- Coming up on this week's Ask GCN Anything.
How do professional riders cope with retirement?
What gears will we be using at the Maratona?
And, is a lighter bike always faster on the climbs?
And we've got other questions, too,
but we're going to kick off with one that, for some reason,
I managed to miss out on last week's Ask GCN Anything.
Which came in from Mark Evison.
He asks, I'm wondering if you think there should be
a separate Strava for pros?
Well, that is a very good question.
In my personal opinion though,
I would say no
because I think it's very nice that the pros
share their races and their ride data with us
in the general public.
It gives you a real appreciation
for just what level they are at.
I do get the sense of frustration
that you might be feeling
if a race visits your local road,
and you get lots of pros filling the top ten
of the most popular KOM segments.
But at the same time, it's also nice to be able
to compare yourself with some of the best riders
in the world, no matter what your level is.
If you would like to try and compete with the pros,
we did a video recently which shows you a few tips
on how to get a personal best on a climb.
You never know.
You might manage to beat one of them.
Have a look at this.
- First up, we need to work out how long the climb
is going to take you.
'Cause that is going to have the biggest effect
on just how you tackle it.
- That's right.
So for longish climbs, I,
anything that's around about five minutes or more,
pacing is going to be vital.
Going in to the red at the start,
and you're likely to lose any time gained
in the first half over the second half.
In this situation, a steady power throughout
is normally ideal.
And the next question is about sportive,
and it comes in from Peter Dawson.
For sportive and charity rides that state categorically
that it's not a race, what does that actually mean?
What is the etiquette?
Am I not allowed to ride fast?
Where is the fun in that?
Well, first and foremost, I think it's probably down
to the insurance of these events.
But it's also a suggestion that you should just ride
in a safe manner.
There's certainly no harm in pressing on
and trying to get a fast time if you want to.
But you should be obeying all the general rules
of the road.
And also, fighting within a group of riders
for position for a climb is going to look a bit funny.
As is attacking up a climb.
However, as I said, there's no harm
in trying to get a good time
if that's what you want to achieve.
But you should do it in a manner which is safe
for both you and also those around you.
For some people, just getting around the sportive
will be the aim of the day.
But for others, you'll want to set a certain time,
just like somebody competing in a marathon, for example.
And if you would like to improve your time
over a sportive, you need look no further
than the following video.
How do you go faster by going slower?
Well, by starting slowly and finishing a lot faster.
It is something that we are never going
to stop preaching here at GCN.
Make sure you pace yourself.
It doesn't matter how experienced you are as a rider,
how much thought you put into your pacing,
it's still incredibly easy to get carried away
at the start and go too fast.
Rapid fire round now,
and we'll start that with a question
that came in on Twitter from Jude.
What gear ratios will you be running
for the Maratona dles Dolomites?
Well, speaking from a personal point of view,
I'm going to be using a 52 by 36 at the front,
an 11 up through 28 at the back.
Hopefully, that easiest gear will allow me
to get around it steadily without actually having to
walk up any of the climbs.
I don't think I'm actually going to be using 52 by 11
at any point, 'cause I'm likely to be
recovering down descents rather than pressing on.
That's the answer to that.
Next up from Ni Ko.
Does a heavier bike equal better training?
I always answer this one by saying that
"a watt is a watt".
So for example, if you've got a coach
or you've just set yourself some intervals
throughout training,
say 250 watts for 20 minutes at a time,
by going on a heavier bike,
you're not suddenly going to find
that you can ride at 270 watts.
But you can only push yourself
as hard as you can push yourself.
However, what a heavier bike will do
is make the duration of your local climbs longer
or, if you're on a group ride,
it will make it slightly harder to keep up
with the rest of the riders.
So from that point of view, you might get some kind of
training benefit.
Next up from Scott BikeDawg.
I have a question,
how does one position their private parts
inside the bib shorts?
Right.
Well, if you look at any video where Si Richardson is
riding a bike and presenting off it,
you'll get the answer to your question
from his personal perspective.
However, for most people, I think it's just a case
of trial and error,
and finding out what is most comfortable for you.
We would love your suggestions on this.
Is there any scientific way of finding out
what is the best, leave your comments
in the section just down below.
Al Francis wrote in,
is it okay to sleep immediately after a hard, long ride?
What are your suggestions?
Well, I used to take naps quite regularly
after training rides when I was a full-time rider.
