBR eBooks, Basic Training for Roadies and Supercharge Your Training, for my best advice on improving all aspects of cycling strength.

33 SOLUTION

Here’s an effective technique drill to help you pedal more smoothly at any intensity level. Mentally divide your pedal stroke into these parts:

1. Powering the pedal down 2. Pulling through at the bottom like you’re scraping mud off your shoe 3. Kicking the knee forward to pull the pedal over the top

To work on each part, concentrate on it for 3 consecutive pedal strokes. For instance, to improve your downstroke, give the pedal a little kick as the crankarm goes forward from vertical to horizontal. Do this 3 times with the right leg, pedal normally for 3 stokes, then repeat with the left leg. Do it for a couple of minutes. Then in a similar way, add the little kick when you pull the pedal across the bottom. Finally, do it when you bring the pedal over the top. Imagine trying to touch your knee to the handlebar. Soon you’ll notice an im- provement in the roundness and power of your whole stroke.

Gearing Nomenclature

CHALLENGE! You’re hanging out after the ride and someone says, “Man, that hill was steep. I was in 39x27 the whole way up but spun out the 12 going down!” If you’re new to cycling, gear designations can seem like advanced mathematical theory. When riders start throwing these numbers around you don’t know what they’re talking about. But gearing, even with the proliferation of choices resulting from 9- or 10-speed cas- settes and triple chainrings, is quite simple.

SOLUTION

Gears can be referred to in several ways but here's the simplest method. The designation 39x19 (say “thirty-nine nineteen”), for example, means that the chain is on a 39-tooth chainring (the size of the smaller ring on most road bikes with 2-chainring ) and it’s on a 19-tooth cassette cog. The largest gear on most road bikes is 53x12. When you see or hear a designation like this, the chainring is always the first number.

Easy enough? Here’s a twist. You can also calculate gear inches, a throwback to merry old English cycling. The value in doing this is being able to compare different chain- ring/cog combinations and know which gives you a higher or lower gear. Here’s the gear inch formula:

¾ Teeth on chainring divided by teeth on cassette cog, multiplied by 27

For road bikes, 27 is still used even though the wheel standard has become 700C. If your bike has 26-inch wheels, you would multiply by 26. If it’s a with 20-inch wheels, multiply by 20. And so on.

34 Here’s an example of how gear inches work. Let’s say you are in 39x15. How does that compare with the 53x21 combination that your friend is using? Even though he's in the big chainring, you are actually in a slightly larger gear—70 gear inches compared to 68 (rounded off). Apply the formula just given and you’ll see.

If you calculate gear inches for all the chainring/cog combinations on your bike, you can spot large gaps or wasteful overlaps. You may want to install more usable gears by changing to different cog or chainring sizes.

Thrown Chain

CHALLENGE! You’re riding hard in the big chainring toward a steep climb. You push to keep your momentum going as long as possible, but finally you’re forced to shift to the small ring. Oops! The chain overshoots and falls onto the frame. You’re dead in the water, wildly turning the cranks with no resistance. Later, the opposite happens. You’re spinning in the small chainring and need a bigger gear. But your shift to the big ring sends the chain over the top. Now it’s flopping around the crankarm.

Throwing a chain is usually the result of a badly adjusted front . That's the first thing to correct if it’s happening frequently. But even properly adjusted equipment can goof if you’re pedaling too hard or too fast while shifting. The chain can skip off the inside ring or you can experience the opposite problem—it won’t move off the big ring at all. That happens when there is so much tension on the chain that the derailleur can’t pull it from the teeth. The solution is simple: Reduce pedal pressure a bit just as you make the shift.

SOLUTIONS

• Shift the chain back on. Gently! No matter what causes the chain to fall off, you may not have to stop and get your hands greasy putting it back on. While still rolling, turn the crank easily and shift the front derailleur in the appropriate direction. The chainring teeth should catch the chain and set it back in place. Stop pedaling instantly, though, if the chain tangles or binds. Any force at this point can damage the chain, the chainrings or the derailleur. If you have enough momentum, you can backpedal to free the chain and then try shifting it again.

• Set the chain back on. If nothing works, stop before you teeter over. You’ll have to re-rail the chain by hand. When it has fallen to the inside, sometimes you can do it by picking up the rear of the bike so that the chain drapes over the small ring. Then turn the crank by hand so it catches the teeth. Otherwise, look for a stick or piece of litter so you can pull the chain up and on without soiling your hands. Another trick is to use one of the tire levers you should be carrying in your seat bag.

35 Fast Descents

CHALLENGE! You’ve been looking forward to your cycling vacation in the mountains for months. Finally—the chance to fly down the road lots faster than on your local 30-mph descents. But on the first plunge, reality hits. The mountain roads are steep, twisting and hemmed in by towering cliffs on one side, sheer drop-offs on the other. Scary!

It’s perfectly normal to feel frightened on fast descents. After all, you can hit 50 mph while balanced on 2 wheels with only thin strips of rubber and some compressed air between you and a painful landing. It’s worse when the road looks like a snake. But safe, sane (and fun) descending is only a matter of learning a few skills.

SOLUTIONS

• Respect your limits. Never go faster than your comfort allows. Ignore others who may be zooming by. Riders get into trouble quickly when speed exceeds skills. If you feel like you’re going too fast, you probably are!

• Avoid extreme positions. You’ve probably seen video of the pros flying down European passes with their butt on the top tube, hands together next to the stem and nose nearly touching the front wheel. This posture may be aero but it’s also extremely unstable. You’ll go almost as fast (assuming you want to go fast) and be much steadier if you use a normal position. Here are the key ele- ments:

Safe descending (left). Deranged descending (above).

—Hold the crankarms horizontal —Scoot rearward and rise slightly so most weight is supported by feet and hands —Keep your thighs in contact with the saddle for support and stability

36 —Hold the handlebar curves so you have ready access to the brake levers —Keep your head up and strive to be balanced and relaxed

• Brake intermittently. Fearful descenders tend to keep the brakes on all the way down. This could actually cause a crash by overheating the rims and mak- ing a tube blow out. Instead, let the bike roll free on the straights and brake only as turns approach. This requires good timing but spares your equipment. The exception is an extremely steep and curvy section when you must keep speed down or risk overshooting a turn.

• Corner correctly. When coming to a turn, hold the outside pedal down (the right pedal for a left turn) and put most of your weight on it. Keep your butt back and stay low along the top tube. You’ll corner better with a relaxed upper body. Lean the bike into the corner by pulling slightly with the outside hand. Some rid- ers like to point their inside knee into the turn, while others press it against the top tube. Experiment to see which feels better to you.

• Anticipate consecutive corners. It isn’t the first corner that gets you, it’s the second or third. The faster you’re going, the more important it is to enter cor- ners wide, cut across the apex and exit wide. This makes each corner as shal- low as possible. The trick is to think ahead and immediately set up for the next corner as you emerge from the current one. Plan your line at least one corner in advance.

• Keep something in reserve. Assuming you’re not racing, don’t push your de- scending ability to the edge. Sure, you could lean way over and just barely make it around each corner, tires chattering on the very edge of the pavement. But why take chances? You want to have fun, not a coronary.

• Practice. You don’t need a steep, curvy descent to practice descending. Find a slanting parking lot and set up half a dozen paper cups in a slalom pattern. Ride through the course going downhill to work on the above techniques. Once a week will improve your skill and confidence.

Sharp Corners

CHALLENGE! A few years ago, my wife and I drove from Colorado to Ohio to visit relatives. I was lusting badly for a ride after 2 long days in the car. When I finally got on the bike, I felt like hammering. I chanced upon some curvy pavement and let it rip.

Big mistake. I underestimated the severity of the corners and overshot one especially tight bend, heading straight for the trees, poison ivy and a barbed wire fence. With my tires chattering in a full-fledged 2-wheel drift, I saved it just before catapulting over the rusty wire and into the itchy un-

37 dergrowth.

Sooner or later, you’ll probably make this mistake, too, and overcook a corner. What should you do if it feels like you won’t make it through?

SOLUTIONS

• Lean, lean, lean! Generally, it's better to increase your cornering angle even though you may lose traction and fall to the inside. Consider the options: Either slide down or ride off the outside of the road and hit things like guardrails, trees or big air (for a while). Assuming a motor vehicle doesn't stop you first. Of course, if the shoulder is smooth and carpeted in plush grass, running off the road makes good sense. But you'll rarely have time to check and decide. In most cases, the normal reaction—to stay upright for as long as possible—can lead to worse injuries. Lean!

• Stand hard. Give your tires the best chance of maintaining their grip by stand- ing heavily on your outside pedal. Virtually all of your weight should be on it. Press hard and push your bike into the turn. When you're doing it right, the ma- chinery will be angled more than your body.

• Brake, then don't. Take off as much speed as you can before the turn, then re- lease the levers. This is another technique that goes against instinct. But brak- ing in a turn makes a bike want to straighten, the opposite of what you need it to do. That said, you can usually feather the rear brake without dire conse- quences. It may slow you just enough to make it through. But be ready to let up if the wheel grabs, chatters and threatens your control.

Tip! Don't even think about using the front brake while turning. This goes for normal rid- ing, too, not just panic conditions. Front braking when the bike is leaning will point you anywhere but where you're aiming. It can even cause the front wheel to wash out abruptly—and down you go.

Panic Stops

CHALLENGE! You’re riding down the street when a giant SUV suddenly pulls out from a stop sign. The shocked driver sees you and slams on the brakes. Now the road is blocked. Swerving won’t help. What can you do to avoid running headlong into a sheet-metal wall?

38 Bike brakes are efficient. They work great for modulating speed before a corner or on a descent. They can stop you fast, too. But there’s a problem when that happens: The bike slows abruptly but your body keeps going. The rear wheel lightens and the front tire pushes into the road under the impetus of your shifting weight. This means the front brake is more effective than the rear, which can easily skid because there’s less weight on it.

With body low and weight way back, you can If you apply the front brake too brake hard in an emergency with much less risk hard, you could even tip over of tipping forward. the handlebar. That’s not a good thing in any circum- stances, and when you’re trying to avoid ramming an SUV it could make the outcome even more painful. You could be catapulted into it rather than plunk it while almost stopped. The trick to stopping quickly is making an effective weight shift while using the front and rear brake in concert.

SOLUTION

An ideal way to learn how to execute a panic stop is to practice on a smooth, level grassy field. Make sure it’s one where a few thin skid marks won’t get you in trouble. And be sure to wear your helmet and gloves.

1. Ride at about 10-12 mph and apply both brakes. Notice how rapidly you slow and stop. Repeat, increasing braking pressure each time until the tires skid. Apply the front brake harder than the rear, then do the opposite. You’re getting a feel for how your bike and body respond. You’ll notice that the harder you brake, the more pronounced the tendency of the bike to buck you off the front.

2. Riding at the same pace, apply only the rear brake. Squeeze the lever hard and notice how the rear wheel skids. Then apply only the front brake. Be careful. See the difference in stopping power. If you get good, you can make the rear wheel rise slightly off the ground and still maintain control while the front wheel skids (only when riding in a straight line, of course).

3. Now work on the key to safe, controlled panic stops: Getting low and bracing with your arms to keep your weight back. This counters the tendency of your mo- mentum to launch you over the bar as the bike slows abruptly. Increase speed and brake harder while at the same time straightening your arms to push your weight back and keep it there. Your hands should be in the hooks of the bar. Hold the crankarms horizontal so you can brace against the pedals. Work on this till you’re 39 able to slide so far back that your butt is behind the saddle. If you skid, this low, balanced position should allow you to control the bike and stay upright.

4. Graduate to pavement in an empty parking lot. Be careful—falling on asphalt hurts more than falling on grass. Don’t do so much skidding that you ruin your tires, but use the drills in steps 1 and 2 to get a feel for tire adhesion on the real thing. Concentrate on step 3 by sliding off the back of the saddle as you extend your arms and apply both brakes hard. Practice until this technique is ingrained. Then do it occasionally when stopping on a regular ride. No need to skid, but pretend that SUV is right there. This will keep your panic stop honed and ready for an emergency. Here’s hoping you’ll never have one!

Jumping the Bike

CHALLENGE! You’re riding on a narrow road close to the edge because traffic is picking up. As you round a curve, you hear a car approaching from the rear and see a gaping pothole directly ahead. You can’t miss it on the left because the car is almost alongside. You can’t go right be- cause the drop-off would catch your front wheel and cause a sure crash. Plowing into the pothole would pinch-flat your tires, maybe damage your rims and might put you in a heap. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place!

The way out of this dilemma is to hold your line and "bunny hop" over the pothole. This may sound like a circus trick that’s possible only if you’re a bike-handling wizard with daredevil tendencies. But it’s actually a relatively easy skill to learn. It’s a useful one, too. It can save your wheels (and even your skin) by letting you fly your bike over all kinds of potential problems.

SOLUTION

Ride to your favorite grassy practice field. Use an old bike if you have one because you might land clumsily at first. No use in risking wheel damage to your good bike if you can help it. Wear your helmet and gloves, and take something soft to use as an obstacle. A rolled towel works well. You don’t need anything bigger because several inches of eleva- tion will get you safely over most road hazards. Here’s the drill:

40 1. Ride toward the ob- stacle at about 10 mph. The faster you go, the tougher it is to get the timing right, but the eas- ier it is to get airborne and the farther you’ll fly.

2. As you approach the obstacle, stop pedaling with crankarms horizon- tal. Crouch with your el- bows and knees well bent and your butt slightly off the saddle. Be in a coiled, balanced position with your head up and weight on hands and feet. Have you played basketball? It’s the defensive stance. Tennis? Pretend you’re ready to receive a serve. Practice makes perfect: wheels at same height, Football? You’re a line- body relaxed and flexed to ensure a soft landing. backer, primed for any- thing once the play begins. Be like a cat about to pounce.

3. Timing is everything, and practice is what develops it. You need to judge the right distance from the obstacle, based on your speed and the height and distance you need to be in the air. Spring upward, taking the pedals with you. Simultane- ously pull up on the handlebar so the front wheel rises to the same height as the rear. Your brain must solve a number of calculus problems all at once, and this works best the less you think about the individual elements. Practice makes them automatic.

Perhaps the toughest part to master is pulling up equally with hands and feet. Pull too hard on the pedals and you’ll be airborne with the front wheel hanging down. You’ll be trying to land while doing a nose wheelie. That’s risky. But if you pull up too hard with your hands, the rear wheel will drag as you soar, touch down first and make your front wheel land with a thud. Again, not ideal for bike control.

Here’s a drill that will help: Ride along the grassy field at walking pace, coast for a second with pedals level, then hop both wheels a couple of inches off the ground simultaneously. Don’t try to jump anything. Land, keep rolling and do it again 15 meters later. Your wheels will let you know when they are hitting the ground in uni- son.

41 4. Land softly by using bent knees and elbows to absorb the shock. Strive for a feather-like touchdown that doesn’t shock your body or bang your wheels. Re- member, you’re a pouncing cat. Land as gently as a tabby jumping off a table.

5. When you’re smooth on a grassy field and confident in this newfound skill, move to an empty parking lot with your rolled towel. On pavement, you’ll be able to work on faster approaches and longer jumps.

When out on the road during normal riding, jump judiciously. No matter how smoothly you land, jumping still takes a toll on equipment. Some riders pop over railroad tracks or pot- holes just for the fun of being airborne. But jumping is a skill to use in specific circum- stances, not for cheap thrills.

Crossing Railroad Tracks

CHALLENGE! Smooth pavement, breezy tailwind, a beautiful spring day. You’re flying down the road and approach a railroad crossing. No train is visible, but a pair of shiny metal rails pose a risk nearly as nasty as a speeding Amtrak express.

Railroad tracks are hazardous because the rails may project a couple inches above the road surface. Or worse, they may be flanked by uneven and broken pavement that looks like the result of a WW II battle. Hitting the tracks (or the potholes) can cause a pinch flat or even a damaged rim. If the rails are wet, the slippery metal can make your tires slip from under you as surely as a patch of ice. And if the rails cross the road at an angle, the danger intensifies. They could catch your front wheel, turn it violently and cause a nasty crash.

SOLUTION

• Slow down. Coast with the crankarms horizontal. Stand so your weight is sup- ported on your hands and feet and you can get a good look at the condition of the tracks. Check their height and the adjacent pavement. Slow even more, if necessary—and it will be anytime the tracks are wet. Look both ways to be sure a train isn’t bearing down.

• Cross the rails at a right angle. If they run diagonally across the road, look back for traffic and adjust your approach and exit. Sometimes you may need to use the whole lane.

• Lighten up. Just before your front wheel reaches an upraised rail, lighten the bike by “unweighting” or rising slightly. Do it again as the wheel reaches the second rail (and third and fourth in the case of multiple tracks). Remember, keep your butt off the saddle so the rear wheel carries less weight. Don’t pop up and down like a kid on a pogo stick. Subtle unweighting works best.

42 Skilled bike handlers can leap a set of tracks in a single bound, but I don’t advise it. It takes considerable speed to succeed. If you misjudge the takeoff, the best you can hope for is a pinch flat as the rear wheel bangs into the second rail. The worst? Your imagina- tion can answer that.

Returning to the Pavement

CHALLENGE! You’re riding a road that has an abrupt drop-off between the pavement’s edge and an unpaved shoulder. The lip is 3 or 4 inches high. In a moment of inattention, you drift off the pavement and now you’re bucking along in the gravel. Your first instinct is to steer to the left and get back on the road surface, but you realize the lip is likely to catch your front wheel and take you down. What can you do except stop?

Road departments don’t do a very good job of smoothing road-edge transitions. (Road departments don’t do a very good job of making roads safe for cycling in many other ways, too, but don’t get me started.)

I still remember seeing Boulder racer Bob Ware get elbowed off the road in a Colorado event. He was suddenly riding in the gravel and losing ground fast. If he stopped to set his bike back on the road, he’d be dropped with little chance of catching up. Riding back up onto the road was iffy due to the pronounced lip. If he tried, he might crash and take down others as the pack streamed past. Here’s the technique Bob showed me that day.

SOLUTION

1. Ride parallel to the road’s edge. You need to be within 6 inches for this maneu- ver to work.

2. Coast with crankarms horizontal and your butt slightly off the saddle. Balance your weight between your hands and feet. Feel like a cat ready to spring.

3. Relax! Rigid arms and shoulders make this maneuver much more difficult. If you’re loose when the front wheel gets knocked slightly off-line, you’re much more likely to save it.

4. Crouch slightly. Then spring upward and to your left. The idea is to hop the bike not just up but also over to the road, avoiding the pavement’s dangerous lip.

5. Land with relaxed knees and elbows for a smooth touchdown. As soon as you do, continue pedaling normally—and start breathing again!

Even though you may have mastered previous techniques in this section and your jump- ing skills are good, don’t try this one the first time in combat conditions. Go back to your grassy field to work on the sideways aspect. Once you have it down, practice on pave-

43 ment by going to a parking lot and hopping across painted lines like they are the road edge. Get comfortable going from right to left, too. Hey, you never know!

Riding No-Hands

CHALLENGE! Remember when you were a kid and “Look Ma—no hands!” was a rite of passage as you learned to ride? But that was years ago, and for some reason it seemed a lot easier than on your lightweight road bike. Now when you try to ride no-hands, the bike wanders or veers. You need to quickly grab the handlebar to stop a crash.

Pros routinely ride no-hands as they change clothes and eat on the bike. And the best ones get to do it as they cross the finish line. Even though no-hands is a useful skill for recreational riders, too, many people feel intimidated by the idea of having both hands off the bar. I respect that and don’t want to talk you into something you feel is unsafe. But this is not a hard skill to learn and it can come in very handy. By riding no-hands, you can do things like opening food and removing arm warmers or a jacket without stopping.

SOLUTION

• Start by checking your bike. Sometimes it’s not poor technique that makes no-hands riding difficult, it’s poor equipment maintenance. Before you practice this skill, be sure your bike is in good repair. It's hard to ride no-hands if the headset is binding, the fork is out of alignment or the front wheel wobbles. These things make a bike track crookedly. Some people who can't seem to learn this skill become frustrated at their supposed clumsiness when it's the bike's fault.

• Practice. Use an empty parking lot or other place without traffic. (This is not a technique to learn on a grassy field because of the roughness and rolling resis- tance.) Pedal at a moderate pace, not too slow. It's easier to ride no-hands when you’re going at least 12-15 mph. Hold the bar top and sit square on the saddle. When you’re ready, push back evenly and sit up, letting your arms drop. Don’t lean tentatively forward with your hands hovering at the bar like you’re sleepwalking, ready to grab it at the slightest twitch. Your weight needs to be back and centered. Remember, even when you’re gripping the bar, steering is done with your hips and weight shifts. That’s really true now. Spin smoothly and move your hips slightly to affect the bike’s line. I’ll bet you quickly get the hang of it. Many no-hands riders can guide their bikes smoothly past obstacles and even around corners.

• Relax. As usual in bike handling, everything works better when your body is loose and fluid. Small faults get dissipated instead of amplified. Being tense makes a bike develop a mind of its own.

44 • Be careful on the road. Good riders can sit back and peel an energy bar, take off a jacket, remove arm warmers or clean their shades. Ultramarathon riders can eat a full meal handed to them from a support vehicle. But remember, riding no-hands is inherently dangerous. Your hands may be occupied and they’re a long way from the handlebar and brake levers. In a group, a mistake could crash others. No-hands is tricky in a strong crosswind, and really risky when it’s gusty. Wait till a turn puts the wind at your back. Pick your spots, which usually means a flat section without a bumpy surface.

Changing Clothes on the Roll

CHALLENGE! It’s a cool spring morning when you meet your clubmates for the weekend training ride. To ward off the chill, you start out wearing arm warmers and a vest. After 45 minutes, though, the day and the pace are heating up. You’d like to take off the extra clothing, but if you stop you’ll be dropped. You need to disrobe on the roll.

Riding no-hands (see previous challenge) is the skill you need to turn your bike into a changing room. Once you’re comfortable with both hands off the bar, it’s easy to alter your wardrobe in response to changing comfort conditions. When you’re good enough, any- thing is possible. I once had the opportunity to attend a pro team training camp. I watched in admiration (and with some trepidation, tucked in as I was in a double paceline) as riders peeled off not just arm warmers but leg warmers and shoe covers, too, and tossed them into the back seat of the follow car. That’s pro-level ability, but it’s relatively easy to shed upper-body garments.

SOLUTIONS

Arm warmers. It’s easy to lose one of these tubes of fabric when you stuff them into a jersey pocket. If one is left dangling, your riding activity and the wind can com- bine to dislodge it and let it flop onto the road. So here’s a neat trick I learned from ex-pro Ron Kiefel, a 7-time competitor in the Tour de Peel off the second arm France: warmer so it covers the first. You won't lose one— Sit up and grip the top of unless you lose both! the left arm warmer with your right hand. Peel it down inside out and off your left hand. Keep it in your right hand, then pull down the right warmer with your left hand. As the right warmer comes off your hand, let it slide over the left warmer. Bingo! Now one warmer is inside the other and it’s impossible to lose just one. And you won’t lose the pair if you fold it and stick it in the bottom of a jersey pocket

45 • Jacket or vest. Sit up and unzip the garment. Using both arms simultaneously, pull it back and down from your shoulders so it’s behind you. Pull out one arm, then bring the garment around to the front with the other. Fold or wad it tightly, and stuff it in the center jersey pocket so it’s balanced and out of your way.

Caution! There are 2 opportunities for disaster in this technique:

1. The “cowboy movie” predicament of having your hands “tied behind your back” for a moment. It could take sev- eral long seconds if you have difficulty getting a tight wrist opening over a gloved hand. You’re in danger if you need to brake or the front wheel hits something. Minimize the risk by wait- ing till you’re on a smooth, clear stretch of road with no intersections, traffic or dogs in a yard. And if a jacket’s wrist fit is tight, consider re- moving a glove before starting to re- move the jacket.

2. The risk of the garment dropping down behind you and catching in the Risky business—hand are tied rear wheel. Because the tire rotates behind back and jacket is toward the rear brake, fabric could get dangling near the wheel where it sucked in and cause the bike to slow could be pulled into the brake. abruptly, accompanied by the panic- inducing sound of nylon whistling over tire tread. The solution is to keep your hands relatively high when they are be- hind, and grab a bunch of the garment with the hand that will bring it around to the front. As always, practice is important. Devote some time to developing a quick, efficient technique that gets your hand back to the front quickly.

Eating on the Bike

CHALLENGE! I’ve mentioned the advantages of being able to eat and drink on the move. It’s essential on long rides and a great timesaver compared to stopping. But it’s harder to do than it looks. Energy bars are tough to peel when pedaling along. Reaching for food makes the bike waver, and you find yourself needing to look down each time you want to grab a bottle. Putting it back is even trickier.

For proper on-bike nutrition during rides lasting longer than a couple of hours, you need to be ingesting about 250-350 calories per hour. This is the equivalent of one typical energy bar and 1-2 bottles of sports drink. This means you’ll be reaching for another bite or swig

46 every 10-12 minutes. It pays to learn how to do it without fumbling or taking your eyes off the road. Practice all of the techniques in this section on a traffic-free road so you can fo- cus your attention.

Tip! Anytime you need to take a hand from the bar, maximize stability by moving the other hand to the bar top next to the stem. If you leave it out on the brake hood or drop, small movements are amplified in terms of their effect on steering.

SOLUTIONS

• Bottles. Most bikes have bottle-cage bosses on the down tube and seat tube. When riders carry just one bottle, they usually put it in the down-tube cage. So reaching to that lo- cation needs to become ingrained. It will with practice. For tall 28-ounce bottles, take hold with your thumb in the groove that separates the top section from the bottom. Small 22-ounce bottles don’t have this groove and they’re shorter, of course, so the reach is longer unless you grasp the top. Pull the bottle out and put it to the side of your mouth so it doesn’t block your forward vision.

Variation: Use a backhand grip. Turn your hand so the crotch of your thumb and index finger is down instead of up. As you bring the bottle up to your mouth, rotate your wrist so your palm is up. This puts the bottle at a convenient downward an- gle for a swig, as this photo shows ▼.

If you think about the path that your hand travels as you take out the bottle, it’s relatively easy to retrace it to replace the bottle without looking down. If necessary, use a finger or your thumb as a guide to feel for the side of the cage.

A seat-tube-mounted bottle can be easier to remove and replace because it’s a bit closer. Not many riders seem to use the seat-tube cage when carrying just one bottle, but those who do may be on to something. Grasp the bottle from the front with your palm facing it and the thumb on the side. Pull the bottle up and rotate your wrist so your palm is up. The bottle will be at the proper angle at your mouth. The one difficulty us- ing a seat-tube bottle is that you are reaching between your legs. This can ini- tially be a bit awkward while pedaling, but practice will quickly smooth your technique.

Want to switch bottles from one cage to the other? Let’s say your down-tube bottle is dry and you want to move the full seat-tube bottle to the down-tube cage. It’s easy to do this and keep one hand on the bar. Take the last swig from

47 the down-tube bottle and hold the nozzle in your teeth. Move the full bottle to the down-tube cage. Then take the empty from your mouth and stick it in the other cage.

• Food. Riding no-hands enables you to sit up, reach into a jersey pocket for food, open it and start eating. Once you're chewing, put one hand back on the bar for safety. If you don’t want to gobble the whole thing, reach back and store it in a pocket.

The biggest difficulty is the recalcitrant wrapper that protects some energy bars. A safecracker couldn’t get it open. If your preferred bar has this sort of wrapper, open it at home using a knife or scissors. This also gives you the option of peel- ing the wrapper using one hand and your teeth if no-hands riding is too risky for any reason.

Brushing Tires

CHALLENGE! You’re riding along a wide shoulder on perfect blacktop. The birds are chirping, the grass is green, your legs feel like they could rip the cogs off your cassette. Then your euphoria is shattered by the sound of crunching glass. You just rode over a big patch. Every paradise has a serpent lurking. Your tires didn’t go flat, but it’s likely some shards have stuck to their tread and will work their way through to the tubes as you roll along. What should you do?

Most flats are caused not by instant punctures but because something sharp gets picked up and pushed through the tread by subsequent wheel revolutions. So the trick is to occa- sionally brush each tire with your hand—and always after riding over glass. Do it, too, anytime you hear a tick that’s in synch with wheel revolutions.

Brushing tires was a common practice in the days when most good road bikes had tubular tires (sew-ups). These were such a pain to re- pair that riders developed the brushing habit as a way to limit punctures. Nowadays, flat fixing is much easier with clincher tires and their inde- pendent tubes. And tough tire casings, some containing a Kevlar belt under the tread, are more effective at warding off penetration. Still, brushing will make punctures even rarer.

SOLUTIONS

• Front tire. Hold the bar with one hand near the stem and reach forward with the other. If your bike has exposed cables (from bar-end or Shimano STI shifters) be careful not to catch them with

48 your hand. It could twist the handlebar and make the bike veer. Set the palm of your glove on top of the tire just ahead of the front brake. Some riders prefer to use their fingertips, which is safer than it sounds. It’s my technique and I’ve never been cut, but using a protected palm eliminates the danger completely. Whichever method you choose, don’t press down and risk a friction burn from the whirling tire.

• Rear tire. This is trickier because it’s tough to see what you’re doing and you shouldn’t take your eyes off the road, anyway. There are 2 methods:

1. Stop pedaling, hold the bar with one hand and reach down between your legs. Hook your thumb around the seat tube and slide you hand far enough to let the back of your fingers or glove contact the tread for several revolu- tions.

2. Keep pedaling and reach back around the outside of your leg. Find the seatstay (the thin frame tube coming up from the rear derailleur) and hook your thumb around it. Then slide your hand down to touch the tire lightly. Some riders use 2 extended fingers, others let their glove make the contact.

Caution! Disaster lurks when you stick your hand between the forward-rotating rear tire and the seat tube. The tire could pull your hand downward and wedge it against the tube, instantly braking the bike and causing as nasty a crash as you can imagine. To greatly re- duce the risk, hook your thumb on the seat tube or seatstay as just described. With ex- perience, you may be able to reach the tread with extended fingers, keeping your hand away from danger and eliminating the need to hook your thumb. But use the safer method when learning.

49 Looking Behind

CHALLENGE! The closest thing to a disastrous crash I ever witnessed took place at 8 mph on the 13-mile climb of Colorado’s Red Mountain Pass south of my home. Highway 550 is carved out of the cliffs and is famous for its sheer drops and frightening curves. There are few guard- rails because they make it difficult for plows to push snow over the edge.

I was climbing above Black Bear Falls where there’s a substantial cliff on the right side of the road. I began catching a rider and, as I approached, he sensed me and turned to look over his shoulder. That made his bike veer onto a foot-wide shoulder composed of down-sloping, loose gravel—and then a sheer, 300-foot drop.

The bike skidded. The front wheel actually dropped over the edge. The rider panicked and pulled his left foot out with a mighty lurch, just in time to stop his slide into the abyss. He ended up lying on the very edge of the road with his legs and most of his bike hanging in space.

The reason riders swerve when looking behind is that they keep both arms straight. As a result, turning their shoulders to glance back also turns the handlebar. This is dangerous when you’re riding next to a cliff but also when you’re in traffic or with other riders. Swerv- ing unexpectedly can thrust you out into a car’s path or take down your riding buddies.

SOLUTION

• Relax the arm opposite the shoulder you’re looking over. So to look over your left shoulder, relax the right arm and bend it slightly at the elbow. Your bike will track straight ahead.

• Slide to the opposite side of the saddle. To look over your left shoulder, slide your butt slightly right on the seat so you’re sitting on the inside of the left thigh.

Rough Pavement

CHALLENGE! I’ve never ridden the fabled cobblestone roads of north- ern France or , the ones that shake riders into insensibility in Paris-Roubaix. But on my local training roads we have the next best thing for masochistic riding—genuine western Colorado chip-and-seal. Re- cently, they’ve been using gravel so large that a visitor would call it rocks. Your county road crews may be doing the same thing, or your roads may simply be rough with cracks and patches. You need to learn how to ride gnarly surfaces without losing fillings or bruising your kidneys.

50 Some great pro road racers have never learned the trick of riding cobbles. They hate races like Paris-Roubaix. Others have the knack and revel in bouncing over the slippery stones. A combination of skills is required. Only a few pros excel. The same isn’t true of recreational riders, however, because we don’t have the competitive pressure to go as fast as possible. At a more sedate pace, anyone can learn to handle rough roads.

SOLUTIONS

• Reduce tire inflation. The firmer the tire, the harsher the ride. And the greater the risk of punctures from sharp gravel and other piercing road debris. Hard tires also corner badly on bumpy pavement because they chatter instead of ab- sorbing impacts. I weigh 160 pounds and normally run about 105 psi in the rear tire and 100 psi in the front. But when I’m riding extremely rough roads, I reduce pressure about 10 psi.

Caution! Don’t run tires so soft that you make them susceptible to pinch flats when you hit especially big chunks of rock or the edge of a pothole. This type of puncture happens when an impact causes the tube to be pinched between the tire and rim. Experiment to find the psi that works best on the worst surfaces you ride.

• Use a slightly higher gear. Shift up when you come to a rough section. That is, use the next smaller cassette cog. Doing so slows your cadence and puts more weight on the pedals, less on the saddle, to reduce bounce and chatter.

• Relax! Sit toward the rear of the saddle and hold the lever hoods or bar tops with a secure but relaxed grip. Let the front end "float" over the roughness and find its own line. Tense arms and a death grip are much more likely to make the front wheel veer on impacts. Loose arms encourage it to flow past them.

Traffic

CHALLENGE! Bikes must mix with motorized vehicles. And the reality is that traffic of all kinds is increasing. Recently a Belgian cycling official ex- pressed concern about whether road racing would survive the next 10 years in his country because of the increase in cars on what used to be lightly traveled farm roads. If this is a concern in cycling-mad Belgium, what chance do the rest of us have?

It’s possible to ride safely even in the presence of cars, SUVs and pickups. Check out the cyclists in midtown Manhattan. They ride in perhaps the most traffic-dense environment this side of Bangkok but still manage to survive. The trick is knowing how to ride in such a way that you co-exist with traffic.

This is a complicated subject and the literature contains a wide range of opinions. Some riders never venture into heavy traffic, choosing either to ride on bike paths or hang up

51 their wheels. Others get downright surly about their rights to the road, which can lead to driver confrontations, accidents and injury. No cyclist is a match for a 4,000-pound box of metal. Here, I’ll take a middle course.

SOLUTIONS

• Assert your rights. But do it with caution. As a cyclist, you have the same rights as a motorized road user, but you also have the same responsibilities. You must stop for red lights and signal for turns. Motorists are legally required to give you safe space. As the slogan says, “Same roads, same rules, same rights.”

• Claim your lawful space. The law requires a cyclist to ride as far to the right on the roadway as practicable. “Practicable” means as far right as is safe, not as far right as is possible. There’s a big difference. You’re allowed to move to the left to avoid road hazards.

On roads with a wide shoulder, ride about 2 feet to the right of the white line. This is assuming the shoulder isn’t strewn with broken glass or other dangerous junk. Look ahead to see if the shoulder narrows unexpectedly for bridge abut- ments or is blocked by parked cars. If so, ride as far to the left as you need to for safety. Do not dart in and out among intermittently parked cars. Hold a steady line to their left and the empty spaces. This prevents popping out in front of a driver who doesn’t expect it.

If the road doesn’t have a shoulder, ride in the traffic lane about a foot from the right edge. Give yourself some room to maneuver. If you’re fully at the edge, drivers will think they have room to pass without moving into the other lane. But if you take your legal space, they’ll have to slow and move left to pass. In other words, they'll have to share the road with you.

• Beware of doors opening. All is good so far. You’re claiming your legal space but not unnecessarily inhibiting traffic. You should, however, ride a bit farther to the left when passing parallel-parked cars. Drivers tend to swing open their doors after checking for traffic, not cyclists. If you hit a door, it might as well be a brick wall. Give yourself an extra 2 feet of maneuver room, and watch through windows for an occupied car. If you see someone in a left-side seat, anticipate the worst and slide farther to your left. A downward-extended left arm with palm facing rearward will alert drivers that something’s up. Similarly, keep your eyes peeled for pedestrians poised between parked cars. They’re looking for traffic, not bikes, and might step into your path.

• Beware of right-turning motorists. Perhaps the most important reason to claim your lane space is to diminish the risk that overtaking drivers will make a right turn across your path. If you are hugging the curb or parked cars, you lose presence—the only advantage you have in this situation. If you don’t make drivers deal with you, they are likely to act as if you aren’t there. They’ll pass closely and turn right so abruptly that you have to brake hard. If the car isn’t

52 quite past you when it begins to turn, the best tactic is to turn with it. That’s a dicey maneuver, especially if the driver cuts close to the curb. Riding out in the lane forces overtaking motorists to slow and wait until you are through the inter- section before they turn.

To make this situation worse, some states interpret the law in such a way that the cyclist is at fault when hit by a right-turning driver. The cyclist can be charged with “passing on the right.” A famous and contentious case of this na- ture took place in Colorado a few years ago after a fatal car/bike accident. It’s unfair—the law requires cyclists to ride as far to the right as practicable but doesn’t protect us when we do. So take your fair share of the lane and make drivers wait until they can turn right without putting you at risk.

• Take nothing for granted at intersections. When you approach an intersec- tion with the intention of proceeding straight ahead, and you have the right of way, look carefully to the left and right. There’s no guarantee that drivers will obey a stop sign or traffic signal. Heed the advice of my old linebacker coach and “keep your head on a swivel.” Watch for pedestrians, too.

When you see a driver stopped at a cross street, try to make eye contact. This can be difficult when the car or truck has tinted windows but it’s always worth a try. It’s not foolproof, though—several times a driver has looked right at me and then pulled out seemingly oblivious to my presence. You never know.

Tip! When you’re moving it can be hard to tell if a vehicle is inching forward from a cross street and about to pull out. Your perspective is constantly chang- ing. So look at the vehicle’s front wheel. It’s the surest way to spot motion.

• Signal turns and stops. When turning, follow the same laws that govern motor vehicles. Position yourself in the correct lane well in advance of the turn, signal your intention and take a predictable line through the corner. Ride at a reason- able speed. Leave plenty of margin for pedestrians, slippery crosswalks and parked cars that pull away from the curb without warning. Remember, an acci- dent in traffic is usually much worse than a fall on a rural road. You may hit a car or even get run over by one that can’t stop in time.

Signal that you’re slowing or stopping by holding your left hand down with palm facing rearward. This simple gesture often works like magic to hold traffic back—very useful when it feels like a driver is about to squeeze past and force you too close to the curb or parked cars. Signal a left turn with left arm straight out to the side. A right turn can be signaled by holding the left arm out with the elbow bent up at 90 degrees, or with the right arm straight out to the side.

• Obey laws to earn respect. You’ll be safer in traffic if you go about your busi- ness in a responsible way. Very few riders can be pro racers but we can all look and behave in a professional manner. Motorists are much more likely to treat you with respect if you demand it with a mature demeanor and law-abiding ac- tions. On the other hand, when you ride erratically and roll through stop signs,

53 drivers can’t be blamed for showing disdain. Aid your cause by wearing a bright, visible jersey and your helmet, which indicates that you’re a serious cyclist and concerned about safety.

Survival in traffic boils down to riding predictably and in such a way that you confidently and competently assert your legal right to be on the road.

• Don’t accept harassment. What if you’re hassled or threatened by a motorist? Unfortunately, this can happen even when you are doing everything right. Every experienced cyclist can tell you about flying beer cans, intentionally close passes and verbal abuse. The best reaction is to bite your tongue, show no re- action and ride on. If the driver sees no reaction, the episode will be over. If you react with gestures and shouts, he may slam on the brakes and ruin your whole day. You actually win by ignoring these people.

However, if harassment is serious or repeated, report the vehicle description and license number to police. They may refuse to take action unless they wit- ness the event or there has been physical contact, but who knows? Maybe the driver has threatened other cyclists and your report will be the one that results in arrest. It never hurts to file a report and have it on record.

CHAPTER 3

Clothing and Equipment

wo kinds of problems can plague even the best ride—or stop it entirely. The first T showstopper is an apparel glitch. Ride with a wrinkle in your shorts or shoes that pinch your feet and you’ll quickly be miserable. The second disaster is a mechanical breakdown far from home. Flat tires, broken spokes or snapped cables, when combined with the wrong tools (or no tools) in your seat bag, mean trouble.

Fortunately it’s easy to forestall clothing issues and learn a few simple mechanical tricks to get you home again. I won’t attempt to cover major mechanical issues in depth in this chapter. There’s no need to become a master mechanic in order to ride with confidence. I will, however, address common problems you might face and describe some simple remedies.

I’ll change the format for this chapter and list clothing and equipment concerns as ques- tions and answers. I hope this approach will help you keep the advice firmly in mind.

54 ► Do bib shorts have clear advantages?

Yes, shorts with a suspenders-like top have several important benefits compared to regu- lar shorts:

• Bibs hold your chamois where it does the most good. For saddle sore prevention, shorts need to fit snug with the chamois tight against your crotch. If they're too loose, allowing the chamois to move, you'll get abrasions and sores in the same way that an overly large hiking can cause blisters. The chamois material also might wrinkle, causing irrita- tion. Bibs help keep the crotch area snug.

• Bibs keep your shorts up. Regular shorts can ex- pose your lower back. Even those with a drawstring and elastic waistband can work down during a ride or be pulled down when you're in a low aero position. Worst-case scenario—you treat your riding compan- ions to a full-fledged plumber’s crack. At least they won’t draft you anymore. No hitching is needed with bib shorts.

• Bibs are more comfortable around the stomach. Courtesy of There is no waistband that can feel like a tourniquet, PerformanceBike,com getting tighter the lower you bend.

• Bibs look better off the bike. With bibs, the seat of your shorts won't bag when you're walking around. Shorts are cut so you'll be comfortable in the bent- forward riding position. Stand up straight off the bike and the seat will make it look like you need your diaper changed. Bibs take up the slack and keep your butt's profile sleek.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Bibs have some disadvantages too:

• They can be hotter in hot weather because they cover much of the upper body.

• Some riders' skin is irritated by the bib straps.

• On some models, the bib top may be too short. Tall rider or those with long up- per bodies may find them too confining.

• And a supremely practical issue: It's difficult to take what race commentator Phil Liggett calls "a natural break" with bibs. To urinate, a guy has to go through a leg or contort to pull the front down far enough. Women need to take off their jerseys to get the bibs down.

55 When are bibs not needed? I'd say the only time they're completely useless is under a pair of that have their own suspenders or bib straps. Because the tights are held up, they also hold up shorts worn underneath them.

► How can tight shoes be made to fit?

