Sports Then and Now

Some people are cyclists and some people are serious cyclists. Up until last year, I definitely fell into the former category, but this year I decided that I wanted to up my game when it came to my bike riding, and so I turned to the people who manage to turn cycling into an endurance art form, those people who I would never want to be in the shoes of, but would love to be able to ride like: Tour de France cyclists. They’re truly incredible. They slog it out, rain hail or shine for twenty-one days on thankless terrain, in the toughest and most prestigious cycling race in the world. So of course, who better to learn from about how to get a better cycling technique? I have combined the workout which I followed when I was training this year, and I am very happy to say that I managed to get a far better time on my daily commute and have smashed all of my previous best times on Strava. Not too bad, really! Take a look to see how I did it.

Set a benchmark for yourself

When you’re training, there’s really no way to know if you’re doing better unless you set up some benchmarks for yourself. You can do tests in order to figure out where you’re standing, and these are usually one, five or 20 minute tests which are going to determine your best power. In order to do these tests, you pelt it out on your bike for the requisite times, and while they may be mentally and physically exhausting, they’re also the best way to get a benchmark of where you’re at. If you don’t have a power metre on your bike, you can map out a course that usually takes you around one, five or 20 minutes and then track your progress on these. You’ll know how you’re doing by how long they take you! Read the rest of this entry →