Bicycle racing for almost anyone

Addicted2wheels.. of course!

2009-05-21T11:05:00.000Z

Elite travel - indoor trainer

2008-12-19T05:47:00.001Z

Elite travel_0653
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

Not a bad indoor trainer, this is my 2nd (or is it 3rd?) Elite. The roller always wears like that - amazing what hot rubber will do if you try hard enough. This is probably 8 years old, but it has shared the load with an even older - 13 years or so - Elite. The tyres of course wear even faster.

It's a magnetic resisitance unit. Not the best road feel but useful, especially when you run an iBike or similar power meter.

Some rims to enjoy

2008-09-12T05:00:00.002Z

Rims_0138b
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

And identify. Velocity Razor road clincher on the left, a well and truly shellacked Mavic track single in the middle and a road-glue-glued Campag road single on the right.

Track hubs

2008-09-12T04:57:00.001Z

Track hubs_0143
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

Keep your wheels clean! Well, when you haven't ridden singles (sew-ups) for over 10 years, you are excused.

These are obviously high flange hubs. Coupled with singles rims they were very light - and fast.

Cinelli leather hairnet

2008-09-12T03:57:00.001Z

Cinelli leather hairnet_0144
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

Once, long ago, this is what racing cyclists wore on their heads to ward off evil spirits (if they didn't wear a cap and a cabbage leaf as well, anyway). Now they wear plastic and foam. Which is weirder?

Viscount Sebring 1978

2008-08-21T03:01:00.001Z

Viscount-Sebring-RR-CT-1978
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

My 3rd bicycle, after the Alcon and an Apollo: it's a Viscount Sebring with a 'leather hairnet' hanging on the brake extension lever. It must be 1978!

The Alcon taught me about fixed vs freewheeling and basic stuff like puncture repairs and falling off. The Apollo introduced me to multiple (read 5x2) gears and brakes that didn't work in the wet; and the Viscount brought me into 'semi-lightweight' territory, just on the cusp of being a 'real' race bike. Indeed if I got rid of that bell and those silly 'hands-on-bars' brake extensions... and lowered the bars a tad!

Saddle adjustment technique

2008-05-15T23:32:00.001Z

Saddle adjustment technique_0430
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

This pic just brings back so many memories for me... apart from snapping this seat post (it creaked before it broke but I couldn't work out where the creak was coming from...) I have snapped seat rails (no particular warning) and a seat bolt (which left me with a 30+km ride home and nothing to sit on), and lunched a rear derailleur in the spokes of my rear wheel. Which of course broke a few spokes, too.

Ahh, spokes, Broken lots of those. Best effort was a lightweight wheel that survived a 100km road race only to unravel completely the next day. I've broken a few wheel rims, mostly by suddenly and unintentionally twisting them at right angles to my intended direction. And I've snapped the bolt that old-style stems used to secure the handlebars to the steerer tube, if you know what I mean. That results in a rather fabulous yet spooky loss of steering, BTW.

Most recently I couldn't work out what was rattling and occasionally squeaking in a strange metallic way - until it got worse. I found that I could make the sound go away if I stopped pedaling for a while, or (even better) pedaled backwards. So I deduced it was the rear hub... but what could go wrong with a hub? Ahhh, the ratchet, course.... and when it finally broke (I like to test these things to destruction) I had no effective connection between the pedals and the gears... in effect I had a permanent freewheel. Great for going downhill, not so good anywhere else...

I haven't mentioned the ibike lately

2008-05-15T01:15:00.002Z

The ibike is one of several ways to quantify power output on a bicycle. I chose ibike over SRM, Polar and PowerTap for reasons of ease-of-fitment and price - it's the cheapest option and the easiest to swap from bike to bike - although PowerTap has some advantage here as well.

The ibike measures power indirectly - it's not using actual load on a hub, BB or crankset - by crunching various fixed and variable values as you move through the air and over terrain.