When you buy new shoes, get them wide enough so feet don't feel cramped. Some stylish cycling shoes are made on European lasts that tend to be narrow for American feet.

You may have to try on several brands. I wear size 45 and have a fairly wide forefoot and medium-narrow heel. I've had good luck with Specialized's Body Geometry road shoes. They are wide enough in the toe box for me—but they may not work as well for you. If you want new shoes, go to a well-stocked shop and try on several different brands while wear- ing your cycling socks. This is the only way to find shoes that fit. It's why it's risky to buy shoes from a mailorder company (unless you're replacing an old pair with the same model and size.).

But let's say you blew it and find that your nice new expensive shoes are too tight. In the old days when shoes had leather uppers, you could take them to the local shoe repair shop for stretching or soak them before going for a ride to help them form to your feet. But contemporary shoes have uppers made primarily from synthetic materials that don’t stretch. The initial fit isn't going to loosen much simply by wearing them.

The first thing to do is either remove the insole entirely or replace it with a thinner model. This often makes a considerable difference. Not enough? Switch to thinner socks.

If necessary, you can modify shoes to provide more “wiggle room.” One fix is to cut a hole so your big toe has more space. This isn't very cosmetic, but it often works well. It's a trick used by long-distance riders to take the pressure off swelling feet.

► Can I wear mountain bike shoes on the road?

Walkability is the big advantage of mountain bike shoes. Their soles recess the cleat so you won’t do an embarrassing slide along the convenience store floor. On tours where you'll often be walking, you won’t destroy the cleats as you would on road shoes where they're mounted on the soles' surface.

Many contemporary mountain bike shoes designed for off-road racing are nearly as light and stylish as road shoes. But they typically don’t have a sole as stiff. This makes walking easier, but the flexible sole might cause pressure pain in your forefoot from the pedal pushing up.

Another disadvantage of off-road shoes is cleat and pedal choice. You’ll have to use a mountain bike system. I use Shimano SPD pedals and cleats when I wear mountain bike

56 shoes on the road, in contrast to Shimano or Look road systems. Switching back and forth isn’t a problem as long as cleat posi- tion and saddle height are the same.

Which system should you choose? For rac- ing, training, fast group rides or even casual cruises where you don’t expect to walk much, choose a road system. For touring, commuting or events such as century rides Recessed cleats make walking easy when you expect to stop at aid stations and for roadies as well as mountain bikers. hang out, a walkable mountain bike shoe/pedal combination makes sense.

► Why are floating pedals hurting my knees?

"Float” means that feet can rotate slightly on the pedals so each one can find its natural angle. One foot or both may be in line with the bike, pointed inward (pigeon-toed) to out- ward like a duck. And with floating pedals, your feet can pivot slightly during the pedal stroke to eliminate the potential of strain against a fixed position.

Look's red cleats allow feet to pivot on the pedals about 6 degrees before releasing. (Look's black cleats do not allow float.) Other brands, especially some Speedplay models, allow a much larger amount of rotation.

If you switch to a system with lots of float after your knees have been accustomed to a rigid system, you might feel the effects of ligaments working to stabilize your feet. This can happen to any rider whose knees try to resist movement. But assuming your saddle height is correct—switching pedal systems can throw it off—chances are good that the tenderness will disappear as you continue to log miles. Until your knees adapt, steer clear of long or hard rides.

If you’ve chosen a pedal system that allows more than about 6 or 8 degrees of float, you may never get rid of pain behind the knees. The ligaments just won’t adjust to the work of stabilizing the foot. The solution is to get a pedal system with less float.

► How can I carry gear on a bike with no rack eyelets?

There’s increasing interest in doing so-called "credit card tours" for training and fun. Rid- ers use their good lightweight bike rather than a dedicated touring bike and travel as un- burdened as possible.

57 Two-time Race Across America winner Lon Haldeman used to train by riding 150-200 miles on Saturday, staying in a motel and riding home the next day by a different route. He carried everything he needed in a seat bag—but Lon is the master of traveling light. For instance, he wouldn't take rain gear. If the skies opened, he'd stop at a convenience store and ask for a garbage bag. After poking holes for his head and arms, he'd ride on.

A traditional British saddle bag doesn't need Depending on how much gear frame attachments to provide a ton of capacity. you want to carry, you can of- ten get by with a large expand- able seat bag and a back-mounted . I have a Blackburn seat bag that at- taches low on the seatpost, straps to the saddle rails and extends about 4 inches to the rear. It holds plenty and doesn't wobble. Any medium-size hydration pack has room for the reservoir as well as toiletries, camera and a jacket strapped on the outside. With a carefully chosen load, you're set.

If you want to take more without adding a rack to your bike, one answer is an English tour- ing-style transverse saddle bag. Carradice makes them but they're not readily available in the U.S. Try Rivendell (www.rivendellbicycles.com) and while there check its own line of saddle .

English-style saddle bags mount most easily on saddles with loops on the rear, a design that isn't made now except by Brooks—the B.17 model has them and is available from Rivendell. You can attach these bags to the saddle rails but swaying is more noticeable.

Some riders like to use a supported by a rear rack that clamps on the seatpost. These work fine for loads up to 20-25 pounds, though they may sway or bob when loaded near max. Clamping them to carbon seatposts isn’t recommended.

Another option is the Nitto Mini rack sold by Rivendell. It sits on the bike like a standard rear rack but doesn't need rack braze-ons or dropout eyelets. Instead it uses seatstay clamps lined with rubber to protect the bike's finish. The rack is adjustable to fit almost any frame, but the stock clamps won't accommodate bikes with large-diameter seatstays. You could probably create clamps that would work by using ingenuity and items from a hard- ware store.

58 ► What should I look for during a test ride?

You’re finally taking the plunge and buying that dream bike. Great! But after test riding several models you can’t decide which one to buy. You're nervous about making a big fi- nancial investment on the basis of a short spin around the parking lot.

When taking a test ride, you have so many things to think about that getting an accurate feel for a bike is difficult. Let's see how to do a more-through, confidence-building job. First, take the measurements of your old bike (assuming it fits you) so you can duplicate your position—seat height, handlebar height, reach to the bar and saddle setback. This way you won't feel awkward on the new bike and you can get a much better sense of how it actually rides. A good shop will swap stems so you can change the reach, but once the steerer tube is cut it's hard to alter handlebar height too much.

Now for the ride characteristics. Many terms used in bike testing are subjective. It’s frus- trating, but there are so many variables in the way a bike feels that subjectivity is part of the process. Let’s begin by defining 2 important terms, stiffness and stability.

The best way to test a frame for stiffness is by putting it in a fairly large gear—about 53x19—and sprinting at 90% effort from a slow speed. This will reveal a lack of stiffness in the bottom bracket. The bike will feel squishy and the chain may rub on the front derail- leur cage as the bottom bracket area deforms. Some riders don't mind this degree of soft- ness in a frame but others can't stand it.

As for stability, that's an issue on fast descents. It probably won't be possible to test ride a bike on a descent where you can go 40-45 mph to see if the bike shimmies. But even in a parking lot you can ride no-hands to determine if the bike tracks well, and you can cor- ner fairly fast to see if the bike lays over predictably.

Try to get out of the parking lot onto streets and roads so riding is more like normal. Then think about these additional points:

• Is your position right? Do you feel too cramped or stretched? How is the han- dlebar width and shape?

• Are the contact points comfortable? How's the saddle? Is the bar tape too soft or too hard? Is it easy to get into and out of the pedals?

• How does the bike handle? Do some cornering to get a subjective feel for its quickness and stability. Check its response to accelerations.

• How about shock absorption? Ride over patches and broken pavement to see much roughness is absorbed before it reaches you.

• Finally, what's your overall feeling of the bike? Color, style, components and accessories are all important, but not more than this tremendously important subjective judgment: How good does the bike feel?

59 If after all this you're still torn between 2 bikes from different shops, buy from the one that treats you better and has the superior reputation for service after the sale. A friendly, sup- portive staff will make all your future visits more enjoyable.

► What heart monitor is best?

As paging through a cycling mailorder catalog will show, there are lots of heart monitors available. They’ve come a long way in the last 20 years. Early models were unreliable and the chest straps had electrodes that had to be replaced after each use. They even had a wire running from the chest strap to the handlebar display.

Now you simply wet the strap’s contact area for better conductivity before you put it on. Or you can use a product made for this purpose. Two are called Buh-bump and Performance Axiom HSE. Check at your bike shop or in catalogs.

Even after doctoring the strap, it's possible to get incorrect readings (or no readings at all) when riding near high-voltage lines or other sources of electrical interference. I've seen monitors simply stop working for a few seconds at a certain place along the road, even when there didn't seem to be anything to cause it.

The question is whether to get a basic unit or one with more bells and whistles. I prefer a monitor that tells heart rate and allows me to program a beeper to signal when I'm over or under my target range for the ride. When I monitor my heart rate, that's all I'm interested in. Additional features just clutter up the experience for me. But some riders like as much information as possible, and for them a more complex (and expensive) unit works better.

► How can I fix breakdowns if I don’t have tools?

Endurance cycling legend Lon Haldeman’s riding expertise extends back to the 1970s and in that time he’s logged hundreds of thousands of miles, some of them in the wilds of Peru. But Lon never worries about equipment breakdown. Part of the reason is that he uses simple and reliable equipment. He often rides a single-speed Rivendell so there isn’t much to go wrong.

But Lon is also the master of improvisation. Once at his annual PAC Tour spring training camps in Arizona, Lon claimed that he could fix any bike problem with materials found along the roadside within 400 yards in either direction. The next day he walked half a mile of Arizona highway with a big black and collected repair materials. Then he showed us his treasure-trove.

I’ve used Lon’s trash techniques more than once since that day, most recently while writ- ing this chapter. I took a break from the keyboard to ride Cerro Summit, a 4-mile climb east of town. I was testing wheels with a fancy cassette hub. On the descent as I was pedaling the 53x12, the freewheel suddenly let go. I spun a couple of very quick strokes against no resistance, barely avoiding a flight over the handlebar. In the process of right-

60 ing the bike I tried to coast and the freewheel seized up. The chain flew off the chainrings and tangled in the rear derailleur. I had to struggle all over again to control the bike.

So there I was, partway down Cerro with a bike that I couldn't pedal. It wouldn't coast, ei- ther. I solved the problem in the best "organic mechanic" tradition by finding a piece of baling twine by the roadside and threading it through the biggest cassette cog and around the spokes to create a fixed gear. Then I gingerly rode it back to town, trying to remember that I couldn't coast.

What did Lon find by the side of that Arizona highway? Here’s a list—and how to use such items for emergency repairs.

• Motor oil bottles. Need some chain lube? There’s always a little oil left in the bottom of discarded . Some brands are packaged in white or yellow plastic bottles to make spotting them easier. If you’re caught in a hard rain that washes away your chain lube, this trick can save you miles of riding with a squeaky, inefficient chain. It'll also stop a chirping shoe cleat.

• Wrenches, knives and screwdrivers. Perfectly good tools bounce out of pick- ups all the time so it’s not unusual to find 1 or 2 in a short distance. They may not be exactly what you need but it’s always worth a walk. I once found a whole socket set, sprayed down the road over several hundred feet.

• Soda cans. If your seatpost is slipping or your handlebar is rotating down, cut a shim from an aluminum can to shore up the loose part.

• String. If you’ve blown a hole in a tube so big that a patch won’t cover it, you can tie off the damaged section with string and put it back in the tire. But no matter how tightly you tie the string, tourniquet fashion, some air will leak. You may have to stop and use your pump a time or 2 to keep the tire firm enough to get you home.

• Wire. Use it to secure a rattling fender or anything else that has worked loose. Wire would have been ideal to repair my blown cassette hub but I couldn’t find any heavy enough.

• Grass and weeds. If you’ve flatted and have no spare tubes or patch kit (or your pump is broken), stuff the tire tightly with grass and other roadside vegeta- tion. The biomass will provide enough thickness in the tire to save your rim as you ride slowly home. Crumpled paper can work, too.

• Sticks. If you can find one that's the right diameter (or have a knife for whit- tling), a stick can be used to rejoin a broken handlebar. But be extremely careful while riding because the stick could break. For a broken rear gear cable, a twig can be used to jam the rear derailleur into a position under a middle cog, saving you a slog home in the smallest and hardest-to-pedal cog.

61 • Garbage bags. Poke holes for your head and arms and you've got an emer- gency rain poncho.

• Piece of glass. Cyclists normally hate broken glass. But a suitably sized piece with sharp edges makes a useful knife.

• Plastic wrap or foil. These materials can be used as a boot to line the inside of a tire that's suffered a large gash. Without something tough to cover the hole, the new tube will push through and blow out.

Cyclists can find a tremendous amount of useful junk alongside America’s highways. That’s a sad commentary on the lack of respect some people have for our scenic land- scape. But if you’re stuck with a major mechanical, you can probably uncover the cure in the roadside weeds. After you’ve made it safely home, vow to return with a couple of gar- bage bags and clean up half a mile of the road in gratitude.

► What’s the right way to fix a flat?

No cyclist should ever leave the safety of home without knowing how to replace a punc- tured inner tube. But we’ve all ridden with people who, although they know how to fix a flat, take an incredible amount of time to do it. Some riders, on the other hand, have a rou- tine that gets them rolling again in less than 5 minutes. Let's see how to be more like them.

But first, it's better not to flat at all. Check your tires often for wear and embedded glass, gravel or metal that might work through the tread and cause a puncture. Never continue to ride a tire that’s worn so thin that its puncture resistance is reduced. This is especially true of the front tire. If it blows out or goes flat quickly, it can be hard to maintain steering con- trol.

Also be sure your seat bag is stocked with 2 tubes, 2 or 3 tire levers and a patch kit. Put the tubes in separate heavy-duty zip-lock plastic bags with some talcum powder. This way they're much less likely to suffer damage from rubbing against tools or each other in the seat bag. The powder reduces friction during storage and it makes tubes easier to install. They won't stick to the inside of the tire, either.

Do you have the right size tubes for your tires? I’ve seen riders flat on their 700C tires and pull a 26-inch mountain bike tube out of their seat bag. If you have fancy wheels with deep aero rims, be sure your tubes have extra-long valve stems or valve-stem extenders.

Check in advance that your tires can be removed from the rim without undue effort. Some tire/rim combinations have a much tighter fit than others. If you can’t get the tire off the rim easily at home, it’ll be much harder in a rainstorm by the side of the road. If your tires fit too tightly, look for a model with a bit more slack in the bead. You can get recommenda- tions at your local shop or from other riders. Sometimes tires are hard to mount the first time but stretch slightly and become easier.

62 Okay, you flatted. What's the efficient way to make the repair? These steps will help you replace a tube quickly and not make mistakes that might soon result in another flat.

1. Ride safely off the road. You can’t pick where you’re going to get a puncture, but if you aren’t losing air too fast keep riding until you reach a grassy shoulder or sidewalk. Don’t do the repair job on a paved shoulder—it’s too dangerous. Ideally the location will provide a way to hang the bike, perhaps on a fence or a low branch.

2. Remove the wheel. If it's a rear flat, shift to the smallest cog before you stop pedaling. This makes it easier to remove the wheel because the derailleur is out of the way. Hang the bike by the nose of the saddle or have a friend hold it. Open the hub's quick-release lever and pull the derailleur back with your right hand. Then grab the wheel with your left hand and push it forward and out, hit- ting it with your palm if necessary.

3. Get out your supplies. Open the seat bag and set out the spare tube and lev- ers. Pull your pump off the frame or the CO2 inflator from your pocket or bag.

4. Find the culprit. Don’t simply take out the punctured tube and stick in a new one. If a thorn, piece of glass or radial tire wire caused the original flat, it's probably still embedded in the tire, ready to cause another flat as soon as you begin riding. To find it, take the tire off the rim and gingerly run your fingers in- side the casing around the diameter of the tire. Keep track by starting and end- ing at the tire label. You'll feel something sharp if it's still there. If you're worried about getting pricked, you can use a wadded up cycling glove. Wipe it in both directions to see if it snags. If you find something, use your fingernail, knife or tip of a small screwdriver to get it out—completely.

5. Install the tire. Put one side of the tire on the rim. Put just enough air in the new tube to make it round. Put the valve stem through the valve hole (but don't pull it down yet) and tuck the tube into the tire all the way around, making sure there are no folds.

6. Have a seat. Leverage is better when you're sitting. Hold the wheel on your lap, valve near your waist. Begin to seat the second side of the tire at the point on the rim farthest from the valve. This guarantees that you won’t pinch the last bit of tube because the valve helps hold it in the rim bed.

7. Complete the installation. If you're having trouble getting the last several inches of tire on the rim, release some air. Then start at the opposite side if the wheel and pinch the tire so its edges go to the deep center of the rim. This should give you the slack needed to pop the stubborn section up and over. Once it's on, push the valve stem up so its base is inside the tire, then pull it down. Finish by going around the wheel one last time to pinch the tire away from the rim so you can see if the tube is still under an edge. Lift and wiggle the tire to get the tube inside.

63 8. Inflate to half pressure, check, then finish. When you reach 50 psi or so, check to see if the tire is seated properly. A bulge at the rim tells you the tube is underneath an edge. If all looks right, finish pumping to an inflation suitable for riding. About 95-100 psi in front and 100-105 psi in back should give you the best ride and handling. However, if you have a weak pump or mini pump, con- sider stopping at around 85 psi. That's enough to ride home without risk of a pinch flat. Then use your floor pump to top off the pressure.

Tip! If you use a hand pump to fill the tire, here's how to make sure you don't accidentally bend or break the valve stem while you're stroking away: Hold the wheel in one hand, valve and pump at the top, so the wheel dangles freely. Then inflate, using the other hand to pump. Letting the wheel hang like this as- sures that there won't be undue strain on the valve stem as you pump.

9. Pack up. Gather your tools and put them in the seat bag. Don’t leave a spent CO2 cartridge or punctured tube in your wake. Stick these things in your seat bag or jersey pocket and dispose of them properly, or patch the tube to use again.

10. Install the wheel. Remember, a rear wheel goes back in with the chain on the smallest cog. After installing the wheel, hold up the bike, shift the lever and then spin the crank until the chain climbs up to a larger cog (lower gear) so you can get going again.

11. Say your prayers. As you ride down the road, try a cyclist’s version of Pas- cal’s wager: Say a short prayer to the puncture gods even if you don’t believe they exist. If they’re lurking in the roadside ditches waiting to place, by miracu- lous agency, a thorn or tack under your tires, the prayer guarantees that you’re covered. If not, your supplication didn’t do any harm.

► How can pinch flats be prevented?

Pinch flats are caused when you ride into something that causes a sharp impact—a rock, railroad track or edge of a pothole are prime culprits. The impact compresses the tire so much that the tube is pinched between it and edges of the rim. This causes 2 small holes about half an inch apart on the rim side of the tube. They look like fang marks, so that's why pinch flats are also known as snakebite flats.

Most pinch flats are caused by a combination of 3 factors: not enough inflation pressure, tires that are too narrow and/or poor riding technique.

The first line of defense is inflating tires to the “sweet spot”—hard enough to avoid pinch flats but not so hard that ride comfort and handling are compromised. As a tire gets harder, it becomes more unyielding when it hits the small bumps that are part of any road surface. The result is a tire that's skittish and prone to chattering in turns. Some authori- ties speculate that this slows you down because the tire is, in effect, bouncing off each

64 bump in the road and momentarily reducing your forward momentum. I'm not qualified to judge if that's correct but I like the feel of some "give" in my tires.

Generally, riders up to 190 pounds on smooth roads can safely and comfortably run 100- 105 psi in the rear tire and about 95-100 psi in the front. Experiment to find the pressure that works best for you.

Wider tires help protect against pinch flats because they contain more protective air vol- ume. Consider using 700x25C or even 700x28C tires if pinch flatting is a problem. If your fork doesn't have enough clearance for wider tires, run the widest size you can on the rear and use a narrower size up front.

As for technique, pay attention to the road surface. When you spot a potential tire biter that you're not going to be able to miss, slow down and think "light." Bend your elbows and knees, level the pedals, raise your butt off the saddle and let the bike float over the hazard. Riding with the right tire width and air pressure will save you most of the time when you hit something unexpectedly.

► I broke my chain while riding. Now what?

A broken chain is unusual on the road. It happens more frequently during on technical terrain because there’s more temptation to force shifts while stomping on the pedals. Still, road chains can break, most often due to poor shifting technique or improper assembly. Be especially careful when joining chains with a master link. Make sure the pins and plates are fully engaged.

With the advent of 9- and 10-speed cassettes, chains have gotten narrower and some would say more fragile. They’re also more complicated. Some models need to be assem- bled with special tools and links or pins.

Particularly on a tour that'll take you into remote areas, it's smart to pack the tool your chain requires as well as special pins that might be necessary. Some mini-tools include a chain tool that weighs little, but you need to be certain it will work on your chain.

If you’re unsure of how well you made the repair, spin lightly home or to the nearest bike shop. Don’t put sudden stresses on the chain. Having a chain break while you’re hammer- ing out of the saddle is an almost guaranteed trip to the pavement.

No chain tool? Back in the days of 7-speed freewheels and wide, sturdy chains, I once re- paired a broken mountain bike chain with a rock and a nail I found by the side of the trail. I used the nail like a punch to hammer out the chain’s pin and then did the same to reas- semble. I don’t recommend this repair with modern chains!

65 ► Is there a remedy for smelly synthetic clothing?

Synthetic fibers are a great advance in cycling clothing. They pull moisture away from the skin, they dry quickly after washing and some types keep you relatively warm when they’re wet. Plus it’s easy to print words on them so you can ride around looking like a billboard.

But nearly all synthetics have one giant drawback—they retain odors. Once you’ve worn a jersey, no amount of washing can remove the stench. Oh, it’ll smell okay when you put it on fresh from the drying rack, but after 5 minutes of sweating the evil smell returns with a vengeance.

Generally, the higher-quality the fabric, the more completely washing eliminates the smell. This is mainly because you can wash high-end garments in hotter water. Another trick is to wear a wool base layer. Wool can be worn several times without washing before it be- gins to smell. Modern wool athletic clothing doesn't itch, doesn't shrink, comes in various weights and keeps most of your sweat from reaching your jersey.

► What's the right handlebar width?

The standard fitting advice is to get a handlebar as wide as the measurement between your AC joints. Those are the bumps atop your shoulders where the collarbone attaches just inboard of your deltoid muscle.

But many riders prefer a handlebar slightly wider than their shoulders. A wide bar opens the chest. Some people say they breathe better because of it. A wide bar also provides more leverage for steering. It can make a twitchy bike more stable and makes a loaded bike or tandem easier to control.

The aero advantage of a handlebar that's a couple of centimeters narrower seems negli- gible to me, especially on recreational rides when you're up on the brake lever hoods most of the time. The upper body creates a lot more wind resistance than arms do.

I remember a comment from a few years back. He said his switch from a 42-cm bar to a 44-cm was like going from night to day. He loved the way the wider bar felt to his body and his bike handling.

► How should I fly with my bike?

You’re flying to an event and need to take your bike. The bike shop is willing to give you a cardboard bike box that new bikes arrive in. But it looks pretty flimsy and I agree—I don’t recommend a cardboard box. You can pad the bike well and maybe get away with it, but handlers aren't noted for their concern regarding bicycles. The $75 (one way)

66 The Ritchey Breakaway has full-size 700C wheels but fits in a travel case just small enough to avoid the stiff fees that airlines charge for bikes as baggage.

that most airlines charge for accepting bikes as baggage won't buy you any special care.

If you don't want to buy a bike-specific case ($200 and up), ask your local bike shops about renting one. Or, check with your area bike club for riders who may have a case they'd be willing to rent. If you expect to travel occasionally with your bike, the protection and convenience of owning a hardshell case is worth the money.

Compared to the airlines' outrageous charge, it can be cheaper to send your bike ahead via UPS or another shipping company. However, you still need to pack it as well as when checking it onto a plane. Shipping companies aren't any better than airlines in terms of treat- ing a bike with care, at least in my experience. You can buy insurance, but it won't do you much good if your bike is unridable for the event.

Perhaps the best solution is a travel bike if you find yourself flying for cycling several times a year. There are 2 main types. One looks like a normal bike but has couplings to A Bike Friday with 20-inch wheels is allow the frame to be taken apart. The other another effective option, packing has small wheels and a frame that folds. Each into a Pullman-size . type lets you pack the bike in a large suitcase that can be checked as normal baggage. It

67 doesn't take too many $150 roundtrip savings before a travel bike pays for itself.

I own both types—a Bike Friday Pocket Rocket folding bike with 20-inch wheels and a Ritchey Breakaway with regular 700C wheels. I like the latter because of its standard con- figuration, but I've also ridden thousands of miles on my Pocket Rocket and never felt at a disadvantage. It rides just as well as a conventional bike. You can't go wrong with either choice.

► Where can I carry a frame pump?

Most roadies don’t use frame pumps anymore. They opt for mini pumps held in a bracket under the down tube water bottle cage, even smaller pumps that fit in a jersey pocket or a CO2 inflator. These choices are lighter and less conspicuous.

When bikes had only one bottle cage, riders carried the stan- dard Silca Impero pump vertically along the front of the seat tube. But as we all began to understand the importance of hy- dration, frame designers added a bottle cage on the seat tube, making that location impractical for a pump. That left only the top tube free, but not all frame makers put a peg on the back of the head tube to hold a pump there. Another drawback: It's easy to knock off an under-top-tube pump by brushing it with an arm or leg.

Solution? Mount the pump along the front of the left seatstay. That’s how I carry a Blackburn FP-1 on my Serotta Ottrott. It'll work on many bikes as long as the fit is snug. Simply put one end into the crook created by the junction of the chain- and seatstays and wedge the other end where the seatstay meets the seat tube. A handy, out-of-the A couple of cautions. First, be sure your frame pump is the cor- way place to carry rect length. If the spring provides 2 inches of compression, a frame pump. about 1.5 inches should be taken up when the pump is installed. A loose fit may let the pump dislodge on a bump. You certainly don't want it catching in the rear wheel. Second, be sure there's enough clearance between the pump head and the rear hub as well as the pump shaft and the rear tire. Even with a snug fit, it's smart to secure the pump to the seatstay with a thin hook-and-loop strap.

► How can I apply chain lube without making a mess?

Chain lube come in spray cans or drip bottles. Every rider develops a preference but ei- ther works fine—and each can also make a mess.

68 If you spray, direct a thin mist at the chain where it goes over a middle cassette cog as you rotate the crank slowly backwards. Use light finger pressure on the nozzle to avoid overspray. Just in case, put a rag on the floor under the cassette and wrap another around the chainstay and seatstay near the cassette.

If you use a drip bottle, squeeze a small drop on each link of the bottom run of chain, turn- ing the crank when necessary to move in an unlubed section. Lubing the bottom run in- stead of the top run helps flush surface grit out of the chain instead of flowing it in. Again, put a rag under the chain. I know this is a time-consuming method, but it’s the most eco- nomical and efficient way to lube a chain. Look at it as an exercise in Zen meditation.

How do you know when you’ve done the whole chain? If it has a distinctive master link, use it to mark your starting and ending point. If not, start applying lube on the link just be- hind the chainrings. Lube all the way along the chain to the rear derailleur’s jockey wheel. Grasp the chain at the last link you’ve lubed and push it forward to the chainring. (Protect your fingers with a rag). Then repeat the process. On most bikes, if you do this 5 times you’ll have lubed the whole chain.

Whether you spray or drip, slowly turn the crank backward for a minute after applying the lube to help it work into the links. Keep turning and hold a clean rag around the chain to remove external lube and grime. Let the bike sit several hours (preferably overnight) be- fore riding so the lube can dry. This way, the chain will collect less grime and the less lube will be flung onto the frame and wheels. Except for a light coating to prevent rust, you want lube inside the chain, not on its surface.

► What should I carry in my seat bag?

Some riders carry only a spare tube and a tire lever while others haul a portable work- shop. It depends on your need for preparedness. Are you comfortable with the minimalist approach or do you have a nearly neurotic need for preparedness?

In most situations, you should be safe on recreational rides if your seat bag contains:

• 2 tubes • 2 tire levers • a patch kit • material for booting a slashed tire • a mini tool with allen keys, a spoke wrench, a screwdriver and a chain tool • $10 bill and 3 quarters • personal identification with numbers to call in case of an emergency

Many riders dispense with one tube, one tire lever and the chain tool in the interests of saving weight.

69 ► When should I replace my helmet?

It's often recommended that a helmet worn frequently should be replaced every 3 years or so. The reason is that the foam degrades due to sun, heat, salty sweat and other envi- ronmental factors, added to the usual knocks of regular cycling activity. These things make the foam unable to provide the full protection it's designed for, in the event of a head impact. A helmet should certainly be replaced after it's damaged in a crash or even dropped hard.

However, some experts (presumably those not working for helmet companies) maintain that a helmet will be protective no matter what its age as long as it's undamaged. In their view, there is no age limit. There's no arguing, though, that buying a new helmet every 3 years will keep you current with comfort and safety features as well as style. It's remark- able the improvements we've seen in helmet lightness, ventilation and fit. Many newer models have a "cradle" for the lower rear of the head. This makes them more stable on bumps and rough roads.

You can find big savings on this year's helmets when next year's are introduced. Check bike shops and catalogs, find the price and style you like, then wear your helmet on every ride you take.

► How can I rig a bike for unpaved roads?

Cyclocross is a fun way to build bike-handling skills and introduce variety into your train- ing, particularly in the fall and off-season. You don't need to compete to get all the bene- fits. Just cruising dirt roads, riding some mild singletrack and pedaling around the local park will make you a better bike rider and keep you mentally fresh. Talk some buddies into bashing around the trails with you and you'll have a blast.

You can buy a dedicated cyclocross bike, use a mountain bike with narrower tires or find an old touring frame and build it up with cheap components. Some riders like a frame 1-2 centimeters smaller than their road frame for added stand-over height—handy during un- anticipated dismounts. But smaller frames can mean a lower handlebar relative to the saddle, which isn't good for control on soft surfaces or steep and rough descents. A frame the same size as your current bike is not a bad choice (assuming it fits correctly).

My 'cross setup is typical of what many roadies use. I have a relatively inexpensive ($830 for frame/fork) Gunnar Crosshairs with an Ultegra triple crankset. With 700x35C tires it works fine on rough dirt roads and mild singletrack while still rolling okay on pavement. If I were racing, I'd simply replace the extra-fat rubber with 700x30C cyclocross tires.

There's no need to practice specific 'cross skills like dismounting and carrying the bike over obstacles, but it's lots of fun and great for your balance and bike handling. I explain several basic cyclocross techniques in my eBook, Off-Season Training for Roadies.

70 ► How can I keep my bike cleaner on wet rides?

The weather has turned rainy and the roads are grimy and wet. You still want to ride but you hate all the bike cleanup after you're done. Fenders are the answer. They used to be much more common, but the stripped-down racy look of today’s high-end bikes means that few riders use them now. Too bad. Fenders have tremendous advantages. They keep grime off your body and reduce the amount on your bike, making cleanup a lot eas- ier. Chains and other components last longer. You’ll stay drier and warmer (at least when it isn't raining on you). Also, fenders keep road spray from flying up on others in the group. Your friends will appreciate that. Maybe that'll convince them to install a set, too.

Here's the catch: Many contemporary bikes don’t have enough clearance for fenders un- der the brakes or between the stays or fork blades. Before buying a set, make sure they'll fit. You don’t need fender eyelets on your fork and rear dropouts—you can use zip ties— but eyelets make mounting fenders easier. If your bike won’t accept fenders, consider buying a used or inexpensive new bike that will, then dedicate it to foul-weather riding. It will also be the right bike for commuting, daily transportation and errands.

CHAPTER 4

Nutrition

his is a contentious subject. As the late physiologist Ed Burke, Ph.D., used to say in T his lectures to cyclists: “If you want to start an argument, talk about religion, politics— or nutrition!”

Nutrition is also an incredibly complex academic discipline based on biochemistry, some- thing that’s impenetrable to this humanities guy. Perhaps because of the difficulties, nutri- tional myths and false information abound in the popular press. This is especially evident in the area of weight loss.

I’m not a registered dietician. In fact, my primary credential for talking about the subject is that I like to eat. So I won’t delve into the arcane details of nutritional theory. There’s no need to add to the mountain of information—both useful and downright fallacious—that’s available. I will, however, detail some practical and time-proven fixes for nutritional chal- lenges that we all face before riding, while riding and when trying to recover.

Hydration in Hot Weather

CHALLENGE! I don’t need a thermometer to tell me when it’s hot in western Colorado—the icy drinks in my bottles turn tepid in 30 minutes. Partially filling the bottles with ice cubes postpones the onset of hot

71 drinks only about 15 minutes. Even freezing their contents buys me no more than an hour of cool liquid. I bet it gets hot where you live, too— cyclists and other outdoor athletes are the first to notice global warming. And the hotter it is, the faster you lose fluids during a ride.

Fluids are crucial to your performance and sense of well-being. We’re really just big bags of fluid—our blood contains about 5% water. Because water helps keep us cool, a loss of only 2% of our bodyweight as sweat means a significant loss of speed and endurance.

I know you’ve heard it before: drink, drink, drink. But it’s amazing how few cyclists heed this advice. They wait until they get thirsty, or forget to drink at all because of the excite- ment of the ride. Then they wilt early.

SOLUTIONS

• Ride early or late. You’ll need to replace less fluid if you ride when it’s cooler. To handle southern summer heat and humidity in the 90s, my RBR compatriot, Ed Pavelka, used to commute by bike in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, so he could ride early in the morning and in the evening when temperatures moder- ated. Ralph Phillips, owner of Fairwheel Bikes in Tucson, Arizona, beats sum- mer temperatures over 100 degrees with dawn rides. He came to Colorado’s week-long Ride the Rockies in midsummer and, ironically for someone from the desert, he got sunburned—he was pale from eluding the sun.

• Practice drinking on the bike. Some riders aren’t comfortable taking one hand off the bar, slipping the bottle from the cage, drinking and then replacing it—all the while keeping their eyes ahead and riding a straight line. So they don't do it nearly often enough and they become dehydrated. The solution is simple: prac- tice. Develop your technique it in an empty parking lot or on a lightly traveled road with a wide shoulder. Next, practice when riding with a friend, and finally in a small group. When in a paceline, remember that it’s safer to drink when you’re last in line. Swerving or letting a gap open won't impact the other riders.

• Wear a back-mounted hydration system. You won’t need to reach for bottles when you use a CamelBak or similar system. Other advantages include a much greater capacity (up to 100 ounces) and insulation that's capable, when used with ice cubes, of keeping fluid cold for 2-3 hours on hot days.

• Pre-hydrate. Make sure you’re well hydrated before the ride. Many people are chronically dehydrated because they don’t drink enough fluid during their nor- mal day. Keep a bottle on your desk at work and sip frequently. Avoid caffein- ated drinks like coffee that act as a diuretic, although recent studies have shown that they don't stimulate as much urine as was once thought. Still, if you like your java, drink an equal amount of water to replace what you urinate away. About an hour before each ride, drink 8-16 ounces of a sports drink to get some calories while topping off your fluid level. Hit the rest room just before the ride to avoid unwanted pit stops.

72 • Drink regularly during the ride. Always sip from your bottle or hydration pack before you feel thirsty. Your body’s sensation of thirst lags behind its need for liquid, so when you feel thirsty it’s already too late. Make it a habit to reach for your bottle every 15 minutes and slug down 2 big swallows. If you tend to for- get, set the countdown timer on your watch to sound every 15 minutes as a re- minder. The rule of thumb says to drink one big bottle (24 ounces) per hour, but it’s highly variable depending on temperature, humidity, intensity of the ride and other factors like body size. Experience will teach you your fluid needs.

• Hydrate after the ride. No matter how much fluid you ingest while riding, in hot weather you’ll finish the ride with a deficit. Your stomach doesn’t empty fast enough to keep up with the demand. Weigh yourself naked before and after the ride and compare the figures. If you’ve lost weight, drink 20 ounces of fluid for each pound. Keep drinking until your weight has returned to normal and your urine is plentiful and pale yellow in color.

• Restore sodium levels. Ever notice a white stain that forms on your clothes and helmet straps during a ride? It’s salt that you’ve sweat out and it needs to be replaced. Low sodium levels are associated with increased incidence of cramps. Heavy sodium losses can lead to hyponatremia, a potentially life- threatening condition. Your sports drink should contain at least 100 mg of so- dium per 8 ounces (check the label). You may need to add an extra pinch and salt your food liberally when you’re riding in hot weather.

Sports Drinks vs. Water

CHALLENGE! It’s tempting to fill your bottles with water rather than a high-carbohydrate sports drink. Water doesn’t leak sticky liquid sugar all over your bike, and it doesn’t drip colored streaks down the front of your jersey when you’re breathing so hard you miss your mouth. Water is a lot cheaper, and it's available merely by sticking your bottle under a tap. But despite the inconvenience, price and mess, sports drinks are preferable to water in most cases. How can you convince yourself of that?

SOLUTIONS

• Carbs help you ride better. Sports drinks contain carbohydrate while water does not. You need to ingest carbs on rides longer than about 90 minutes to help replace the glycogen that you’ve burned through exercise. Getting this re- placement carbohydrate is easier with fluids than by eating solid fuel.

• Electrolytes help you ride better. Sports drinks contain various electrolytes depending on the manufacturer, but sodium is the most important because you lose so much in the form of perspiration. Drinking only water on long and hot rides can lead to the life-threatening medical condition known as hyponatremia.

73 This happens when your body’s electrolytes are so diluted by water consump- tion that its normal processes are disrupted.

• There's still room for water. On long rides you can drink both water and sports drink, although the percentage should lean heavily toward the latter for reasons just cited. Drinking both water and a sports drink tends to dilute the drink's carbs in your stomach and delay stomach emptying. You could use noth- ing but sweet drinks, but most riders find that the taste eventually becomes cloying and they like to "chase" a couple of swigs of sports drink with water. Water tastes better with food than sports drinks do. Most riders do well on a diet of one energy bar per hour on a long ride, but washing it down with a sweet, flavored drink can be unappetizing.

Pre-ride Eating

CHALLENGE! You don’t have a problem with energy during weekday training because you’re limited to no more than 90 minutes each day. Your normal lunch fuels your after-work ride. But on weekends you have time for a fast-paced 50-75 miles. What should you eat to fuel that kind of effort and distance?

The key is to learn what pre-ride meal works for you and then use it every time you have an important event—or just a long ride you want to enjoy.

SOLUTIONS

• Mix carbs and protein. Most nutritionists suggest eating a mix of carbohydrate, protein and fat 2-3 hours before the ride. I like a bowl of cereal with skim milk, a banana, juice and a bagel with cream cheese along with a cup of coffee. It's the kind of pre-ride meal that works for other riders I know, too. It also works well for races and competitive centuries when the pace will be fast from the start.

• Chow for the distance. Longer, slower rides require more food. At the PAC Tour Training Camps where we average around 90 miles per day, riders hit the breakfast buffet hard: scrambled eggs, oatmeal, pancakes, ham, muffins and sweet rolls. All that food means they can't start fast but that's not a problem when you're touring or riding long camp distances and speed isn't an issue, at least until later in the day. Notice the protein and fat in the meal, courtesy of the ham, eggs and muffins. Carbohydrate is essential to endurance performance, but fat and protein seem to "stick to the ribs" better and make the meal last longer into the ride.

• Start snacking early. Remember that even with a fairly hefty pre-ride meal un- der your jersey, you need to begin eating (and drinking) on the bike no later than the end of the first hour. At a burn rate of approximately 40 calories per

74 mile, it's amazing how quickly a big breakfast gets converted to energy and leaves you empty in the last third of the ride.

Glycogen Window

CHALLENGE! Training is only part of the improvement equation. Just as important is the duo of rest and recovery. If you ride hard enough to stimulate improvement, you have to rest long enough to let your system regenerate and adapt. But if your recovery is slow, you’ll need to wait longer between hard training efforts—and it will take longer to reach your goals. During a multiday tour or stage race, your recovery will be insuffi- cient for day-after-day strong rides.

Studies show that muscle fuel (glycogen) is replaced faster and more efficiently if you consume a quantity of carbohydrate immediately after a ride. Your muscles replenish gly- cogen best if you eat or drink carbs within the first 15 minutes. This refueling process be- comes progressively less efficient as time goes on. Never wait more than 2 hours after the ride. By then the so-called "glycogen window" will be closed and you'll be likely to feel like you're running on empty the next day. Don’t let this metaphorical window slam shut before you put on the feedbag.

SOLUTIONS

• Eat before the ride. Recovery starts before a hard ride even begins. Cycling’s smooth pedaling motion means you can eat shortly before and during rides unless you’re racing in a time trial or other event requiring immediate high in- tensity. Because cycling consumes about 40 calories per mile, you need to start with a full tank on rides of 90 minutes or longer. About one hour before setting off, down about 60 grams of carbohydrate if you’re an average-size woman, 80- 100 if you’re a man. This is the same amount suggested for an after-ride snack (see below).

• Don’t allow a carb or fluid deficit while riding. On the bike, drink before you feel thirsty. Make it a habit to reach for your bottle every 15 minutes and take at least 2 big swallows. Also eat 20 grams of carbohydrate every 30 minutes. That’s half an energy bar, a couple of fig bars, half a banana or a piece of ba- gel.

• Refuel fast. As soon as you get off the bike, eat 60 grams of carbohydrate (if you’re an average-size woman) or 80-100 grams if you’re an average male. That’s quite a bit of food. A bowl of cereal with low-fat milk and a banana pro- vide about 50 grams of carbohydrate. Most energy bars contain about 40 grams, a bagel with jam about 90. A 16-ounce glass of sports drink packs around 30 grams. So-called "recovery drinks" pack a bigger carb load and are perhaps the easiest way to down the required amount quickly. Check labels for potency.

75 • Don’t neglect protein. Recent research indicates that you need more than just carbohydrate. Muscle glycogen stores fill up more rapidly if your post-ride snack contains 4 parts carbohydrate with 1 part protein. In our example of an after-ride snack, cereal and a banana provide the carb and low-fat milk supplies the pro- tein. You can also mix 5 teaspoons of sugar in a large glass of low-fat milk. Or go for a commercial recovery drink.

Sip or Gulp?

CHALLENGE! You have a choice when drinking on the bike—sip from your bottle every few minutes, consuming one bottle of liquid an hour. Or gulp down half a bottle every 30 minutes. Which works better?

Advocates of the “big gulp” theory cite studies showing that putting a large quantity of liq- uid in your stomach all at once hastens the stomach-emptying process. Apparently (in the lab at least) the stomach senses that it has just been delivered a hefty load of fluid so bio- feedback helps decrease the time it takes for the stomach to eliminate the load.

