Cycling shoes never wear out – they only get less pretty, and a new pair won’t make you go faster. A much better use of that spare £95 would be to have a Cycling Physiological Assessment from Loughborough University’s Sports Science Service. The test is done on an SRM ergonometer (glorified gym bike), with a bag over your head to calculate your VO2 max and a vampire taking little nibbles out of a finger at stages through the test to determine your blood lactate concentration. So, you come away knowing your VO2 max, your blood lactate threshold and your maximum power output, among other things – you can then accurately assess your strengths and weaknesses and use the data to guide your training programme for next year. Matt Plews and I went along for the tests a few weeks ago but the computer link to the ergonometer broke down. It’s since been repaired and we’re going back on November 24th. A full report will follow in the next issue, by which time I hope to have recovered from the ordeal.

If you are interested in having such an assessment, contact Rhona Blair, Sports Science Coordinator, Loughborough University, EIS/Loughborough Performance Centre, Loughborough LE11 3TU, tel. 01509 226259, E mail R.Blair@lboro.ac.uk, website www.loughboroughsports.com.

For riders with racing aspirations, this is the time of year for setting goals for the coming season and for building up an endurance base. It is also a good time to work on your cycling skills and your riding style.

The Sunday cub runs provide good endurance training and help you to become comfortable riding in a group. Numbers and the range of abilities of Sunday riders is such that we are currently dividing into three groups based on ability and aspirations. I’m hoping to incorporate, for those who want it, further skills training into the club runs.

I’ve referred above to Dean’s off road sessions – every Tuesday evening at 7pm.

Why not try cyclo cross racing – an excellent local opportunity is the event that Nick and Ann Barnett are organising at Misterton on December 10th. If you’re not going to ride it, Nick would appreciate your help on the day - E mail coltsclose@aol.com, Tel. 01455 251255.

And so to riding style – and I shall be concentrating on different aspects of pedalling in this issue and in the February issue.

Power output is obviously a key component of cycling performance. Those of you who have used a turbo or other static trainer that measures wattage, and those lucky enough to have a pair of SRM cranks, will know that you can produce the same power output using a high gear at a relatively low cadence as using a low gear at a high cadence, and, of course, even more power if you can use a high gear at a high cadence.

High cadence and low gear riding is easier on the legs. Most of the best riders will race at an average cadence of 90rpm or more, which means that at some stages of races, their cadence is likely to be 120 or more. How do you learn to do that?

First of all, when out on the road forget about the 53 ring, even if you’re going downhill. Always remain seated while climbing and engage a gear that you can spin really fast – you’re likely to find seated climbing easier if you sit right back on your saddle and hold the tops of your handlebars. On the downhill sections, try to keep pedalling for as long as you can and don’t gear up beyond 39x16. I’m working on this myself at the moment and I find it helps if I ride on my drops, if I sit right back and push my backside down into the saddle and concentrate on lifting my knees rather than on pushing down on the pedals. I’ve been surprised at the improvement I’ve made, and at my age I’m hardly the most supple of riders, and suppleness obviously helps. A further benefit of pedalling as fast as you can downhill rather than freewheeling is that it hurts your legs much less going up the other side (assuming that there is an ‘other side’).

Paul Tomlinson, who is a superb example of a fast pedalling racer, tells me that on club runs, to work on maintaining/increasing his cadence, he watches what gear other riders are using and always goes one or two lower. Try it – and if you can’t keep up with the group, the answer isn’t to go into a higher gear but to join a slower group!

Most riders, as they get to the top of their pedal stroke, lift their toes and drop their heel, to take them through top dead centre and down into the most powerful part of the pedal stroke – this seems to come naturally. Just as important though is to go powerfully through the bottom of your pedal stroke and into the up phase. Coaching manuals liken the action you should use to wiping dog mess of your shoes on one of those scraper things. I find the dropping of the toe and dragging through bottom dead centre comes less naturally and I have to think about it. I mentioned above, with reference then to fast pedalling downhill, about sitting back and pushing your backside down into the saddle and concentrating on lifting your knees – I find that if I do this, it helps me drop my toes and drag through.

Something else you could try as a means of analysing and improving your pedalling style is isolated leg pedalling. Don’t try this on the road – it’s a turbo exercise. Have a chair by you turbo and rest your free leg on the chair. Be sure to use only a very easy gear when you do this because it’s important to keep your back straight. If you strain to push and pull on the pedals you’re likely to twist your back.

Do you pedal evenly or are you stronger on one leg than the other? How can you tell and why does it matter? Most riders who are significantly stronger on one leg than the other don’t sit square on the saddle and ride with their head slightly to one side without realising it? Work with another rider – take turns in riding one behind the other, and then ride towards one another to check out whether either of you rides lopsided.

‘Lopsided’ matters because firstly, chances are that if you only have one good leg, you won’t be able to ride as well as if you had two good legs. Secondly if you ride upright, your surface area facing the wind is less (I think) so you’re likely to be more streamlined.

What can you do about it? What follows just demonstrates what a sad person I am. When I take my shorts off I always turn them inside out to wash them. I noticed one day that the padding was much more sweaty where my right buttock had been than on the other side. It soon became apparent that this wasn’t just a one off and that it must mean that I pedalled unevenly. From here on it gets even sadder – I sweat a lot on my turbo which is on the concrete floor of the garage. Sweat shows up very well on a concrete floor and I noticed that I produced a great pool of sweat on the right side but rather less on the left side so my head was obviously not directly over the centre of my handlebars. I tried to concentrate on keeping my head up straight but it didn’t seem to work. Then one day I’d been doing some work on my bike (there aren’t many such days) and I’d left my workstand (one with a pole up the middle with an arm and a clamp on it) directly in front of the turbo. Later when I used the turbo I decided to concentrate on looking at the pole in front of me. Lo and behold, there were identical pools of sweat on each side of me and when I took my shorts off…. Well you can guess the rest! Another effect of looking at the pole was that I was looking ahead most of the time rather than looking down at the cadence/wattage readout on my handlebars and when I did sneak a look down, I found that I was pedalling faster than I thought I was. This was good because my turbo work at present is concentrated on increasing my cadence. After the session, I found that my left (weaker) leg felt a little more tired than the right one – could I be working them evenly now?

You might just pick something useful out of these ramblings, but then again ……

Dave Birch
December 2006