I've found the ibike is almost certainly accurate on steep hills where air and rolling resistance are not such big factors. Going slowly up a hill means it's just a simple calculation using steepness of the climb, the altitude gain, overall weight and rate of movement forward. How Armstrong ever got up that Alpe d'Huez TT at something like a 450W average I'll never know. I can barely average 300W for about 200m before collapsing. (Slight exaggeration but it's something like that.)

I calibrate using online power calulators and the ibike is spot on with what you'd expect. Where it's not so good is getting an absolute value for air and rolling resistance - unfortunately these values change all the time depending upon your changing position on the bike and changing road surfaces (rough, smooth, potholed). So it's a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. OTOH it's super easy to fit and swap over to another bike.. so all my bikes (track bike as well) have the mounting and I just take it off one and pop it onto the other... and reset weight and tilt angle of course. That was the main selling feature for me.

More tips on racing for newbies

2008-04-29T22:31:00.002Z

I just have a few random ideas that may help you get started... nothing scientific, nothing guaranteed, but you may like to consider these thoughts:

Ride a bit more than usual before your first race, and push yourself a bit harder to gain some confidence
Then have a rest day before the race, or just a short, easy ride
Get into bunches and practice riding with a group
Eat well, keep fats to a minimum and eat plenty of carbs with fruit, rice and bread in the mix
Don't ride hard if you are sick or injured, or overweight (see your doctor for help there before starting any exercise program)
Remember the rule of thumb: train in a week 3 times the distance of your race - so a 30km criterium means you should do at least 90km in a week, and you need to do that at least for a month prior to build your base
Remember the other rule of thumb: you lose whatever you gained after 3 days, so don't leave it 3 days between rides
Get to the race early and warm up gently but firmly - end the warm up with a cool down and build up to a race gear, but don't over-do it
Don't cool off completely before the race
Register for the race and get your number ASAP, don't leave it to the last minute
Ride around if necessary to keep warm
Don't miss the start
Follow the experienced riders, listen to them and watch what they do
Within the limits of what you can do be prepared to dig deep and grit your teeth to "hang on"
Don't cross wheels with other riders, one swerve and you'll be down
Don't show off in your first race, just absorb and learn
Sit on "in the draft", conserve energy, don't fidget, don't surge, be smooth - momentum is everything
Stay close to and follow experienced wheels carefully, certainly not in a jerky, sudden or unpredictable way
Do a turn when your turn comes, then pull off into the wind, allowing the next rider to shelter in your draft and easily come up to replace you
As you pull off do so gradually and slowly ease up, drifting to the back
If you feel comfortable ease back into the first 3rd of the bunch, otherwise go to the back again
Do what the others do, unless they are totally out of their minds!
Be there at the end
Have a go at the sprint but be realistic - don't get in the way.

From the garage - the rear derailleur

2008-04-14T03:33:00.001Z

rear derailleur_0611
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

It came from a Gitane, I think, circa 1988. It looks like Campag Veloce but I could be wrong...

trends 1983-85_089

2008-03-05T22:15:00.001Z

trends 1983-85_089
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

the way I used to track my miles... in a note book. As in on paper. OK, I still do it even now... but I also log miles and wattage (and everything else) on the computer.

Sydney World Cup Pursuit Final Phil Thuaux Silver

2008-02-20T04:30:00.001Z

Phil Thuaux is a local up this way, so here's a nice vid of his silver at the Sydney World Cup. I think 4.23 is his best, but anyone who rides 4km under 5 minutes is practically super-human. I think Phil started out on his sister's mountain bike - he was certainly pretty quick with little training...

Anna Meares vs Liz Reap-Carlson 200m Semi final at T-Town

2007-11-01T05:12:00.000Z

It's always useful to see how other people do it - the tactics, the responses, the timing... although it also helps to have the strength and speed.

Feed me some cycling news please!

2007-10-04T01:41:00.001Z

Just when you think you've seen it all - the Edworthy spring frame

2007-08-14T10:16:00.002Z

Well I hadn't seen this before.. it's a 'spring frame', where the top and down tubes are bent into large springs to provide comfort on rough roads. Or so went the theory.

You can find the story (and the bike) at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum.