What works in the lab, however, may not work well on the bike. An upset stomach could result from swallowing half a bottle of fluid all at once. And just because the stomach emp- ties more rapidly doesn't mean that the fluid, once out of the stomach, is going faster to where it will improve performance. Maybe it just means that you'll have to urinate more.

SOLUTION

Try drinking at different rates on the bike and see what happens. Sip every 5 minutes; take larger gulps every 15 minutes; wait 30 minutes and swallow half a bottle. Analyze your body's reaction. Too often we assume that lab results are applicable to our perform- ance on the road rather than on an ergometer surrounded by white coats. It doesn't al- ways work that way.

Fluids in Winter

CHALLENGE! In the summer, you need at least 4 bottles of water or sports drink to ride your favorite hilly 65-mile loop. But in the winter when it’s 40 degrees cooler, you can do the whole ride with one bottle. Is that okay?

Probably not. You sweat nearly as much in winter as when it’s hot and humid, but the sweat evaporates in cold, dry conditions and you don’t notice how much fluid you’re los- ing. That’s a problem because performance deteriorates markedly when you’ve lost as lit- tle as 2% of body weight as sweat.

76 SOLUTION

Start long cool- or cold-weather rides with 2 large bottles or even a back-mounted hydra- tion system. Drink the bottles in the first 2 hours and reload at a convenience store. Sure, it’s chilly and you’re not very thirsty. But remember how much slower you’ll be going when you get dehydrated—and how much less fun the ride will be. Your performance will im- prove if you drink just as you would in summer temperatures.

Which Sports Drink is Best?

CHALLENGE! You check a cycling mailorder catalog and find half a dozen brands of sports drink. It's a bewildering assortment that isn't helped by the various performance claims of the manufacturers. Which drink should you choose?

Marketing people would blanch at this answer but I think most sports drinks work about the same. Most have similar amounts of carbohydrate supplying about the same number of calories and potential energy. The other key ingredient is sodium to replace what’s lost as perspiration. You can always add a pinch of table salt if you sweat heavily.

SOLUTIONS

• Find favorable flavors. The key is finding a drink you like to drink. Don't force yourself to use a sports drink that tastes bad simply because you're hooked by the marketing hype. (And make no mistake, some of the flavors out there would gag a maggot.) The problem is easy to see: If you don't enjoy the drink, you won't drink enough. No matter how scientifically formulated the stuff might be, it won't do you much good if you can't swallow enough of it. My advice is to find a couple of drinks that taste good to you—and buy the one that's on sale!

• Be flexible. If you tour or do long, unsupported day rides, get accustomed to commonly available drinks such as Gatorade and PowerAde. When you stop at a convenience store, you'll likely be limited to 1 or 2 choices, so your system needs to run efficiently on them. If you feel you can only function well only on some exotic brand, you'll be in trouble if you run dry while riding through Pea Green, Colorado.

The same thinking applies to events when the organizers supply drinks at aid stations. If their choice doesn’t agree with you, it’ll be a long day. For important events, find out what’s being offered. Try it in advance so your system adjusts, or carry your own drink in powder form and mix it with water at rest stops.

77 Alternatives to Energy Bars

CHALLENGE! I remember my first taste of a PowerBar. The brand-new company was handing them out at a ride and I thought, “Why didn’t I think of this?” Then I took a bite and decided that the idea would never fly. I was wrong of course and PowerBar spawned a new energy bar industry. I even came to tolerate their taste and texture and found that they worked well. Still, there must be other effective ride food that tastes better and is more enjoyable to eat. Right?

Energy bars are a handy alternative to "real food" because they are pre-packaged and can be carried in a jersey pocket without melting or being crushed. But they present 2 problems for most riders. First, taste. There are many brands and flavors, so it makes no sense to choke down a bar you don't enjoy eating. If you don't consume enough, you'll start running low on energy in as little as 90 minutes. Second, expense. Energy bars tend to be more expensive in terms of useful calories-per-dollar than most other food choices. It pays to find alternative food that you like to eat and that also works on the bike.

Good bike food should be moist so you can get it down even when you have a dry mouth. It should be easy to chew so you don’t suffocate while trying to masticate the grub and breathe at the same time. It should be breakable into bite-size pieces for easy access. Fi- nally, it should travel well in your jersey pocket so you don’t reach back for food 60 miles into a century and find a pocketful of dry crumbs.

SOLUTIONS

• Fruit bars. These can be fig or another filling. Two quick bites and they’re down. If handled with care they can be packed loose in a jersey pocket for easy access. Or carry them in a baggie.

• Panini. This is the traditional European race food. Make them at home by spreading jelly and cream cheese on bread with the crust removed. Wrap each one in aluminum foil. Or eat like a real Italian bike racer during long, cold rides by adding a slab of ham.

• Fruit. Pieces of apple or orange in a plastic bag taste great during a ride. In hot temperatures be sure to eat them before they ferment in your pocket.

• Dried fruit. Moist varieties such as raisins and apricots go down well. You need to know your limit, though, or risk digestive upset.

• Candy bars. If you look at the nutritional information on candy bars such as Payday or Three Musketeers, you’ll see that it isn’t much different from the numbers on many energy bars. Candy bars are cheaper and more readily available than energy bars, but anything with a chocolate coating will be messy on a warm day.

78 Low-Carb Diets

CHALLENGE! You’re desperate to lose “that last 10 pounds” that no amount of riding seems to strip off your body. So as a last resort, you’ve tried a popular high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet. You dropped 6 pounds in 2 weeks—but your riding has suffered and you feel tired off the bike. Your average speed for training loops is down 10%. You’re waking up at midnight hallucinating bagels.

The research is pretty clear for the "Zone" or low-carb diet. It might help you lose some weight quickly but it doesn't provide enough carbohydrate to maintain sufficient muscle glycogen levels for performance riding. What good is losing 20 pounds if you end up slower rather than faster? When you don't have carbs to burn, your body primarily burns fat. You can ride steadily on fat but not fast. High-intensity efforts require lots of glycogen.

SOLUTION

Increase the percentage of carbohydrate in your diet. Add whole grains, fruits and veg- gies. Reduce fat and protein slightly so you won't take in more calories and gain weight. I bet you'll feel better and ride better, too. And if you still can't lose that last 10 pounds, check the next solution.

Reducing Dietary Fat

CHALLENGE! Weight loss significantly improves cycling performance, especially on hills. According to sports scientists, a 10-pound weight reduc- tion saves most riders 2 minutes on a 5-mile climb with a moderate grade. That’s more improvement than is claimed for performance-enhancing drugs! So what's the best way to lose a few pounds?

Losing weight would be easier if most of the foods we love weren’t packed with fat. Whole milk, ice cream, butter, salad dressing, nuts, chocolate—temptations are everywhere.

Fortunately, there’s a painless way to cut fat intake significantly without major dietary changes. Simply replace high-fat items with healthier choices. It’s easy to do and the taste and mouth-feel of the food won’t be affected very much.

Mull the list below, then make 1 or 2 of the suggested food substitutions each week. You won’t notice the difference in your gustatory enjoyment, and cutting fat calories will help you lose fat pounds. Soon you’ll be flying up those climbs.

79 SOLUTIONS

• Moderate milk. Gradually wean yourself from whole milk by drinking 2% for a couple of weeks, then dropping to 1% and moving to skim. In recipes, use skim milk or replace milk with a nonfat liquid such as fruit juice or vegetable broth.

• Sacrifice scones and muffins. Sure, they’re tempting treats to munch with a cuppa morning java. But they can be as much as 40% fat. And some popular coffee shop scones contain more than 600 calories. Substitute a bagel with jam.

• Beware of butter, margarine and oil. Halve the amount of these fatty sub- stances in recipes and replace with an equal amount of nonfat yogurt, apple- sauce or mashed banana. (Applesauce or pumpkin doesn’t add flavor but banana does.) Carbonated water can be used in place of oil.

• Sauté not. Instead of sautéing foods with oil or butter, use sherry, wine, vege- table broth or water. You can also sauté vegetables in a dry pan. Add a pinch of salt to bring out the water.

• Undress salads. A healthful, low-calorie salad can become a high-fat night- mare when you add commercial dressing. Switch to low-fat or fat-free varieties or simply spritz with a slice of lemon. Make your own dressing by adding vine- gar and lemon juice to water, tomato juice or fruit juice. Some people like bal- samic vinegar and maple syrup.

• Soup it up. Instead of eating a whole bowl of soup, partly fill your bowl with rice, then top it off. (This approach works with chili, too.) The rice boosts your carbohydrate intake, and fat is reduced because you've limited the portion of soup.

• Protect potatoes. Nix the butter and sour cream on baked potatoes. Use low- fat or fat-free yogurt or cottage cheese instead. Another trick: Ladle on a little skim milk to moisten the potato, then put your vegetables on top.

• Substitute snacks. Do you reach for high-fat snacks like donuts, cookies and nuts? Next time you have the munchies try a low-fat, high-carbohydrate sports bar instead. When you feel like a high-calorie soda, opt for a sports drink.

• Cut the cheese. When ordering a pizza, ask them to put on half the usual amount of cheese. It'll taste just as good, but you'll cut the pie's fat calories nearly in half. If the pizza is already made, scrape off a portion of the cheese but be careful not to remove the veggies with it.

80 CHAPTER 5

Ailments and Injuries

n the 30 years I’ve written about training and fitness for cyclists, I’ve gotten a huge I perk—the opportunity to attend numerous seminars on exercise physiology and medi- cine. I have been to medical re-certification seminars on back injuries, cardiac problems in endurance athletes, the cycling knee and many others.

I also attended the legendary 1995 Coaching Solidarity Conference at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. It was organized by Chris Carmichael, the man who be- came Lance Armstrong’s personal coach and founded Carmichael Training Systems. At the time, Chris was U.S. National coach. He was dedicated to bringing world-class training information to American cycling. Luminaries on the speaker’s list in- cluded Wolfram Lindner, formerly East Germany national coach; Max Testa, pro team physician; Nicholas Torrados, pro team physician; and Tudor Bompa, the “father of perio- dized training.” It was an all-star cast. Sadly, nothing close to this conference has hap- pened since.

The seminars were exciting for me, a journalist and English major with only a well-read layman’s grasp of medicine and physiology. They constituted an unofficial advanced de- gree in endurance sports and injury. Because of them I was able to collaborate with Andy Pruitt, director of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, on the RBR eBook, Andy Pruitt’s Medical Guide for Cyclists, and write many articles on training.

Pruitt's eBook remains the best source of information on bike fit and cycling injuries. I won’t duplicate it here. Instead, this chapter will cover what endurance cycling coach John Hughes calls “show stoppers” —problems that threaten to end your ride or even your sea- son dead in its tracks. I'll also touch on exercise physiology issues that impact the cyclist.

Cramps

CHALLENGE! Nothing is more frustrating than leg muscle cramps in a long, hard ride or race. Typically they come on even though you feel good and have enough zip to finish strong. But then a hill or an attack comes. As you press harder you notice the tell-tale tingling in your hamstrings or quads. One or 2 hard efforts later, your legs fully seize. All you can do is slow to a crawl and try to stretch out the cramps. In severe cases, you tumble off the bike in pain.

I've suffered leg cramps throughout my riding career. My most memorable cramp-fest oc- curred in the 1995 Furnace Creek 508 that 3 friends and I raced as training for the follow- ing year's Team Race Across America. The 4 of us rotated through 30-minute time trials for the 508 miles. Near the end, after about 20 hours of racing, I was on a gradual climb with a tailwind, turning a 53x17-tooth gear and feeling great.

81 When I finished my shift and crawled back in the follow van, my left hamstring cramped violently. I yelped, groaned and tried to straighten my leg in the van’s tight quarters. I tensed my quads to stretch the hamstring and they knotted up, too. We finally had to stop the van so I could tumble out on the ground, writhing in pain. It took a quart of Gatorade with added salt to placate the cramp gods.

Cramps are a problem for many other cyclists, too, if the questions I've received for my Ask Coach Fred column in the RoadBikeRider.com Newsletter are any indication. One time I mentioned in the newsletter that I’d cramped badly on a hot, hilly 84-mile ride. In the week that followed, I got nearly 50 e-mails with similar horror stories and not just a few remedies to try (pickle juice? tonic water?). They're still posted on the RBR website.

Sports scientists haven’t figured out exactly what causes cramps, but they are usually the result of some combination of 3 factors: dehydration, low levels of sodium, insufficient mileage or intensity of training. Because cramps are multi-factorial, you’ll have to be a bit of a sleuth to find the reason for the ones you experience. Try eliminating one possible cause after another (see below) until you find those that trigger attacks.

SOLUTIONS

• Train right. In some cases, cramps are caused by training that isn't adequate for longer rides at high intensity. If you do only short rides during the week and then try to go hard for 3 or 4 hours on weekends or ride difficult terrain, your muscles aren't used to the stress and they let you know. I realize it's hard to schedule longer training rides when your daily schedule is tight, but that might be the key to avoiding cramps. Unaccustomed patterns of effort play a role when you generally ride flat courses but a weekend ride features several hard climbs. You may cramp even though you’re plenty fit for the distance on flat roads. The same holds true of steady rides in training followed by the continual hard jumps out of corners that constitute criteriums.

• Realize your muscle type. One theory is that people with a 's muscle fiber makeup (predominantly fast-twitch fibers) are more susceptible to cramps than endurance riders with a high percentage of slow-twitch fibers. If that's the case, it takes a lot of training to convert a subtype of fast-twitch fibers to endur- ance fibers that are less prone to cramping from extended work. This is, of course, another argument for more training miles.

• Hydrate. Drink copiously before the ride. Your urine should be clear and plenti- ful. If you’re not getting up twice in the night to urinate, you aren’t drinking enough. This is especially important at high altitudes. On the ride, take at least 2 big swigs from your bottle every 15 minutes.

• Salt your food. Unless, that is, your physician warns against excessive sodium consumption. When I played football in the 1960s, an era seemingly without sports medicine, we had 2 or 3 daily practices in the heat and humidity of pre- season. In a daily ritual, coaches passed out salt tablets after workouts and we tried to choke them down (they were the size of horse pills). Then I’d chow

82 down on sweet corn, liberally salted. I never got cramps. But as knowledge of high blood pressure’s dangers grew, the salt shaker was banned from many ta- bles, mine included. Yet I was doing long, hot rides and sweating at least as much as in the hardest football practice. I never cramped in football but I cer- tainly did while riding.

• Salt your drinks. When I rode the Team Race Across America in 1996, I was concerned that I'd cramp during the 5-and-a-half days of 30-minute, all-out ef- forts. So I added a pinch of salt to each bottle of sports drink and didn't have problems. Commercial drinks simply don't contain sufficient sodium for cramp- prone riders.

Okay, but if you're in my boat you're still likely to get an occasional cramp even though you're doing everything known to science and witchcraft to prevent them. When you feel the telltale twinge during a ride, consider these solutions:

• Drink lots. Slosh down half a bottle of sports drink with added sodium. You may need to get off the bike to do this.

• Pinch your upper lip. No one knows why this works for some cramp sufferers but it does. It’s worth a try for about 20 seconds.

• Eat several Tums. The calcium in antacids has been known to short-circuit cramps before they take over a muscle.

• Stay seated. When you’re on the verge of cramping, standing often puts you over the edge. If you remain seated and spin gently, you may avoid a full-on seizure.

• Stop riding. If you’re about to cramp badly, stop riding. Getting a severe case of cramps (where your quads and hamstrings cramp at the same time) can make you lose control of the bike.

Cardiac Drift

CHALLENGE! A masters racer wanted to keep a steady pace in a 10-mile time trial. He knew he could average about 22 mph on the flat and windless course. He also knew that 22 mph would require a heart rate of 160 bpm. But as he rode, his heart rate began creeping up even though his speed tailed off. By the end, he was up to 170 bpm—near his maximum. Why did this happen?

This rider experienced a common phenomenon called "cardiac drift.” If researchers put you on a stationary bike and set the resistance to elicit a heart rate of 80% of max, after about 30 minutes your heart rate will creep up to 90% even though you're not generating extra power. On the road, you may see something similar happen in a time trial. 83 Cardiac drift is caused in part by dehydration. But merely staying hydrated won't eliminate the rising heart rate because you can’t absorb enough fluid from your stomach to keep up with the deficit. Muscle fatigue also contributes, as do factors that science hasn't quite fig- ured out yet. As the time trial progresses, your heart must work harder to maintain the same power output from your muscles.

SOLUTIONS

• Vary your weekly workouts. You can't prevent cardiac drift, but you can lessen its effects. One way is to stop making every ride a steady, time trial-like effort. Instead, do 2 rides quite easily at about 60-70% of max heart rate. Do 1 day of hard, steady riding at 85-90% of max. Do 1 interval day when you ele- vate your heart rate to 90% or above for short periods, alternated with easy cruising. Your week should also include 1 long endurance day and 2 rest days off the bike.

• Stay well hydrated. Use a sports drink and practice pouring it down on days when you make hard efforts. The more you accustom your stomach to accept- ing the drink, the faster it will empty and send the fluid to the cells where it’ll help keep your heart rate down.

• Start slow, finish fast. An effective way to lessen cardiac drift in time trials is to maintain a moderate heart rate and power output in the first half, then increase intensity during the second half. This is called a "negative split." For a time trial- ist riding the 40-km championship distance in an hour, the first 20 km might be ridden in 30:30 while the final 20 km is covered in 29:30. Of course, that would be in ideally calm air and flat terrain. In cycling, you usually need to think in terms of power output because wind and terrain can make time splits meaning- less. If you know you can average 250-255 watts for the TT, you might ride the first 35 minutes at 240 watts, then bump it up to about 265 watts for the final 25 minutes.

Pros vs. the Rest of Us

CHALLENGE! An RBR roadie wrote in with this plaintive question: “Our local weekend ride attracts about 20 people including several active racers and a couple of strong recreational riders. Last Sunday we did 60 miles in rolling terrain at an average speed of 19 mph. It was hard—but here’s the problem: 19 mph sounds pretty puny compared to the 25-mph average regularly recorded for pro races of 6 or 7 hours. Are we really that bad—or are the pros that good?”

Yeah, the pros are really that good. Watts meters help show just how superior an average pro rider is to us recreational wannabes. For example, I did a solo 35 miles the other day on my bike equipped with a PowerTap. I averaged 19 mph and 185 watts on a course

84 with some short hills. Pro riders who use power meters often report an average of 200- 215 watts for their races.

Great—we only need a paltry 15-30 extra watts and we’re ready for the Tour de France, right? Wrong. For one thing, pros ride in large packs so often need less than 100 watts to pedal at 25-30 mph or they can even coast at that speed. To average over 200 watts, they have to be producing impressive power at other times in the race. In fact, 2 minutes at 600 watts on hills or 10-20 minutes at 400 watts on breakaways or chases is common- place. The average wattage may be modest, but power output when it counts is extremely high. I couldn’t hang. Neither could most riders.

The pros’ superiority is hard to visualize because their power isn’t due to large body size or bulging muscles (trackies excepted). But if you think of world-class athletes in different sports, the gap between us recreational riders (even very accomplished ones) and pro cy- clists is easier to see. For instance, how much does the 250-pound strong guy at your lo- cal gym bench press? 300 pounds? 350? In powerlifting meets, it’s not unusual for the winner to top 500 pounds—and that’s in the 165-pound weight class. How about the best basketball player in your city league? Pretty good—until you compare his moves and hops to those of the average NBA forward.

So we aren’t nearly as good as a pro. But so what? Our average speed (or wattage out- put) isn’t really very important compared to how much fun we have on the ride and whether cycling remains a healthful activity we want to continue all our lives.

Improving Riding Efficiency

CHALLENGE! Most recreational riders are interested in the physical characteristics of pro cyclists. How many watts can they sustain? What’s their average VO2 max or percent of body fat? But a little-appreciated physical ability is efficiency (often called economy). Efficiency simply means that you're using less oxygen to sustain a given riding intensity, which lowers your perceived effort at that wattage output. What's the secret to becoming more efficient?

I recently read an interesting study concerning cycling efficiency and power output. The subjects were Spanish pro racers including former world champion . It was concluded that riders in a specific category vary widely in their VO2 max (the maxi- mum amount of oxygen they can process in a minute). What distinguishes the top riders is greater efficiency. In fact, some top pros with terrific oxygen uptake have the lowest effi- ciency, while other successful riders have a relatively modest oxygen uptake but are competitive because of outstanding efficiency.

This study has created lots of discussion among cycling coaches, many of whom have clients with modest physical abilities but who are willing to work hard to get good. For these riders, greater efficiency promises to remedy the deficiency that nature gave them.

85 So how do you improve your cycling efficiency? Most riders try to do it by improving ped- aling style, using 1-leg pedaling or a fixed-gear bike. That's still important, but as I under- stand the research, the 2 best methods are to strength train your core muscles and to do intervals at slightly above your lactate threshold (LT).

SOLUTIONS

• Cultivate your core. Strength training stabilizes your body's core so the pedal stroke is more efficient in a mechanical sense. If your abs and low back are weak, your upper body will flop from side to side as you pedal. Core strength is needed to hold it steady against the forces generated by your legs. Added strength means that fewer muscle fibers are needed to accomplish this task, as well as to pedal at a given intensity, so your total muscle volume fatigues more slowly.

• Learn to love your LT. Riding at or slightly above your lactate threshold trains the body to maintain high power output without going anaerobic. The faster you can go while still staying below your LT—the point where panting begins—the more energy you’ll have when it really counts.

• Train at TT pace. A good workout, according to the studies, consists of 10- to 20-minute repeats at your lactate threshold (around 90% of max heart rate). It's pretty hard to keep HR at 90% of max. That's time trial pace. It's brutal indoors without distractions. I find it much easier to ride at that intensity outside. Also, during efforts of 20-30 minutes you'll experience a rise in heart rate even though you're riding at the same intensity. This cardiac drift is almost impossible to pre- vent even if you keep drinking a sport drink as you ride.

• Apply the power. If you have an indoor trainer that shows wattage or a bike with a watts meter, the newest research shows great gains are possible with only 2 sessions per week of shorter, harder intervals. Do 5 repeats of 3 minutes each with 3 minutes of easy spinning between each effort. Intensity is the key. You need to do the hard efforts at a wattage equal to the average wattage you can maintain for 6 minutes all-out. This is what exercise physiologists call "ve- locity at VO2 max" or vVO2 max. It will produce a heart rate above 90% of max by the end of the 3 minutes. A consistent program will boost your riding effi- ciency radically.

Remember that the TT and power workouts are tiring. Include plenty of rest and easy spinning into your weekly routine or you’ll become tired and weak instead of more effi- cient.

86 Heart Rate Training Zones

CHALLENGE! An RBR roadie writes: “I have been trying to calculate my heart rate for different training zones. I’m confused. Some authorities say to base the percentages on max heart rate while others suggest calculating from lactate threshold. One book says to figure max heart rate using the 220-minus-age formula while another says I should get a lab test. Can you simplify this mess?”

True confession: all these heart rate formulas confuse me, too. If there were a "perfect" range for training and recovery rides, it seems like the experts would agree. In fact, no such ideal heart rate exists. That's because heart rate for a given power output varies from day to day depending on your state of hydration, mental condition, whether you're overtrained or fresh, and environmental conditions such as heat and humidity.

In addition, the 220-minus-age formula for determining max heart rate is based on a study that had a standard deviation of 11. Thus, for many people the max HR predicted by this formula is not very close to reality.

There’s nothing wrong with using a heart monitor if you understand its limitations, but, ideally, it should be used in combination with perceived exertion and a power meter. A power meter can be invaluable for hard training because it provides an objective look at how hard you’re truly going.

SOLUTION

Base exercise zones on your lactate threshold rather than on your max heart rate. LT cor- responds to the highest average heart rate you can maintain for an hour. You can find it without going to your painful maximum, but medical supervision is still suggested.

Here’s one way to find your LT. Ride a 10-mile loop at a hard pace. Use a heart monitor that averages heart rate for the distance or just check it occasionally to see where HR set- tles. You'll quickly find that you can maintain a given HR fairly easily, but if you go a few beats higher you'll start panting and be unable to control your breathing. For example, I can time trial (at an elevation of 6,000 feet) at a HR of 160-163 bpm. But if I go to 165 I blow up pretty quickly. Trial and error will reveal the HR you can maintain.

Three simple exercise zones based on your LT heart rate are sufficient. Recovery takes place about 40 beats below LT, endurance is built on rides about 25 beats below, and "breakthrough" training should be done from 10 beats below to about 5 beats above. These are rough guidelines but they seem to work for most riders.

The real key to determining training intensity is to rely on your perceived exertion. For in- stance, easy rides should be so easy that you don't feel much pressure on the pedals through your feet. They should, in the words of cycling coach Skip Hamilton, be "guilt- producingly slow." The idea is to take a walk on the bike.

87 Hard efforts, such as intervals and climbing, should be at the limit separating steady-but- labored breathing from panting and gasping. Experiment to find that boundary.

Aging and Recovery

CHALLENGE! For the last 10 years in March, I've coached at PAC Tour Training Camps in southern Arizona. We ride 60-125 miles per day for a week. If I train with consecutive longer rides on weekends beforehand, I feel pretty good at camp—but when I get home it catches up to me and I need a couple of weeks of easier riding and rest to bounce back. It didn’t used to be that way. When I started riding in my late 20s, I could push hard every day for several weeks. I was full of youth, strength and enthusiasm. But over the last 30 years my recovery time has lengthened inexorably.

Slowed recovery is an unavoidable part of the aging process. As we age, muscle repair takes longer. Efforts that we easily recovered from overnight when we were in our 20s take days. It's possible to train in ways that postpone slowed recovery for a short time— like on a tour or at a camp—but eventually you have to pay the piper.

Well, we can’t turn back the clock. But all isn’t lost. In addition to sensible training, let's look at 4 simple factors that can help us recover faster despite advancing years.

SOLUTIONS

• Rest. Get more sleep than you did when you were younger. Never stand when you can sit and never sit when you can lie down. Do only 1 or 2 intense work- outs each week. Take at least 1 and probably 2 rest days each week. Periodize your training so you work hard for 2 or 3 weeks then do a week of easier train- ing. Build at least a month of reduced training (casual riding) into your yearly schedule.

• Hydration. As we get older, we lose our ability to recognize thirst. So don't wait till you feel like drinking. Keep a bottle of water on your desk at work and nip at it frequently. Carry plenty of water or sports drinks on each ride. Hydrate fully afterwards.

• Nourishment. Some cases of slowed recovery are caused by under-nutrition. Eat enough carbohydrate to fuel your training and other daily activities. Never try to diet during the season. You might lose weight, but you'll also lose energy and enthusiasm.

• Weight training. As we age, we lose muscle volume. As a result, it takes more effort to produce a given amount of power—and the increased effort requires more recovery time. Weight training can help you keep the muscle volume you have.

88 Overtraining

CHALLENGE! Bill was excited about the upcoming cycling season. A strong recreational rider when he was in his 20s, his riding time had been nearly obliterated by job and family responsibilities. But when he turned 40 he promised himself that he’d devote more time to riding and break his personal best of 6:15 for the local century. He doubled his mileage, watched his diet and rode every weekend with faster cyclists. Then he barely cracked 7 hours in the century. What went wrong?

Hard training doesn’t always lead to better performances. It can just as easily make you worse. This depressing phenomenon is known as overtraining.

Surprisingly, pro cyclists rarely overtrain. Sure, they ride 400-600 miles a week and slug it out day after day in long stage races. But pros have plenty of time for rest and recupera- tion. All they do is ride and recover. On the other hand, recreational cyclists like Bill usu- ally ride only 8 to 12 hours a week. But their work weeks are 40 hours or more and they must tend to other responsibilities, too. The average recreational cyclist probably has a lower miles-to-rest ratio than a pro.

Another key factor: Stress is cumulative. If the boss is ragging on you about that overdue report and your personal relationships are coming unglued, you’ll have little energy even for modest training. Force it anyway and you may begin to experience the symptoms of overtraining. They're rarely dramatic, but if you if you experience several of the following, beware.

Warning Signs

• Lowered performance. Here’s the rule: If you’re getting worse in spite of hard training, you’re probably getting worse because of hard training.

• Apathy. If you have to pry yourself out of bed for the Sunday morning ride, you’re probably suffering from chronic fatigue. When you’ve lost your normal enthusiasm for cycling, it’s a clear signal that you aren’t fully recovered and your body is crying for rest. It’s not a sign of personal weakness.

• Desire to quit. Wanting to give up is a classic symptom that you’ve pushed too hard. Organized events should make you eager to ride hard or compete. If you’re lethargic, tired and feel like quitting, you’ve left your competitive fire out on your training roads.

• Increased irritability. Your family provides the best early warning of overtrain- ing. They are the first to notice when your normally sunny personality turns grumpy.

• Disrupted sleep patterns. Overly tired cyclists often fall asleep easily in the evening. In fact, they usually feel drowsy in the afternoon. But they often awake 89 at 3 or 4 a.m. unable to relax. This pattern of inappropriate fatigue is a sure tip- off that you’ve overdone it.

• Elevated morning heart rate. Most articles about overtraining list a high morn- ing heart rate as an important warning sign. If your pulse is 10% higher than normal when you wake up, back off your training until you recover. Be aware, though, that this isn’t as predictive of overtraining as other signs. For one thing, it’s hard to get a consistent heart rate reading. Sometimes you wake slowly from a restful sleep. Sometimes you’re startled by the alarm clock or wake abruptly from a dream. Both tend to raise your heart rate temporarily. And sur- prisingly, severely overtrained cyclists may have a lower morning heart rate than normal. It’s as if their body is trying to slow down and protect itself from fur- ther abuse.

To find out if morning heart rate has predictive value for you, I suggest charting it under similar circumstances for a month. Compare those readings to your subjective feelings on the bike and also to your performance. If you get mean- ingful data, by all means use it. If not, simply charting your feelings of vigor and well-being, along with your riding performance, might work better.

Prevention

• Evaluate your total stress load. When job demands or family responsibilities are high, cut back on your training.

• Eat and drink enough. Be sure you’re adequately hydrated and eating enough carbohydrates to replace muscle glycogen. Consider using a post-ride recovery drink. • Monitor your body. Learn the above signs of overtraining and be keenly aware of how you feel. If you’re experiencing symptoms—remember, they creep in slowly—reduce training before it’s too late.

SOLUTION

Rest! Easy to say, hard to do. You love to ride, right? But if you’re a victim of overtraining, rest is the only remedy. Nap for 5 days instead of training. Then go on easy rides for an- other week. Use a heart monitor if necessary to stay under 80% of max. When you’re feeling better, resume training but avoid the excessively hard work that got you in trouble.

One more point. Overtraining is often associated with feelings of depression. In fact, the pioneering researcher in the field, William Morgan, Ph.D., once commented that over- trained athletes were always clinically depressed. Little was done with this knowledge until recently. Most physicians and cycling coaches figured that the depression was the result of fatigue and lowered performance and resting would resolve it. And in most cases that’s what happened. When the overtrained athlete rested sufficiently, his mood brightened. Recently, physicians have been more aggressive in treating overtraining depression. In fact, there’s a theory that treating depression successfully can also treat the lowered per- formance and fatigue of overtraining. Increases in the neurotransmitter serotonin have

90 been linked with chronic fatigue from overtraining. Antidepressants like Prozac can change the levels of serotonin and thus elevate mood.

So some overtrained athletes have been prescribed anti-depressants. The jury is still out on whether this works for everyone, but some athletes have experienced rather remark- able recoveries while on this treatment protocol. Of course, you’ll need to consult your physician to see if this might work for you. Also, anti-depressants have their own side ef- fects.

Bottom line: It’s far better to train judiciously and wisely, thus avoiding overtraining and depression in the first place.

Declining Exercise Heart Rate

CHALLENGE! An RBR roadie writes: “I race in the 45+ masters division and use my daily bike commutes for training. After a couple of days off the bike I can ride above my lactate threshold for long intervals. However, after commuting 30 miles a day for a few days, it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve a high heart rate. Is this normal? Or is it old age?”

It's not old age! Normally, heart rate declines as you get tired. We see this in stage racing where a rider can maintain a heart rate of, say, 185 bpm in an early time trial. But a week later, due to accumulated fatigue, he'll have the same feeling of perceived exertion but his heart rate will only climb to 175.

We noticed this phenomenon in the 1996 Team Race Across America. My 3 teammates and I knew our lactate threshold heart rates, and we could maintain or exceed that num- ber the first day on the way from Irvine, California, to Savannah, Georgia. However, the next morning when it got light enough to see our monitors again, we found that our heart rates had dropped about 15 beats for the same exertion. For the next 5 days we couldn't raise our heart rates although the effort felt as hard as it was the first afternoon. In fact, we averaged nearly the same number of miles each day on our 2,905-mile crossing, com- pleted in 5 days, 11 hours.

In the above roadie's case, I suspect heart rate is lower because of the accumulated fa- tigue from commuting. Scientists aren't quite sure why heart rate declines in these cir- cumstances but it's probably a combination of inadequate glycogen replacement and dehydration. Some exercise scientists have even theorized that the heart tries to “protect” itself from what you’re asking it to do.

SOLUTIONS

• Consume carbs. To keep your heart rate from sliding downward over the course of consecutive days of hard riding, pay close attention to your carbohy-

91 drate intake. Consider a post-ride recovery drink to supplement normal eating.

• Stay hydrated. Sip water or sports drink all day at work. Keep the bottle on your desk so you won't forget.

• Add an easy day. Consider riding easier one more day each week to reduce fatigue. This helps ensure that your more strenuous workouts are high quality.

Riding Slowly (on Purpose)

CHALLENGE! A roadie wrote to me: “I'm an average cyclist who rides about 4 times a week for a total of under 100 miles. The problem is that I always go all-out. No matter what I try, I can't seem to make myself slow down. If I diligently monitor my speed, it creeps up and soon I'm in time trial mode at 90% of my maximum heart rate. Any ideas on how to manage my rides better?”

I sympathize. I have trouble riding slowly, too. But we need to remember that we don't im- prove when we're going fast. Intensity is only the catalyst for improvement. The actual im- provement comes when we're resting and the body repairs the damage from hard rides. Then the general adaptation syndrome kicks in as the body adjusts to the stress and gets stronger.

If you think about how a nice, easy spin makes you stronger, it can help you keep your ir- rational exuberance under control. Here are 4 ways to make yourself slow down on at least some rides.

SOLUTIONS

• Ride a "town" bike. Getting on your good bike makes you want to ride fast. Riding a cruiser makes you want to, well, cruise.

• Ride with a slower person. Go at their pace. Promise not to drop him. I often ride with my wife on my easy days. She’s fit but I’m stronger on the bike, so my easy cycling day is her moderately paced ride. It works great for both of us.

• Ride on bike paths. Substitute them for your usual training roads. Pedestrians, skaters and people riding slowly will make you ride slowly, too.

• Don't train. Instead of getting on the bike for a workout, use it for a trip to the coffee shop or post office. Wear casual clothes rather than riding clothes for the proper mindset.

92 Strength Training During the Cycling Season

CHALLENGE! You've read my support of weight training and keeping strength levels high as we get older. But, you ask, how can you find time to ride and also to lift? You’re hard pressed just to get out on the bike as much as you want.

Weight training is a quick way to stimulate muscles to get stronger. It also helps you retain muscle volume as you age. Also, a strong upper body is important for comfort on the bike. It helps performance when you pull against the handlebar in sprints and on steep climbs. These benefits are why a good whole-body program is important each winter, but you need to continue lifting during the cycling season to retain the gains. You certainly don’t want to lose upper-body strength when you need it most.

SOLUTION

Fortunately, your in-season resistance-training program doesn’t need to be elaborate or time-consuming. Maintenance is the goal. Twice a week (on a rest day from cycling and on an easy riding day) do 1 upper-body pulling exercise, 1 upper-body pushing move- ment, a lower back exercise and crunches for the abdominals.

Exercises

• Pulling. Pull-ups, dumbbell rows or bent rows with a barbell.

• Pushing. Pushups, dips or bench presses.

• Back extensions. A simple way to strengthen the lower back.

• Crunches. No machinery needed.

Do 1, 2 or 3 sets of each exercise with a moderate resistance that permits 10-25 repeti- tions. The whole routine should take only 10-15 minutes, twice a week.

What about leg exercises? You probably don’t need to do leg exercises like squats or leg presses when you’re riding frequently, but some cyclists continue them all year. It's your call, but climbing and motoring in big gears is a lot more fun.

Painful Legs

CHALLENGE! A friend of mine started riding a month ago. He’s having fun but he also has a complaint: At the beginning of a ride his legs burn, especially on hills. Later in the ride, they hurt less and he breathes easier. Is this abnormal? Can it be prevented?

93 After only 4 weeks of riding, patience is what this fellow needs. It takes much longer to convert untrained leg muscles into endurance-trained muscles. Specifically, he’ll have to convert a sub-group of fast-twitch fibers (physiologists call them FOG fibers) so they have more endurance capacity. He will also need to develop more capillaries to transport oxy- gen-rich blood to the working muscles, and that takes time—about a year to develop sig- nificant endurance capacity. To put it in perspective, coaches say that aspiring racers need 5 years to find out if they're going to be any good.

SOLUTION

• Warm up better. Any cyclist’s legs can burn early in a ride when they're asked to provide power or strength. It’s important to go slowly at first to loosen mus- cles and kick-start circulation. Rookie riders with good athletic ability often climb early hills too fast or in too big a gear because they’re doing it with fast-twitch fi- bers—the same ones needed for jumping and running fast. But these fibers build up a lot of lactate, causing the burning sensation. They also fatigue quickly. So if your ride has a hill close to the start, gear way down so you can spin up with a light resistance, even if it's at an embarrassingly slow speed. In fact, ridden this way, an early hill can be an effective way to warm up. On tamer terrain, simply start easy in a moderate gear and gradually increase both the gear and cadence during the next 10-15 minutes until your legs are loose.

Tip! Finish rides by gearing down and spinning easily for at least the last 5 minutes. This "cool down" period will reduce the waste products of exercise in your muscles. Your legs will feel less tight or sore when you begin the next ride.

Saddle Sores

CHALLENGE! The worst saddle sore I ever had started as a tiny pimple in the midline of my crotch. I ignored it and continued to train for the upcom- ing state time trial championship. That meant lots of miles on my TT bike, bent low over the aero bars with extra pressure right where the sore had sprouted. Soon, it felt like I was sitting on a white-hot dagger of pain. In the race, I couldn’t concentrate on going fast. Usually the pain of time trial in- tensity blocks out minor aches, but this saddle sore’s screaming consumed my attention. I don’t mind suffering in a time trial, but not from feeling like I’m being impaled on a sharpened stick by an ancient Assyrian lynch mob.

Saddle soreness can be downright miserable, and a nasty boil can make riding impossi- ble. The tiniest zit soon feels like Mount St. Helens erupting. Nearly as painful are abra- sions in the crotch area from shorts with an irritating seam or from rain- or sweat-soaked fabric rubbing your inner thighs. Even the pros, hardened by thousands of miles in the saddle, fall victim to what cycling physician Arnie Baker, M.D., calls crotchitis. Fabled tough guys like and have dropped out of races when the pain became too great. Three-time world road champion Oscar Freire lost most of the 2005 season when a persistent saddle sore made it impossible to ride.

94 Most medical experts agree that the pimple or boil that marks the typical saddle sore re- sults from skin bacteria that invade tiny surface abrasions or irritations. Remedies have come a long way since riders would put a slab of raw steak in their shorts to cushion the abraded area. Of course, avoiding saddle sores is better than curing them. Here’s how:

SOLUTIONS

• Check bike fit. If your saddle is too high, your hips will rock and you’ll strum your soft tissue across the saddle on each pedal stroke. The result is irritated skin and a greater chance of infection. If your saddle is too far to the rear, you’ll slide forward onto the narrow nose, again irritating the skin. If you suffer from chronic saddle sores, have your position checked by a certified coach or knowl- edgeable bike shop employee.

• Reduce saddle pressure. Move around on the saddle and stand frequently to take pressure off your crotch. Sit in the middle area of the saddle for most riding but move to the rear on climbs. Stand for 10 seconds every couple of minutes. In fact, use any opportunity to get off the saddle for a short time. Stand on small hills, while accelerating away from stop signs and at the back of a paceline. If the saddle isn’t in contact with your crotch, it can’t irritate it.

• Choose shorts with a well-designed liner. Modern synthetic "chamois" are less apt to cause problems than the real leather liners of yore. Look for chamois without prominent seams and edges. You may need to experiment with different shapes and materials to find one compatible with your anatomy. Females often do better with specific women’s shorts containing a liner sewn with a curved "baseball" pattern rather than one with a center seam.

• Find a comfortable saddle. Saddle shape is crucial. Excessively wide saddles rub on your inner thighs as you pedal. Narrow saddles don’t provide enough support for your sit bones—most weight is borne by soft tissue that can quickly become irritated. Saddles with cutouts are comfortable for some riders, agony for others. The "best" saddle is highly individual, but buying different models can quickly become expensive. Look for a bike shop that has a selection of loaner saddles that you can use to find the model that works best. Or, perhaps you can team with other riders to trade saddles so everyone can try different models. It's not unusual for riders to have several rejected saddles gathering dust. Another rider's discard might work well for you.

• Use a lube. To prevent the chamois from abrading your skin, apply a lubricant before each ride. Try a commercial preparation such as Chamois BUTT'r or As- sos. Some riders swear by a light coating of petroleum jelly, though it's more dif- ficult to wash off (which is actually a benefit during a rainy ride). Apply a quarter-size dollop to your crotch and to the key area of the chamois.

• Come clean. Always wear a clean pair of shorts for each ride. Some riders find that washing their crotch area lightly with mild soap or even a surgical scrub be- fore lubing helps avoid problems. Dermatologist and cyclist Bernie Burton,

95 M.D., claims that if you smear a thick coat of petroleum jelly on your chamois each day, you can wear the same pair of shorts a week without laundering them. This is, however, a minority opinion.

• Be a quick-change artist. After a ride, never lounge around in damp, sweaty shorts. Such conditions breed bacteria and encourage them to enter abraded skin. As soon as possible, slip off your riding shorts, shower or clean up with soap and water, and put on light, well-ventilated clothing. Men: Try boxer shorts instead of briefs to avoid leg bands cutting across the junction of your glutes and hamstrings, right where many saddle sores form. Women: Consider not wearing anything under your skirt or sarong.

• Take your medicine. Ask your physician for a prescription for a 2% topical gel called erythromycin (one brand name is Emgel). This is an antibiotic principally used to treat acne. After all, most saddle sores begin as a pimple. I learned about erythromycin before a trans-U.S. ride covering 3,400 miles in 24 days. I rode the whole distance without a single saddle sore simply by applying the gel to any "hot spot" that began to develop.