Veloflex Div 1 Wheel-Race

2007-08-01T23:27:00.001Z

Collusion is a great thing... sorry, **teamwork** is a great thing!

Good tech article on TT position for aerodynamics

2007-07-30T01:24:00.000Z

From Leonard Zinn, author of numerous books on biking, including the obvious bible. A useful overview of aero positions from the first long TT of Le Tour 2007.

Tour de France 2003 - Armstrong attacks Ullrich after Fall

2007-07-13T03:54:00.001Z

Unforgettable, silly, dangerous... but here it is again, as Armstrong's bike snags a spectator's bag and down he goes...

A recap on how - and why - to get racing!

2007-05-22T06:09:00.000Z

Enhance your cycling - set some achievable goals and go racing!

Think of this blog as my attempt to inspire you to race. I am targeting the non-racer, the recreational rider who is quite fit and interested in the sport of cycling but for whom racing is 'something I can do later' or 'something that's just a bit out of my league'.

Firstly, never put off to tomorrow what you can do today. I first 'enquired' about bike racing when I was 16 and riding perhaps 100km a week, including 60-80km 'fun rides' on the weekend. Having not been involved in competitive sport in any organised way before - I was a total bookworm -I lacked the confidence to give it a go, so I put it off - for about 8 years, in fact! What a waste.

Secondly, you never know until you give it a go. In my case I only gave it a go after much encouragement by other riders. Luckily I lived fairly close (10km away) from the premier cycling resource in Sydney, Australia - Centennial Park. So for about 8 years I frequently rode to and around the Park. Just by riding around with other riders I got fitter and faster. I found that I could chase and catch other riders and that I had an undiscovered urge to improve - and even to race. I still didn't think I could do it, but the thought entered my head that I had a chance. Eventually I found another rider at the same level and we (at the urging of another rider - as it turned out the president of one of Sydney's bike clubs, Randwick-Botany) made a commitment to try a race together at Heffron Park. We were placed in D grade. He won and I came 2nd. Now for him that 'proved' enough and he didn't race again. But for me I was hooked. I came back and won D grade the following week and went from there.

That was more than 20 years ago and I'm still racing. You'll never know unless you give it a go - and there's a grade for everyone. Just get some miles in your legs firstly - say 80-100km a week for a few months - and find somewhere where you can ride with a few others. It will improve your fitness and your bunch riding skills. You'll need a bit of both, even in the lowest grade.

So that's my motivation out of the way - what about yours?

My personal recommendation is to just go riding, enjoy it and find some buddies to encourage you. Then leverage that fitness and skill to start racing. Of course there's lots more to it than that.

For instance, what are your goals? Ask yourself 'why am I doing this?'. Is it that you want to stay fit and healthy in the long term, and to get out there riding regularly you need extra motivation? Or is it to simply try out racing, just because you'd like to? Try to understand why you want to do it and feed off that motivation. Remind yourself why on those hard days when you question the whole idea. And review your goals regularly. You may want to find out how good you could be, given whatever constraints you may have. (I always had to work (or thought I did), for example, so doing more miles on the bike was always a balancing act.)

Goal setting helps you achieve something definite. Just ambling along seeing what happens may lead you somewhere interesting but it probably won't be exactly what you wanted to do, or be the best that you want to be. It may be great and exactly what you wanted. Or it may be so disappointing that you drift off and do something else.

By aiming at achievable goals you do a few things. You are taking aim, and aiming at something improves your chances of hitting it. You are also building a set of stairs, small steps that will make it easier to climb to a higher place. If you aim at the top rung straightaway you may actually get there - we all have our 'top rung' dreams - but by setting out intermediate goals you will get there more reliably.

Let's make a list.

1. Your first goal may be to start your first race.
2. The next to finish the race.
3. The next to finish with the lead pack.
4. The next to place.
5. The next to win.

You may find that you achieve several of these quite quickly, and that's very important. It's reinforcing to actually achieve your goals, it helps you to stay motivated and to want to do it again. Feed off that feeling by keeping achievable goals!