How to Continue Riding

Sometimes, despite your best preventive efforts, you'll get a saddle sore. Take some time off the bike to let it heal. Otherwise, there is risk of it becoming much worse and even forming a cyst that requires surgery to remove. You don't want that.

But what if you're on a multi-day tour and must continue riding? Try these solutions:

• Change your shorts or saddle. Your problems are probably isolated in one small area—a boil or an abrasion—so changing your saddle or shorts can re- distribute the load. Some people on multiday tours take a spare saddle— mounted on a seatpost to make the change easier—and switch every couple of days to change pressure points. Even easier is packing 2 or 3 brands of shorts.

• Use a heavier lubricant. If you’re getting irri- tated, try a more viscous lube. One favorite is Bag Balm, designed for sore cow udders but available in most pharmacies. Aquaphor ointment is an- other good choice. Petroleum jelly can be used.

• Protect the sore spot. Buy a tube of Preparation H ointment and apply a dab to the saddle sore before and after riding. Prep H contains an anes- Sore? Have a donut. thetic that dulls pain. While at the drug store, look in the foot-care section for a package of foam "donuts" made for protecting corns and calluses. Place one so the sore is in the center to stave off direct pressure. The adhesive on the back will hold the donut in place, and you could even fill the center with Preparation H.

96 Saddle Factors

Ultra cyclists face many challenges in rides ranging from double centuries to the 3,000- mile Race Across America. One of the toughest tasks is finding a comfortable saddle. It's the definition of "mission impossible" because any saddle will become uncomfortable dur- ing 10, 20 or more consecutive hours of riding.

Most of us aren't on the bike for such extreme periods. For most of the riding we do, we should be able find a saddle that does not produce uncomfortable irritation and sores. Remember that position on the bike, cycling shorts and riding technique pay important roles as well. Let's solve these issues.

• Saddle position. If the saddle isn't level, it can irritate your crotch. The same is true if it's too high, too low or positioned too far forward or back. If you haven't gotten a professional bike fit at your local shop, now might be the time to make sure you're sitting on the saddle properly. For do-it-yourselfers there are 2 eBooks available at RoadBikeRider.com—Andy Pruitt's Medical Guide for Cyclists and Bike Fit by Arnie Baker, M.D.

• Shorts. The wrong shorts can definitely make any saddle uncomfortable. Look for a large, smooth, lightly padded liner, then improve its comfort by using a chamois cream such as Assos or Chamois BUTT'r. You might have to try sev- eral brands of shorts until you find a chamois that's maximally compatible with your anatomy.

• Move and stand. Some riders create their own discomfort because they ride nearly all the time seated. Remember to stand every few minutes for a least a few seconds. Make use of natural opportunities to get out the saddle, as when climbing or accelerating from stops or turns. Sit forward and rearward as well as in the saddle's center. Even small shifts can appreciably change pressure points.

• Consider leather. Many ultra riders swear by the Brooks B17 traditional leather saddle. It's wider in back than most modern saddles so provides fuller support for the sit bones. True, a leather saddle with steel rails (Brooks makes several models) is heavy compared to the typical synthetic saddle. But saving a few ounces doesn’t mean much if you’re riding in pain. A good source for Brooks saddles is RivendellBicycles.com.

Knee Protection

CHALLENGE! I can always identify an experienced rider on a cool day in the spring or fall. She’s wearing tights or leg warmers when the rookies are bare-legged. How can you tell when to cover up?

97 A cyclist's knees are directly exposed to the onrushing air. There's danger at lower tem- peratures because a bike's speed generates significant wind chill. This cooling effect can cause various knee ailments, especially tendinitis.

SOLUTIONS

• Cover up at 65. The standard advice is to ride with knee protection when the temperature is 65F (18C) degrees or lower. Covering up keeps your knees and muscles warm, maintaining ample circulation. There’s no disadvantage to riding with covered knees well into the spring. Your tan can wait!

• Beware of snow banks. Be especially careful if snow is lining the road. The thermometer may say you don't need leg protection, but snow on the roadside creates a microclimate of much cooler air at knee height.

• Use warmers. Knee warmers or leg warmers work better than tights when you can’t decide if you need to cover up, when a chilly start will give way to balmy temps, or the mercury will fall at high elevation or late in the day. Warmers can easily be carried in a jersey pocket. They can be put on or removed in a minute.

Intensity of Interval Training

CHALLENGE! We’ve looked at ways to gauge intensity during hard work- outs. Heart monitors and watts meters are popular choices. But perceived exertion—riding based on how you feel—also works well. The problem is that inexperienced riders don’t have a finely tuned sense of how much pain they need to endure to get benefits from intervals. In fact, I often get ques- tions from readers who do interval workouts and then feel guilty for not suf- fering more or being completely exhausted when they're done. What's the right intensity?

It’s not necessary to make every interval workout feel like you just returned from a life-or- death polar expedition. Feeling good after a hard workout isn't a bad thing. Here are some guidelines for developing an accurate sense of how hard to work:

SOLUTIONS

• Make short intervals intense. Make sprints or intervals of up to 60 seconds quick and intense. You should feel like you would after a weight training work- out—invigorated and fresh, not exhausted. Realize that it's hard for an endur- ance-trained rider to exert all-out in a 10- to 30-second effort. Your muscles and nervous system aren't accustomed to explosive efforts so it's nearly impossi- ble to go truly hard. A sprinter, on the other hand, can focus his energies so he explodes for 15 seconds of effort and is really spent afterwards.

98 • Ease slightly on longer intervals and climbing. But keep them hard enough to require a longer period of easy spinning between repeats. Interestingly, men- tal attitude is often the best indicator of when you’re going too hard. If you’re eager for the next interval, and feel a little guilty that you’re not doing them quite hard enough, you’re probably doing them correctly. If on the other hand, you’re dreading the next time up the hill, it’s time to back off the intensity.

• Monitor recovery time. You should recover from any hard workout in a rea- sonable time—24 to 48 hours. If you don't, either the workout was too hard, your recovery period was too short or you’re not eating enough carbohydrate to refuel your muscles. Another cause is dehydration, a key cause of fatigue. Down plenty of water and sports drink before, during and after hard workouts.

Achilles Tendon Pain

CHALLENGE! Australian endurance cyclist Gerry Tatrai suffered mightily in one Race Across America. As a former winner of the event, he knew what to expect from the distance, heat and discomfort of up to 22 hours per day in the saddle. But what he didn’t expect almost knocked him out of the race—severe Achilles tendon pain. What can you do if this injury strikes you, too?

Many riders think that because cycling is a low-impact activity, they're immune from the sort of injuries we associate with explosive sports like basketball. And it's true that you aren't likely to rupture a tendon while riding. But Achilles problems on the bike aren't due to one sudden wrench. As Tatrai learned, they're caused by repetitive movement. And if the saddle is a little low or you push too hard on hills at a low cadence, small errors add up. Pretty soon you're hurting as badly as if you'd tried to dunk from the foul line.

When your Achilles tendon is complaining, check these areas:

SOLUTIONS

• Is your saddle high enough? Sometimes the body compensates for an ex- cessively low saddle by bending too much at the ankle at the top of the stroke, which in turn puts strain on the Achilles.

• Are you pulling through excessively at the bottom of the stroke? It's good to work on this skill occasionally but in normal riding it shouldn't be a conscious act. Overemphasis could cause Achilles stress.

• Are you climbing a lot? Riding short and steep hills can bring on a case of Achilles tendinitis if you stay seated and push hard. Stand more or gear down so you can pedal against a lighter resistance.

99 • Are you recovering sufficiently? If you're sure that your position is right, try easing off the climbing. If that doesn’t work, take some time off the bike. Tatrai taped his ankle so it was held rigid as he pedaled, but he was trying to complete RAAM and wasn’t about to stop unless he simply couldn’t ride anymore. How- ever, it’s unwise for the rest of us to be so determined. Achilles problems can become chronic. It’s better to rest, take ibuprofen to reduce pain and swelling, apply ice for 15 minutes 4 times a day, and then ease back into riding.

Difficulty Falling Asleep

CHALLENGE! With the popularity of spinning classes, many busy riders are hitting the gym during the week and riding outside only on weekends. That’s fine, but it means exercising hard early in the evening. The high ex- ertion level and pounding music can get you so revved up that falling asleep several hours later is difficult. What's gained in fitness can be offset by reduced rest. Bike commuters who ride home late after the rush hour are faced with a similar challenge.

Intense workouts done late in the day can make sleep difficult for 2 reasons. First, spin- ning (or any hard riding) raises your body temperature, and it remains elevated for several hours. Sleep, on the other hand, requires a gradual cooling of the body. Second, spin classes are hard. Your body gets into the "flight or fight" mode with plenty of adrenaline circulating. It takes time to unwind and be able to sleep.

SOLUTIONS

• Change your schedule. If possible, exercise earlier in the day. Even a couple of hours earlier can do the trick. Or maybe there's an early-morning spin class that lets you use the invigorated feeling to launch your day rather than having it keep you awake at night. Noon workouts have the same benefit—they help you avoid the mid-afternoon blahs at your desk.

• Learn to calm down. If you must ride in the evening, try some relaxation exer- cises close to bedtime. Rhythmic breathing and muscle tensing/relaxing can prepare your mind and body for sleep.

• Learn to adapt. If nothing works and you're still missing your bedtime, accept it as part of your cycling lifestyle. You'll get less sleep on spinning nights but you can make it up somewhere else in your schedule.

100 Leg-Length Inequality

CHALLENGE! Sometimes, the location of aches and pains can tell you about biomechanical flaws. For instance, here’s a question from an RBR roadie: “I’m 63, average about 100 miles per week and enjoy multiday tours. Recently I’ve developed pain in the tissue over my right sit bone. On long rides, this varies from discomfort to an actual sore if I keep riding. I've tried a number of saddles with no improvement. What do you think?”

Problems like this are hard to solve without an examination of the rider's position, but saddle-induced pain on one side is often caused by sitting crooked on the bike. This re- sults in excessive pressure on one particular part of the load-bearing anatomy. In most cases an out-of-kilter sitting position results from a leg-length inequality. This rider is probably shifting his hips to the left to compensate for the short leg, and that's loading the right side of his sit bones. Changing saddles won't help much if he'll be sitting crookedly on the new one, too.

SOLUTION

When leg-length inequality is suspected, it's time to see a sports medicine physician or physical therapist skilled in cycling matters. If an inequality is found, the cleat of the short leg needs to be shimmed. The procedure was covered in chapter 1.

Tapering for a Big Event

CHALLENGE! Any racer can tell you the sad truth of hard training: Some- times it makes you faster, but sometimes it merely makes you tired. The more you want to do well in competition, the more you train. That’s fine if your body is adapting and your performance is improving. But many hard- charging competitors train hard right up to the event that they’ve pointed to all season. Then they’re shocked and depressed when they find them- selves with legs so tired they can barely ride at training speeds.

It's not unusual to have dead legs and declining performances after a period of hard train- ing. Racing can add to the fatigue if you've continued to train hard between events. But there's good news: If you plan ahead, you can reverse the fatigue from too much training and convert it to superior performance on any given day. It takes time and self-control. Here’s a 3-week tapering protocol that will have you surprising yourself with your big- event strength.

SOLUTION

• Week 1. Do a week of extremely light workouts. Ride 3 or 4 times but limit each outing to an hour and go very slowly—no pressure on the pedals. If you

101 don't feel like riding, don't. This easy week will help you recover from the hard training (or overtraining!) you’ve been doing. It’s a necessary foundation for in- creased fitness.

• Week 2. Increase the tempo on 2 training days but don't do hard intervals or get into fast group rides that put you into race mode and intensity. You want to keep your fitness but not try to develop it further. It won't happen at this point. If you overdo it you'll only dig yourself into a deeper hole.

• Week 3. I recommend the tapering procedure found in my RBR eBook, Basic Training for Roadies. The idea is to ride about an hour each day at an easy pace but include a series of short intervals to sharpen your fitness. As you get closer to the event, reduce the number of intervals by 1 each day. A typical third week would look like this:

6 days before the event: 5x2 minutes at a "hard" pace 5 days before: 4x2 minutes 4 days before: 3x2 minutes 3 days before: 2x2 minutes 2 days before: rest day 1 day before: easy spin with 2 short sprints

Try this protocol. For most riders, it leads to much improved performance because it's a combination of rest and race-like intensity.

Stretching

CHALLENGE! You’re excited about your sleek new bike and the more aerodynamic position it promises due to a lower handlebar. But on your first ride, you discover that you simply aren’t flexible enough to maintain that low position. Your back hurts and your hamstrings feel crampy. So you embark on a stretching program including some yoga poses. After 2 months of dedicated work you feel much better on the bike but notice your new-found limberness doesn’t seem to last. After an hour you’re tight and uncomfortable again.

Your position on the bike is governed to a large extent by how flexible you are in the lower back and hamstrings. Fit expert Andy Pruitt, author of the RBR eBook Andy Pruitt's Medical Guide for Cyclists, argues that if you can’t touch your toes without bending your knees, you won’t be able to get into a low, relaxed position.

However, flexibility is specific just like the rest of training. Just as endurance gained by running doesn’t transfer directly to cycling, the ability to put your palms flat on the floor without bending your knees doesn’t necessarily mean that you can sustain a low position on the bike. When you do flexibility exercises, you normally hold each stretch for 10-15

102 seconds. But when you pedal, your low back and hamstrings stretch and shorten rhythmi- cally 90 or so times a minute. It’s not the same thing.

Does that mean that stretching is useless for cyclists? No—but consider the following cy- cling-specific stretching hints.

SOLUTIONS

• Be patient. Flexibility isn’t built in a day—or a month. It took your whole life to get as tight as you are now. It’s going to take months to get loose. Don’t rush it. Look on a stretching routine as a lifetime commitment.

• Concentrate on the hamstrings and low back. These are the areas most im- pacted by the cycling position. Sure, it’s important to be flexible all over, but cy- clists should spend most of their stretching time where it will do the most good.

• Think ahead. Establish your riding position based on your flexibility after 2 hours on the bike, not on how you feel when you first climb on. Feeling comfort- able at the beginning of a ride is no guarantee that such a blessed state will continue. Position your handlebar high enough to ensure comfort at the end of a long ride.

• Ride relaxed. If you’re a stiff rider who grips the bar hard and holds significant tension in your jaw and neck, you’ll be unlikely to sustain an aero position. Sure, a low posture is based on hamstring and low-back flexibility, but tension any- where in your body will infect the rest of it, especially parts that are under stress from the cycling position. Always strive for relaxed muscles as you ride.

Shaving

There are numerous reasons for shaving legs and you've probably heard some of them— aerodynamics, cooler air flow, impressive muscle definition, ease of massage, less skin abrasion in a crash and ease of cleaning and bandaging wounds that do occur.

The last 2 reasons are the most valid and make it smart to shave through the winter, too. Often, cyclists who routinely shave their legs from spring through fall stop in the off sea- son. They enjoy shelving the onerous chore for a few months. But easier road-rash treat- ment is still valid in the winter. You might want to enjoy some massages, too.

By the way, leg warmers stay up better with shaved legs. The elastic gripper around the top clings to bare skin, but it slides down when there is leg hair. This is one reason lots of roadies shave year round.

If you haven't shaved before, here are 2 tips:

103 • Use clippers first to remove as much hair as possible, then tackle the stubble with shaving cream and a razor. If you use a razor for the initial denuding, it'll every half inch and take forever. After that, a once-per-week shave (with a regular or electric razor) should be all it takes.

• Don't shave for the first time on the eve of an important event. The weird sensa- tion of sheets touching bare skin has been known to cause restless sleep. To avoid this problem, shave about 3 days before the event.

CHAPTER 6

Environmental Challenges

his eBook is all about challenges. Cycling is full of them, on every ride. Punctures, T rough roads, dogs, wind, rain. The satisfaction of cycling depends in part on overcom- ing tough conditions. Of course, some riders handle them better than others. The most self-reliant cyclists seem to be ultramarathon riders, able to go 200 miles or more (some- times lots more) by themselves, unsupported. When they have a flat in the rain at 3 a.m. they simply get on with what has to be done.

Handling environmental challenges requires more than unshakeable mental strength. You also need to know specific solutions for each tough situation. That’s what this chapter is about. I’ll show you the best way to physically handle many of the demanding conditions you’ll meet on the road. You'll have to develop the mental strength on your own.

Headwinds

CHALLENGE! Southeast Arizona has startling desert scenery, abrupt climbs and wide roads. That’s why endurance cycling legend Lon Halde- man has conducted his springtime PAC Tour Training Camps there for more than 10 years. But the spring desert also has wind—lots of wind. I've coached at these camps each year and recall times when headwinds made double digits on the speedometer impossible. Then when the road turned we had to lean hard into the wind to stay upright. Riders looked like Yan- kee clippers under full sail tacking to windward. Tumbleweeds rocketed across the road like cannonballs shot across our bow.

Wind is tough. The longest climb eventually ends, but a nasty headwind can last for the duration of a multiday tour. Even on a regular training ride, a 10-mile headwind section can seem like an eternity. But if you want to ride consistently, you’ll have to ride in the wind. Here’s how to combat those zephyrs and use them to help you improve.

104 SOLUTIONS

• Embrace the wind. I know some riders who combat wind by swearing that it doesn’t exist. They argue that you can’t see the wind so why even acknowledge its presence? By refusing to recognize wind’s existence, they claim they can keep their sanity when it blows day after day. Of course, ignoring something that exists is the opposite of sanity. But we all live by our illusions!

I prefer a more positive mental approach to wind. For instance, I try to remem- ber that headwinds actually help improve fitness. They make you work harder for every inch you cover—terrific for power building. But in the final analysis, it doesn’t matter what mental approach to wind you adopt as long as you’re out there riding in all conditions. Don’t let wind keep you indoors unless it’s blowing so hard that you’re in danger of being unable to control your bike.

• Gear down. Some riders fight headwinds by grinding heroically in a normal gear. That’s hard on your knees and on your motivation. Instead, just like on tough hills, choose a gear that allows you to maintain your normal cadence. With a sprightly spin you won’t go significantly slower, you’ll have more fun— and your knees will thank you.

• Get aero. When you’re fighting a headwind, get low with your back almost flat. Either put your hands on the drops or on the brake hoods with your forearms horizontal. The idea is to keep the brunt of the wind off your chest. You may feel funny in a full aero tuck going 12 mph, but in a howling headwind every aero advantage helps. In fact, this gives you the chance to tune your position. It's al- most like being in a wind tunnel. You can feel how small changes in upper-body posture make a difference to speed and pedaling ease. Experiment with aero- dynamics by putting your hands in different locations on the bar, moving your elbows in or out, and altering the angle of your back.

• Lose the jacket. Baggy clothing can be a real drag in headwinds. If you’re wearing a jacket, it’ll act like a drogue chute, flapping loudly and sapping your power. On chilly, windy days, wear an extra layer under your jersey instead of a jacket.

• Get help. Headwind and crosswind sections are great times to be in a small group. Even one riding companion means that you’re on the front only half the time. A strong group of 4-6 riders can cleave a headwind and make the miles fly by.

• Learn to echelon. Crosswinds mean that the area of maximum draft is not di- rectly behind the rider in front but off to his leeward side. When a group of riders is in this staggered formation it's called an echelon. A crosswind makes drafting safer, too. When you’re offset to one side, the road ahead isn’t obscured by your riding partner. You can see potholes and other hazards better. So far, so good, but strong crosswinds mean that you’ll have to overlap wheels to get maximum draft, and that can be dangerous. To reduce the risk, heed the No. 1

105 rule of echelon riding: When relinquishing the front position, always pull off into the wind.

• Find shelter. On windy days when all you'd like to do is enjoy the bike, head for roads that offer windbreaks. These may be low in the valley or sheltered by trees, buildings or walls. Tall corn works well, but where the heck is it in the spring gales when you need it? If it's really howling, ride a circuit a couple of miles around so the wind alternates from the front, side and rear at frequent in- tervals. Without this option, ride into the headwind to start the ride, then let the tailwind blow you home after the hard work is done.

• Use a tailwind. When you turn and get a tailwind, go fast. Some riders coast or soft pedal to recover from their hard work into the headwind. But in an event you can gain significant time with tailwinds if you keep a steady and brisk pace. Shift to a bigger gear, spin and enjoy the ride.

Rain

CHALLENGE! In 1993, I rode PAC Tour's northern transcontinental route starting in Everett, Washington. The first day dawned gray and wet for the ride over Stevens Pass to Wenatchee. The rain continued all the way to the top of the climb—several hours of riding in a drenching downpour. I remember thinking that if the 23 remaining days of the tour were going to be equally sodden, I’d have web feet and a very rusty bike before arriving in Yorktown, Virginia.

Rain is hard on bikes and riders. Even cleaning up after a rainy ride is a hassle. Cycling clothes need to be washed, shoes need to be dried and a wet, gritty bike means a big maintenance project. No wonder most cyclists hate to ride in the rain and rarely do it on purpose.

But in most areas of the country, if you don’t ride in the rain, you won’t ride regularly. Let's look at ways to make rain riding doable if not downright fun.

SOLUTIONS

• Get tough. The best way to develop a mindset that will allow you to enjoy rain is to become a flahute. That’s the name given to Belgian riders who train in the worst that a northern European winter can offer. Flahutes are out there training in rain and sleet on roads that have become a treacherous mixture of mud, sand and cow manure. (Talk about a bike clean-up project!) So get a couple of posters picturing mud-covered Belgian riders hammering the slimy cobbles in a spring classic. Put the posters near your bike. When you look out the window at the falling rain and your resolve falters, study those pictures for a few moments. I bet you’ll decide that your locale is experiencing merely a gentle shower.

106 • Remember this tenet: It's never as bad on a bike as you imagine it'll be from inside your cozy home.

• Wear a jacket made for rain. You can ride in most any inclement condition if your trunk is warm. An ef- fective cycling jacket for wet weather is made of wa- terproof material. (Don't believe claims that a jacket is “waterproof and breathable.” No such material exists.) A waterproof jacket may make you sweat more but at least it’s warm sweat. With proper ventilation—front zipper, underarm zippers, rear flap—a jacket will al- low enough airflow to keep you from overheating. The other crucial design feature is a tail long enough to cover your butt and saddle when you’re bent over in the riding position, particularly if your bike doesn't have fenders (see below). Rear-wheel spray will soak A cycling-specific unprotected shorts and their liner. This can easily rain jacket has a lead to chafing and saddle sores. tail long enough to

keep you covered • Use fenders. If you ride often in rainy conditions, in the bent-over fenders are a must. They keep your back, butt and riding position. feet protected from wheel spray. Of course, they'll still get wet from falling rain, as will your bike, but fenders stop the worst of the road spooge that can dirty everything. You can buy clip-on plastic fenders for supported tours, carrying them in your gear bag in fair weather and quickly mounting them when rain threatens.

• Sharpen your vision. Clear or amber lenses are a big help in hard rain and gloomy conditions. Some riders use RainX or a simi- lar product, designed for auto windshields, so water will sheet off and allow clearer vision.

• Protect your legs (or not). Lower legs are hard to keep dry because of wheel spray, but thighs are somewhat protected This all-weather beater bike is outfit- by the upper body leaning for- ted for wet roads and even darkness ward. In summer conditions, with front and rear lights. A rack trunk most riders simply wear shorts holds rain gear, food, tools, spare and let their gams get wet. In tubes and other essentials. chillier weather, wool or polypro-

107 pylene leg warmers or tights do a decent job of holding in body heat even when they're soaked. Or you can make like a Euro pro and apply a hot cream to your knees, then coat your legs with a heavy oil or petroleum jelly. Waterproof rain pants usually don’t work well. They’re hot, bulky, noisy and catch lots of wind.

• Own a rain bike. It's hard to be dedicated roadie without an all-weather "beater" bike. It doesn't need to be expensive or fancy. A frame that fits is im- portant, and so is being able to duplicate your ideal riding position. Components can be low cost as long as they are dependable. Many a beater has been built up with parts taken off a better bike during upgrades. Install fenders, a rear flasher and even a rear rack with a trunk. In it you can carry spare tubes and extra food, and stow your rain jacket and leg warmers when they're not needed. When you have a bike that isn't afraid of the wet, you won't be either. It can double for commuting and errands.

Cold

CHALLENGE! Bicycles are warm-weather conveyances. Feeling the wind in your face is a bracing experience—unless that wind is colder than a po- lar bear’s backside. Still, there are times when you need to or want to ride in the cold. If you don't venture out in frigid temperatures, in many parts of the world you'll be off the bike for months.

I’m writing this in early April in western Colorado. It’s 60 degrees and the maple trees are budding. But there’s snow on the surrounding peaks, and the folks at the Weather Chan- nel are predicting a cold front with temperatures dropping 20 degrees by the weekend. Winter hangs on at 6,000 feet. But even at its January worst, cold weather doesn't stop me from riding, and it shouldn't stop you, either. If you know how to handle freezing condi- tions, you can ride through winter with your fitness intact. Here’s how to beat the Big Chill.

SOLUTIONS

• Start rides into the wind. Wind can lower the effective temperature enor- mously—the dreaded windchill effect. For example, at a relatively balmy 40F degrees a headwind of 25 mph means that the cold you feel is equivalent to only 16F degrees. That's if you're standing still. Add the forward speed of the bike and it feels even colder. Still, the best tactic is to plan winter routes so take you into the wind on the outward leg. You’ll get the coldest part of the ride done early before your clothes become damp with sweat. Later, when you’re wet and tired, the frigid blast will be at your back, blowing you home.

• Dress in layers. You’ve probably heard about layering your clothes in cold weather but for cycling there are a few special tricks. On your upper body start with a base layer of thin synthetic material. A turtleneck works great. If the raised neck irritates your skin, protect the area with petroleum jelly or a com- mercial skin lube such as Body Glide. Add a short-sleeve jersey for moderate

108 temperatures, a long- sleeve jersey or light fleece when it’s below freezing. Cover everything with a windproof shell that has a full front zipper for ventila- tion.

Legs are easier to keep warm than your trunk or extremities. Most riders are comfortable in leg warmers down to about 40 degrees. Lightweight tights work to about freezing, and heavy winter-specific tights, available with windproof front panels, are the ticket when the temperature really dips. Don’t make the mistake of wearing too little on your legs even if they feel warm. You risk injury if your knees aren’t appropriately covered. Also, your body will shunt blood from your feet to your under-protected legs, leading to seriously frigid tootsies.

Hands, feet and head are the hardest body parts to keep warm. Wear a thin balaclava under your helmet, tucked into the turtleneck to prevent air leaks. It'll cover your head, ears and neck, and you can pull it over your chin and even over your mouth. Insulated gloves work fine into the mid 30s. For colder temperatures, go for so-called “lobster” mitts with 3 compartments, 1 for the first 2 fin- gers, 1 for the last 2 and the other for the thumb. This de- 3-compartment sign pools heat for more warmth than gloves while "lobster" mitts. allowing more dexterity than full mittens. Feet will be helped by fleece-lined shoe covers. Add more warmth by removing insoles so you can wear thick wool or polypro socks.

• Protect your privates. Men, beware of penile frostbite. A cold wind can pene- trate your tights and cycling shorts, freezing tissue that’s near and dear to you. Tights with windproof front panels help. You can also tuck a square of polypro material down the front of your shorts for additional protection. An old wool or polypro glove or works great.

• Slow down. The faster you go, the greater the windchill. It makes sense to re- duce your ground speed while still keeping resistance substantial for a good workout. A dedicated winter bike—set up like a rain bike—can easily weigh 30 pounds. (For winter riding it's an advantage to install bar-end or down-tube shifters, which are easier to operate with fat gloved fingers than Shimano STI or Campy Ergopower brake/shift levers.) Add heavy wheels and tires for durability and you won't be going anywhere fast.

You'll get the same result by riding a knobby-tire mountain bike on the road. You’ll go slower and the wind resistance of a slightly more upright position guarantees you’ll have to work harder. As a bonus, you’ll spare your good road bike from soakings in salty slush and snowmelt.

109 Frigid Feet

CHALLENGE! You’ve tried several tricks to keep your feet warm during cold-weather riding—larger shoes with 2 pairs of socks, plastic bags to block wind—but no luck. Your frigid feet are always the limiting factor in winter riding.

I suspect that some people have naturally warm feet and can get by with minimal foot covering in glacial conditions. I wear my regular cycling shoes in winter with normal socks and cover the shoes with fabric booties. I do fine in western Colorado all winter as long as the temperature doesn't dip below about 20F degrees. My wife, however, gives up cycling when it's below 40F degrees because her feet freeze immediately.

SOLUTIONS

• Clipless pedals. If the bike you ride in winter sports pedals with clips and straps, they can contribute to frigid tootsies. The metal clips conduct cold and the straps can cut off circulation. Get in the modern era and install clipless ped- als. Another advantage is they allow you to wear thicker foot coverings. The only limitation is if your feet become so fat that they brush the crankarms during pedaling.

• Chemical foot warmers. These have become popular among northern riders because they supply heat for as long as you want rides to last in winter. The packets are small and can be used in the toe area inside shoes or between shoes and booties. Spares can be carried if a ride lasts more than their typical 3-4-hour life. You can find chemical warmers in sporting goods stores.

• Battery-powered socks. Some recent versions don't actually wire the socks but put a heating pad under the forefoot. Either way, cyclists have found this technology to be effective. Depending on the air temperature, battery life can be 4 hours or more. Two potential drawbacks: the ongoing cost of batteries (unless rechargeables are used) and the fact that a battery pack has to be attached to each lower leg.

• Dress more warmly. I'm not talking only about your feet here. What you wear on other parts of your body affects foot comfort. If your core is cold, blood is pulled from the extremities to keep your vital organs warm. Your hands will get cold and especially your feet, being the farthest from your core. Sometimes a warmer hat under your helmet, an extra vest under your wind shell or heavier tights is all it takes to keep your feet from freezing.

Tip! If your feet do become cold or numb during a ride, you can often restore warming circulation by getting off and walking you bike for several minutes.

110 Darkness

CHALLENGE! If you’ve never done it, night riding seems dangerous. I know what you're thinking: "What if cars can’t see me? What if I hit things in the road that I don't spot it time?" A short worry session can produce an- other dozen what-ifs of similar magnitude.

I’ve had very little necessity to ride in dark- ness. But the few times I’ve done so, it was a magical experience. The most memora- ble was at the 1995 Furnace Creek 508, a grueling race that traverses Death Valley. Our 4-man team used it as a dry run for the next year's Race Across America and we covered the 508 miles in a bit less than 24 hours, a senior (age 50-plus) record that still stands 10 years later. Here’s how I de- scribed riding from darkness to daylight on one of my shifts:

“Now I’m motoring along on a rare flat road with the eastern sky glimmering into light. A sliver of crescent moon hangs above a jagged silhouette of desert mountains. A shooting star arcs toward the horizon. It’s like there are no other cars or people any- where—just me and the bike rolling through the desert under fading stars. Even my labored breathing is rhythmic and peaceful. I ride out of darkness into the illumiNITE fabric looks normal in day- town of Baker.” light but it's reflective in headlights, making it an excellent choice if you With the development of new lighting tech- ride after dark. (Photo courtesy of Perfor- manceBike.com) nology, riding at night is as safe as in day- light. In fact, some would argue that it’s safer because there are fewer cars on the road and a driver’s normal response to a brightly lit object on the road is to slow down and swing wide when passing. Many night riders contend that they get more motorist respect in the dark than during the day.

Let’s look at how to make night riding safe and fun.

SOLUTIONS

• Be bright. The trick to nighttime safety is to make you and your bike as bright as a Christmas tree. This means a strong headlight, a bright taillight and reflec- tive tape on crankarms, pedals, shoes, rims, helmet and seatstays. Add a re-

111 flective vest or clothing made of illumiNITE fabric and you’ll be visible for hun- dreds of yards with little weight penalty.

• Use strong lights. There are dozens of lighting systems and the technology improves constantly. Rechargeable batteries are lighter and last longer than those of only a few years ago. LED lights that run on replaceable batteries take advantage of the much smaller power drain compared to bulbs. They work fine for suburban riding when there is ambient light. A high-power rechargeable sys- tem will let you safely ride dark country roads at the same speed you'd use in daylight. Check with your local bike shops for a lighting system that's right for the night-riding conditions you'll be experiencing.

• Have a back-up light. A headlight on your bike is fine for seeing the road ahead but not so good for changing a flat or fixing a mechanical. And you need a backup light in case your main light fails. A helmet-mounted light is a great so- lution. It shines where you look for repairs and also allows you to see clearly to the side of the main beam, for reading street signs or seeing into upcoming turns, for instance. But in most situations you won’t need to ride with a helmet light turned on. You can save it for special occasions.

• Choose safe routes. Sometimes you can find a commuting route that’s lit by streetlights all the way to work. Then you don’t need an expensive light for flooding the road. What you do need is for motorists to see you coming, so an inexpensive light powered by AA batteries and shining at driver-eye level works great. Look for lightly traveled streets, too. And remember that a road that’s busy at rush hour may be nearly deserted and wonderful for riding after 8 p.m.

• Keep your bike in top shape. Use good tires with a protective belt under the tread so you won't need to be changing flats in the dark. Similarly, make sure your bike is in good mechanical condition. You don't want a breakdown on a late-night ride when help is hard to come by.

Bad Road Surfaces

CHALLENGE! My home roads in western Colorado have to rank with the worst pavement in the free world. The current budget crisis hasn’t helped. I know what you're probably thinking: "Oh yeah? He should see what I have to ride on!"

Here’s what I encountered during just one short stretch on a recent ride:

• Two miles of chip-and-seal. The “chips” were river-run gravel the size of golf balls.

• Three miles of old, cracked pavement pocked with potholes.

112 • Two miles of even worse pavement. For some reason the county painted a white line on the edge. But the pavement was so eroded that for much of its length, the paint was actually on the dirt.

• One mile of fairly good pavement, laid down last summer. But 5 will get you 10 that it’ll be chip-and-sealed with tennis ball-size rocks within 6 months.

Not all roads are created equal. Some are smooth ribbons of asphalt with a wide shoulder and light traffic. Others are narrow, paved (if that’s the word) 20 years ago with chip-and- seal, mined with wheel-eating potholes and road kill. But if you want to ride, nasty pave- ment is just part of the adventure. These tips will help you survive the worst that the local highway department dishes up for you.

SOLUTIONS

• Seams and cracks. When these run parallel to your direction of travel they can trap your front wheel and take you down. Concrete roads are notorious for wheel-eating ruts, but they can occur on blacktop, too, due to poor road con- struction or settling. Sometimes deep grooves carved by farm machinery or other heavy equipment appear when you least expect them. So be vigilant, par- ticularly when entering a shaded section that makes cracks and seams hard to see. Your objective, of course, is to keep your wheels out of them. If you’re trapped, don't try to turn the front wheel to the right or left. That's likely to make you crash. Stop pedaling and either continue in the rut until it ends, or jump the bike up and to the side to untrap the wheels—a skill that you don't want to be trying for the first time in emergency conditions.

• Rough or broken pavement. When approaching long sections with a gnarly surface, sit back, shift to the next higher gear, grip the bar top or brake lever hoods, and steadily pedal through. The slightly bigger gear adds resistance and slows your cadence so you can pedal smoother with less bike chatter.

• Painted lines. They can be as slippery as ice when they're wet. Be wary enter- ing any corner in urban areas where there may be painted crosswalks or other road markings. Slow down and do your best to cross them at a right angle with your bike perpendicular.

• Wet metal. Anything metal and wet is ultra slippery. This includes manhole covers, plates, grates, metal bridge surfaces, railroad tracks and so on. Again, slow down and do your best to cross wet metal at a right angle with your bike perpendicular.

• Fallen leaves. Leaves usually aren't a problem when you're riding straight through them (though they may cover potholes or other dangers). But in a cor- ner, watch out. If there is wetness between the leaves, they can be slippery and cause you to slide down. In the off season when there are freezing tempera- tures overnight, what appear to be dry leaves can actually have frost between them or even an ice slick underneath.

113 • Gravel and sand. When the loose stuff is on a flat section, use the same tech- nique described for rough or broken pavement. When sand or gravel is in a turn, initiate your turn before reaching it. Then straighten the bike just before you cross. If your bike is upright on a slippery patch, it’s less likely to slide out from under you. Once safely across, lean the bike again to complete the turn.

Tip! Never hit the brakes while the bike is leaned over on any slippery surface. A braked wheel tends to go straight, so if you clamp on the stoppers while you’re cornering, you’ll almost certainly go down.

Dogs

CHALLENGE! I like dogs—but I hate dogs, too. I like them when they’re obedient and restrained by their owners. But when they’re running loose, nipping at my heels, pooches’ claims to be man’s best friend seem strained at best. I'll bet you can relate.

My RBR partner, Ed Pavelka, once lived in North Carolina where free-range dogs are a southern tradition. His record for being chased on one ride stands at 23 mutts boiling off porches and from under parked pickups, eager to do him harm.

Most cyclists fear dogs more than traffic or bad pavement. There’s something about a snarling canine, teeth bared, taking dead aim on a quivering and defenseless calf that raises a rider’s heart rate faster than the toughest hill. It’s an atavistic experience that harks back to slavering saber-tooth tigers somewhere in our primate subconscious. But dogs aren’t the major hazard we often make them out to be. With a few techniques and some understanding of their behavior, you can easily survive confrontations.

SOLUTIONS

• Be kind to animals. Rule No. 1: Try not to hurt the dog. It’s not his fault. Dog problems are really people problems arising because some dog owners don’t control their pets. And remember, that savage mutt chasing you is probably a much-loved family member. I bet you’ve heard, while some mongrel is slavering and growling at you ferociously, “He won’t hurt you!” Owners know their pets' temperament and that's why they aren't nearly as concerned as you are. When you threaten or otherwise antagonize a dog, it almost guarantees a hostile re- sponse each time you (or other cyclists) ride by.

• Know the neighborhood. Memorize the locations of loose dogs on your usual routes. Make a mental note of their habits. Do they always chase or only when they’re in the mood? Are they fast or slow? Do they look threatening or do they just like to bark? With this knowledge, you can plan your approach to each house that harbors a problematic pooch.

114 • Recognize their turf. Dogs are territorial. When you ride by, they want to chase you out of their bailiwick. Once you’ve passed their often invisible bound- ary, they usually lose interest and return to lying in the sun, dreaming of dog biscuits. So try to get past their territory before they know you’re there, or ride faster so they don't catch you before they hit the brakes.

• Understand their tactics. A dog's instinct is to attack from behind. Therefore, most of them will give you the lead position even if they could head you off. Dogs that are having their version of a good time may simply want to race up beside you, which gives you the chance to pedal fast to the boundary, where a Fido will make a 4-paw skidding stop.

• Ride quietly. In a group, tell everyone to stop talking well in advance of the dog’s lair. Don’t shift, cough or use squeaky brakes.

• Take the lane. Traffic permitting, ride in the middle of the lane. There’s less crunchy, noisy gravel than at the side of the road. Also, you'll have more room to maneuver.

• Protect your front wheel. Many dogs have no intention of biting you but they may cause a crash by inadvertently running under your front wheel. Be espe- cially wary when the mutt is making a beeline from the side and needs to turn up the road alongside you. His paws could slip out from under him on the pavement, resulting in a body block against your wheel. If this is going to hap- pen, move off the rear of the saddle and lift the handlebar. You may be able to clear the dog as if he were an aspen log on a mountain bike trail.

• Use stern commands. Okay, maybe he flunked obedience school. But most dogs understand a loud and commanding “Stop!” or "No!" Some riders have success with a primal scream, unleashing it when the mutt gets close to startle him and make him shy away. But even if a dog doesn't comprehend voice commands or is hard of hearing, he's likely to know sign language. Keep pedal- ing and make a threatening gesture by raising your pump, water bottle or even your fist like it's holding a rock.

• Keep your feet in the pedals. I've seen riders kick at dogs, but I don't recom- mend it. You'll lose speed, balance and bike control, which could make you veer or even crash. The moment it takes you to find the pedal and clip in might be all it takes for the dog to come back and nail your calf.

• Take evasive action. If the road is flat or downhill, increase speed as you ap- proach a chasing dog's territory, then be prepared to sprint if he comes after you. This should get you past the boundary before he can catch up. However, if the road is uphill and you’re going slowly, a large dog will easily overtake you. If he's a threat to bite, jump off your bike and hold it between you and the dog. Sometimes that's all it takes for the dog to declare himself the winner and amble off. If he's still looking for a kill, brandish your frame pump or water bottle and

115 slowly back away. Shout for help and perhaps the dog's owner or a neighbor will pop out of a house and call him off.

• Protect against packs. If you're chased by several dogs simultaneously (Ed's Carolina record was 8), it gets scarier. There's no sure-fire way to handle this predicament. The dogs are likely to come up from both rear quarters, snarling and snapping. Ride fast (the adrenaline will help), scream at them, raise your frame pump and swing it if you have to. Hope that after they've chased you a few hundred feet they'll be satisfied and let you go. If you see the pack in time and you know you'll be cornered, consider U-turning and sprinting out of there. If there isn't time and they're coming, jump off the bike with your back against a tree, hedge, fence or something else that will protect your rear. Call for help and use your bike to fend off attacks. Sometimes 2 or more dogs will cooperate, one holding your attention with feints to your front while the other comes in from be- hind and sinks his teeth into your calf. Think in terms of military tactics: protect your rear.

• Try pepper spray. An aerosol can of Halt! in your jersey pocket can save the day if you need to dismount and fend off one or more dogs. It's less effective and can even backfire, blowing back on you, if it's used while you're riding. When a dog is coming alongside, you need to hold the can low and spray it well ahead, like a quarterback leading a receiver. It's hard to do it right, and the di- version could upset your bike control. The good news is that it takes just a bit in Fido's eyes or on his nose to make him wish you'd never ridden by.

• Call the law. You have the right to use the roads without fear of attack. If you have a problem dog on your normal training routes and it's ruining your rides, report it to local law enforcement. If you're ever bitten, notify the authorities and seek immediate medical attention. You must be sure the dog is current with its rabies shots.

Heat and Humidity

CHALLENGE! I don’t know how it is in your area, but here in western Colorado global warming is no joke. Warm weather seems to hit earlier in the spring and summers seem hotter. Our drought conditions haven’t helped, either. But there isn’t much we cyclists can do about climatic shifts (other than riding instead of to reduce air pollution) so we have to adapt to the heat and, in much of the country, the accompanying humidity.

Fortunately, a bike is ideally suited to hot-weather exercise. It goes fast enough to create a breeze that helps evaporate perspiration and cool the body. Bikes have water bottle cages so you can haul enough fluid to replace much of what's lost through sweat. And bikes cover ground quickly so you’re usually in range of a convenience store to replenish liquids when you run low. Let's look at several key ways to combat summer's heat.

116 SOLUTIONS

• Hydrate. I've talked about the importance of staying hydrated, but let me reiter- ate here: The warmer it gets, the more important it becomes to keep your fluids topped off. It isn’t simply a matter of performance, although as we've seen, the loss of as little as 2% of your body weight as fluid can seriously compromise performance. Worse, becoming dehydrated in hot conditions can be health- and even life-threatening. So always start each summer ride with 2 full bottles. If you’re going to be out for more than 90 minutes, you may want a back-mounted hydration pack as well. And always plan your route so you can refill at conven- ience stores or park water fountains along the way.

• Carry an on-bike “refrigeration unit.” In the 1996 Team Race Across Amer- ica, we encountered extreme late-July heat—nearly 110F degrees in Califor- nia's Mojave Desert and over 90F degrees in the East with similarly high humidity. We countered the blast furnace by wearing back-mounted hydration packs filled with ice to reduce our core temperatures. And as the ice melted, we had a supply of cold water to drink, further lowering core temps. Hydration packs are a great solution for extreme heat.

• Dress for distress. When it gets hot, choose light colors and relatively loose garments. You don’t need a baggy, flapping jersey but a little looseness will help air circulate and sweat evaporate. If you’re concerned about sun damage to your skin and wind drag doesn't matter, consider long-sleeve garments spe- cifically made for hot-weather riding by such companies as Sun Solutions.

• Use sunscreen. Hot weather is accompanied by a greater risk of sunburn. Fried skin will make you feel even hotter and more uncomfortable, so use sun- screen with a high SPF rating. Check for a sport-specific formula that sweat won't rinse off. Smear plenty on areas that are often neglected: nose, lips, ears and the back of the neck and knees.

• Ride early or late. Many cyclists in hot regions ride at dawn or dusk during summer to escape the hottest part of the day. Consider getting a good lighting system so your rides aren't delayed or stopped by lack of daylight.

• Reduce intensity. When it’s hot, more of your body’s power production has to be diverted to cooling. So you can’t work as hard or as long as in lower tem- peratures. Think about how hard it is to ride more than an hour on the trainer when the room is warm. It’s the same outside in hot conditions. So reduce both intensity and distance. Save the hammerhead century rides for cooler weather.

117 CHAPTER 7

Indoor Training

ost cyclists hate winter. In much of the country, winter means snow, rain, ice, early M darkness and other assorted climatic disasters that make roads unsuitable for riding. So cyclists in northern latitudes envy their brethren in the sunbelt. “Wouldn’t it be great,” they think, “to ride all year round!”

Well, maybe. But 365-day cycling has major drawbacks. The most important is the risk of burnout. If you ride all the time, you may lose your enthusiasm. I know—you’re sure it wouldn’t happen to you. But trust me, it does. Mild winter weather can be a curse, leading to overtraining in February and complete apathy and exhaustion by June, just when you should be most eager to ride.

The worst burnout I ever experienced followed a particularly cold and snowy winter many years ago. I should have been skiing and lifting but instead I bought an ergometer, figur- ing I’d ride a couple of times a week to stay fit and come out flying in March. Compared to the only other indoor training device of the day, rollers, the ergometer proved to be addic- tive. It was perfect for miserable suffering—no balancing required, no bike cleanup, no time squandered. Just hop on the devil machine and pedal yourself blind. My workouts in- creased from 2 per week to 4 or 5.

Within 2 months I hated the ergometer. I loathed the unvarying scene out the window as I pedaled and I despised the music I used to distract my teeming brain. By spring, the very thought of pedaling—inside or outside—made my flesh crawl.

So regardless of where you live, the cycling off-season should be a time for crosstraining with weights and aerobic activities. Throw in some trainer time (or reduced-time riding for those of you in warm climes) and you’ll head into the next season raring to go. Get it wrong and you’ll have hung up the bike by the summer solstice.

This chapter is about appropriate winter training programs, how to make the most of the hours spent on indoor trainers, and how to build strength with resistance training.

Workout Methods

CHALLENGE! An RBR newsletter reader complains: “I’m afraid I’m going to go nuts this winter, stuck on the trainer. Should I do varied midseason- type workouts or should I simply picking 3 or 4 trainer-specific routines and keep rotating through them?”

I feel for riders in cold climates. My Colorado home is at 6,000 feet and it gets pretty chilly. So I've also pondered this cyclist's crucial question of winter training—do a normal cycling program or simply use the trainer as supplementary work to retain some vestige of cycling

118 fitness until spring? Let’s examine the situation.

Basically, there are 2 ways to use indoor trainers. If you live where it's possible to ride outside much of the winter, you can follow a periodized training schedule. When it's too cold or snowy or dark to do the cycling workout outdoors, you can do the identical workout on the trainer. For example, if your schedule calls for intervals, pick a suitable interval workout and crank away on the trainer. Missing a 2-hour endurance ride? Slip a Tour de France DVD in your player and go for it. Indoor training isn't as boring or unpleasant if you only have to do it once or twice a week.

But if you know that you'll be riding indoors for several months, you need to use your crea- tivity to keep from going stark raving mad. In this case, follow a good periodized training program but modify it for indoor training.

The general rule is to never do exactly the same trainer session twice. Figure out what general goals your training schedule is trying to accomplish on a given day and then be as creative as possible. For instance, if the workout is supposed to increase lactate thresh- old, don't do the same boring routine of 3 repeats of 10 minutes each at time trial intensity. Try 1 minute on the trainer at a brisk pace alternated with 1 set of a weight training exer- cise. Continue to alternate riding and lifting for an hour or so. This workout has been shown to raise lactate threshold as effectively as straight intervals or "tempo" rides, and it's a big mental relief from sitting on the trainer non-stop for an hour.

The important thing is to retain your enthusiasm for cycling. When spring finally comes, you want to be eager to ride, not mentally fried from pedaling on the road to nowhere in your basement.

SOLUTION

Want training variety as well as something to make the clock move faster?

Use football games to improve indoor cycling workouts!

Years ago I wrote an article about an indoor trainer workout based on football. The idea was to watch a game on TV and go hard or easy depending on the game’s action. And, because I’m a football fan, I still do the workout. Even if you’re lukewarm about the sport, it can work. If you can’t stand football, try watching basketball, bull riding, soap operas or movies and creatively adapt the technique.

With football, simply go hard from whistle to whistle. Pedal easily while the team huddles and start another hard sprint each time the ball is snapped. Typically from the snap of the ball to the whistle ending play is only 3-6 seconds. But in half a game there’s enough ac- tion to make it a great workout.

Make it harder by doing an interval during each commercial break. This is brutal because they usually last 2-3 minutes and there are lots of them.

Other variations: Sprint longer whenever there's a pass play. Go extra hard on kickoffs and punts. Time trial when the officials try to figure out if the on-field call was correct. Or 119 time trial through halftime.

It’s fun to focus on one player and go hard when he goes hard. Pulling guards are espe- cially fun to follow and will give you a new appreciation for how hard offensive linemen work during a game. Watching a soap opera? Go hard during each argument.

Tip! Your crotch can get mighty sore on a trainer if you sit and grind away. Many riders do because there aren’t any road signs to sprint for or short hills to attack, so there aren’t natural reasons to get out of the saddle. But sitting in one position for long periods is death on the crotch. The discomfort will destroy your enthusiasm for the next trainer ses- sion.

The solution is to create reasons to get the weight off your butt. Here's a foolproof one: Set a timer to beep every 2 minutes. When you hear it, stand up no matter where you are in your workout, and crank out of the saddle for 15 seconds. You’ll finish your trainer time with much less soreness (or worse, genital numbness).

Preventing Fitness Loss

CHALLENGE! After a great season of riding, cold and inclement weather has arrived. You don't mind a rest from the bike, but you're terrified of los- ing your hard-won fitness during the long winter.

De-training is exercise-physiology lingo for losing fitness through inactivity. It takes place fairly quickly for riders with little base but much slower for those with an extensive aerobic background. Therefore, most riders don’t need to ride 5-6 days per week in the off- season. Three good workouts each week should allow you to retain much of your cycling fitness through the winter.

The biggest danger in the off-season isn't loss of fitness, it's the risk of overtraining brought on by the fear of losing fitness. Riders who are upgrading their racing category are especially at risk. They imagine how hard the next level will be and overcompensate by training hard. They cook themselves before the season even starts. "Flying in Febru- ary, fried in July" is a real danger.

It's normal to worry about losing your edge during the fall and winter. That's a long time to go without racing, doing hard group rides or completing centuries. Riders get obsessed with whether they're losing anaerobic power, time trialing ability and punch in the sprint. But they also recognize the need for an aerobic base and increased strength from the weight room. And no matter how dedicated you are to the bike, crosstraining provides a much-needed break from putting in the miles.

The best solution for adequate rest as well as training in winter? A long-range program designed both to take you to next spring with a solid base and also to put your mind at ease about your fitness. I outline such a plan in my RBR eBooks Off-Season Training for Roadies and Spring Training for Roadies.

120 Other coaches have approaches that differ a little or a lot from mine, but the important fac- tor is whether you believe in the approach you're undertaking. Once you make that leap of faith and commit to a schedule, follow it and relax. You'll be flying next spring and summer when you want to be good on the bike.

Intensity or Endurance?

CHALLENGE! I give training talks to cyclists riding Colorado’s top cross- state tour, Ride the Rockies, and these enthusiastic cyclists always have great questions. At a recent talk, a fit-looking man stood up and said, “I’m confused. Training experts say to start the year with 8-12 weeks of base training at low intensity. They tell us to ride a trainer if the weather is bad but say to go hard because it's too boring to do long, slow distance. But how much interval training can I do without hurting my aerobic base? I thought the hard stuff was supposed to come later.”

That’s a great question about one of the most contentious issues in training. Many au- thorities say you need 2-3 months of endurance rides at 70-80% of max, with no hard ef- forts, to build a base and increase capillarization in the muscles. Other experts (well backed by research) argue that you should build a base with moderate efforts while at the same time including some harder intervals. What’s the best method?

This apparently complicated controversy boils down to a practical point: Most of us don't have the time or weather conditions to do long, moderately paced rides for 3 months in winter so we have to ride indoors. And indoor riding is deadly boring if continued much past an hour. As a result, most recreational riders and many pros mix endurance-type rid- ing with harder efforts. The trick is not to overdo the intervals and schedule plenty of re- covery from any hard effort. It could be hard because it's done at a high heart rate or hard because it takes a long time.

Scheduling too much intensity too early was the mistake that coach Chris Carmichael made when he set up the U.S. national team training plan in the 1990s. That crop of riders (including Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton, Kevin Livingston and Fred Rodriguez) were doing VO2 max intervals in January—at over 90% of max heart rate. It burned them out and according to some reports, it’s the reason Armstrong couldn’t finish his early Tour de France attempts. He had great 1-day strength from the intervals but not enough aerobic base to sustain that strength through a 3-week stage race. When Carmichael changed his program to emphasize more sub-threshold work in the winter, Lance dominated at the Tour.

Add variety to relieve trainer boredom. You don’t need to go all-out. The trick isn’t to do flat-out intervals to distract your mind. Instead, simply do different things on the trainer every couple of minutes. Pedal with 1 leg and then the other, stand for a minute, do 10- second sprints at 80% effort rather than 100%, do 5-minute time trials at 80% of max heart rate rather than 90%. Trainer time will go faster but you won’t burn out.

121 Reducing Sweat

CHALLENGE! When I started riding seriously in the early 1970s, indoor trainers didn’t exist. But rollers were available so I bought a set and trained in our cramped utility room all winter. The room had 2 windows so I’d open them both and let the chilly air circulate through the room. But I still sweated buckets. In fact, I’d go through 2 or 3 sweatbands in an hour, completely soak my T-shirt and need to mop the floor afterwards. Later, I heard of a racer who trained in his garage and gauged workout intensity by cracks. If his puddle of sweat on the floor oozed out to the second crack, it was a light workout. A “4-crack ride” was a killer.

Sweating is unavoidable on a trainer because your body isn’t moving through the air like it does outside. Thus there’s little evaporation. Perspiration sits on your skin and flows as you increase intensity. It means that your cardiovascular system is working hard to keep you cool instead of powering great workouts. It can corrode your bike, too.

SOLUTIONS

• Create a headwind. Get a big box fan and put it in front of an open window. Position your trainer so your face is 4-5 feet way. Then turn the fan on “high” to create an artificial headwind. You’ll keep cooler, ride more comfortably and your workouts will be higher quality.

• Drink up. You’ll still sweat, of course, so don’t forget to gulp a sports drink every 5 minutes for so. Put extra bottles on a table or chair within reach. Also, wear an absorbent sweatband and wristbands. Protect your bike with a towel draped over the top tube or a terry sweat guard made for the purpose. Cover the floor with a plastic mat.

Beating Boredom

CHALLENGE! Here’s a question from an RBR newsletter reader, typical of dozens that I get during the winter: “I am stuck on the indoor trainer for the winter and I’m going crazy! I use headphones to listen to music but the minutes crawl by. Please send some ideas or I’ll be riding in a rubber room.”

If it seems like clock hands move slower when you're on a trainer, they actually do in a way. You're pedaling the whole time, unlike on the road, so 60 minutes on the nowhere bike is roughly equivalent to 75 or even 90 minutes outside. Boredom is nearly unavoid- able because your mind doesn’t need to balance the bike, watch for traffic or admire the scenery like it does outdoors. But most riders can get through a 60-minute indoor workout without psychotherapy if they use the following tips.

122 SOLUTIONS

• Get visual stimulation. Watch TV programs or movies. My favorite is pro road races on video. Music is okay but your mind needs to do some visual process- ing as well. If you do use headphones, don’t turn them up too loudly or you may damage your hearing.

• Divide and conquer. Break the workout into small chunks. Don’t ever do any- thing for more than 2-3 minutes. Do short intervals, alternate standing and sit- ting for a minute each, pedal with 1 leg and then the other, sprint for 15 seconds and spin for 45 seconds—anything to avoid long and boring blocks of time.

• Avoid LSD. Indoors is not the place for endurance training. Long, steady dis- tance will almost make the clock run backwards. Most riders limit themselves to 1 hour on the trainer, tops. You can do intense workouts indoors but long slogs are deadly.

• Do split sessions. If you do want to ride longer indoors to prepare for an en- durance-oriented event, try 2 daily sessions of an hour each. You’ll get both a mental and physical break, and the result will be higher quality training without so much risk of burning out.

• Do group rides. Cajole several friends into bringing their trainers to your house. Designate one person as leader, responsible for planning the workout and calling out the next drill. Group indoor rides are fun and no one ever gets dropped!

Spinning Bikes

CHALLENGE! I hate to use a good bike on a trainer. It gets sweated on, the headset might get pitted because the front wheel is held rigidly in place and there’s some concern that hard riding might stress the frame. So I have an old blue Gios from the late 1970s that I use on the trainer to spare my good bikes. Years of hammering have pretty well wrecked it. Sweat has corroded the top tube. I half expect it to break someday. So recently I searched for a stable, sweat-resistant "spinning" bike to replace Big Blue.

I don't have extensive experience with spinning bikes. But I did test the original Schwinn Spinner several years ago and I trained on a LeMond RevMaster ($995) for one winter. It was designed by 3-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond (www.lemondfitness.com). I wrote about my experience in my RBR eBook, Off-Season Training for Roadies. What I learned can be useful when you make a buying decision about any spinning bike you find.

The RevMaster is stable. I can stand and sprint without worrying that the bike will topple over. The seat adjusts to my saddle height and can be moved fore and aft just like the

123 saddle on a road bike. The handlebar goes up, down, forward and backward in the same way.

The bike comes with a spinning-style handlebar that resembles the cowhorn aero bars used by time trialists in the late 1980s. I didn't like it but an adapter allows a regular road bar to be installed. Doing so makes the RevMaster much more road-specific. The crank- arms accept the standard pedal thread so I was able to use an old pair of clipless pedals and my road shoes.

Compared to standard wind, fluid or magnetic trainers, the resistance is quite varied. It can be adjusted from none at all (the 40-pound flywheel spins unimpeded) to as much as I want. In fact, I can crank the resistance down so tight that I literally can’t turn the fly- wheel. It’s easy to do 50-rpm pedaling drills with plenty of drag. And that drag is smooth rather than jerky.

The stock RevMaster (and most other spinning bikes) has 2 faults but they're easily fixed.

First, a wide, padded saddle. I didn’t like it although it may work fine for other riders. It was easy to replace with my favorite racing model.

Second, there’s no way to tell exactly how much resistance you’re using. The resistance is increased by turning a knob that pushes a brake shoe against the flywheel. Although you can count how many times you’ve turned the knob, in the absence of a consistent starting point this method produces an estimate at best. RevMaster is bringing out a watts measuring device for this bike. It should be available by the time you read this. The Kettler Ergo Racer ($1,300) is similar to the RevMaster and does have a wattage feature (www.worldclasscycles.com/kettler_index.htm).

You can monitor your effort without a watts meter. I use a heart monitor while rid- ing indoors to check my heart rate against my perceived exertion just like riding outside.

Tip! Perhaps your only chance to pedal though winter is in a spinning class. Will it really help your cycling? You bet. Anytime you’re pedaling a bike hard and fast, your fitness will improve. The trick is to pick a class designed for cycling fitness rather than general fit- ness. The latter often include various gyrations to stress the upper body and very fast spinning against minimal resistance, which won’t help your cycling-specific power.

Riding Rollers

CHALLENGE! Riding rollers used to be the test of bike-handling skill. I remember seeing pro roadie Fred Rodriguez spinning away on a set of narrow Kreitler rollers at the Olympic Training Center. He removed not only his jacket but his leg warmers! Rollers often frighten people because they appear so unstable. It looks like you need the balance of a unicyclist to stay upright. But it’s quick and easy to learn how to ride rollers—although developing Freddie’s clothes-shedding abilities might take some work.

124 Trainers have captured the indoor cycling market for good reasons: stability, adjustable resistance and convenience. But the old-school choice, rollers, still work well and they’re definitely worth considering for winter training.

SOLUTION

Set the rollers in a doorway so you can easily reach out to steady yourself with your el- bows. Use a moderate gear (not too low) and get a steady spin going, then try balancing without the help of the doorframe.

Balance will come naturally, just like riding on the road. You'll quickly get the hang of it. Later, when you no longer need the doorway, you can put the rollers next to a wall or have a stool just to the rear of the crank so you can easily step onto it.

If you come off the rollers you won't go flying across the room. There is no forward mo- mentum. You'll just topple over. So for safety, don't set rollers close to anything that can hurt you if you fall on it, like the coffee table, TV or Fido the Wonderdog. Also, keep away little kids that might topple into the spinning spokes.

Trainer Cadence

CHALLENGE! You've been reading that a faster cadence is better, so you’re trying to increase from 80-90 rpm to 100. On the road when you reach 95 rpm, it feels unnatural. But with your bike on a trainer, you have no trouble staying smooth at 95-100. How come?

I've noticed the same thing and I think it depends on the kind of indoor trainer you're on. Because of the way resistance is generated (magnetic or fluid) some trainers reward you for pedaling faster. The resistance goes down because you're producing more pedal speed, thus dividing the workload per minute into smaller chunks. On the other hand, wind trainers get harder in a given gear when you pedal faster. Likewise, on the road resis- tance varies with speed (given a flat road and steady wind), so the same thing is going on.

Also, road riding isn't a steady effort like on a trainer. If you use a watts meter on your bike outside, you'll notice that the reading jumps around even if you're trying to maintain a steady pace on flat ground. Small changes in grade that you can’t even see, minor puffs of wind or changes in pavement texture mean that you slow down and accelerate time and time again. It's this need for frequent acceleration that makes a fast cadence harder to maintain outside.

125 Tips for the Weight Room

CHALLENGE! When I was in college, I felt at home in the weight room. I was a real platehead, weighing 200 pounds and benching 300. I was lifting with other members of the football team and we’d forged a rough camara- derie on the practice field. So we told jokes, worked hard and pushed each other to improve. It was fun.

But when I returned to the gym a few years later after finding cycling and beginning to race, I felt out of place. Cycling had stripped me of 50 pounds of the muscle I’d needed to play football. My bench press had deteriorated to embarrassing levels. I felt skinny and weak compared to the behemoths haunting the gym. Going there had become threatening and uncomfort- able. I didn't fit in.

Cyclists need to lift, both to improve cycling ability and also to retain functional muscle mass and strength as we age. But it's easy to feel intimidated by the atmosphere in a weight room. The obvious solution is not to let it bother you. But that’s easy to say and hard to do.

SOLUTIONS

• Stay home. Forget the gym and set up your own weight room at home if you have the space. It isn’t expensive to get some free weights, a pull-up bar and a step-up bench so you can do cycling-specific exercises in the privacy of your home. (My program is illustrated in Off-Season Training for Roadies).

• Change gyms. Maybe you’re going to the wrong one. Some are frequented by power lifters and body builders who are interested in lifting for lifting’s sake. You’d be better off at a facility that caters to athletes who want to improve their performance in a specific sport and use resistance training as a means to that end.

• Gang up. Recruit several cycling friends to meet you at the gym so you can work out with people who share your goals.

• Confess. Explain to the big folks at the gym that you're a cyclist. Once they un- derstand your reason for using relatively light weights and high reps, they’ll probably be more supportive.

126 Lower-Body Weight Training

CHALLENGE! An RBR roadie writes: “I’m doing squats this winter in hopes of adding strength to help my cycling next season. I read the weight training chapter in your Off-Season Training for Roadies and now I'm unsure about whether to continue working so hard in the weight room.”

The answer to whether strength training for the legs improves cycling is a definite maybe. There are 2 considerations that I went into in some detail in the eBook chapter mentioned. Here's the short version.

Sports science isn't sure that conventional resistance training helps endurance perform- ance. It depends on the individual's weaknesses. If you're naturally strong but lack aerobic power, you're probably better off riding and working on strength on the bike with short hard hills and low-cadence/high-gear repeats. If you lack strength in your legs, weights can help improve this weakness. But then you have to convert that strength into cycling- specific power with on-bike training.

There’s another consideration. As we age, it's increasingly important to maintain muscle volume. Weights are a great way to do that. I suspect that most riders over 45 or 50 should do squats or leg presses routinely just to stave off sarcopenia (loss of lean muscle tissue). Think of it this way—you’re lifting not to improve your riding next spring but rather to ensure that you’re still able to ride in 20 or 30 years.

Use high reps and relatively low weight to avoid injury. Some great riders can leg press only around 400 pounds while many strength athletes can top 1,000—but can't ride a bike very effectively. Forget the max you can do and use a weight that allows 15-25 reps. Do several sets. These higher reps will force you to use lighter weight, thus reducing the chance of injury. And higher reps are more specific to cycling as well.

Analyze your strengths and weaknesses. I'm in my late 50s and last winter when I was going to the gym, I worked up to 15 reps with 715 pounds on a "hip sled" type of leg press machine. I could squat around 500 pounds in my college football days. Did that strength make me a better rider? Well, it probably didn't hurt, but following winters when I didn't do leg presses I rode just as strongly. My cycling weaknesses occur at other places in the power production chain. So for riders like me, it makes sense to work on lactate threshold, anaerobic power and so on. These things are best improved by riding.

One-Leg Exercises

CHALLENGE! I once attended a cycling coaching seminar that featured a weight-training expert who argued that all leg exercises for cyclists—squats and leg presses, for instance—should be done 1 leg at a time. Why? Be- cause when pedaling, you push down with each leg alternately.

127 This speaker wasn’t alone in his beliefs. A number of strength and conditioning experts advocate specificity in the weight room and recommend 1-leg squats or leg presses for cyclists. Other experts, however, point out that cycling isn't really a 1-leg-at-a-time sport. Both legs are working all the time, 1 pushing down and the other, at the back of the pedal stroke, pulling up or at least trying to get out of the way. The cycling pedal stroke is a cir- cular motion with both legs contributing all the time. If this is true, 1-leg squats are only marginally more specific to the pedal stroke than conventional squats.

In addition, 1-leg squats (and their brethren, lunges and step-ups) seem to have a greater potential for injury. True, you're using less weight than with conventional leg exercises, but they require more balance and most people find them harder on their knees.

The consensus now seems to be that you should build general strength in the weight room and then convert that strength to cycling-specific power on the bike. That's done with low-rpm intervals, gradually progressing to a regular regime of conventional intervals. In this view, it doesn't matter much how you build a strength base with resistance exercise as long as you increase strength and don't get injured.

If you like to do 1-leg squats, lunges, step-ups or other such exercises, and can do them without getting hurt, it's fine to continue them during the strength-building phase of your training.

128 Coach Fred's Solutions To Road Cycling Challenges Vol. 2

By Fred Matheny

CHAPTER 8

Group Rides

love to ride by myself in western Colorado, across the mesas on narrow farm roads or up Ithe mountain passes. I think more effectively when I’m riding alone. It clears my head too— nothing like a hard 6-mile climb to Black Canyon National Park to put things into perspective.

But much as solo cycling is good for the soul, riding with a group rates higher on the fun- meter. The shared effort, the effects of drafting, the camaraderie—all combine in a magical way.

When you ride with others in a paceline, your fates are linked. Like shipmates in the days of sailing vessels who came together for 2-year voyages, one person’s actions can mean a smooth voyage for everyone—or serious injury, even death.

Make no mistake—riding at 25 mph in a large group, shoulders nearly touching and wheels inches apart is serious business. Add cars and other road hazards into the equation and teamwork becomes even more important. But done right, paceline riding is safe.

Let’s look at how to learn simple drafting, then graduate to single pacelines. After that we’ll talk about more advanced techniques.

129 CHALLENGE! You’ve ridden by yourself and feel your fitness increas- ing. You want to join group rides and jump into pacelines. But you’re un- certain how to learn and feel intimidated by more experienced cyclists.

Learning to ride with others is relatively easy, although picking up the nuances may take sev- eral years of experience. The trick is to learn in sequence starting with simple drafting on one other rider.

SOLUTIONS

• Learn to draft one rider. To get the hang of paceline riding, pair up with an experi- enced rider. Ride at a moderate pace on a safe road. Put your front wheel about 3 feet behind his rear wheel. Learn to feel comfortable in the draft. As your confidence in- creases, reduce the gap to 2 feet.

Notice how the draft is stronger when you’re closer to your partner’s wheel, less as you drift back. Notice how the draft improves when speed increases. Feel how the draft moves slightly to the side in a crosswind. You'll feel more protection to the right of your partner’s rear wheel when the wind is from the left, and vice versa.

Drafting on your partner also emphasizes the importance of smooth pedaling. If you pedal jerkily you’ll run up on the wheel in front and have to brake, which will open a gap. You'll pedal furiously to close it, then need to slam on the brakes again. This vi- cious cycle can be eliminated by concentrating on pedaling smoothly at the same speed as the leading rider.

• Practice rotating the lead. The front rider checks over his shoulder to make sure traffic is clear, then moves carefully to one side (determined by wind direction, road conditions and traffic) and begins to soft pedal. This means turning the crank but with- out apply enough power to maintain current speed. This lets you come through by rid- ing straight ahead at the same speed you've been riding. No acceleration is necessary because you'll automatically be going faster than your soft-pedaling friend. It will feel a bit harder because you're out of the draft and catching the wind. When your partner drops far enough behind, he'll move over into your draft.

Stay close as you pass each other while rotating the lead. The closer your shoulders come, the less wind each of you will have to push and the narrower your combined width—important on narrow roads so motorists can get past.

Rules for Pacelines

When you feel comfortable drafting with one other cyclist, it’s time to graduate to single pacelines in a larger group. Here are the key rules for paceline riding in general and single pacelines specifically.

130 • A paceline is a team. When you choose to ride with others, you’ve made an agree- ment and you’ve presented a guarantee to everyone else in the group. The agree- ment: You’ll work together, safely and steadily, to further the group’s goals. The guarantee: You promise that you know the basic rules of paceline riding and that you’re alert and ready to ride in company.

• Be predictable. The essence of paceline riding is predictability. Any abrupt moves or unexpected actions dangerously disrupt the paceline because experienced riders are accustomed to a certain way of doing things. If a rider near the front rides jerkily or swerves or sits up suddenly and rides no-hands, the concern and dismay radiate through the paceline like a football crowd doing the wave.

The key rule: Avoid unnecessary braking. If you’re getting too close to the wheel in front, soft pedal to let your bike slow slightly, then smoothly resume applying power. If that's not enough, feather the brakes lightly, never grab them. Or move over gradually till you're slightly out of the draft, and sit up slightly so your chest catches more air. You'll slow gently and regain the correct spacing to the next wheel.

• Blend in. The paceline is no place for individualists. The goal isn’t to stand out from the crowd by showing your strength. Rather, the goal is to meld your efforts with those of everyone else.

• Give yourself space. There’s no need to ride just inches from the wheel you're fol- lowing. This isn’t a race. Allow a gap of 2 or 3 feet so you have some room to maneu- ver in case of mishaps or obstacles in the road.

• Look up the road. Don’t fixate on the rear wheel just ahead. Look around that rider and up the road so you can anticipate things (turns, potholes) that may cause a reac- tion by those ahead of you. Let the lower edge of your peripheral vision monitor the gap in front of your wheel. My favorite quote in this regard comes from Len Pettyjohn, a former racer, team director and race promoter: “If you look at the back of the rider in front of you, that’s the last thing you’ll see before you hit the pavement.”

• Communicate! Have you ever played basketball or attended a team’s practice? What strikes casual observers is how much talking goes on. On offense, point guards call out the play and forwards yell to each other to set picks. On defense, players call out switches or warn of impending screens. But pacelines are often quiet except for dou- ble pacelines rolling at a conversational pace. When groups are going faster—and the danger is greater—let your fellow riders know what’s going on. There’s no need to shout out obstacles. Merely pointing at them is sufficient (see below). But if there’s a question about which side leaders should pull off to or whether the group is turning at the next intersection, it’s far better to ask than to guess.

• Don’t pull through too fast. The biggest mistake novice riders make is getting all psyched up when they hit the front and increasing the speed several miles per hour. This opens gaps between riders and could blow some of them off the back. It makes the paceline ragged and wastes energy as riders have to surge to close gaps. Doing your turn at the front significantly faster than the previous rider is a sure mark of a

131 rookie who doesn’t know the rules. Granted, it can be tough to know how hard to pedal when you're suddenly feeling the wind. But the solution is easy: Watch your cyclecom- puter when you’re the second person in line. When the leader pulls over, simply main- tain the speed (assuming there's no wind or terrain change).

• Take short pulls. There’s no reason to sit on the front for 10 minutes, trying to im- press everyone but exhausting yourself. Generally, give up the lead after 1-3 minutes and let other riders have some fun. Sometimes, though, a couple of riders may be much stronger than the others. Then it might be appropriate for them to pull for 5-8 minutes while the rest take short pulls or none at all. Discuss this so everyone knows what’s going on.

• Know which way the wind is blowing. Wind direction determines on which side the greatest draft is found. If the wind is from the right side, riders move slightly to the left of the wheel in front of them for greatest protection. If the side wind is strong, they’ll overlap wheels in the characteristic formation known as an echelon (see below). If you’re leading the group and riders behind are overlapping wheels, fanned out to the left behind you due to wind from the right, you must be aware and remember to pull off to the right, into the wind. If you pull off to the left you’ll knock over the rider behind you who is overlapping your wheel, and this put everyone behind him in danger.

• Stay alert at the front. As the lead rider, you’re the eyes and ears of the group. You are responsible for the whole group’s safety. You must point out road obstacles and watch for traffic at crossroads, shouting a warning if necessary. Some years ago I rode at a cycling camp run by a famous pro. In the group of about 30 attendees was the editor of a now-defunct national cycling publication. He talked a good game, but on the first day’s ride he was leading the group head down and hammering when he rode over a 6-foot board lying in plain sight on the pavement. The next few riders clunked over the lumber too. The pro wasn’t amused.

• Stay alert at the back. When you rotate to the back of the paceline, you’re in the po- sition of least danger to others. As a result, you have a privilege as well as a responsi- bility. If the road is narrow and heavily trafficked, you’re responsible for checking behind periodically for approaching traffic and calling out “Car back!” when the motorist is about 400 yards behind. If the group is in a double paceline on a narrow road, someone will yell “Single out,” and the double paceline will disperse to form a single line so the motorist can pass safely. But when there are no traffic concerns, being last in line is a privileged position. Because no one is behind you to be disrupted by your actions, now’s the time to take a drink or sit up and grab a snack from your jersey pocket. Need to remove a vest or peel your arm warmers? Do it while at the back.

• No aero bars! Aero bars are fine for time trialing or long solo rides where they help you cut through the wind and take pressure off your hands. But aero bars are unwel- come in group riding. In fact, they’re banned at the Carpenter-Phinney Bike Camps, a premier place to learn bike handling and group riding skills. A cyclist using aero bars in the paceline is less steady. Hands are far from the brake levers. At the front, a rider on aero bars is in essence leading the group with her elbows. If you have aero bars

132 mounted, assure everyone in the group that you won’t use them—then don't.

Riding in Advanced Pacelines

CHALLENGE! You’re comfortable and competent when your usual group of 3 or 4 buddies decides to hammer into a headwind in a single paceline. All of you know the rules and you’re confident that no one will mess up. But now you're going to ride with a big group from a nearby city. You've heard stories of their fast double pacelines and echelons. You don’t feel confident just jumping in. Same with joining the fast- moving pacelines that form in century rides. And your secret dream is to race—but race packs look so disorganized and helter-skelter that you’re intimidated. How does anyone survive in all that mayhem?

It’s easy to ride with a couple of like-minded friends. But it gets more complicated when you’re with a big group of people you don’t know, maybe fighting a strong crosswind. And in a racing pack or the random groups that dominate centuries, it often seems like there are no rules at all.

That’s not true, of course—big groups operate according to the same principles as small, sin- gle pacelines. Only the specifics are different. So let’s look at how to handle these advanced group ride techniques.

Double Pacelines

A rotating double paceline is an excellent technique for maximum speed. And with a slight modification they're great for leisurely-paced conversation too. Here's how:

• Form a double line and roll along side-by-side at a moderate pace chatting with your partner.

• The lead pair pulls for several minutes. When they're ready to relinquish the front, the rider leading the left line pulls off slightly to the left and the rider leading the right line drifts to the right.

• As the 2 riders soft pedal, the double paceline comes up between them. The former lead pair drifts back along their respective sides of the line and latches on behind the last pair of riders.

Remember, as the 2 riders drift back, the formation becomes 4 riders wide. This is why a double paceline should only be used on low-traffic roads or on a wide shoulder.

Want to go faster? Stow the chatter and have each lead pair take hard, short (30-second) pulls. You’ll fly.

133 Rotating Double Pacelines

Double pacelines can go even faster if they rotate and the lead riders don’t spend much time on the front.

Form 2 parallel lines like just described. However, the 2 front riders don’t pull off in the same manner. Instead, one line moves slightly faster than the other and no one dwells on the front. That is, the riders in one line are moving forward while those in the other line are dropping back.

Suppose you’re in the middle of the faster line. Follow the rider directly in front. When she gets to the front of the line, she’ll stay there only until she’s safely ahead of the front rider in the slower line. Then she’ll carefully cross over to the front of that line and reduce her speed about 1 mph by soft pedaling.

Now you’re on the front of the faster line. Don’t linger. Keep your speed steady until you can do exactly what she just did—slide over as soon as you’re in front of her in the slow line, then reduce speed.

As other riders come through the fast line and move over, you’ll migrate back to the end of the slow line. When you’re the last rider, slide over to the rear of the fast line and begin rotat- ing through to the front again.

Caution! Pay attention when you’re nearing the end of the slow line. Don't move over until you've glanced behind to be sure you’re the last rider. If you move over when someone is still back there, you could get tangled up. Even though you know who is behind you in the rota- tion and you see that rider begin to come past in the fast line, someone may have tagged on from behind. That person should announce their presence, but always make a quick check.

Echelons

In crosswinds, the area of maximum draft from the rider just ahead isn’t directly behind him. Instead, the draft is to the leading rider’s left if the wind is blowing from the right, and vice versa. In these conditions, riders hide from the wind in a formation called an echelon. Looked at from above, the riders will be offset like a slash: /

Here are 4 rules for riding in an echelon:

• Always pull off into the wind. To get shelter from the wind, the rider behind may be overlapping your rear wheel on the lee side. If you pull off to that side, you may strike his front wheel and cause him to swerve or crash, thereby taking down following riders like a line of Dominoes.

• Don't make sudden moves. Because echelons mean overlapped wheels, use extra caution. Swerves to miss a pothole or debris in the road could cause a crash. Com- municate!

134 • Watch the wind direction. When the road turns, the relative direction of the wind changes too. So does the location of riders behind you. Always remind other riders of the new conditions and make sure everyone knows which way to pull off.

• Don’t hog the road. Big echelons take up lots of space. Six or 7 riders can easily fill a lane, causing a dangerous situation for traffic. If the road doesn’t have a wide shoul- der, break your group into smaller echelons of several riders each.

Racing Packs

In a racing pack or large group like those that form during events, usually no one organizes the riders, telling everyone to ride a double paceline or an echelon. You’re jammed together like a herd of stampeding cattle. Survival tips:

• Ride near the front. It’s safer because there are fewer riders in front of you to do something that could cause a problem. Often the strongest and most experienced rid- ers are at the front.

• Avoid getting boxed in on the edge of the road. There’s no place to go except off the pavement if riders crash in front. And if the road suddenly narrows, you’ll get squeezed out.

• Stay aware of traffic. If you’re on the left side of the bunch, avoid swerving across the centerline for any reason. Even if no vehicle is coming at you, one could be pass- ing from behind. Tangling with another rider is preferable to becoming a hood orna- ment on an SUV.

Learning Group Ride Customs

CHALLENGE! You don’t have problems riding in a paceline at home. The rider at the front pulls for one or 2 minutes, then signals with a hand or elbow movement when he or she is ready for the next person to come through. But when you travel and ride with other roadies, they don’t do things the same way.

Paceline customs can vary widely in different parts of the country. Some riders silently point out junk in the road; others yell “Pothole!” at the top of their lungs. Sometimes riders auto- matically form a double paceline. Sometimes there’s no organization at all.

Generally, the paceline etiquette I’ve discussed in this chapter is standard behavior. But I’ve ridden in places where riders stay on the front until they croak and the second person in line has no alternative but to take the lead. The result is a ragged paceline, inefficient use of en- ergy, and a greater chance of crashes.

So if you’re riding in unfamiliar places and pacelines, here’s how to make yourself welcome. 135 SOLUTIONS

• Go over the ground rules. Ask how the paceline operates before you begin the ride. Don’t be shy. Get on the same wavelength as everyone else.

• Observe and adjust. It’s difficult for a newcomer to change ingrained habits. If you’re riding with a new group for only a day or 2, watch what happens and adapt as quickly as possible. It won’t do any good to give a lecture on what you perceive to be “proper” paceline behavior. In fact, it will probably alienate the group.

• Be alert. If the group rides together frequently, they know each other’s habits. For in- stance, they may not announce a turn because it's understood they always go that di- rection. Ride as relaxed as you can, but be ready for anything.

• Blend in. Don’t go to the front and try to break everyone’s legs. Rotate through as smoothly as possible staying in the lead only as long as the group average. Part of be- ing comfortable among unfamiliar riders is making them feel comfortable about you.

If you’ll ride with the new group frequently (maybe you’ve just moved to the area) either adopt their paceline techniques or, when you know everyone a bit better, mention better procedures in a way that won't ruffle too many feathers. If you diplomatically explain the advantages of doing things a different way, they may be eager to try.

Catching Up to the Group

CHALLENGE! My most memorable attempt to catch a group that had dropped me happened in a race near Boulder, Colorado. The state's in- famous spring wind was howling and echelons formed on the unsheltered prairie roads. Soon the front group was down to 15 riders.

As we came to a narrow, bumpy section of road, the rider in front of me caught his wheel in a pavement crack and went down. This forced me off the road, and when I got going again I was 300 yards in arrears with no one to help me get back.

The finish was less than 10 miles away. I put my head down and went as hard as possible to catch the group. It was agonizing. I was bug-eyed from the effort. The gap shrank but so slowly I despaired. Then the road turned slightly so what had been a quartering headwind blew from my flank, and slowly the group started to come back.

When I got within 30 yards I gave it one final hard effort and latched on to the last rider. Just as I sat up a bit and tried to catch my breath, he blew sky high and let a gap open. Oh no! I had to sprint around him and get onto the guy who was now last in line. No sooner had I made it than he blew, too, and another gap opened.

136 This happened with 4 consecutive riders. When I finally got back to the dwindled group to stay, the finish was less than a mile away and I was so exhausted I could barely pedal much less sprint. Needless to say, I didn’t get on the podium that day.

Sooner or later you’re going to have to play catch up. No matter what put you in arrears, let's see how to get back to the friendly draft of the group using as little energy as possible.

Of course, prevention is the best policy. You won’t need to chase if you don't get left behind. Here are 3 common situations where even strong riders can get dropped:

• Adding or removing clothes. If you need to stop to alter your wardrobe, you're doomed to chasing. So learn to take off a vest, jacket or arm warmers while riding. Practice in an empty parking lot until you can ride no-hands, shed clothes and tuck them in your jersey pocket smoothly. And practice putting everything back on again. When riding with others, always wait till you're at the back before you do any of this. Then you won't endanger anyone if you swerve.

• Hanging around too long at rest stops. Don’t linger at aid stations. Keep one eye on the group to see how fast they are re-assembling. Fill your bottles first and then stash food in your pockets so you can eat on the bike, not at the stop, if the train de- parts. Choose the porta-potty with the shortest line. Don’t chat and get distracted. There’ll be plenty of time to trade war stories when the ride is over.

• Inattention. On the bike, pay attention so that you don’t let gaps open and burn en- ergy closing them. You could get dropped, not because you’re too weak to hang, but because of a lack of concentration. This is especially true in strong crosswinds where a gap of only 10 or 15 feet can be unbridgeable.

SOLUTIONS

• Closing gaps of less than 50 yards. Okay, you got dropped and the group is pulling away. Assess the situation. Do you have to chase? Sometimes when a small gap opens you burn precious energy to get back on, then realize that the group had to slow for an intersection or railroad crossing. You could have rolled up to them with a lot less effort. Don’t chase hard if it isn’t necessary.

If the group is humming along, bridge as fast as possible. Don’t let a small and easily- closed gap become a yawning chasm. Even if you’re tired, sprint across the space that separates you from the group. It’s better to suffer for a few seconds than to dangle be- hind, working hard but not hard enough to regain shelter quickly. Or worse, see the gap refuse to shrink.