The beauty of bike racing is that these steps fit perfectly with the system. Whether you call them grades or categories, there are always rungs of the ladder. Plenty of people find their niche on one rung and just enjoy their racing in that grade forever more. They may go higher and then settle back. They may just find a balance that suits them. Some people enjoy the tactics, some like to win. Some like to help others win. It's diversity that makes the whole cycle racing scenario work. We all do what we enjoy and that keeps us all riding - and racing.

And the racing is varied, too

Road races can be 50km, 100km or 260km, or 2,000km in a 3 week tour for that matter. Criteriums can be 30km or 100km. Track races may be short 200m sprints or 4km endurance pursuits. It doesn't really matter what your personal strengths are because there's a niche for everyone. A big strong male or female rider may power along in a time trial and then get dropped on a climb. A wiry, thin rider may struggle on the flats and in the sprints but cream the big guys on the climbs. And in between there's an infinite range of possibilities. Now that's variety - and that's bike racing.

Heffron Sprint Finish 13 March

2007-04-24T05:40:00.001Z

For old time's sake...

Can't help but giggle

2007-04-21T02:13:00.000Z

It's just this drawing... in the Polar power sensor install manual... it's of a pedal... but not the sort we would expect to see so well equipped!

OK, let's browse the Web again. Cycling and power.

2007-04-20T03:59:00.000Z

A great place to start... Machinehead Software. Power calculator is here but there's lots of great stuff.

This looks interesting... a running-based anaerobic sprint test... not exactly cycling but interesting, and a useful way to calculate power over a 35m run... annoying yellow advert takes the eye, too. Uuuugh. Aaahh but it links to this Wingate test... all is not lost. Not a bad site, actually, full of info. Like this chart on "Percentile norms for Relative Peak Power for active young adults" - especially interesting, if you happen to have a power meter handy! An average sort of club racer, IMHO, would fall into the 90th percentile, surely? Having said that I'm neither young nor average (who is?) and I go right off the scale... remembering this is PEAK power, not sustained... and I'm not particularly overweight (nor skinny).

	Male	Female
%Rank	Watts.Kg	Watts.Kg
90	10.89	9.02
80	10.39	8.83
70	10.20	8.53
60	9.80	8.14
50	9.22	7.65
40	8.92	6.96
30	8.53	6.86
20	8.24	6.57
10	7.06	5.98

Maud, P.J., and Schultz B.B: 1989

And this..."Percentile norms for Peak Power for active young adults" is :

	Male	Female
%Rank	Watts	Watts
90	822	560
80	777	527
70	757	505
60	721	480
50	689	449
40	671	432
30	656	399
20	618	376
10	570	353

Maud, P.J., and Schultz B.B: 1989

Looks like they surveyed some pretty average active people... perhaps non cyclists?

How about the Human Powered Vehicle association? Or look at this technical exercise in analysing the forces at work on a bike. Or this interesting exercise by FLAcyclist in comparing the power required to overcome a hilly bike course vs a less hilly but longer one... and Analytic Cycling is a treasure trove that will have you staring at the computer for hours... STOP IT! Go outside and ride!

Still here? Ok, how about Aerodynamics for cycling? If you are getting into the maths, try this Human Power eJournal for size. And last but not least the informative guys at CyclingPeaks software discuss reading and comparing power outputs at different durations.

Training Tip 2 - Plan to ride

2007-04-17T22:55:00.000Z

It's good to just amble along, ride when you feel like it and maybe race occasionally. But guess what? If you get away with it you are very lucky. Just "ambling along" will not boost your fitness, and riding when you feel like it will not build endurance or power. You have to have a dig - test yourself against your maximums - to make improvements. And you have to do it regularly enough that what you gained one day is still there to build on today. Even if all you want to do is a recreational ride, you are better off getting regular sessions in place than 'starting all over again' every time you ride.

I'm not a coach, a nutritionalist or a physiologist - but I do ride, and I'll tell you what I believe.