• Closing gaps bigger than 50 yards. Gauge your strength. If you’re completely blown, let them go. Don’t waste strength in a futile chase if you have to finish the ride by yourself. If they’re a steady 400 yards ahead and you have some reserve strength,

137 it’s probably worth the effort to try and bridge.

• Get aero. If you decide to chase, go into full time trial mode. Get as aero as possible by holding the handlebar in the drops and putting your chin just inches from the stem. Or stretch out along the top tube and put your palms over the tops of the brake lever hoods. Don’t emulate some pros and rest your forearms on the bar top while you hold onto Shimano STI cables. A small bump can dislodge your grip.

• Get help. It’s a lot easier to mount a successful chase if you have help. Look behind. Maybe another rider or a small group is coming up, intent on catching the same group you’re chasing. If so, soft pedal to recover, then jump on and help them. As coach Chris Carmichael says, “If there’s a wheel, there’s a way.” Another possibility: Maybe another rider or 2 are being dropped by the group. Ride easy enough to recover as they come back to you. Then form an efficient alliance to chase or reach the finish.

Okay, you’ve made a successful chase. Don’t be content to merely latch onto the back of the group. Look where that got me in my Colorado race! Move up several places in the bunch. If there’s another acceleration, you won’t be the last rider, in danger of getting dropped again. Tuck in the pack to get as much draft as possible and concentrate on recovery. If there's still a ways to go and conditions allow, eat and drink to regain energy.

CHAPTER 9

Long Rides

can remember, with some clarity after 29 years, my first long ride. I had started to race and Ithought that the keys to better performances were more endurance and losing another 5 pounds. Easy. Simply rack up some big miles while eating as little as possible.

That thinking indicates how little information was available on training in 1977. But secure in my ignorance, I decided that a 130-miler would make me faster for 60-mile road races and 40-mile criteriums. So I headed off early one morning to ride from my home in Montrose, Colorado, to the newly fledged ski town of Telluride 65 miles away. I was on a bike with only a down-tube bottle cage and a handlebar clamp-on cage mounted especially for the occa- sion.

A breakfast of cereal and toast got me going. Two bottles of water to wash down half-a - dozen fig bars propelled me over 9,000-foot Dallas Divide and up Keystone Hill to Telluride. Telluride, in 1977, was certainly one of the most beautiful places on earth. The old mining town, at the end of a box canyon surrounded by snowy peaks, had been a ski area for only 5 years and the development that now has altered its nature had yet to happen. I was feeling great when I stopped at the bakery to refill my bottles and buy a snack. I ate a roll, drank a

138 Coke and stashed a piece of peach cobbler, well-wrapped in waxed paper, in my jersey pocket for the return trip.

Thus fortified, I rocketed down the road along the San Miguel River to Placerville. I still felt pretty good after the gradual 13-mile grind back to the summit of Dallas Divide. On top, I ate the peach cobbler even though it was slightly squished from its ride in my sweaty jersey pocket. I noticed that while 2 bottles had been plenty for the 65 miles to Telluride, I was down to only half a bottle with 40 miles to go.

By the time I reached Ridgway and began the 27-mile headwind slog back to Montrose, my sprightly ride had turned into a death march. I had to climb a moderately steep half-mile-long hill to reach the house, and it was all I could do to keep the bike rolling. It seemed like Mont Ventoux.

So what was wrong with my plan to boost fitness and lose weight by riding long and eating sparingly? The answer is important because it reveals several crucial points about endur- ance. My ill-fated journey highlights many of the challenges you face when you ride long. And by "long" I mean longer than 90 minutes.

Let’s look at the challenges posed by long rides and find out how to surmount them. This in- formation, acquired during many years will help you avoid ending up like I did so long ago (and, to be honest, a few times since). That was the day I learned firsthand why the old min- ers gave Telluride its name. According to local lore, it’s a derivation of the phrase, “To hell you ride.” I can testify that getting back was even worse.

Managing Food and Fluids

CHALLENGE! Your club’s annual century is coming up and you’ve been training well. You’re pretty sure you can ride the distance. You’re not so sure, though, about how to fuel the effort so you don’t run low on energy or, worse, bonk and finish at a crawl.

Endurance on rides longer than 75 miles depends more on your food and fluid intake than your fitness. I rode slowly in the last 40 miles of my Telluride trek not because I didn’t have the endurance to ride 130 miles but because of fueling mistakes.

Now we know that during each hour of a long ride we need the caloric equivalent of one large bottle (28 oz.) of carbohydrate-rich sports drink plus one energy bar. This totals 300-350 calo- ries. During my 7-hour ordeal, I drank only 4 21-oz. bottles of water, one Coke and ate around 500 calories from the fig bars and pastry. I was at least 5 bottles of fluid and 1,500 calories short of the mark.

SOLUTIONS

• Use sports drinks. On long rides you should consume both water and sports drink, but the proportion should lean heavily toward the latter because it’s a carbohydrate

139 source, not just a fluid source. The usual recommendation is to drink one 28-oz. bottle per hour, but this varies with the weather and your size. The bigger you are and the hotter or more humid it is, the more you should drink.

Drinking water along with a sports drink tends to dilute the carbs in your stomach and delay the rate of stomach emptying, but this usually isn’t a significant problem. It’s worth risking optimal absorption in order to rinse away the cloying sweet taste after couple of swigs.

Carrying enough fluid is difficult on long rides. Unless there are convenient reloading points along the course, the best solution is to use a back-mounted hydration pack. It’s your choice whether to put water in the pack and sports drink in the bottles or vice versa. Perhaps a stronger case can be made for putting the drink in the pack because ice can be used to keep it colder longer. It’s more palatable to drink warm water than a warm sweet drink. Also, it helps keep sticky stuff from dripping onto your bike.

• Use solid food. Some ultramarathon cyclists can do long rides, including the 3,000 miles of the Race Across America, on liquid meal replacement products. No solid food to speak of for 8-10 days of hard riding. There’s no need to use such an extreme diet for typical long rides like centuries or even double centuries. You’ll get an adequate number of calories if you down the equivalent of one energy bar (about 225 calories) per hour along with a bottle of sports drink. Of course, feel free to eat any food you like better as long as it’s rich in carbohydrate and supplies enough calories

Generally, the cooler it is, the easier it is to eat, and the more food you will crave. European racers, competing in cold and wet spring classics, have traditionally eaten small sandwiches (known as panini) made of bread, jam, cream cheese and ham indi- vidually wrapped in foil. That sounds like a heavy, indigestible ration—unless it’s sleet- ing and the race is 160 miles long.

• Set a reminder. Food won’t do you any good if it stays in your jersey pocket. It’s sur- prisingly easy to forget to eat often enough (or at all) when you’re in an event. An ef- fective solution is to set your watch’s countdown timer to beep every 12 or 15 minutes as a signal to eat and drink.

Pacing for Long Rides

CHALLENGE! You’ve heard that long, slow rides are crucial in the early season because they build capillaries in your working muscles. This ap- proach sounds reasonable because cycling power depends on the deliv- ery of oxygen-rich blood to your quads. The more capillary density you have, the more oxygen is available to power your muscles.

But you’re confused by the other part of this “go slow” training prescrip- tion. Namely, that you should avoid all intense efforts for the first 3 months of base building because any anaerobic work will destroy the

140 newly created capillaries, thus negating all the progress you've made. Harder efforts, some coaches argue, should be postponed until after you’ve totaled at least 2,000 miles of easy spinning at the beginning of the season.

So what's the real deal?

Much research has been done about whether slow, high-volume training builds capillaries, and whether increased capillaries improve performance. For the latter point, the evidence is pretty firm. The more capillaries you have, the higher your VO2 max and potential for endur- ance activities. Weight lifters have capillary density no greater than sedentary folks, but en- durance athletes have plentiful capillaries to carry more oxygen to working cells.

As for whether extensive slow training builds more capillaries, it's difficult to get a direct an- swer. But we know that capillarization is proportional to VO2 max. The higher your oxygen up- take, the more capillaries you have. So workouts that increase VO2 max are the best workouts to increase capillaries. And guess what sort of workouts produces the biggest gains in VO2 max? Not slow miles but rather moderately long rides with relatively fast interval train- ing included. The old adage that intense workouts are the best producer of top fitness is still valid.

Peter Snell, former Olympic 800 meter running champion and now exercise physiologist, has been at the forefront of this discussion, advocating long workouts at a moderate pace. I heard him speak recently and his talk was compelling, but the physiology that underlies this view seems suspect to many observers.

There's nothing wrong with doing long, slow rides in the off-season. But they shouldn't be your only mode of training. Keep the intensity going and you'll be that much farther ahead come spring.

SOLUTION

• Add Intensity during slow rides. Your fast efforts don’t have to be reserved for hard or long training days. When you’re on an easy, recovery ride, try throwing in 3 sprints at about 90% effort. Simply get out of the saddle in a moderate gear, accelerate for 10 seconds and then spin until you’re back to your cruising speed. Don’t go all-out. In- stead, think about fluid and relaxed speed. You’ll be amazed at how these “pick ups” will reinvigorate you on slow rides—and add a touch of speed to your legs too.

Combining Endurance and Speed

CHALLENGE! You've built up to 75-mile rides and think you have plenty of endurance. But when you try to ride 75 miles slightly faster, you fade before the end.

141 Endurance is relative. How long you can ride is relatively unimportant. Anyone can ride a very long distance if they go slowly enough and take enough breaks. But most cyclists want to ride long at a specific pace. There’s a big difference between 100 miles in 8 hours and covering the same distance in 6 hours. And the difference becomes even more pronounced if you want to break 5 hours.

So endurance isn’t about how long you can ride but rather about how fast you can ride a given distance. How many cyclists have you heard bemoan their “slow” century time and chalk it up to poor endurance when they were actually upset about their speed for that dis- tance.

SOLUTIONS

• Vary your training speed. The primary training mistake most riders make is riding at the same effort level nearly all the time. They lock into a pace that’s neither too hard nor too easy. As a result, they never go fast enough to promote improvement or slow enough to allow recovery from the harder efforts. Their training palette is a monotone gray rather than red-hot bursts of effort followed by cool green recovery rides.

So on long rides, don’t lock into a steady pace that's “just a little bit hard.” One good way to spark up your long rides is to do several sprints every hour. You don’t need to sprint all-out. Simply get out of the saddle and sprint until you have spun out the gear then sit down and spin up to about 10 rpm faster. Hold this speed for another couple of seconds before spinning down gradually. Repeat 3 or 4 times per hour separated by 10-15 minutes of riding at your normal long-distance pace.

A good time to do these sprints is up short hills or as you flatten out after descents and your speed is already high. Spin a big gear to keep your descending momentum going for 10-15 extra seconds.

• Ride fast when you’re tired. Suppose your best time for 100 miles in 5 hours and 20 minutes. Your goal is to break 5 hours. You probably find it relatively easy to maintain the required 20-mph average during the first 2 hours of a 100-miler. The third hour it’s tougher, the 4th hour you’re suffering, and the 5th hour—well, you can see clearly that you aren’t going to pass the century mark at your goal pace.

So riding fast when you’re fresh isn’t the problem. It’s the ability to ride fast when you’re fried that’s blocking your goal. The solution is to train to improve at your “stick- ing point.” Do a long ride (3-5 hours) at a steady and moderate pace. Then in the last hour, include 2 repeats of 20 minutes each. Ride at an intensity of about 85% of max heart rate. The effort should feel “very hard” on your scale of perceived exertion. Spin easily for 5-10 minutes between these hard efforts.

Be sure you’re well hydrated and have been consuming enough calories during the ride. You must have fuel in your tank when you start these intervals. They’ll train your body to go hard when it’s tired, helping you overcome the “last hour” fatigue that can derail your quest for a personal record.

142 • Train for long-ride speed on short rides. Yes, you’ve got that right—you can build your speed for centuries by riding intervals on your shorter training days. A healthy dose of speedwork accustoms your body to going faster for short distances but it also has the salutary side effect of raising your cruising speed at any distance. So if you can currently average 16 mph for a 3-hour ride, an 8-week training block of twice- weekly intervals (for instance, 5x3 minutes at an intensity of about 90% of max heart rate) can raise your long-ride cruising speed 1-2 mph. You'll be going faster even though your perceived effort isn't greater.

Going Fast at the End of Long Rides

CHALLENGE! In the 60-mile weekend ride, a local cyclist who’s re- nowned for piling up big miles almost always beats you in the sprint at the end. It seems you have plenty of endurance for 3 hours, but this mega-mile dude is blowing your socks off. He does twice your weekly mileage and is known for riding an additional 20 or 30 miles before the weekend ride even begins. Does all this mean you should increase your weekly mileage in order to be competitive?

The person who does more miles in a given day (in total) doesn’t win the last sprint simply because of the additional miles. If just doing lots of miles were the deciding factor, then Race Across America competitors who had ridden 300+ miles since the previous midnight would win the sprint at 6 p.m. That's obviously not going to happen.

Instead, the big-mileage folks win because they're capable of doing extra miles and still have snap at the end of the ride. And that's a significant difference. Yes, riding more miles regularly gives them a certain amount of strength. However, there's a limit to how much sheer mileage can help you improve.

SOLUTION

• Add speedwork. At some point, probably between 150 and 200 miles per week, just increasing mileage isn't enough. You have to include substantial doses of intensity too. Above 8-10 hours per week of riding, improvement slows dramatically or even re- verses unless intervals or other hard efforts are included in the mix.

Handling Boredom on Long Rides

CHALLENGE! You love short, hard group rides and you’re the king of the lunch-time hammerfest. You know you need longer rides to im- prove—and you want to build mileage so you can stay with your buddies in the local . But your schedule precludes long rides with oth- ers and solo training bores you to tears.

143 Some people can ride for hours by themselves and enjoy it. Others can't get on the bike with- out at least one companion. It depends on motivation as well as personal psychology.

I fall into the loner category. When I started riding in the 1970s there weren't any other cy- clists in my small Colorado town, so I trained for years primarily by myself. Now we have a good Sunday group ride but once a week with others is about my limit.

If you’re a social animal, here are some ideas to help you enjoy solo rides:

SOLUTIONS

• Choose scenic routes if possible. I have great terrain to ride in so I enjoy looking at the mountain scenery, checking out the deer, elk and eagles, planning my strategy on the numerous climbs and generally having fun just riding the bike. The time flies for me. Even if you aren’t blessed with western Colorado scenic splendor, at least choose the most beautiful (or least dismal) routes in your area for your endurance rides.

• Vary your routes. One way to avoid monotony is to ride different routes. I ride flats, hills and rolling stuff on my road bike, spend some time on singletrack, and ride mixed routes of pavement, dirt roads and canal bank roads on a 'cross bike. Make it a game to see how many days you can go without riding exactly the same route twice. If you have only one decent loop, ride it clockwise one day and in reverse the next. Even that small amount of variety will help.

• Think! Steady riding often stimulates creativity. It’s a good time to work out problems or challenges you face. Sometimes ride-induced brainstorms are hard to remember, so consider taking a small tape recorder. When you get a brilliant thought, tell the re- corder and then act on it when you get home.

• Tune in, not out. Some riders use headphones and listen to music or books on tape. This is dangerous because you'll tend to tune out what's happening around you, and what you're listening to drowns out the sound of traffic coming up from behind. Tuning in to your surroundings is a way to make rides more interesting.

Gaining Weight on Long Rides

CHALLENGE! You rode 170 miles in 2 days at an average speed around 15 mph. You ate and drank just enough. You were excited about the opportunity to do consecutive long rides because you want to lose 10 pounds and certainly 170 miles would incinerate plenty of body fat. You weighed in at 205 pounds before the first ride. Then the morning after the second ride, you stepped on the scale expecting to have burned off 5 pounds of ugly fat. Oops! The scale says 208. You put on your glasses but the number is still there—you gained 3 pounds instead of losing. What went wrong?

144 Gaining weight during a long ride or after several long rides isn’t unusual. It's usually caused by fluid retention. Ultramarathon riders have been known to gain 15-20 pounds of fluid during their events.

Long-distance cyclist Lulu Weschler has written about this phenomenon in the Road- BikeRider.com Newsletter, explaining that fluid retention involves a hormone called arginine vasopressin (AVP). "This hormone," Lulu reports, "is the sole human antidiuretic hormone. It is normally and appropriately released when we need to conserve water because we're be- coming dehydrated. AVP can, however, be released 'inappropriately' for reasons including stress, pain, hypoxia, and nausea. AVP signals the kidneys to retain water while letting go of sodium. This doesn't mean something is wrong with the kidneys. It's not 'kidney failure' as is commonly thought. The kidneys are simply responding correctly to an incorrect signal."

How can you get the kidneys to begin expelling water again? There's no certain solution, but Lulu has this opinion: "If you get in trouble with fluid retention, a high salt/low water concoc- tion—say, one bouillon cube per one ounce water—may do the trick to get urination started. But we do not know for sure."

Weight gain can also be caused by successful efforts at recovery. When you store muscle glycogen, you also store considerable amounts of water. So depleting yourself with long rides and then eating and drinking enough to recover fully can lead to transient weight gain.

SOLUTION

• Be patient. Yes, long rides burn lots of calories, about 500-600 per hour for many cy- clists. But successful weight loss is a long-term project. You didn't gain that extra fat in a couple of days, so don't try to (or expect to) lose it in a ride or 2. Weigh yourself less frequently and do it in the same conditions, perhaps first thing in the morning. Eat moderately, ride consistently, and look for gradual weight loss over a period of weeks and months.

Controlling Your Pace

CHALLENGE! You plan to do endurance rides at a reasonable pace— but no matter how much you remind yourself to ride with moderate effort, your speed creeps up. Soon you’re charging up the hills and blasting along on the flats. Going fast is fun! But this makes long rides tough be- cause you use so much energy before the distance is completed.

Sounds silly doesn’t it? How can a person not know how to ride slowly enough? But for ag- gressive cyclists bent on improvement, the slower pace of an endurance ride—not to mention an easy recovery ride—is impossible to maintain.

It’s a problem for touring or casual rides too. Racers who spend most of their time on the bike going at a "training" intensity find a slower pace more challenging than riding hard. I know

145 from personal experience that no matter how much I concentrate on smelling the flowers and looking at the scenery, I still find myself pushing hills.

SOLUTIONS

There are 2 secrets to enforcing and enjoying a slower, more relaxed pace:

• Use a heart monitor. I know it sounds crazy to strap on a monitor when your aim is to go slow. But if you set the upper limit alarm at about 75-80% of your max, you'll get a signal when you're going too hard. Make it an ironclad rule: When you hear the beep, shift to an easier gear and reduce your cadence about 10 rpm. Then look for those flowers.

• Take rest breaks. Use an old backpacker's trick and stop for 5 minutes every hour. Stop at a scenic spot with a fence or hedgerow to lean your bike against. Have a snack and take a drink. Stretch. Look around. You'll feel better at the end of the ride when you do this and the breaks serve to interrupt your rhythm—a good thing when you have a tendency to lock into an inappropriately hard pace.

Completing a Long Ride on Minimal Training

CHALLENGE! In November of 1994 I hurt my knee skiing. I shrugged it off and finished the day. The powder was great. During the ensuing days as I tried to continue regular training, it was obvious something was wrong. After a month of hobbling around, I went to Andy Pruitt, now the director of Colorado's Boulder Center for Sports Medicine.

One arthroscopic procedure later, I found myself on crutches for 6 weeks, ordered to restrict my riding to the trainer without standing up. That was frustrating enough but of greater import was my cycling schedule. I had a writing assignment that required riding the Davis Double Century 10 weeks after getting off the crutches and the trainer.

I wasn’t sure I could meet this challenge. My tolerance for riding indoors was limited to an hour at a time, 3-5 days a week. With that meager base, could I get through 200 miles only 2 months post-crutch?

This tale has a happy ending. During the 7 weeks leading up to the Davis Double, I averaged about 14 hours a week on the bike with one long ride of 7 hours. Then I was able to finish the 200-mile event in less than 10 hours of riding time. And my knee is still fine (knock on wood) thanks to Andy Pruitt’s expertise.

You can complete a double century too without devoting your life to the bike. In a perfect world you'd gradually increase the distance of one long ride each week for at least 8 weeks until you could ride about 150 miles at your goal pace. That should give you enough base to actually enjoy 200 miles.

146 But if you don’t have time for that ideal training, it's still possible to add a double century (or perhaps a 300K brevet, which is 186 miles) to your riding resume. First, 3 general rules:

• Understand that it won’t be easy. You’ll have to accept some suffering if you plan to ride 200 miles on low mileage, but it’s certainly possible given a base of 100-150 miles per week for several months. Just don't plan to do the double fast or expect to finish comfortably.

• Focus on the workouts that count. Let’s say you have only a month to get ready. It's too late in the game to do big mileage on weekends. The best you can do is a 4- hour ride the first weekend, 5 hours the second and 6 hours the third. Then spin easily during the last week before the event. This isn't optimum but it will get you enough saddle time to protect your knees.

• Don’t crosstrain. If you usually mix running or some other aerobic sport with cycling, stop doing these alternate workouts during the month before the double. Ride instead so you get as much cycling adaptation as possible. Continue to lift weights for your upper body, however, because you need strength to support your body during the long ride.

Technique Tips

• Start too slow. Don't start too fast. Ride the first 75 miles at a pace that actually feels too slow, even for a 200-mile day. Continue at the same pace or pick it up slightly dur- ing the second 75 miles. Then if you still feel raring to go, you can let it loose the last 50. I’m betting you probably won’t feel too frisky by then (I certainly didn’t in the double centuries I’ve ridden) but starting slowly gives you a fighting chance of finishing on your own terms.

• Eat and drink. Stop at every aid station so you can stay hydrated and well-fed. In be- tween stops, carry enough fluid and food so you don’t run out. If you’re doing an un- supported double, you’ll need a back-mounted hydration pack, a supply of energy bars, and a route that takes you past convenience stores.

• Don’t dismount for long. Whether you stop at an official aid station or a store, don't dally for more than 8-10 minutes or your muscles will stiffen. Replenish food and fluid, then eat and drink when you're rolling again. One of the enduring memories of my 1993 U.S. coast-to-coast ride, seared into my brain by pain, was the throbbing of my poor abused quads as I tried to get going after the lunch stops. When you're averaging 140 miles per day for 24 consecutive days, you need to stop and eat—but you pay for it every time you climb back on the bike.

• Stay below your threshold on climbs. Ride hills at a steady pace well below your maximum. Going anaerobic on early climbs is a sure recipe for total exhaustion later in the ride. Have gears low enough so you can spin up hills no matter how steep.

• Catch a draft. Take advantage of all the help you can get. In an organized double century, find a compatible group and take turns at the front. Even if the group disinte-

147 grates at aid stations when some riders stop and others continue, drafting for any time at all can save valuable energy.

• Be patient. Two hundred miles is, as my grandfather used to say, “a fur piece.” It’s going to take a long time on a bike. Relax, enjoy the ride and don’t keep pushing to go faster and get it over. Sensibly turn the pedals and the finish will come.

CHAPTER 10

Climbing

n the weekend ride, climbing separates good cyclists from the merely competent. In rac- O ing, the cobbled climbs of Belgium or the high mountains of the Grand Tours create a further level of separation between ordinary pro riders and real champions.

Why? Simple mathematics involving body weight, power output and wind resistance.

On flat roads, speed is primarily restricted by the wind resistance created by your frontal area. Because big riders don’t have a frontal area drastically different from that of smaller rid- ers—and because big riders tend to generate more power than smaller ones due to their lar- ger muscle mass—muscular, rangy cyclists can go very fast on flat or rolling terrain. That’s why time trials and sprinting generally favor larger riders.

However, as soon as the road tilts upward the advantage shifts to smaller cyclists even if they produce fewer watts than their larger counterparts. Because you fight gravity when going up- hill, climbing requires a favorable power-to-weight ratio. The more watts you can produce for a given body weight, the faster you’ll climb. So to improve climbing, you must either lose weight, increase your sustainable wattage—or both.

This power-to-weight ratio is so indicative of climbing prowess that some coaches claim they can predict a rider’s success at a given competitive level by their ratio. They measure the av- erage wattage a rider can produce for the length of a long climb—say, 20 minutes—and di- vide that figure by the rider’s weight in kilograms.

So if you can average 270 watts for 20 minutes and weigh 70 kg (154 pounds) your power-to- weight ratio is 4.0, a figure that should make you competitive—but not dominating—in cate- gory 4 or masters racing. For comparison, a good pro climber of 70 kg would produce more than 400 watts and have a power-to-weight ratio of around 6.0.

But climbing isn’t all about power. After all, most of us are limited in the amount of additional power that hard training enables us to produce. On the other side of the equation, we may be unable (or unwilling) to drop significant poundage. But we still want to improve our antigravity skills, and that’s where technique and equipment come in.

148 Let’s look at the common challenges faced when climbing and how to successfully handle them.

Climbing Basics

CHALLENGE! You’re riding with a friend who’s killing you on the hills. You know you’re equally fit because you’ve accumulated about the same number of miles this season, and on flat time trials your times are equiva- lent. You weigh about the same too, so the power-to-weight ratio isn’t a reason for your suffering. Why is your friend so much better when the road tilts up?

Climbing is a highly specific form of cycling. Notice the difference in how your pedal stroke feels when you’re riding hard on the flat compared to climbing. Flat riding depends on pedal- ing speed (and aerodynamics if you’re alone). There’s only a moderate amount of pressure on the pedals if you’re in the correct gear.

But when you encounter a hill, pedal speed drops and the effort becomes more muscular than cardiovascular. That’s why in a 3-week tour, pros hate the first day in the mountains. Af- ter a week of riding flat stages, tucked in the pack and waiting for the sprint, their legs com- plain loudly when they have to generate significantly more force per pedal stroke.

What, in addition to talent and fitness, separates good climbers from mediocre ones?

• Ability to suffer. Climbing is hard work. The ability to ride right on the edge of blow- ing up means you can get the most out of your ability. This isn't fun but it builds char- acter (or so I'm told). You can work on your suffering quotient whenever you climb. When it gets tough, push a bit harder, but only for a minute or so. You have to be care- ful about training to suffer. A little goes a long way. Suffer like a dog on every hilly ride and you’ll soon overtrain and learn to hate the bike.

• Desire to improve. It's possible to have a lot of fun on the bike without being a very good climber. That's why triple chainrings and compact cranksets are so popular. If you want to climb better, you'll have the motivation to work at it. If not, there's nothing wrong with you. Just go a bit slower and enjoy the scenery. Also, motivation can vary from day to day. I've found that some days I like to climb hard and other days I want to cruise. Listen to your body.

• Love for climbing. Enthusiastic climbers have learned to love climbing. Some of them don’t go uphill very fast but they love the challenge nonetheless. Use whatever psychological gimmick that works for you to develop a love for ascending. Maybe it’s the scenery, or the satisfaction of getting to the top, or even a feeling of superiority to your cycling friends who cower in the lowlands instead of seeking out climbs. Maybe it's knowing that every hill ridden fast makes you fitter.

149 And of course there’s the poor climber’s best reason for climbing—the reward of a screaming descent!

SOLUTION

Want to climb better? Climb a lot. Good climbers like to climb and seek out hills. Poor climb- ers do the opposite, opting for flat courses when they have a choice. So pick out some hilly routes and ride them at least twice a week. Even if you’re going relatively slowly, you’re work- ing the muscles in a climbing-specific way as well as gaining confidence that you can make the grades.

Climbing for Big People

CHALLENGE! In the RoadBikeRider.com newsletter’s Ask Coach Fred section, I get lots of e-mail that goes like this: “I’m a 6-foot-2, 220-pound recreational cyclist. I can hold my own on the flats but I suffer on steep hills or long switchback climbs in the mountains. I know I will never reach the body weight and small physical size of really good climbers but what can I do to improve?”

This comes back to the power-to-weight ratio. Generally, if your weight in pounds is greater than twice your height in inches, it's hard to be a top climber. So at 74 inches tall, this rider’s weight should be in the 150-160 pound range.

Obviously that's impossible for muscular, large-framed people. I bet this guy’s bones weigh that much! Once you’ve adopted an endurance sports lifestyle and eliminated excess body fat, it’s almost impossible to further reduce muscle size. The size and shape of your arms, shoulders, chest and legs is genetically determined. Short of bicep reduction surgery, there’s little else you can do.

I sympathize with big riders’ struggles on hills even though I’m not big. I played college foot- ball at 205 pounds, then worked hard on the bike to get my weight down to my present 155- 160 pounds. But I'm still 20 pounds too heavy for my height to climb really well. I dieted like crazy one year, got down to 150 and won my category at the Mount Evans Hillclimb here in Colorado. Then I was so tired and weak from not eating enough that the rest of the season was a write-off. I looked like a skinned rabbit.

Still, there are some techniques Clydesdales can use to limit their losses while climbing with the lightweights:

SOLUTIONS

• Reduce excess fat and improve your power output. Get your body fat measured at a sportsmedicine clinic or a university's human performance lab. Top male cyclists generally average under 10% body fat while nature has seen to it that equally good women riders run 5 percentage points higher due to childbearing demands. If your fat level is appreciably higher, you may want to combine moderate caloric restriction, in-

150 creased mileage and resistance training. However, if you’re a big person with low body fat, trying to lose weight will only decrease your power output.

Losing fat and increasing power are linked. You can't increase power without consider- ing what lowered caloric intake will do to the energy available to train. It’s simple mathematics: As your weight goes down (from caloric restriction and riding) and your power goes up (from proper training) you get better on hills.

But this process doesn’t go on forever. Eventually you reach a weight and body fat percentage that is optimum for you. Try to go lower and you’ll lose power, thus negat- ing the advantages of lower weight. You’ll feel miserable too. The trick is finding your ideal cycling weight, and that happens by experimenting.

• Don’t try to follow the climbers. Many big riders make a terrible climbing mistake: They try to go uphill as fast as real climbers. Their power allows them to stick with the wispy riders for several hundred yards, but then the inexorable laws of physics take over and they’re left gasping like beached whales, off the back and out of breath.

Instead, judge the length of the hill, factor in your climbing strength, and apportion your energy accordingly. It’s better to lose a little time gradually on a climb than try to stay with faster ascenders and blow up spectacularly, losing a huge amount of time in the final third of the way up.

• Make up time on the descents. Size is a disadvantage going up, but nature provides rewards for making you big—you can descend very rapidly! So take advantage of your gravity assist. Learn to descend and corner well so you can fly down fast but safely. Often, lighter riders can't descend as fast so you’ll make up the time they gained. This is how great pro sprinters like and Eric Zabel survive long, hilly courses so they’re still in contention for the final sprint. They’ve learned how to de- scend, making up their climbing deficiencies where gravity and body mass are their friends.

Choosing Cadence and Gearing

CHALLENGE! You just bought a fine road bike with top-line components and wheels. It looks similar to the bikes under your favorite pro team. Then the first time up a tough hill, you realize that the bike not only looks like it’s for a pro, it’s geared that way too. The low gear of 39x23-teeth reduces you to a plodding cadence of 50 rpm. Your quads are seizing, you're panting wildly and you're slobbering all over yourself. What now?

There’s a tremendous disparity between a top pro's power and that of an average rider. Lance Armstrong could generate about 450 watts on extended climbs. The average male age-group racer is closer to 220 watts. So if Lance used a 39x23-tooth low gear (46 inches) in order to pedal at 90 rpm up a hill, the average recreational rider should use a triple crank- set with a 30x30- or 32-tooth low (about 25 inches) to achieve the same cadence and per-

151 ceived exertion. Yet many recreational riders insist on using the 39x23 and will put on a 25 only at the risk of losing face. The result: more slobber on the jersey.

SOLUTIONS

• Use appropriate gears for your strength and fitness. If this means a triple crankset or a compact double with a 34-tooth small ring, fine. The problem arises when riders insist on using inappropriately high gears because of peer pressure or because that’s what came on their bikes and they don’t want to replace new equipment. Sure, it’s ex- pensive to change cassettes or invest in a new crankset. But it’s cheaper than a knee operation.

• Keep your cadence reasonably high. The key word here is “reasonably.” Armstrong was famous for his high cadence when climbing. But there’s no reason to succumb to Lance-mania. Most recreational riders shouldn’t attempt to climb with his 90-100 rpm pedaling rate even with low gears. Spinning that fast on serious climbs requires the right muscle fiber type, lots of practice and ample aerobic power. But with the low gears offered by triple or compact cranksets, there’s no reason most riders can’t keep their cadence above 80 rpm, saving their knees and climbing faster than if they were to slog away in a 39x23.

• Do specialized training. Work on climbing smoothly with a rapid cadence. The French call the combination of smoothness and quick pedaling souplesse. It can be developed up to a certain point where genetics takes over.

First, find a hill that’s about half a mile long and not too steep. Find a very low gear that you can spin at 100 rpm all the way up while keeping your breathing steady. Then locate a higher gear that reduces your cadence to around 50 rpm on the climb without requiring you to work harder than in the low gear.

Now climb the hill with the low gear and fast spin. Work on spinning smoothly as well as quickly. Roll back down and climb it again in the higher gear with a slow cadence, concentrating on applying force all the way around the pedal stroke. Repeat twice in each gear. Do this workout twice a week (separated by at least 2 days) for a month.

After 4 weeks I bet you’ll find that when using a moderate cadence and gear—what you’d choose when you climb the hill in normal circumstances—your medium cadence will have much more souplesse as well as more power.

Improving Seated Power

CHALLENGE! I sometimes ride with a relatively small, light climber who flies up long hills but doesn’t time trial well. He stands on climbs, but when forced to exert power while seated—as in flatland riding or even on short hills where he’s trying to conserve energy by staying in the sad- dle—he just can’t make the bike go. What can he do to improve?

152

Small climbers often like to ascend out of the saddle while larger riders often climb seated. The reason is that when you stand, you not only need to exert enough energy to get up the hill, you need to support your body weight. Light riders pay less of a penalty for standing so they can take advantage of the benefits of climbing out of the saddle: butt comfort, more lev- erage and using their weight to push the pedals down.

But it’s important to learn to climb short and long hills while seated to conserve energy. And the power you develop carries over to seated efforts on the flat, like time trialing.

SOLUTIONS

• Emphasize the downstroke. A smooth, round pedal stroke is important. But there’s increasing evidence that top riders go fast because they stomp powerfully during the downstroke. A study by famed exercise physiologist Eddie Coyle at the University of Texas highlights this point. A group of “good state-class” racers had about the same oxygen uptake (VO2 max) as a more accomplished group of “elite national-class” cy- clists. However, the elite riders were able to ride a 40-km time trial (indoors on er- gometers) 10% faster than the less accomplished riders. Analysis with force- measuring pedals revealed that while the elite riders’ VO2 max wasn’t higher, they were able to push down on the pedals harder and thus generate 11% more power. The study concludes: “Elite national-class riders have the ability to generate ‘higher downstroke power,’ possibly as a result of muscular adaptations stimulated by more years of endurance training.”

Sure, a smooth pedal stroke is still important. Don’t penalize yourself by pedaling in a rough and jerky fashion. But if you concentrate on giving the pedal a little “kick” as it goes over the top and begins its downward travel, you may increase your seated power.

• Do specialized training. Do intervals up short hills while seated. Find a hill that’s moderately steep and takes about 30 seconds to climb. Use a fairly large gear and hit it hard at the bottom. Don’t let your cadence slow too markedly by the top—your gear should enable you to maintain at least 90 rpm for the whole climb. Remember to apply power forcefully on the downstroke while retaining a smooth pedal stroke.

Second workout: Do longer (10-15 minute) time trial-like intervals seated at a heart rate of about 85% of your maximum at a cadence of about 90 rpm. Kicking the pedal over at the top of the stroke is important in this drill too, but it’s more subtle.

Standing or Sitting on Climbs

CHALLENGE! Recently I was riding with some friends over Black Mesa near Gunnison, Colorado. The road climbs onto the mesa and then rolls up and down along its edge. It’s a rhythmless ride because you’re always climbing and descending.

153 On the third or fourth long hill, one of the riders gasped: “Is it better to stand on a long climb or should I sit and spin? I can spin faster seated but sometimes it feels better to stand and crank.”

At the time, I was too blown to answer. Now that I’ve caught my breath, here’s the current thinking: It depends!

Any rider's most efficient climbing style is highly individual. Factors include muscle fiber type, fitness, body weight and training.

Generally, heavier riders sit more because when they stand, they have more body weight to support as they push the pedals around. The saddle does that for them while they're seated, so standing exacts a larger energy penalty. Also, fast spinners, like Lance Armstrong, have trained themselves to spin. It's not a comfortable technique on climbs because it puts a pre- mium on the cardiovascular system. Lance didn't pant and gasp a lot but you will.

You'll need to determine if standing or sitting is more efficient for you. Here’s how:

Technique Tip

• On your favorite training climb, ride up while standing. At the top, record your time, heart rate, perceived exertion and, if you have a power meter, your average wattage. Recover for 10 minutes and repeat the climb, this time seated. Record your data again.

Several days later, again climb the hill twice. This time make the first ascent in the saddle and the second while standing. Record data and compare. You should begin to see a pattern of lower heart rate, lower perceived exertion and a faster time (or higher wattage) for the technique that works for you.

Be careful with these results. Most riders climb best when they alternate sitting and standing on climbs. It takes quite a bit of climbing experience to determine the best mix of the 2. That’s one reason it’s important to climb frequently.

SOLUTIONS

• Do "Mosers." You can condition muscles for standing even if you don’t have hills nearby. Try this drill, named after , a top Italian road pro in the 1970s and '80s. On a flat road, shift to a very large gear and stand. Don’t accelerate, just turn the crank at 40-50 rpm, letting your weight push the pedal down. Many riders need a gear of 53x12 or 13 to get the desired cadence and effect, particularly if there’s a tail- wind. Continue for 5-10 minutes, sit for 5 minutes and spin in an easy gear, then re- peat.

• Alternate techniques on climbs during interval sessions. If you’re doing intervals up a hill that takes 2-5 minutes to climb, alternate sitting and standing. Do this 2 ways. First, perform the initial interval standing all the way. Do the second interval seated (in

154 a lower gear, of course). Continue to alternate for the number of intervals you’ve scheduled. Or you can stand for 30 seconds then sit down and spin for another 30, al- ternating all the way to the top. You don’t have to grind up the same hill repeatedly to do this drill. If your route has several hills, simply ride the course, using these tech- niques on each hill and enjoying the variety.

Climbing Short, Steep Hills

CHALLENGE! The Belgian spring classics are famous for their steep hills. Often they’re paved with slippery cobblestones, adding to the chal- lenge. Some of the climbs are short, others stretch to a mile of agony. Top riders fly up these leg busters at unbelievable speed, averaging well over 600 watts. How do they do it?

Fabled 1970’s U.S. racer Wayne Stetina wasn't a climbing specialist but he often proved that he could climb as well as anyone on “any hill where I can see the top.” These are called "sprinter's hills" because powerful riders like Stetina, capable of high power outputs for short periods, often do well on them. But as the time taken to climb a hill stretches from 10 or 15 seconds to more than a minute, the sprinters with their great anaerobic power but short “burn time” take a back seat to powerful but more enduring riders. So Europe's hilly classics are usually won by an all-around rider who can sprint from a small group but also ride at the front on short, steep pitches.

Training Tips

• Power accelerations. The key to short hills is the rapid application of power. Here’s a specific workout: After a good warm up, roll at walking pace in a big gear of 53x12-15 teeth. Stay seated and accelerate as hard as possible, using smooth pedal strokes to get that big gear turning. Push for 10-12 seconds, then roll easily for a few minutes to recover. Repeat 3-8 times.

• Gut-buster intervals. Find a short, steep hill with a slight downhill leading into it. After a good warm up, roll fast to the base of the hill in a big gear. You should be pedaling slightly too fast when you start the climb. Stand and power to the top. If you chose your gear correctly, your cadence will be down to around 80 rpm by the top. Roll easily for 3-5 minutes to recover, then do it again, this time seated. Repeat 2-4 times.

SOLUTIONS

• Choose the right gear. Many riders tend to climb short hills in a gear that's too large. They sprint like crazy at the bottom but they’re plodding by the time they reach the top. With modern brake/shift levers you can hit the bottom of the hill in a gear that allows your optimum cadence. Then as the real work begins, shift to an easier gear so you don’t bog down.

155 • Know when to stand and when to sit. Really short hills are best done standing be- cause you can produce maximum power out of the saddle. But on longer hills, some riders like to stand at the bottom, sit and “float” in the middle, then get out of the saddle again to go over the top. Try this to see if it works for you.

• Pace yourself. Cyclists who excel on short hills know how to apportion their energy. They don’t sprint like mad at the bottom and then blow to the moon halfway up. This skill takes a careful reading of your form on that day and knowledge of just how long and steep the hill is. Again, experience counts.

• Finish the hill. This means you should be going as fast over the crest as at the bot- tom. Try it on your next competitive group ride or with a couple of buddies. Go a bit easier at the bottom. You’ll get gapped at first, but in the last third of the climb you’ll still have something left. That’s the time to accelerate and carry some speed over the top. Time it right and you’ll be amazed at how you’ll pass your fast-starting friends.

• Get good position in a group. If you’re approaching a steep hill in a large group of riders, move near the front before the road tilts up. If you hang back around 20th posi- tion, you’ll be well off the back of the leaders going over the top because you’ll get stalled by riders who are fumbling with their gears or blowing up. But if you start the climb near the front, you can use the smallest amount of energy needed to stay with the leaders. Then you won’t have to use even more energy to chase back on.

Handling Consecutive Rolling Hills

CHALLENGE! Recently an RBR reader wrote: “Climbing several hills in a row kills my legs. On a sequence of short climbs, I can feel my strength ebb away. What's the best way to build strength and stamina for attack- ing consecutive climbs?”

The usual reason cyclists die on repeated hills is simple: They attack the first one too hard and then have no zip left for the others. If you go so hard that you're panting uncontrollably, you'll be in trouble on subsequent hills. (On a single long climb, it’s the same story—don’t go too hard during the first part of the climb or you'll die before the top.)

SOLUTIONS

• Remember you’re in it for the long haul. Don’t apportion your energy for one climb, parcel it out for the total number of climbs you anticipate during the ride. You may be tagging along at the back of the bunch in the early going, but by the end of the day you’ll have enough energy to blow the doors off your fast-starting buddies.

• Spin to save your legs. Most riders are guilty of over-gearing on short climbs. They blast up the hill in the big ring, their cadence drops drastically, and they go over the top doing “squats on the bike.” This approach kills your legs quickly. Instead, use your

156 gears to keep a fairly high cadence—almost as high as on the flats (at least 80 rpm). Which gear depends on the length and steepness of each climb.

• Try the "miracle shift." One way to save energy on successive hills is to use what cycling coach John Teaford calls the “miracle shift.” As you approach the bottom of a hill that takes 60-90 seconds to climb, shift to a gear that’s lower than you’d normally use. Stay seated and spin fast for about two-thirds of the way up. If you’re with others, they’ll probably be standing, pedaling slower than you and maybe pulling ahead. But you’re saving your legs. In the final third of the climb, shift to a bigger gear, stand and apply the pressure. Your legs will still have some snap, thanks to the spinning that got you to this point, so you’ll be able to handle the larger gear. You’ll roll right on by your riding companions as they begin bogging down.

Balancing Hills and Flats

CHALLENGE! You usually do your solo training on flat terrain but have begun riding with a group and the route often includes climbs. You de- cide to train more frequently on hills so you can keep up—and maybe even put the hurt on these guys. What is the correct balance of flat and hilly training?

Assuming you have a choice of hilly rides and flat ones in your area, this is a tough decision. Too much climbing can deaden your legs and make you slower on flatter terrain. But always spinning on flat roads reduces the strength and power you need for climbs.

Decide what your goals are. If you want to do well in hilly group rides or races, you need to include more climbing than if you specialize in flat events. Generally, 2 days a week on hilly courses should be sufficient to help your climbing. But riders who live in areas so hilly that they can’t do their easy days on flat roads have a trick to limit their effort on climbs—they use a very low gear and “walk” the bike uphill.

The key is to know yourself. To decide how much to train on climbs, you need to deter- mine what cycling coach Joe Friel calls your "limiters." If you climb badly, you either need to spend more training time on climbs to improve this weakness or you need to decide you'll never be a good climber (for genetic reasons) and stick to flatter events where you have a greater chance of success.

Building Leg Strength for Climbing

CHALLENGE! A roadie recently posed this question: “I do okay on the flats but don’t have much strength in my legs. I'm 180 pounds but can only leg press 300 pounds for 10 reps. As a result, I get dropped on climbs immediately. This winter I want to lift weights to increase my power. What should be my goal for leg presses in order to climb better?”

157 The relationship between leg press strength and climbing ability is a major controversy among coaches and physiologists. Former pro rider Jonathan Vaughters told me that he could only leg press around 300 pounds, yet he set the record for the ascent of France's in- famous Mont Ventoux. Even at a bodyweight of about 135 pounds, his strength-to-weight ra- tio was mediocre. But it obviously didn't hurt his climbing.

On the other hand, Tour de France points winner Robbie McEwen, in an interview in Ve- loNews, said he was leg pressing 440 pounds for 6 sets of 26 reps. He weighs about the same as Vaughters so you’d expect him to be a better climber. But McEwen is an extremely fast sprinter who suffers on tough climbs.

SOLUTIONS

• Build strength for life. Even though experts aren’t sure how much added strength helps cycling ability, they’re sure about one thing—staying strong throughout life helps you remain vigorous and active. You should do regular resistance exercise as part of your normal fitness routine to stave off age-related muscular deterioration.

• Analyze your weaknesses. If you have great endurance but no speed or power on short hills, resistance work for your legs will probably help you improve. But if you’re a muscular sprinter who lacks endurance and climbing skills, you’ll probably want to downplay resistance work for your legs and work instead on your aerobic engine with more time on the bike.

• Consider “squats on the bike.” You can build strength and cycling ability at the same time with big gear/low cadence intervals on the road or inside on a trainer. But be extremely careful with these workouts because they can be hard on your knees. Pedaling takes place on a continuum with higher cadences associated with less pres- sure on the pedals and lower cadences with more pressure. So the only way to pro- duce enough pedal pressure to benefit leg strength is to lower the cadence and use larger gears than normal for the terrain. And if that's a problem for your knees, you shouldn't do it. Gaining some leg strength at the risk of not being able to ride is clearly a bad gamble.

On the other hand, there's really no pressing reason to do the low-cadence workouts. If you can do leg strength workouts in the gym (and they don't hurt your knees) then you can go directly to intervals at your preferred cadence. Or, as most riders do, in- clude some intervals on the bike during the weight-training period. This progression (skipping the low cadence stuff) will spare your knees and have the added benefit of being more specific to the rides you're training for.

Remember—there's no magic in any single workout or progression of workouts. All rid- ers need to adapt their training to their physical limitations and injuries.

Periodize. Strength should be built in a sequence starting with weights, progressing through low-cadence, high-resistance hill climbing, then ending with conventional in- tervals at 90-110 rpm.

158 Most riders will do best with a regular squat or leg press routine twice a week in No- vember, December and January along with one low-cadence hill workout. Then go to one squat workout per week in February and 2 weekly hill workouts in a medium ca- dence and gear. Conventional intervals follow in March when squats are stopped. There can certainly be variations on this pattern, but the basic idea is to build strength in the weight room and then convert it to cycling-specific power.

Caution! Don’t become a platehead. Leg exercises are addictive. You can work up to im- pressive poundages in the squat or leg press. It’s fun to load up the bar or machine—it gives you a sense of power! But if your priority is to become a better rider, don’t expend valuable training energy in the weight room pumping iron. Do the minimum necessary to build a good strength base and then get on the bike.

Cycling at High Altitude

CHALLENGE! I've coached at Carpenter-Phinney Bike Camps, run by Olympic road race champion Connie Carpenter and her husband, , the 2-time Tour de France stage winner. Their U.S. camps are based in Frisco, west of Denver, nestled in a high mountain valley. All rides start at 9,000 feet above sea level and go up from there to summits such as Vail Pass (10,600 ft.) and Loveland Pass (12,000 ft.). That’s in- timidating for flatlanders who come to camp. They wonder if they’ll be able to ride at such oxygen-starved heights—or even walk up the stairs.

The higher you climb, the less barometric pressure, so less oxygen can be absorbed by the blood. The percent of oxygen in the air doesn’t change but the air’s density does. As a result, there’s less oxygen to breathe. At the top of Vail Pass there’s one-third less oxygen available in a given volume of air than at sea level. No wonder climbing Colorado’s passes is so de- manding.

Because your blood can absorb less oxygen, your VO2 max (the amount of oxygen that your muscles can absorb and use) is also negatively affected. At 5,000 feet above sea level, your VO2 max will decrease about 5%. If you do the Mount Evans Hill Climb that ascends to a bit over 14,000 feet, your oxygen uptake will drop 25% compared to sea level.

Some lucky cyclists don’t seem to be affected negatively by altitude. I’ve ridden with guys from Indiana who immediately felt right at home and couldn’t tell they were 2 miles higher than their usual training roads through the cornfields. Others were badly afflicted with “Chi- cago lungs” and panted while lubing their chains. In general, though, riding at altitude isn’t as demanding as imagined. Even for those who have trouble initially, the body usually accli- mates quickly.

If your plans include some high country cycling, let's see how to breathe easier.

159 SOLUTIONS

• Arrive early (or late). Experts used to suggest arriving at altitude 3 weeks before an event. This is usually impractical, and recent research indicates it isn’t necessary. In- stead, some racers arrive at high-altitude venues the night before one-day events, ride, and head back to sea level. The thinking is that they can trick their bodies into working hard before they realize how thinly the oxygen molecules are dispersed in the mountain air. You just have to hope that your body is gullible and easily tricked.

If you have time, a stay at altitude might be beneficial because your body, reacting to the elevation, creates more red blood cells to carry greater quantities of oxygen to working muscles when you return to sea level. That’s why high-altitude camps and “al- titude tents” are popular. But some studies have shown minimal positive results from long stays at altitude and, in fact, endurance performance could worsen.

• Hydrate. You’ll lose a lot of fluid through perspiration at high elevations and not real- ize it. Sweat doesn’t gather on your skin but evaporates immediately due to the low humidity. So you’re in danger of dehydrating quickly. At Colorado cycling camps we encourage riders to keep a water bottle with them at all times off the bike and drink be- fore they’re thirsty. Have a bottle next to your bed at night and take a sip when you wake up. If you’re not urinating at least twice a night, you’re not drinking enough.

• Use sunscreen. Exposure to the sun at high altitude can result in severe burns, even on skin that has been tanned at lower elevations. So slather on the sunscreen and wear protective clothing (a long-sleeve jersey, leg warmers) if you show signs of sun- burn.

I have lived at 6,000 feet and trained at higher elevations for more than 30 years. Even though I use sunscreen and wear a billed hat while hiking, I’ve developed actinic kera- toses (pre-cancerous skin roughness) from the exposure. My dermatologist routinely burns off these small irritations with liquid nitrogen. It isn’t fun.

• Ride easily the first few days. You can ride into a high altitude event if you gradually increase the intensity of your efforts. Don’t ride hard the first couple of days. Give your body time to adjust to the elevation.

• Don’t go anaerobic. Many riders who come to the mountains feel pretty good as long as they keep their efforts reasonable. In fact, they feel so good that they’re tempted to hammer some climbs. That’s when they discover that high elevation gives new mean- ing to the term “going anaerobic.” Once they start gasping and panting, it’s often over for the rest of the ride—they won't feel comfortable again no matter how slowly they ride. Going hard at elevation really takes it out of you. So learn to ride safely below the red line.

• Sleep high, train low. In the best of all worlds, you’d be able to sleep at high altitude (9,000 feet or more) and train at fairly low elevations (sea level would be best). Why? You can generate more power at sea level and thus get a greater training stimulus.

160 But by sleeping high, your body is forced to create more oxygen-carrying red blood cells that improve your performance.

Of course, there aren’t many places in the world where you can comfortably commute from a sea-level training venue to a high-altitude bedroom unless you have a helicop- ter. Hence the popularity of altitude-simulating hyperbaric chambers (so-called "alti- tude tents") that allow low-altitude riders to sleep at artificially high elevation. Their use raises 2 issues. First, there’s some question whether they work well enough to im- prove performance. Second, their use might be considered unethical because they ar- tificially increase red blood cells by a means that not every athlete can afford.

CHAPTER 11

Descending

iding down hills is arguably the most fun you can have on a bike. You don’t have to work R like a galley slave when gravity becomes your friend instead of a mortal enemy like it is on climbs. There’s the thrill of speed, the rushing sound of wind in your ears, and the sweet pull of G forces as you lean the bike through turns.

But descending is potentially the most dangerous activity in cycling. The reason is speed. If you’re riding by yourself and crash on the flat, you’re probably not going over 20 mph. But downhill crashes can easily take place at twice that velocity. So descending enjoyment comes at a price.

The danger is magnified by turns and switchbacks on mountain roads. If you’ve honed your cornering technique on the flat (see chapter 13) those same skills transfer to downhill bends. But due to the increased speed, other challenges crop up and require additional skills to solve.

The good news is that these skills aren’t hard to develop. While genetic factors such as VO2 max and body weight often limit a rider’s ultimate potential as a climber, it’s possible to be- come a great descender through experience and practice.

Descending Position

CHALLENGE! Your fast friends go downhill in strange postures. One tucks low over the top tube and holds the handlebars close to the stem, his nose nestled between his knuckles. Another puts his hips behind the saddle, resting his stomach on the seat. And you’ve seen pictures of pros sitting on the top tube in front of the saddle, chin almost touching the front

161 wheel—although no one in your group has quite jacked up his courage to try it. What's the best compromise of speed and safety?

Once you are going so fast that you’re spun out in your largest gear, superior aerodynamics can add substantially to descending speed. So pros try to get as low and narrow on the bike as possible, even risking stability. But hey, they’re pros. They’re great bike handlers or they wouldn’t try such dangerous gimmicks. And they get paid to go fast so they’re willing to take the risk. The rest of us can afford to descend a bit slower in order to be a lot safer.

SOLUTIONS

• Be balanced. With the crankarms horizontal, rest about one-third of your weight on the pedals, one-third on your hands and the rest on the saddle. Don’t sit heavily on the saddle but rise up slightly—just enough to take some weight off the part of the saddle where you normally sit. Pin the nose between your thighs for greater stability.

• Touch the top tube. As you coast down a fast hill, press the top tube between your knees or upper calves, depending on the frame design. Doing so helps avoid bike shimmy (see below) because your legs damp vibrations in the frame that might make the whole bike shake. Even just resting one leg against the top tube can be enough to prevent shimmy.

• Keep hands wide. Grip the brake lever hoods or put your hands in the handlebar hooks within easy reach of the brakes. Forget holding the bar on top next to the stem. Sure, this position is slightly more aerodynamic, but it’s less stable due to the narrower grip and it puts your hands far from the brake levers. An experienced descender des- perately in need of another mile per hour can use it on a straight road with good visibil- ity. But it's best left to the pros.

• Look ahead. Keep your back flat and your head up. A flat back is best for aerody- namics and stability too because it gives you a low profile from the side. There’s less area for crosswinds to catch and push you off line. With your head up you can see down the road. You’re going fast so problems come at you much quicker too. Looking well ahead helps you anticipate and react.

• Feel like a cat. Mountain bike racers need superior descending skills because the surface they’re zooming down is rough, narrow, curvy and lined with rocks. Laurie Brandt-Hauptmann, a multi-time winner of the Leadville 100 off-road race, coaches riders to imagine they're a cat, emphasizing suppleness, relaxation and a “pounce” po- sition on the pedals. Think about it next time you have the opportunity to observe a cat stalking a bird or playing with a toy. Cats are both loose and coiled at the same time, always ready for action. They jump from scary heights but land lightly. Feel like a feline on descents, weight balanced on your hands, feet and the saddle.

• Relax. The biggest descending error for most riders is unnecessary tension in the hands and upper body. Bikes are meant to be piloted with a light touch on the handle- bar so the front wheel can move slightly back and forth for balance. But it can't happen

162 if you have a death grip on the bar and an advanced case of rigor mortis in the shoul- ders. Tension starts in the face so consciously relax your jaw muscles before you start downhill. Then let that relaxation flow down through your shoulders, arms, and hands. Be loose. Be a cat.

Overcoming Fear of Descending

CHALLENGE! You love to ride—but hate descents. As soon as the bike points downhill, you freeze up, slow down and stop having fun. Going 25 mph on the flats blown along by a tailwind is exhilarating. But at the same speed on a descent, you’re a nervous wreck.

Often, descending problems are primarily psychological. You do fine practicing at slow speeds but when a real hill drops below your front wheel, all bets are off.

Everyone has a speed limit in his head. At a certain velocity you’re having the time of your life—but 3 or 5 miles per hour faster and the winds of panic start blowing in your ears.

Some cyclists freak out at 30 mph. Others can be reasonably comfortable at 45. One of Davis Phinney’s favorite racing stories: About the time the 7-Eleven Team began racing in Europe, bike computers became able to hold maximum speed in memory. The team loved the new technology because they could have an informal competition to see who could register the fastest speed in the day’s race. The gold standard was to hit triple figures—100 kilometers per hour (62 mph).

That’s way too fast for most of us, and it takes an extremely steep descent to reach that ve- locity. But everyone can learn the psychological coping mechanisms to make descending at prudent speeds both safe and fun.

SOLUTIONS

• Analyze your fear. Why do fast descents make you nervous? If you tense up when going downhill quickly, you can’t solve the problem without knowing the reason. So conduct a self-analysis to find out. Have you fallen in the past? Do you feel comfort- able on the straights but panic in corners? Are you more nervous when the pavement is wet? Is being buffeted by crosswinds a big concern? Answering these questions can help reveal why you fear fast descending—and suggest ways to conquer your fears.

• Improve your technical skills. Good cornering on descents is just a matter of prac- tice. And the confidence that comes from knowing you have the basic skills will make you feel better about flying down hills. So use every opportunity to practice and hone downhill techniques. For example, find a local descent that has several moderate bends. Gradually increase your speed each time you go down. Your skill and confi- dence will grow. Don’t take chances, but gently push the envelope each time you ride. Soon the speed that formerly frightened you will seem mundane.

163 • Don’t get in over your head. Psychologically, it’s best to never descend faster than your comfort level. If you do, you'll be afraid all the time you’re going downhill. You'll get nervous even before descents begin. So keep a margin of safety. You won't lose that much time in group rides or competitive events, you'll have a lot more fun, and you'll find that your skill level increases much faster than if you were flying around cor- ners on the ragged edge of control.

Preventing Bike Shimmy

CHALLENGE! My worst crash happened the first year I rode seriously. East of my Colorado town, Cerro Summit rises 4 miles to a long ridge. Today the road is wide and gently curving, but back then it was narrow with tight bends. I was following an experienced rider on the descent and figured the way to learn how to go downhill was to do what he did.

What he did was tuck his nose onto the stem and blast through the cor- ners at a frightening speed. I had neither the skill nor the experience to emulate his daredevil descent but of course that didn’t stop me. Coming out of the third curve, my entry-level bike began to shimmy violently. I had no idea what to do, got thrown off the bucking bike and catapulted over the bars. Only the ability to fall, honed by contact sports, saved me. I suspect that strips of my skin are still on the road, drying in the sun like pieces of jerky.

Ask a dozen experts why bikes sometimes shimmy and you’ll probably get twice as many ex- planations. Theories abound, but it's agreed there isn't a universal cause. Sometimes a bike that’s been a model of rectitude for years will suddenly shake violently for no apparent rea- son.

Here are some common causes of shimmy (also called "speed wobble") and how to trouble- shoot them.

SOLUTIONS

• Check the bike. Mechanical factors such as a tight or loose headset, a front wheel (or rear wheel) out of true or a frame out of alignment can make the bike shimmy. A headset that binds means the bike always wants to go straight ahead and can’t handle the continual slight steering corrections that even straight-line riding requires. The re- sulting vibration is transferred to the frame and amplified. But in my Cerro Summit crash, a loose headset was the likely reason. An out-of-true front wheels can create the same situation, as can play in the front hub bearings.

Badly aligned or poorly designed frames are often the culprit. The bike wants to track straight but the rear wheel doesn’t follow the front in exactly the same line, leading to instability. Suspect poor alignment if your bike shimmies after it's been crashed. Have it checked by a reputable bike shop. Tell the mechanic what you’re experiencing.

164 Headsets and front wheels are easy to adjust. Most frames can be re-aligned too al- though it’s a bigger project.

• Check the load. Carrying a load on a bike that’s not designed for touring can often make a previously well-behaved bike wobble all over the road. In fact, this sometimes happens on so-called “touring bikes” that don’t have the beefed-up top tube necessary to stabilize a load carried in rear panniers.

Example: I have a cyclocross/light touring bike that’s extremely stable in normal con- ditions. Recently I rode it on a 2-day tour, equipped with a rear rack. The first day was with a group and its sag vehicle carried my 2 panniers containing overnight gear. So the only thing on the rack was my rain gear. I hit 49.5 mph (couldn’t quite crack 50 no matter how small I tucked) for several miles going down Poncha Pass into Salida, Colorado, without a hint of a wobble. The next morning the tour headed north but I went west with the panniers on. That extra 15 pounds made the bike nearly uncontrol- lable on the 8-mile descent of Monarch Pass. It shook, shimmied and scared me to death. I rode the brakes all the way down, spoiling a wonderful downhill. This bike's lightweight tubeset wasn’t designed for even a light load and it rebelled.

So make sure your bike is up to the task. Then consider distributing the load between front and rear panniers and pack heavy items low. However, it’s worth noting that some touring cyclists like to keep heavy items high and close to the rear of the saddle. Their argument is that a bike is designed to carry the bulk of the rider’s weight on the saddle so it stands to reason that additional weight should be placed as close to that location as possible. Experiment to learn what your bike likes.

• Check the environment. Crosswinds can make a bike shimmy if your front rim has a deep-V shape giving it more side area. That’s why time trialists usually don’t use front disk wheels if there’s even a hint of wind. Handling problems would outweigh the aerodynamic benefit.

• Check for operator error. Sometimes shimmy is not the bike’s fault but rather the rider’s. Tense arms and shoulders can keep the front wheel from turning slightly in re- sponse to balance requirements and the resulting vibration gets passed into the frame where it sets off shimmy. An extreme riding position can induce shimmy too, such as having your weight too far forward or back off the rear of the saddle trying for aerody- namic benefits. Some riders report that if they are cold and shiver while descending, their shaking goes from the handlebar into the frame and the bike shimmies at the same frequency they’re shivering.

• Check these remedies. What if your bike starts to shimmy? Don’t panic and tense up. As we've seen, tension is a major component of shimmy.

Clamp the top tube. At the first sign of frame shimmy, pin the top tube be- tween your knees. Some riders automatically do this when they begin coasting downhill so shimmy won't have a chance to start. Even resting one leg against the top tube can prevent it.

165 Feather the brakes. Panic also induces riders to grab hard at the brakes, which can make shimmy worse. If you feel frame tremors, feather the brakes, apply the rear brake more than the front, and slow gradually.

Pedal. If you aren't going so fast that you're spun out, resuming pedaling in a high gear can put an end to shimmy. This is a hard remedy for many riders to use because it means speeding up when on the verge of losing control. In the same vein, if you can pedal all the way down a hill applying even a small amount of power to the bike, shimmy is very unlikely.

Distribute your weight evenly. Don’t adopt extreme descending positions. Balance your body weight on the bike so the frame geometry can do its work.

Look for safe landing places. If you’re really on the ragged edge of control, you won’t have the luxury of scoping out the roadside for a soft patch of grass. But if you have any segment of your attention span left, it’s worth a look. Land- ing in grass is far preferable to hitting a rocky shoulder or guardrail. Or an on- coming car.

Carving Consecutive Corners

CHALLENGE! When I rode across the U.S. with PAC Tour in 1993, we experienced about every road condition imaginable from Washington to Virginia. Those challenges included plenty of descents we’d never seen before. So by the time we hit the twisty roads of West Virginia, we felt comfortable flying downhill. But the last major descent in the state fea- tured a series of sharp bends with bumpy pavement.

One rider, trying to follow better descenders, quickly got in over his head. On each bend, his line got more ragged and soon he was on the sketchy edge of control. The last corner finished him off—he went flying off the road and over the guardrail. All that could be seen was his bike flying through the air and his legs kicking wildly as they disappeared. Fortu- nately, he landed in some branches and, except for a few scratches, was unhurt. But the accident was a potential disaster. How should he have taken those turns to avoid a trip into the trees?

Most riders can handle the first corner and usually the second. It’s the third or fourth that gets them in trouble. Why? When corners come one after another, you have to anticipate at least 2 ahead in order to assure yourself of the best line through each individual bend.

SOLUTIONS

• Plan ahead. The best exit line from corner number one isn’t necessarily the best entry line for corner number two. So as soon as you exit the first turn you have to adjust your bike’s path to get in an optimal position for the next corner. Look as far ahead as

166 the terrain allows, then process and store the information. Maybe the first corner is a sweeper, the second is a tight 90-degree bend and the third one is a switchback. Think through the sequence and “imprint” it in your mind. Let your body guide the bike so it’s in the correct place for the next corner. Mogul skiers are masters at this sort of kines- thetic skill. As their skis handle one bump, they’re picking their line way ahead. Their body handles a bump on the basis of what their mind “saw” some time before.

• Practice in forgiving terrain. Set up large paper cups or plastic cones in an empty, slightly sloping parking lot so they form tough 3 or 4-turn combinations. Then try out different lines to find the optimum combination through all of the turns. Notice that the fastest line for one turn may not be the best when that turn is followed by others.

• Put safety first. You don’t have to set speed records in consecutive turns. Victory in the Tour de France probably doesn’t hang in the balance. The goal is to get through the corners safely, smoothly and with a degree of elegance—while staying out of the trees!

Surviving Switchbacks

CHALLENGE! Colorado's Red Mountain Pass ascends for 13 miles from 7,700 feet in the small town of Ouray to a bit over 11,000 feet at the summit. Called the Million Dollar Highway because it supposedly cost a million dollars per mile to construct, it’s notable for sheer drop-offs and a tight series of switchbacks. Many cyclists come to Colorado to ride this roller coaster of a descent. But if you watch them, it’s plain that many have no clue about how to get around the 120- to 180-degree bends. What's the secret to descending through switchbacks?

Switchbacks are used when a hill is so steep that a road routed straight up the fall line would be too difficult for vehicles. In the Rockies, you encounter switchbacks frequently but they’re found in any hilly terrain. They’re enormously fun to ride because you can lean the bike way over and feel the G forces. But there are also dangers.

Some poorly designed switchbacks have curves that get tighter as the radius of the turn pro- gresses. These so-called “decreasing radius turns” mean that the speed that works at the beginning of the turn will be too great later. In fact, you're apt to gain speed as you go around the wide bend of a switchback because the bike is laid over for a much longer period than most riders are accustomed to. Entering the switchback with what seems the right amount of speed can give you a big surprise as the bike accelerates. Combine that with a deceasing radius turn and it’s a long way down if you go off the edge on Red Mountain Pass.

SOLUTIONS

• Pre-judge the steepness and radius. Usually, you can look down at switchbacks to gauge them before you actually enter. In extreme cases, the exit of one switchback runs into the entry to the next. You can simply look down over the edge to get a great

167 view of the next several switchbacks below. It’s like riding down a coiled serpent. If you can’t see the whole turn, enter cautiously. Go a bit slower than you think necessary. Always keep a margin for error—either yours or the highway engineer's!

• Adjust speed before you enter. It’s hard to brake when your bike is leaned over in a corner. Brake before the turn when the bike is upright, then let off the brakes just be- fore beginning the corner.

• Take the right line. The correct line around a switchback is the same as on any cor- ner. Approach as wide as possible, cut tight across the apex, and swing wide to exit. But remember that cars share the road with you so don’t leave your lane to use the whole road even though this might increase your speed. This is extremely important on mountain roads where visibility might be limited by the terrain or trees.

• Watch for gravel. Motorists aren’t very good at negotiating switchbacks and they of- ten run slightly off the road, kicking gravel onto the pavement. Beware of this because small pieces of gravel can flip the wheels out from under you like riding on a layer of ball bearings. • Use the rear brake. If you must scrub speed, do it by feathering the rear brake. Stay off the front brake because it can make a laid-over wheel wash out abruptly.

CHAPTER 12

Sprinting

big bunch sprint, like the peloton’s mad dash for the line at the end of the Tour de AFrance’s final stage, is one of the most exciting spectacles in pro racing. A snaking line of furiously pedaling riders blasts around the final bend and spreads out in the straightaway, designated lead-out men hammering their 53x11-tooth gears with the sprinters tucked be- hind.

Sprints are often highlights of group rides, too, and most established training rides have sev- eral informal “sprint lines” along the route. Often they’re known only to the ride regulars (the blue mailbox after the school) and newcomers can’t figure out why the pace jumps up so dra- matically.

But a turn of speed is useful for other reasons—escaping a dog, merging into slots in city traf- fic, getting over small hills without losing momentum, catching the group after a turn. Let’s look at some of the challenges of speed.

168 Sprinting Technique

CHALLENGE! Some years ago I was at a criterium in Denver waiting my turn to race. The category 4 event was ending and I watched the sprint. Around the last corner, 20 riders put their heads down and pumped furiously for the line. The lead rider was big, muscular and obvi- ously had a background in other sports—he looked like a strong safety on a bike. He also looked set to win by pure power alone, until 50 yards from the line, in the middle of his wild effort, elbows flying, the bike flipped out from under him and he went skidding down the road. Luckily he didn’t take down anyone else down. They were smart to give him a wide berth after seeing his violent sprinting style. No one wanted to be on a wheel that was likely to be flying horizontally. How can you keep yours going fast in the right direction?

Sprinting is frightening to many riders. They’re out of the saddle so the bike feels less stable than it is when they're firmly seated. They’re pulling on the handlebar and pushing hard with each stroke, which add to the feeling that the bike might topple over. In most situations there are other riders in close proximity. Finally, sprinting involves making the bike go much faster than it normally does. Even modest speeds feel fast when we’re not accustomed to them. Because most riders rarely experience how the bike feels when it’s going 30-40 mph, they back off in the face of unfamiliar and spooky sensations.

So sprinting is just as much a matter of technique as it is of power and pedal speed.

SOLUTIONS

• Sprint in training. If you rarely go fast, you’ll never feel comfortable when you do. So execute at least a couple of “form sprints” on most rides. In a moderate gear, get out of the saddle, sprint to a speed that makes it hard to maintain the cadence while stand- ing, sit down and pedal up another 10 rpm. Then gradually ease back to your cruising pace. These don’t have to be tough efforts. Form is more important than speed so form sprints are often done in a moderate gear like 53x19 or 39x16.

• Correct your technique. Three major technique flaws are apparent in many sprint- ers:

Excessive upper body movement. Your back is like a fulcrum and should move very little. The upper body should be almost still, serving as a brace for the power of your legs while your bike sways (not too much) back and forth be- neath it.

Weight too far forward. Your shoulders should be only as far forward as the front axle. More and you’ll encounter several speed-sapping problems. You’ll have too much weight on the front wheel, making the bike unstable and hard to handle. Your hips will be too far forward in relation to the crank, so you won’t be able to get as much leverage on the pedals. And your head will probably be

169 down so you can’t see where you’re going. That’s not a safe situation in an all- out sprint!

Incorrect use of the upper body. When sprinting you should pull on the han- dlebar to balance the power of your legs. If you don’t, the bike will flop around dangerously and you’ll waste power on unnecessary side-to-side motion in- stead of on pedaling. But don’t emulate some pros and jerk the bike violently back and forth. Moderate motion is best.

Preventing Front-Wheel Hop

CHALLENGE! You’re sprinting for all you’re worth—finally you’re going to beat your buddies to the city limit sign! But 50 yards from certain victo- ry, just as you’re applying maximum power, your front wheel wobbles, lifts, and the bike becomes almost impossible to control. You have to sit down to avoid swerving into a heap. And your friends fly by, beating you yet again. What happened?

Some riders think that to sprint fast, they have to pull violently on the handlebar. They’re try- ing to emulate some pros that sprint wildly, throwing their bikes back and forth, yanking on the handlebars like they’re Olympic lifters going for a world record in the clean and jerk.

Here's the problem: A spasmodic and mighty yank on the bar lightens the front of the bike. In extreme cases it can pull the front wheel off the ground. Either way, the bike becomes difficult to control.

SOLUTION

• Pull with less force. You need to pull on the bar to counter the downward force of the legs, as mentioned above. But the pull should be smooth and controlled rather than violent and jerky. Pull just hard enough to keep the bike from yawing sideways exces- sively.

Preventing Rear-Wheel Hop

CHALLENGE! When you sprint hard, the rear wheel bounces— sometimes lifting completely off the road. You lose power and fear crash- ing but can’t figure out why this is happening.

Rear wheel hop is generally caused by having weight too far forward combined with pulling up hard on the pedals. When you're leaning far over the bar, only a small upward force on the rear wheel is required to lift it.

170 Here’s a good way to visualize the forces involved. If you sit on the bike and hold the crank- arms horizontal, the pedal on the rear-pointing crank is surprisingly far back along the chainstay—from the center of the pedal axle to the rear wheel’s axle is less than 10 inches on most bikes. So when you pull hard on the upstroke, the force is so far to the rear that it’s easy to lift the wheel slightly.

SOLUTIONS

• Balance your weight along the bike’s length. To ensure that this happens, keep the saddle nose between your legs. Don’t shift your hips so far forward that the saddle is poking the back of your thighs. When you get out of the saddle, think about rising up rather than lunging forward.

• Pedal evenly. Sure, it’s important to have a round, even pedal stroke. But many rid- ers overemphasize the upward pull when sprinting. Pedal normally when you sprint so you distribute power evenly around the full circle. Err on the side of stomping down more, pulling up less.

Sprinting Out of a Group

CHALLENGE! If you sprint against your buddies one on one, you al- ways win. They can't beat you in a side-by-side drag race. But when you sprint in a group of 6-10 riders you're not nearly so dominant. Someone always seems to get by you in the last 50 yards. Why's that happening?

Sheer speed doesn’t always win sprints. Because cycling is a drafting sport, you have to combine velocity with cunning. Go too early and you’ll get passed. Choose the wrong person to tag behind for a leadout and others will fly by. It’s a real art to get close enough to the line with maximum protection from the wind, then kick at just the right time to win.

Greg LeMond, America's 3-time Tour de France winner, likes to tell about when he began rid- ing as a teenager with experienced racers. He could keep up with them and even drop them on hills. But in sprints they always beat him. They told him that because he was young, he could go first and get a head start! Greg finally figured out that far from doing him a favor, they were sitting on his wheel while he gave them an ideal leadout.

In a perfect situation, you’d sit about 4 riders back as the sprint approached. You’d pick the best sprinter and sit glued to his rear wheel. As he accelerated you’d stay there, sheltered from the wind while he did all the work, taking you to the head of the bunch with about 50-70 yards to go. Then you’d slingshot out of his draft and win by 3 lengths.

Well, it doesn’t always work that way. Other factors gum up the perfect scenario. Let’s look at some of the variables you’ll encounter in sprints and figure out how to overcome them.

171 SOLUTIONS

• Don't get dropped! Most sprints start some distance from the finish line. Rookie rid- ers are often astonished at how fast the pack goes just setting up for the sprint. They think: “I don’t want to go hard now. If I do I won’t have anything left for the finish.” But you have to stay with the leaders right up to the last 300 yards if you want to have a chance to win. So be ready to sprint several times just to maintain position.

• Pick the right leadout. If you don’t have a team of willing leading you out, you’ll have to guess who might have the best wheel to follow. It can hard to iden- tify a sprinter by physical type. Many sprinters are relatively muscular, big riders but occasionally a lean greyhound type has plenty of fast-twitch muscle fibers too, hidden away in a climber’s body. As the race (or your competitive local training ride) pro- gresses, observe the other riders and ask yourself several questions:

Who has been winning sprints? If you ride often with the same people, you have probably identified a couple of the fastest riders. Pick one and glue your- self to that rear wheel.

Who looks fast? If you don’t know the others, watch to see who accelerates easily away from corners and who makes you hurt on short hills.

Who has been suffering in recent miles? You can often discount a person’s sprint if he has been groveling for miles and barely hanging on. Even if he’s normally fast, maybe the hills, speed and distance have sucked the speed from his legs. Remember, though, that sprinting is a great opportunity to exhibit how the human race differs from other mammals—in our capacity for treachery. A fast finisher can feign exhaustion, suck wheels, and cry for mercy on all the hills. Then when you ignore him at the finish, he suddenly develops the legs of Cipollini.

Who has been sucking wheels all day? Some sprinters always sit in the pack. They never pull, never put their noses in the wind. Their race-long objec- tive is to save themselves for the sprint. If a break goes away early they’ll never chase, trusting that the pack will come back together for a sprint finish. That sort of behavior is accepted in a race, although it won’t win any friends. If you sus- pect that someone is hanging at the back to save himself for the sprint, watch carefully in the last mile before the line. If he suddenly comes alive, moves up to the front 5 riders and begins to get that sprinter’s gleam in his eye, you know where your competition will come from.

Sprinting in Wind and Hills

CHALLENGE! Your sprint is nearly unbeatable in perfect conditions but you're not nearly so successful on windy days or when the road tilts up or down. What's the trick to winning sprints in tricky conditions?

172

Not every sprint is conducted on a flat road with no wind. In the real world you’ll often have to contend with extra challenges like crosswinds, hilltop finishes and corners that are alarmingly close to the finish line.

SOLUTIONS

Windy rides are tough enough without having to account for a gale in the sprint. The relent- less wind becomes like another competitor, one more opponent you have to account for in the finish.

• Headwind. Stay protected as long as possible. Wait for someone else to lead out. Headwind sprints are usually won in the last 40 or 50 yards by a rider with a quick turn of speed who has been sheltered all the way to the line. Trying to get away early and buck the wind yourself generally isn’t a tactic that will work.

• Tailwind. Sprints with a hard tailwind often won from the front. Following riders don’t get as much draft and the wind keeps the speed so high that it’s hard to come around a rider already in front.

• Crosswind. If the wind is coming from the left, stay to the right of the rider in front. For winds blowing at your right shoulder, the most shelter is to the left of the wheel in front of you. Everyone will want these favored positions, of course, so space on the road is at a premium. Get into your sweet spot early and don’t let others barge in and dislodge you. Crosswinds spawn the contact you often see in pro races. Riders bump elbows, shoulders and even heads to knock opponents away from the wheel they want to follow. That’s fine for professionals but not for recreational racing—and certainly not during the local group ride. Everyone should be out there for fun and fitness, not for crashing and injuries.

• Uphill and downhill. Treat these like headwind and tailwind sprints, respectively. If the finish is on top of a short hill, sit in near the front and make your last surge near the top when others are struggling from the effort. A downhill sprint, like one with a signifi- cant tailwind, can often be won from a long way out. Gearing is important in these fin- ishes. Uphill, choose a gear that lets you spin fast, but in control, at the bottom of the hill to save your legs. As the top nears, the same gear will be just right for maximum speed. Remember that modern brake/shift levers can be used while standing in mid sprint, but you need to practice this move so you can do it without wobbling or drop- ping the chain. Don’t forget the timing you learned in chapter 10 for climbing short hills. Apportioning your energy becomes even more important when you want to climb the hill as fast as possible rather than merely reach the top with minimum energy expendi- ture.

• Corners close to the finish. If the last corner before the line is within 200 yards, the first rider through the corner is usually the winner. The distance is so short that no one can accelerate out of the corner fast enough to catch the leader. In this situation, the real sprint isn’t for the finish line but for the best position going into the last corner. And this violent acceleration may take place several corners before the last one. Be ready

173 for it with good position and also the willingness to go at max effort at a place on the course that seems way too early.

CHAPTER 13

Cornering

bicycle isn’t all that difficult to ride when it’s going straight ahead. Any child can learn. AGoing around a corner on a kid’s bike with upright handlebars and fat tires at slow speed isn’t hard either, especially given youth's sense of invulnerability. Remember that?

But let’s up the ante. You’re now an adult with a well-developed sense of your own mortality and you’re riding a road bike with skinny tires and a drop bar. You’re going much faster than you were in your childhood incarnation. Throw in traffic, slippery painted lines, maybe other cyclists next to your elbows and cornering suddenly gets much more difficult.

Criteriums highlight the technical aspects of cornering. Seeing a pack of 100 riders hurtling around a 6-corner crit course is bound to make anyone doubt they could survive at all. And the incredibly strong novice who can’t turn, thus taking down half the pack, is part of the lore of the sport.

But cornering isn’t an occult art. Once you know the basics, all it takes is practice to stay up- right and secure in corners, curves, chicanes and switchbacks.

Learning to Countersteer

CHALLENGE! The best cornering cyclist I’ve ever seen is Davis Phin- ney. This 2-time Tour de France stage winner could zip around a bend like no one else. He often won criteriums by simply out-cornering his competition.

In a now-legendary finish at the Coors Classic, Davis led a huge pack into the final 90-degree bend and halfway around was so confident of vic- tory that he was already saluting the crowd with one hand. Visualize this: Davis on a bike fully laid over in a right-hand corner, his left arm aimed at the sky.

But Davis wasn’t always so confident. He'll tell you about his first Euro- pean races. The pack was flying downhill on narrow French roads and he was trying to catch a group 50 yards ahead. Suddenly he realized he’d gained most of that distance in a short straightaway between corners— and just as suddenly realized why. The next corner was a U turn and the

174 group had slowed way down.

He got partway around, locked up the brakes and endo’ed over a stone wall into a vineyard. As he tells it, it took 5 minutes to find his bike among the grapevines.

So Davis, along with his 7-Eleven teammate, Ron Kiefel, decided to fig- ure out how to corner better. They watched motorcycle road racers and downhill skied to hone their body awareness. But most of all they prac- ticed cornering on the bike, experimenting with techniques until they found the fastest and safest method.

Most cyclists, even many pros, still don’t understand it. What's the trick?

Davis’s cornering method is called countersteering. Traditionally, cyclists corner by pointing their inside knee into the turn. They rotate their hips slightly in the same direction. They lean their bodies while keeping the bike somewhat upright. Watch any mountain stage of the Tour de France and you’ll see today’s pros cornering this way.

But Davis argues that countersteering, in which all these rules are violated, is much more ef- fective. He taught the technique to his former teammate, Andy Hampsten, years after Andy had won the 1988 d’Italia. Together they bombed down the curvy roads of Tuscany where both host cycling camps. Hampsten's revelation: “If I’d known about this technique when I was a pro I’d have won more races.”

It’s important to remember that countersteering isn’t a daredevil technique. It makes corner- ing faster but also safer, not more risky. You can learn to corner from the master himself at the Carpenter-Phinney Bike Camps in Colorado and . But you can also learn to employ Davis’s method on your own. Here’s how.

Technique Tips

• Practice in a safe place. Practice cornering in a vacant parking lot with a slight downward slope. Set up large paper cups or traffic cones in a line about 30 feet apart so it looks like a slalom course. You might want to wear more protection than just a helmet and gloves. Knee and elbow pads, for instance. Some riders prefer to practice on a grassy slope first in case they fall.

• Assume the position. Approaching a turn, hold the handlebar in the drops for greater stability. Slide your butt to the rear of the saddle, bend your elbows, and lower your torso along the top tube. This helps evenly weight both wheels. If you sit up while cor- nering you’ll have too much weight on the rear wheel and it could slip out from under you on a slick road. If you get low over the top tube without moving your butt rearward, the front wheel won't be weighted sufficiently and it could wash out, dumping you to the ground.

175 • Weight the outside pedal. Start the turn by putting the outside pedal down. (This would be the right pedal if you're making a left turn.) If the inside pedal is down, it might hit the pavement when you lean the bike over and send you off line or cause you to crash. Raise your hips slightly off the saddle and shift your body weight onto the pedal. It should feel like you’re standing on the pedal with one foot, trying to break it off. This weight placement lowers your center of gravity and makes the bike more sta- ble. If you're a downhill skier, this is like weighting the inside edge of your outside ski for a turn.

• Push in with the inside knee. As you enter the turn, push your inside leg against the bike’s top tube. (In our left turn example, that’s the left leg.) This is the opposite of tra- ditional cornering where the inside knee is pointed into the turn. Pushing your knee into the top tube automatically turns your hips toward the outside of the turn. This “hip pitch” sets up the bike to dive rapidly into the corner but, because your center of grav- ity is securely low (due to your weight being balanced between the wheels and con- centrated on the outside pedal), you’re in total control.

• Press and pull to make the turn. Next, press the thigh of your outside leg against the saddle. This has the effect of pushing the top of the bike down and toward the in- side. At the same time, pull up slightly with the outside hand. The bike will carve smoothly around the corner. It will lean as much as you need it to while your body re- mains relatively upright, standing on the outside pedal.

• Adjust your line. Need to adjust the line you're on because of gravel, a pothole or something else in the road? Simply relax the outside hand so you aren’t pulling quite as much. The bike will straighten up so you can avoid the obstacle. Once past, pull again to lean the bike over and complete the turn.