You must ride 3 times a week - minimum - to maintain your condition
If you want to safely and comfortably race 30km then you must train for 3 times that distance every week for a month (so 90km a week for 4 weeks is the bare minimum for a 30km crit)
Whatever you do in excess of that rule of thumb will give you the endurance and power to compete more comfortably (to counter attacks, even make attacks) - it's up to you how much more you can do!
Intervals on top of base miles will build speed and power
Train your weaknesses, not just your strengths
Whatever strength you gain in one session will be 90% gone within a week, so do regular sessions to maintain that power (ie the torque you can apply through those cranks)
Your endurance probably declines more slowly, but after 2 weeks you'll get that "starting all over again" feeling, so avoid long gaps between rides
Regular miles not only help you build endurance but also ward off injury.

To get more technical about it, a focused training program can - indeed will, if you stick at it and don't get sick or injured - increase your VO2max by 15 to 30% over a 3-4 month period . If you stick at it consistently for 2 years or more you'll see up to a 50% improvement. Consistency is the key. Think about it - you learned to crawl, then to walk and it took years to really get the hang of it. And once you did learn to walk yyou kept at it, day in, day out. So why would you expect to jump on a bike once in a while and just go fast? In fact you need to train your mind as well as your muscles, and to build firstly the endurance and pedalling skills before getting the most out of your cycling. You do that with a plan - a plan to do ride regularly!

Training Tip 1 - find your balance and train without injury

2007-04-17T02:17:00.000Z

Is more always better than less? Up to a point, sure. Ride LOTS! But yes, there is a limit. It's hard to say what's too much but listen to your body. If you feel bad, especially if you are putting in the miles and not improving, or if your heart rate is staying up when it should go down (at rest, say), take a break, lower the intensity and see if that helps. Another clue is when you can't get the heart rate up - like you used to hit 192bpm but now a maximum effort still feels like a max effort but you only hit 182. It would be nice to correlate that with workload - maybe you aren't actually working as hard as you thought- but if true then you may indeed have overtrained.

But don't kid yourself. If you have built up a base level of miles over a few months - say at least 100-200km a week - and then do some hard interval sessions on top, it is unlikely you have overtrained. Maybe. But not likely. Sudden intensity without base miles may injure you, but not overtrain you. However if you were doing 500-700km a week and laid on more on top of that then yes, overtraining is a possibility. Take a break, just in case. A week of slow riding won't hurt you!

To be a bit more scientific about it - and I'm not a coach, this is just my somewhat informed opinion - optimum training intensity varies by just a few percent between individuals, so there are some rules of thumb we can all follow to keep us improving. Such as:

It is generally believed for example, and we have ample evidence to justify this belief, that maximum aerobic improvement occurs at around 85% VO2 max, give or take a few percent
That's about 90% of your max. heart rate. So regular training above this level will increase the potential for injury without a corresponding lift in your cardiovascular adaptation - which is to say you are trying too hard, could become overtrained or injured - so back off a bit
Now lower levels of exercise - say 55% max HR for 60 minutes or even 65% max HR for 45 minutes - may modestly improve, and at least maintain, your overall conditioning... but...
Whilst that may be enough for you to stay in C grade, what if you want to get better, faster? Long steady distance training, say 50 to 70% of max HR for hours on end, will do little more than maintain status quo. Yes, it could burn off fat - a good thing. Yes, it will build endurance...
But if you are looking to increase your top end (maybe to avoid being dropped in your frenzied local crit, or to attack and break away, win and go up a grade) you need to hit the high notes. That's the 85-90% max HR mark.
It's finding a balance between too much high-intensity training and not enough that's hard. And why you pay big bucks to the experienced coaches to get that sort of result.

Of course we don't want to spend big bucks, so it's down to YOU. Hopefully in the above are some clues to improving your condition without injury.

Even the NYT has written about power meters

2007-04-16T22:32:00.000Z

Cycling and data. Well I was hooked on bike data long ago - firstly by writing down how far I rode, then how long it took... which gave me an average speed. Then I collected more detailed data on max speed, then heart rate and finally power output. It just gets better and better (the data collection, not the output). Here's a reassuring story I found in the NYT about similar obsessive behaviour.