Sound complicated? These instructions include many things to think about all at once. But in practice, countersteering is intuitive and feels right. Break down the technique I've described and work on one or 2 elements at a time until you can put them all together. It won't take long. Then you'll be safer, more confident (and faster) through corners.

Choosing a Good Line

CHALLENGE! On group rides, most other riders get around corners faster than you do. You’ve worked on countersteering in a parking lot as described above and you feel confident in your technique. But it's more complicated on the open road when each corner is different.

Good cornering technique is only part of the equation. You need good position and mechan- ics on the bike, but you also need to use the road to the greatest possible advantage. This means choosing the best line through the corner for the circumstances.

176 SOLUTION

• Make each corner as shallow as possible. The general rule (traffic permitting) is to approach a turn wide, cut close to the apex on a relatively straight trajectory, then exit wide. This technique has the effect of decreasing the angle of the turn. It allows greater speed if you're racing and more stability if you aren’t.

In competition when the road is closed to traffic, use all the pavement as you go through corners. On a cleanly swept corner in a criterium course, for example, you’ll be able to start the turn at one curb, sweep through the other lane, and end along the opposite curb. In this way, sharp-angled turns are transformed into gentle arcs. Just remember to leave enough room for other cyclists to get through underneath you.

For a right turn, signal and move as far to the left side of your lane as you safely can. Cut through close to the curb and emerge on the left side of the new lane. Then move to the normal location along the right edge of the road.

For a left turn, signal and be on the right side of the lane. Cut through the corner and emerge on the right edge of the road.

Reading a Corner

CHALLENGE! Okay, you know how to pick the best line through a cor- ner. But when a road gets twisty, away from the predictable environment in a parking lot, race course or roads you know, it’s a whole different ball game. Out there in the messy world, corners are potholed or the pave- ment is wet or there are dead skunks in the way.

When the road isn't closed, you’ll have to adjust your line to account for all the exigencies of real life. You need to approach each corner more cautiously, stay in your lane, and be ready to change your line for obstacles. The basic cornering technique, however, is the same.

SOLUTION

Learn to read a corner in advance. As you approach, look up the road and around the bend, anticipating problems that may lie hidden. It comes down to thinking through these 5 ques- tions. (Don’t worry—practice will allow you to analyze each corner quickly.)

• How sharp is the turn? The more acute the corner, the slower you’ll have to ride to negotiate it successfully, and the wider you’ll want to go on both the approach and exit. Gentle curves on a meandering road require little adjustment. Right-angle corners— like those often found in “around the block” criteriums—rarely require braking. But sharper turns demand a more precise line and greater speed control. Experience will teach you how to judge a corner in the last seconds as you approach it.

177 • Is the turn banked or off-camber? The steeper the bank, the faster you can corner. That’s why track racers on steeply banked velodromes can pedal at top speed around the oval. But an off-camber corner—a left turn where the left side of the road is higher than the right, for example—requires caution, especially if it's wet or graveled.

• Is the road surface clean and dry? Or is it littered with gravel or sand, or slick with water and oil? Always corner with discretion, leaving yourself a margin for error. If you blast into a turn at maximum speed and find a nasty surprise, you may not be able to alter your line in time to avoid it.

• Are the any obstacles? Potholes, pedestrians, manhole covers, painted lines, sewer grates—these things might force you to take a less-than-ideal line. Perhaps the most dangerous situation is a corner that lies in shadow. Your eyes need extra time to ad- just from sunlit road to sudden darkness. You may not see rocks or potholes (or ice in winter) in time to avoid them, so be extra cautious when entering shaded turns.

• What gear is needed to get back to speed? If you fly into a tight corner in a big 53x13-tooth gear and lose speed going around, you’ll need to stand up and grind away at 50 rpm to get moving again or start shifting down. So when faced with losing speed or when the corner is uphill, choose a lower gear before you stop pedaling for the en- try. Don't complicate turning by needing to shift at the same time.

Like a race car driver, you want to brake before the corner and accelerate out of it. Do it right and you won't need to nervously grab the brakes after you’ve entered the bend.

Standing After a Corner

CHALLENGE! You’re riding with the local training bunch and doing fine on the hills and windy sections. But every time the group goes around a corner, you get gapped by 20 or 30 feet. You’re trying to save energy by remaining in the saddle but the other guys stand and sprint. Why don't they take it easy?

On group training rides you can count on people pressing the pace. When even one rider is fit enough and aggressive enough to go hard uphill and sprint away from corners, the others are forced to follow or be dropped. No one wants to be dropped.

There's also a positive reason for riding that way: It conserves momentum. Cornering scrubs speed. Standing and pressing the pedals with a few forceful strokes is the way to regain it. Sometimes after sweeping turns or downhill turns where you lose very little speed, it's not necessary to stand. You can stay seated and not lose contact, but you still may need to pedal harder. If a corner is tight and you need to slow down to get around, standing will help you regain your cruising speed faster than accelerating from the saddle.

178 SOLUTIONS

• Shift down before the turn. If you’re going to lose significant speed in a turn, shift into a lower gear before you coast in and lean the bike over. In an overly large gear it's hard to get moving again no matter if you're standing or sitting.

• Be prepared to sprint. If you're racing or riding with a fast training group, the lead riders will usually stand and accelerate hard out of corners in an attempt to keep the pace high and drop riders who aren't up to the task. When everyone is in a mellow mood, you can stay seated and save energy for when they get frisky. But always be ready to invest a sudden burst of energy so you can handle whatever happens.

Remember that a good reason to stand is to remove pressure from your rear end and stretch your legs and back. If you get in the habit of standing for a few strokes after most turns, you'll ride more comfortably.

Braking and Cornering on Wet Roads

CHALLENGE! I live in arid western Colorado so riding in the rain isn’t a common experience. I rarely face the challenge of riding on slick roads. (Sometimes the roads are slippery from a passing cattle drive, but that’s a different story!) Some years ago I rode with a friend in eastern Penn- sylvania. We started from his house atop a hill. It was raining lightly and I still remember the panic I felt as I tried to follow him down that twisting descent.

Cornering (and braking) becomes a whole new game when the road is wet. In extreme condi- tions, traction can become almost non-existent. In the Giro d’Italia a few years ago, a sudden rainstorm turned the Italian roads into a skating rink. The best bike handlers in the world were sliding across the pavement on their Lycra at every corner. They even fell when they stood up while riding a straight line!

Although cornering on wet roads will never be as secure as on dry pavement, good technique can help keep you upright.

SOLUTIONS

• Slow down, particularly when rain starts. The road will be slipperier in the early stages of a shower than after the rain has had time to wash away the film of oil and dust. Even pro cyclists often slow almost to a stop on sharp turns when rain begins.

• Test traction. You can get a feel for tire adhesion by wiggling the bike as you ride. Do this gingerly at first, riding slowly. Steer an imaginary slalom course about a foot wide. Accentuate each turn with your hips. With a little practice you’ll feel the bike begin to lose traction slightly on each arc. How much is a good indicator of road slickness.

179 • Reduce tire pressure. If it’s raining when you begin a ride, let some air out of your tires. If you normally run 100 psi, go down to 85 or 90 psi, depending on your weight. The theory is that a tire at lower inflation compresses more under load. It has a larger contact patch on the road.

• Watch out for slick spots. One of the most common slippery surfaces results when painted lines and markers on the road are wet. Turning while on them could easily cause tires to slip. If you can't avoid riding on them, do it with your bike as upright as possible. Treat wet road paint as if it were ice, because it can be almost that slick. Other dangers when wet include manhole covers, metal plates, steel-deck bridges, railroad tracks, fallen leaves and tarry crack filler.

• Be smooth. Don’t make any abrupt movements that might break your traction. Initiate all turns smoothly in a wide arc. Don’t wait until the last minute and then heel the bike over all at once.

• Try a tripod. Although this technique is relatively recent, we're even seeing pro road- ies using one leg as an outrigger in slow-speed slippery corners. They emulate off- road downhillers by unclipping the foot that's on the inside of the turn, holding that leg out through the corner and “dabbing” if they start to lose traction. This technique re- quires some practice but it's useful not only on wet roads but on gravelly or sandy bends. In fact, on the unpaved descents of the Saturn Cycling Classic in Colorado, many riders tripod most of the steep switchbacks on the aptly named Oh My God Road that falls (literally) into Idaho Springs.

Cornering in a Group

CHALLENGE! I remember clearly my first time cornering in a large, ag- gressive racing pack. I had gone through the lower categories quickly and was usually at the front, so cornering with others wasn’t an issue. Ah, the fleeting strength of youth! But then I entered the state road champi- onship and found myself racing against the top cyclists in Colorado. Make that in the nation—the pack included National Team members Tom Sain and Bob Cook. In every corner, I lost a couple of places due to in- experience. I was strong enough to stay with the pack but had to keep chasing back. It was exhausting and 65 or 70 miles into the 100-mile event, just when things were getting interesting, I was too tired to be a player.

Cornering in a pack is more difficult than cornering by yourself. You have to contend with the turn and the presence of other cyclists. They’re often unpredictable so you need to learn how to survive. The key is to leave even more margin for error than when riding alone.

180 SOLUTIONS

• Be predictable. When riding casually with another cyclist, it’s often best to go through corners single file, each cyclist using normal cornering technique. If you’re in the rear, stay back far enough to avoid the cyclist in front if there should be a fall or an abrupt change in line to avoid an obstacle. But if you’re confident in your riding companion’s ability, you can try riding through corners side by side. Use the normal technique but always be aware of the other person. Don’t, for example, dive into a corner and shave the apex closely if you’re the outside cyclist—you’ll leave your partner nowhere to go.

The aforementioned Davis Phinney and Ron Kiefel like to descend twisting mountain passes at high speed while riding side by side. It’s a duet on bikes. It's also a matter of trust. Several cyclists can negotiate a corner abreast if they all take concentric lines and ride predictably. Pro racers in packs of 100 routinely handle corner after corner at high speed on bumpy cobblestones without mishap. Each cyclist knows intuitively what the others will do. But if even one cyclist is erratic or unpredictable, the whole group is in danger.

• Be loose. As you gain confidence in cornering in a group, you’ll develop the ability to bump shoulders or elbows and recover without falling. The key is to stay relaxed with elbows bent to absorb impacts. When you feel contact, don’t panic. If you tighten up with fear, the bike won’t track naturally through the corner and your upper body won’t flex to absorb contact. Only a relaxed upper body can soak shock without transferring it to the handlebar and jeopardizing control.

• Practice on a grassy field. You’ll feel more comfortable in group situations if you practice cornering with others while riding an old bike slowly on the grass. Get several friends together and lay out a course around paper cups or traffic cones on a playing field. Then ride abreast, working on taking the right line and recovering from accidental contact. Pros develop an uncanny ability to bump each other incessantly in corners and survive. They can even get a shoulder under a rider falling into them, holding him up to avoid a crash.

CHAPTER 14

Time Trialing

ndividual time trials are called “the race of truth.” Unlike mass start races, in time trials you Ican’t hide in a big pack and take advantage of other riders’ draft. You’re all alone on the road, riding as fast as you can for the distance. The result comes down to your strength, de- termination and technique.

181 That’s a big reason why Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France successes were so impressive— he dominated in the time trials. In his first Tour victory, 1999, he won all the time trial stages, a masterful display of power.

Competitive time trialing has changed radically in the last 20 years with the introduction of low, wind-cheating positions made possible by aero handlebars. Modern disk wheels and deep-profile rims slice through the wind much better than the standard spoked wheels we used to time trial on. Even training has changed with the introduction of precision workouts using a power meter and big-gear intervals to develop time trial-specific power.

But because most riders in a given race category have about the same equipment, winning still comes down to the basics: a good position, concentration, willingness to endure pain— and a lot of pedaling power.

Time trialing, appearances notwithstanding, is fun. There’s something about riding hard but in control, at the very limit of your ability, that is deeply challenging but at the same time satisfy- ing. It's true, though, that some racing cyclists hate time trials and will do anything to avoid them. They’d rather ride criteriums or road races where the advantages of sheer power and fitness can be negated by strategy, team tactics and luck.

Time trials are my favorite event and I’ve tried for years to figure out why. I’ve finally con- cluded that they’re a reflection of my personality—I don’t like someone else setting a pace that I have to follow. Of course, that’s what happens in a mass-start event unless you’re strong enough to sit on the front all day (which means you’re racing in the wrong category). But in a time trial you can go just as hard as you want without the unsettling feeling that soon someone will attack and you’ll have to go harder, way over the red line, even if only for a little while.

Many riders think, mistakenly, that time trials are simple events. Just put your head down and go as hard as you can—an event for brutes whose only talent is the ability to suffer. On the contrary, time trials are one of the most technical and cerebral events in cycling. And as we’ll see, the ability to go fast by yourself is useful (and fun) even if you never compete.

Time Trialing for Non-Racers

CHALLENGE! You don’t race so you wonder why you should devote any of your riding time to learning how to go faster alone. Sure, time- trialing ability is important if you’re racing TTs or even for holding off the pack in a breakaway attempt. But why train to gain solo speed when rac- ing isn’t your thing?

Time trialing isn’t just for racers. In fact, it’s the racing skill most often used in non-competitive situations. Let’s examine when ability against the clock is important then look at some tips for going fast on your own.

182 • Steady, intense effort is a potent producer of fitness. Even if you aren’t training for competition, riding at 85-90% of your maximum heart rate once a week for 10-20 min- utes will spike your fitness for tours, centuries and the weekend group ride.

• Time trial speed means safety. Caught 5 miles from home with a thunderstorm brewing? Time trial to safety before the deluge hits. Suppose you get a puncture on the homeward commute shortly before dark. The ability to ride hard and fast will get you there before the sun sets.

• A weekly time trial varies your training. Sure, moderately paced rides are fun and not too demanding. But a steady diet of cruising gets monotonous. Schedule a weekly hammerfest and you’ll have something to get excited about. It'll perk up your brain as well as your legs, giving you a break from humdrum pedaling efforts.

• Time trialing improves climbing ability. No big climbs nearby to train on? You can duplicate the power demands of climbing by time trialing into the wind for 15-30 min- utes. Climbing and time trialing are mutually beneficial—doing one activity improves your power for the other.

• Time trials are the best way to gauge your fitness. Want to know if you’re improv- ing? You don’t need an organized event. Simply mark off a 5- to 10-mile course on your favorite training roads and time yourself. Or chart your performance at a local time trial over several months. These events, often sponsored by a bike shop or cy- cling club, are fun and social. Riders of all inclinations show up for an evening of low- key competition.

Technique Tips

Whether you’re time trialing for fun on your regular road bike or want to set a personal best in the local TT, here are some tips on getting the most from your body and your mind:

• Refine your standard riding position. You don’t need special equipment to time trial for fun and fitness. Because you can’t draft, time trialing rewards riders who have a comfortable but aerodynamic position on their standard road bikes. Put your hands on the drops of the handlebar. The reach to the bar should be sufficient so your back is nearly horizontal. A bar that's too close to the saddle will force you to round your back and catch more wind. Don’t lower the bar so much that you can’t look up the road comfortably for safety.

• Use aero aids. There’s no need to invest in a dedicated time trial bike for local TTs. But you can easily make your regular road bike more aerodynamic by bolting on a set of aero handlebars and using wheels with a low spoke count and deep V-section rims. If you use aero bars, slide your saddle forward about 1 cm for more comfort and power.

• Pedal with the ideal cadence. For most riders, a cadence of 85-90 rpm is the most efficient for fast riding. Use gears that keep you in that range, even on hills. Don’t fall

183 into the trap of equating speed with huge gears. The pros may be able to time trial in a 54x11-tooth gear, but they’re powerful enough to turn it at 90 rpm. Let cadence dictate gearing, not the other way around.

• Find the best road surface. Most roads are smoothest about a foot to the left of the white line, where the right-side wheels of cars usually travel. When traffic conditions permit, ride in that smooth strip of pavement for the fastest speed. Also, car tires sweep debris off the road so there’s less chance of puncturing than if you're closer to the road edge.

• Tread the redline. The key to fast time trialing is to ride at the effort you can barely maintain for the distance. Go faster and you’ll accumulate too much fatigue and slow down. Go slower and you won’t be riding as fast as you can for your current level of fitness. In scientific terms, this pace is your lactate threshold (LT), usually about 90% of max heart rate. Heart monitors are great for time trialing because they let you de- termine, by trial and error in training, exactly what heart rate you can maintain for 30 minutes or so. Then in competition or when you want to go hard, simply crank up your effort to that heart rate and hold it there.

Experienced competitors often time trial “naked.” No, they’re not giving new meaning to the term “skin suit.” Instead, riding naked means they compete without a heart moni- tor or power meter. They don’t even look at their cyclecomputer to see how fast they’re going. Instead, they listen to their body, constantly monitoring their feelings of per- ceived exertion. Once you’ve gained the experience to time trial this way, you can concentrate entirely on what’s possible. You won’t be tethered to a pre-determined number (heart rate or wattage) that could, if you have exceptionally good legs on the day, limit your performance.

• Be smart on hills. Most riders attack hills too hard when time trialing. They blow up by the top and slow dramatically while they recover. It’s a better strategy to gear down so you can keep your cadence and effort just slightly higher on inclines compared to the flatter parts of the course. What you lose going up you’ll regain once you’re reached the top because you’ll be able to maintain a steady effort. Practice will teach you how hard you can ride uphill without needing to slow to recover.

Choosing a Bike for Time Trialing

CHALLENGE! You love to compete in the local time trials and you've done well on your road bike equipped with a bolt-on aero bar. Now the end-of-season club championship is coming and you'd love to earn brag- ging rights for the rest of the year. Should you buy a fancy (and expen- sive) aerodynamic time trial bike or continue to use your road bike?

The most important aspect of aerodynamics is rider position, not the aero qualities of the bike. Teardrop-shaped down tubes and seatposts make a difference, but it isn’t significant compared to your furiously pumping legs and wind-catching chest.

184 As a result, a road bike fitted with aero bars and set up so the rider is in an optimum position is nearly as good as a dedicated time trial machine. For example, beat Lance Armstrong in a 2002 Tour de France time trial while riding his regular road bike. Lance, on the other hand, was on a dedicated Trek time trial machine. It's the motor, the position and whether your legs are good on race day that are the most important factors.

Time trial bikes do have one advantage: They’re designed to make getting an aero position easier. They usually have steeper seat-tube angles and a handlebar much lower than the saddle. But if you move the saddle forward on your road bike and use a stem that allows you to lower the bar, you can come pretty close.

SOLUTIONS

• Lower the handlebar and install aero bars. Wind tunnel testing shows that every rider’s optimum aerodynamic position is a bit different. Some riders are more aero with their elbows nearly touching. Others get lower drag numbers when their elbows are wider, allowing the wind to flow between their arms. But during years of testing many riders, a standard model that works for most cyclists has emerged.

It begins with your back parallel to the ground when your arms are on the aerobar arm- rests. Also, your upper arms should project forward from your shoulders at about a 30- degree angle. Achieve this measurement with a shorter or longer stem or (for some aero bar models) by moving the armrests. Finally, adjust the width of the armrests so your upper arms are in line with your body, not angled outward where they’ll widen your profile and catch more wind.

• Move the saddle forward about 1 cm. Because you’ll be bent lower, you need to move your saddle forward slightly from your normal road position. This opens the an- gle formed by your hips and chest. The closer your back gets to horizontal, the more forward your seat position must become (unless you increase your flexibility a lot!). Time trial bikes generally have steeper seat tube angles to facilitate this forward sad- dle position.

• Refine your position. You probably don’t have access to a wind tunnel but you can look carefully at your position using a mirror or video camera. Check from the front and sides. You want to see a compact shape with a flat back and no protruding elbows or knees.

Most riders can produce more power for a given heart rate in a more upright position. Climbers sit up and hold the bar top because the position feels more powerful to them—and at climbing’s slow speeds they don’t have to worry about wind drag. At time trialing speeds, however, most of the resistance you feel is from the air, so you need to get as low and aero as possible. But for every rider there’s a point where get- ting lower compromises power output so much that the aero advantage is negated.

You can approximate this boundary by time trialing on a flat, windless road at a steady speed and heart rate. Sit up a bit for a mile, scrunch lower the next mile. See what your speed and heart rate do. If you have a power meter you can be even more exact.

185 This experimentation will help you arrive at your “sweet spot” where power and aero- dynamics are in perfect balance.

• Consider aerodynamic wheels. Every wheel manufacturer, and plenty of magazine articles, will tell you how many seconds a specific set of wheels can save in a 40K time trial. Take all these numbers with a large grain of salt. But there’s no question that aero wheels can save substantial time compared to conventional 32- or 36-spoke wheels.

On flat courses I use a Mavic disk rear wheel that I received as part of our 1996 Race Across America sponsorship. It’s especially good in crosswinds. The theory is that its lenticular shape acts like a sail and allows the wind coming from the side to push the bike forward. I don’t know if that’s valid physics but it seems to work that way when I’m riding the wheel.

The disk is heavier than a spoked wheel, so on hilly courses I use the other sponsor- ship rear wheel, a Mavic Cosmic with a carbon rim and 16 bladed spokes. Regardless of which rear wheel I use, I run a Mavic Cosmic with 16 radially laced spokes on the front.

Of course there are plenty of other good wheel choices available. But I have an emo- tional attachment to these wheels because I rode them across the U.S. when our RAAM team set the senior 50+ record of 5 days, 11 hours, 21 minutes. I also used the disk/Cosmic combination to win the Colorado Masters TT and get a bronze medal at Masters Nationals.

• Use a narrow front tire. The front wheel is the first thing that the wind “sees” when you’re time trialing so narrow is better in terms of wind resistance. I recommend a 700x20C tire on the front—every missing millimeter helps. On the rear, where most of the tire is shielded by the seat tube, I sometimes run a 23C for a bit more puncture re- sistance. If you flat, you won’t win.

• Take off bottle cages. It’s hard to drink from a bottle during a race so remove the cages. Their wind resistance is negligible but the bike looks faster without them and that’s worth a few seconds in psychological boost if nothing else.

• Use an appropriate cassette. I often time trial with an 11-21-tooth cassette. Does that mean I can push a 53x11-tooth gear on the flat? Nope—not even close. But on downhill sections or with the sort of tailwind we often get in Colorado—when small cows are likely to be blown over—the 11 lets me coax a bit more speed.

Think about your low gear too. If the course is flat to rolling, you don’t need a 25-tooth big cog. Some riders like to run an 11-23 on rolling courses because they can stay in the big ring on gradual uphills using the 53x21. Because shifting the front derailleur is more time consuming and potentially problematic, they’d rather carry the larger rear cog to be able to use the big ring exclusively during the race.

186 • Consider a skin suit. Snug-fitting, one-piece time trialing suits are significantly more aerodynamic than shorts and a jersey. They don’t have the wind-catching wrinkles, folds of material and pockets that jerseys do.

• Crumple your number. When you get your race number, crumple it into a ball, then flatten it and pin it on. The crumpling takes the stiffness out of the material and helps the number conform to your body. Uncrumpled numbers tend to flap, rattle and catch more wind, slowing you down.

Warming Up for Time Trials

CHALLENGE! It’s your first competitive time trial. You roll around for 15 minutes to loosen up then wait for the starter’s command: “Three, two, one, go!” You’re off and flying, propelled by competition and adrenaline; sights set on catching the rider who started one minute ahead. But a mile from the start those aggressive instincts are gone, replaced by the fatigue that makes cowards of us all. You’re completely blown out, panting, gasping, legs as dead as week-old road kill. What happened?

Unlike in centuries and some road races, you can't warm up in the first few miles of a time trial. You need to ride hard from the start because time lost in the first mile can’t be made up later. It's essential to get your body ready for violent and sustained action before you roll up to the start.

SOLUTIONS

• Warm up on a trainer or rollers. A stationary warm up has many advantages. That’s why you’ll see Tour de France riders warming up on trainers before time trial stages. You are never away from your vehicle so if you find a mechanical problem it can be fixed immediately. You are much less likely to suffer a puncture because you're not warming up on debris-strewn roads. You can control the intensity of your warm up precisely. If it’s raining or the sun is beating down, you can stretch a tarp or awning from the side of the vehicle or ride under its tailgate.

• Include intensity. A proper warm up for time trials must include some brief periods of hard pedaling so your body’s systems are ready for the violent effort of the start. This hard riding should be short enough so you’re not exhausted before the race starts but long enough to get your physiological systems ready to go.

In general, the longer your average ride, the longer your TT warm up should be. Pros that race for 4-7 hours like to warm up for 2 hours or more, often riding the course in the morning and then doing an hour on a trainer before an early-afternoon start. For recreational riders, 30 minutes should be plenty. You don’t want to warm up so much that you feel tired for the race itself.

187 Here's a warm-up routine that should work well for recreational time trialists. Fine-tune it as you gain experience with races against the clock. I’m assuming you’ll warm up on a trainer wearing a heart monitor.

First 15 minutes: Begin by spinning. Start with a cadence of around 80 rpm and light resistance. Gradually increase gearing and cadence until you’re spin- ning at about 100 rpm and your heart rate has risen to around 85% of your maximum. If you don’t have a heart monitor, you should be breathing steadily and rhythmically and have broken a light sweat.

16-20 minutes: Choose a gear that you can handle at 90 rpm for 5 minutes. The goal is to reach 90% of max heart rate in the last minute of the effort, acti- vating your aerobic systems. Don't go so hard that you compromise your fresh- ness for the event.

21-26 minutes: Perform a series of 30-second hard efforts in a big gear alter- nated with 1:30 of easy spinning. These are start simulations so begin each ef- fort with a vigorous jump for 10 seconds. Then keep the intensity steady and hard for the remaining 20 seconds. Stay below the point where your legs burn or you aren’t ready for the next effort after a 1:30 spin.

27-30 minutes: Spin easily in a low gear, letting your breathing return to nor- mal.

If you feel sluggish during the time trial, it may be better to shorten your warm up rather than lengthen it. Some riders get so psyched before competition that they don’t need much to be race-ready. Experiment.

• Time your warm up accurately. When you register for the time trial, note your start time and set your watch so it’s the same as the official clock. Then time your warm up so it ends with about 5 minutes to go. After warming up, you only need enough time to take your bike off the trainer and roll to the line, arriving about 2 minutes before your time to start.

• Hydrate as you warm up. Don’t get dehydrated during your warm up. It’s a good time to swig a bottle of sports drink so you arrive at the start both warmed up and with your hydration and carbohydrate tanks topped off. I use a small ice chest that holds a bottle of sports drink, a bottle of recovery drink and a bottle of water. I consume sports drink as I warm up, the recovery drink right after the race and chase all that sweet stuff with water.

Getting a Good Start

CHALLENGE! How hard to begin? That’s the eternal question in time trialing. A snorting, stomping start, bike groaning from the force you apply to the pedals, looks and sounds impressive but may blow your engine in

188 the first 5 minutes. Conversely, a calm and measured start risks losing time you might never get back.

Time trialists used to favor hard starts, believing that if they began the race moderately they’d have trouble upping the effort. But now the consensus is for milder starts and gradually in- creasing intensity. If you watch videos of time trials in the big stage races, you’ll notice how the pros roll off the ramp and accelerate steadily rather than violently.

SOLUTIONS

• Choose the correct gear. Assuming the start is flat, have the chain on the big ring and a rear cog that’s 3 or 4 down from the largest one. So if you’re time trialing with a cassette of 12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23 teeth, start with the chain on the 17 or 19. The idea is to be in a gear that you can get spinning in about 50 yards without using too much muscle energy.

• Start instantly. Assuming there’s a holder, roll up to the line as soon as the rider in front of you leaves. Be sure one foot is clipped in securely. When the holder grasps your bike by the seat post and gives you the okay, clip in with the other foot and await the countdown. You’ll want to position your strongest leg forward with the pedal at about 2 o'clock (right leg) so you can thrust down hard. Stand when the 5-second countdown begins. On “Go!” use your bodyweight to jumpstart the first pedal stroke and power away from the line.

• Get up to speed. Pedal your initial gear up to about 100 rpm while standing. Then sit and shift to the next smaller cog (harder gear). Stay seated and settle into a steady 90- rpm cadence. Even if you feel like you need more gear, give yourself a minute or 2 to let body processes stabilize. Experienced time trialists will take 3-5 minutes to get to their optimum gear and let their heart rates rise to the level they know they can main- tain for the duration of the race. Experiment in training and competition to learn how quickly you can increase effort to your red line.

Overcoming Wind and Hills

CHALLENGE! When I began time trialing, I figured the secret was to use the biggest gear possible regardless of wind or hills. That actually worked fine on the relatively flat course where I did my first TTs. I simply shifted to the 53x13 (the biggest gear I had) and cranked through the Colorado prairie. But my naïve technique didn’t work at all when I went to the Bear Mountain (NY) masters national championship. I invested in a freewheel with a 12-tooth cog and planned to hammer as usual. Then I found myself on a course with 2 turnarounds and several steep climbs. I tried to muscle up the hills in a gear way too large and paid the price in premature fatigue and a slow time. Let's see how you can ride smarter.

189 Just because you’re racing, the usual rules of physiology and physics aren’t held in abey- ance. Top performance requires riding with your best cadence and using a gear that allows you to maintain that most efficient rpm.

I know, I know—it’s hard to make yourself shift down on a hill or into a headwind. You can see your ground speed drop and in your mind’s rearview mirror, 5 riders are sweeping up from behind to pass you. But you only have so much power. Keeping an efficient cadence is more important than stubbornly and laboriously pedaling some pre-determined gear.

SOLUTIONS

• Prove to yourself that a higher cadence is better. Find a 2-mile straight stretch of road (without intersections) that contains several hills or goes into a strong headwind. Warm up and ride it hard at a heart rate close to your time trial intensity. Use the big- gest gear you have. Slog. Sweat. Then recover for 20 minutes with easy spinning and ride the 2 miles again at the same heart rate. But this time choose a cog 2 or 3 teeth larger (say the 15 instead of the 12 or 13) so you can keep your cadence at 90-100 rpm. Compare times. I bet it's less with the lower gear and higher cadence—for less perceived effort, too.

• Use a cadence counter. If you tend to choose too large a gear and bog down, con- sider getting a cyclecomputer that shows you pedaling rpm. Learn your most efficient cadence range in training and stay there during time trials.

Mastering the Turnaround

CHALLENGE! A conventional time trial is held on an out-and-back course as a way to neutralize the wind and equalize the elevation. This means riders must do a U-turn at halfway. In England, where time trialing has a long and distinguished history, often the turnaround is in a village with spectators coming out of the pub to watch the action. It rains a lot in merry England too. The combination of wet roads, piloting a time trial bike around a traffic cone, and spectators commenting forthrightly on your technique can cause even a veteran to make mistakes. In one leg- endary (and perhaps apocryphal) story, a particularly slimy turnaround claimed every one of the 50 starters.

In most time trials, you won’t find too many bike-handling challenges. After all you aren’t rid- ing in a pack, cutting through criterium corners, or hitting 50 mph on mountain descents. But most time trials feature a180-degree turnaround. This seemingly innocent turn can cost you time—or skin—if you don’t do it right.

SOLUTIONS

• Calculate speed and gearing. Don’t start easing off for the turnaround a quarter mile in advance. Retain your speed to about 50 yards from the cone (depending on terrain

190 and wind). Then start pedaling easily. Sometimes you won’t even need to brake— sitting up will provide enough of a wind brake to moderate your speed. Check behind for cars and look over the return road from the cone. Decide what gear will allow you to accelerate from the turn with the least amount of work. You've been riding hard for some time so you don’t want to (or can’t) devote energy to an anaerobic sprint. Shift into this gear before you stop pedaling into the turnaround.

• Take the fastest line. Turning around a cone requires the same basic line you should use for every corner. Approach along the far side of the road, shave the cone by a foot or 2, then exit on the far side of the return lane. That said, here's a technique that can save a bit of time. Don't initiate the turn toward the cone until you are slightly past it. Then heel the bike hard so you're actually beginning to head back down the course as you pass the cone. This way you avoid making a wide, sweeping arc. You can start to pedal sooner because the bike is upright through more of the turn.

• Accelerate back to speed. Once past the cone, stand up, crank your pre-selected gear back up to speed, sit down and get back into your rhythm as quickly as possible. Don’t worry if you feel a little blown several hundred yards past the turnaround. It'll happen if you go slightly anaerobic to regain your speed. As long as you don't overdo it, your breathing will soon stabilize at a level you can maintain to the finish.

Drinking While Time Trialing

CHALLENGE! The time trial you’ve been training for all season is next week and the weather is turning hot. You don’t want to disturb your aero- dynamic position by reaching down and drinking from a bottle because you’ve read studies that say it can cost 5-10 seconds each time. But you're concerned about maintaining power and concentration for 25 miles if you get thirsty.

It’s true that reaching for a bottle and drinking can slow you down. The movement disrupts your aerodynamic position. The act of tipping your head back enough to drink, with your el- bow and the bottle to the side, results in speed-sapping air resistance. Aerodynamically speaking, it’s a “dirty” thing to do.

But not drinking in time trials that take 45-60 minutes or longer can slow you down even more than catching extra air. First, your body needs fluids—losing as little as 2% of body weight from perspiration can reduce your power by the same amount. Also, because time trialing is a flat-out effort from the start, you can’t eat too close to the event unless you want breakfast decorating your aero bars. Therefore, many riders start a time trial a little hungry and perhaps a bit low on glycogen. They don’t have enough fuel to last the distance at full power unless they take in some easily-utilized carbohydrate during the race. A carbo-rich sports drink is the best way to accomplish this during heavy exertion.

Finally, it’s downright uncomfortable to time trial with a mouth that feels like cotton. When you’re breathing hard in hot conditions, the membranes of your mouth dry out like a strip of

191 beef jerky in an oven. Soon it’s distracting and some riders even find it hard to breathe prop- erly.

For these reasons it’s important to find a way to take on some fluids without ruining your aerodynamic profile.

SOLUTIONS

• Wear a hydration pack. Chose a trim one made for road cycling, such as CamelBak Razor. Such packs fit under a skinsuit and the tube tucks neatly under the chin for easy access. Here’s an example of how they work. In a recent Colorado time trial championship, it was a bearable 85 degrees but the humidity was under 20%. These conditions usually leave me dehydrated and dry-mouthed during the last third of the race, the best time to gain time on the competition. But I had filled my form-fitting hy- dration pack with sports drink and ice, putting a cool “air-conditioning unit” next to my back along with fluids whenever I wanted. A quick arm movement to put the nozzle in my mouth is a lot "cleaner" than hoisting a bottle. After sipping I simply let the nozzle fall out.

• Stay aero when drinking from a bottle. If you don’t like the “Hunchback of Notre Dame” look that you get from wearing a hydration pack under your jersey or skin suit, it’s possible to drink from a bottle without disrupting the air flow too much. Here's how: As you reach for the bottle, don’t sit up. Keep your other arm on the aero bars and your back at the same angle as when you’re going all-out. When you lift the bottle to your mouth, don’t let your elbow stick out to the side in the wind. Raise the bottle straight up, moving it to the side just enough to clear the top tube. The tough part is drinking without tilting back your head. Tilt the bottle instead, then squeeze it to force the liquid into your mouth. That’s easy to do when you’re going slowly, but when you’re breathing hard from the effort of time trialing you could get a choking blast of sports drink down the wrong pipe. Practice on training rides to get just the right amount into your mouth. After you’ve swallowed a swig or 2, replace the bottle in the cage, again without putting it or your elbow into the air flow.

Attaining a More Aero Position

CHALLENGE! Recently I heard this from an RBR Newsletter subscriber: “After doing yoga and a stretching routine for 3 months, I’m a lot more flexible. Do you think I should lower my time trial position to reflect my increased limberness?”

It’s tempting to think that increased flexibility will allow us to get lower and more aerodynamic not only in the time trial position but for everyday riding too. After all, Lance Armstrong, an outspoken critic of stretching during his early career reportedly began a regular stretching routine. His time trial position was fairly upright due to tightness in his low back and ham- strings but it improved throughout his career, apparently due to increased flexibility.

192 Like with Lance, your position on the bike is governed to a large extent by how flexible you are in those same 2 key areas.

SOLUTIONS

• Assess your flexibility. Fit expert Andy Pruitt, director of Colorado's Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, argues that if you can’t touch your toes without bending your knees, you won’t be able to get into a low, relaxed position. The “touch your toes” test is a good way to check your limberness. Serotta bicycle dealers offer a more involved flexibility test that they use when custom fitting a bike.

• Devise a stretching program. A stretching routine shouldn’t be an onerous task. Most riders simply sit down on the floor in front of the TV in the evening and do 15 minutes of stretching exercises. Cyclists should emphasize flexibility in the hamstrings, quads, glutes and low back. As you try different stretches, you’ll find some that feel better and more effective than others. Should you have a pre-existing injury, stay away from movements that aggravate it.

One good source of stretches is the eArticle Stretching for Cyclists by Alan Bragman, D.C., available at in the eBookstore at RoadBikeRider.com. Some riders swear by a daily yoga rou- tine and many yoga poses make excellent stretches for time trialists.

Remember that increased flexibility on your living room floor may not transfer to the bike. Flexibility is specific just like the rest of training. In the same way that endurance gained by running doesn’t transfer directly to cycling, so the ability to put your palms flat on the floor without bending your knees doesn’t necessarily mean that you can sustain a low position on the bike. Reason? When you do flexibility exercises, you’re holding a stretch position for 10 or 15 seconds. But when you pedal, your low back and hamstrings stretch and shorten rhythmically 90-100 times a minute for 30-60 minutes in a time trial or 5-7 hours in a century. It’s not the same thing, but general flexibility is a good start.

Training for Time Trial Success

CHALLENGE! You’re pressed for training time but you want to improve. Is there a shortcut to faster time trialing?

Sorry, there's no quick way to success. But 2 workouts have been shown to provide maxi- mum benefit for the time invested in doing them. My Complete Book of Road Bike Training has a year-round training program for increased cycling fitness. But if you already have a good aerobic base and want a spike in speed and power for an important event, try these workouts.

SOLUTIONS

• “Five threes.” According to several well-designed studies, the fastest way to boost your power at lactate threshold as well as your cycling economy (so you use less oxy- 193 gen at a given speed) is with 5 repeats of 3 minutes each with 2-3 minutes of easy spinning between each effort.

The key to this workout is getting the intensity right. If you have a power meter, it’s simple. You’ll need to know how much wattage you can average when going full tilt. Find out by choosing a gradual hill or flat road into the wind and doing a rip-snortin’ time trial for 6 minutes. Check the average wattage. If you can average, say, 250 watts for the 6 minutes, do your 3-minute repeats at an average of 250 watts.

If you don’t have a power meter, you’ll have to judge intensity by heart rate or by per- ceived exertion. Do the 6-minute time trial and check your heart rate halfway through. That’s a good figure to shoot for at the end of the 3-minute repeats.

Or by using perceived exertion, tune in to how hard you’re working during the 6-minute test. If you’re trying to go as fast as you can for the distance, you’ll be working plenty hard, seemingly at max. That’s the feeling you want for the shorter intervals.

Don’t ride the intervals so hard that you can’t complete all 5 repeats. You want hard work, not miserable suffering.

• “Two twenties.” The second exemplary time trial workout consists of 2 repeats of 20- minute steady efforts with 5-10 minutes of easy spinning between for recovery. These should be done at slightly below your time trial intensity—hard but not a suffer-fest. Concentrate on a smooth pedal stroke, a good aerodynamic position, and on relaxing all muscles that aren’t directly involved in power production.

Pointers!

—Do both these workouts on your time trial bike or on your road bike in time trial position so you get used to generating power while remaining aerodynamic.

—It’s best to do both workouts on a road that’s either slightly uphill or into the wind (or both) so you have some resistance to pedal against. As always, choose a road with little traffic and no stop signs or stop lights.

—Do each workout only once per week separated by at least 2 days of easy riding. These are tough workouts and the danger of overtraining is high so care- fully monitor your feelings of strength and enthusiasm to avoid overdoing it. The biggest danger sign—your performances and your desire to race deteriorate. These workouts should make you faster and stronger, not tired and wimpy.

Some riders like to do these interval workouts indoors on a trainer. The intensity can be con- trolled more effectively and wind, traffic and other road obstacles aren’t factors. But suffering on the vomitron isn’t my idea of fun especially in spring and summer when the birds are sing- ing and the air is warm. Riding indoors isn’t really riding.

When our Race Across America team trained for our 1996 record attempt, Pete Penseyres loved to do intervals in his garage on his CompuTrainer even though he lived in southern

194 California where the weather was beautiful. A 2-time winner of solo RAAM, Pete had always trained with predominantly long aerobic rides so he was actually excited about doing inter- vals. Couple that with his engineer’s mentality that loved numbers and precision, and the re- sult was twice-weekly hammer sessions while looking out at sunny skies.

Using Longer Crankarms for Time Trials

CHALLENGE! The best in your area uses long crankarms on his time trial bike—175 mm even though he’s only 5-foot-4 and uses 170 mm on his road bike. He claims the long cranks give him more leverage so he can push a larger gear. Should you go up in size too?

Crankarm length is one of the most debated issues in cycling. Most crank manufacturers offer a choice of arm lengths ranging from 170 to 180 mm in 2.5-mm increments.

Lennard Zinn wrote an article for VeloNews detailing his attempt at research to clarify this is- sue, and there have been a number of other studies, including Ronald Pfeiffer’s at Boise State University. None has shown any definitive correlations between leg length and crank length. Essentially, riders are most efficient on the crank length they’re accustomed to using.

There may be other factors at work too, like muscle fiber type. One theory claims that people with a high percentage of fast-twitch fibers (which have more explosive strength) should use shorter cranks to take advantage of their ability to spin fast.

Slow-twitch endurance athletes, so the argument goes, can push larger gears at a slower ca- dence and therefore benefit from longer cranks. But there are so many exceptions to this idea that it doesn't seem to hold water in the real world.

In the absence of definitive studies, I suspect most cyclists will time trial better on cranks of the same length they’re accustomed to for normal road riding. But there’s a placebo effect at work here. If you believe longer cranks are helpful, that belief may make you work harder and go faster. That's not very scientific, but so far science hasn't been particularly helpful in sort- ing out this controversy.

195 We hope you enjoyed this eBook from RBR Publishing Company.

We’re in business because we love cycling and helping riders come closer to their potential. If you have received this eBook without proper payment, we ask that you keep it, use it to your benefit, and send a check for $16.95 to RBR Publishing Company, 3255 Embry Hills Dr., Suite A, Atlanta, GA 30341 USA. Questions? Write to [email protected].

Thank you! It’s because of the support of riders who purchase our eBooks and eArticles that our business can continue.

—John Marsh —Fred Matheny

196