Unfortunately, I'm so busy now I don't get the time anymore.
But I always have my recovery drink
and possibly some lunch first, before having a
half an hour nap in the afternoon
and getting up and having my dinner later on, etc.
And finally, in the rapid fire round,
this one in on Twitter from the French Tickler.
He's quoted a tweet from Believe Perform,
which about depression and retired athletes, and says,
this is important.
How did you guys cope with retirement?
And actually, this is something we should probably
do something on in the not-so-distant future.
For myself, I had a transitional year.
So I went from being a World Tour rider,
I didn't get my contract renewed,
I then went to a British team which was still paying me,
but I also go the opportunity to do some
commentary and some video.
So it was like a transitional year,
which made things a lot easier
in then going from being a full-time athlete
to being full-time non-athlete, in effect.
Same really went for Matt.
He was a rider/manager for the Sigma Sport Team,
so he was combining a bit of both.
And with Si, he stopped his pro career,
but he already had the job lined up here at GCN.
And obviously, doing something like GCN,
where it's still your hobby from your entire life
which you made your profession,
it does make things a lot easier.
But it is a really big subject.
Because of course, there are hundreds
of professional riders,
and there's not enough jobs within the cycling world
for them all to stay within it.
If you're Pete Sagan or Mark Cavendish, for example,
you're going to have enough money
that you're not going to have to work afterwards,
and besides, you'll still be getting lots of endorsements.
For people below that, it is quite difficult.
The thing as an athlete is that you always have goals
in front of you, whether that's the following day's
training or week in front of you or training camp
in a couple of months, or maybe a race
that's in a few months time.
And what I personally found is when I stopped that,
that was the biggest difficulty.
Not having my life planned out if front of me.
Next up, we have a question in again on Twitter
from Edward Earl.
How do you eliminate or reduce wind noise
in your ears, generated from speed while riding?
Well, that's a quite difficult thing to do
unless you choose to use ear plugs,
which I certainly wouldn't recommend hours on the open road.
The other thing you could do is to go slower.
I'm certainly hearing a lot less wind noise
in my current training than I was a few years ago.
We spoke though to Robbie Ketchell,
who is one of the scientists at Team Sky,
a couple of years ago over in Mallorca
when he was doing some aerodynamic testing
for Geraint Thomas.
And interestingly, he said the equipment you can use
can vastly change the sounds around you.
That the best time trialists in the world
will use their hearing
to make sure they're in the best position possible.
Now that will be down to the fact
that they're using aerodynamic helmets.
And when you've got your ears covered,
that is accentuated in terms of noises that you hear.
Apart from that, I'm afraid I can't help you too much.
But you might be able to get a few tips
from this next video.
And if you want to skip straight to that bit
with Robbie, it comes towards the end of the video.
- I would say that everybody thinks that lower's better,
but it not necessarily is.
Everybody's different, so you have to
you have to find what works for you.
But typically, you can find those types of things
with equipment that fits on your body better,
by listening to the wind around you.
You can hear when it's buffeting
or if it's whistling around with certain types of equipment.
So, trying to make it as quiet as you can.
You can listen to that.
That's actually, the best time trialists in the world,
that's what they do.
They can hear when it's quiet,
and they've learned to do that
over the course of their career.
- Before we get on to our final question this week,
a reminder that we'll be looking through the questions
beneath this video in the comment section
before we do next week's video.
Or if you prefer social media,
you can use #torqueback,
and ask your questions on there.
The last question comes in from Jonathan Lim.
Are aero bikes faster on climbs
than regular climbing bikes?
#torqueback
Again, that's a very good question,
and it would depend on a few factors.
The severity of the climb start,
but necessarily the gradient.
It's about how fast you're actually riding up the climb.
I seem to remember the cutoff point or tipping point
is around about 16 kilometers per hour,
or 10 miles per hour, where one starts to trump the other.
However, it also depends on how much of a differential
there is in the weights between the two bikes,
and also on how aerodynamic you are on one versus the other.
One thing to bear in mind though
is that the pros still have to go
by the UCI's minimum weight rule,
which is at 6.8 kilograms.
So they can't take full advantage
of a super lightweight bike like you or I.
Plus there's the fact that they're probably
pushing out enormous amount more power than you or I,
so they're going faster up the climbs.
So for them, the majority of the time,
aero is always better.
This is a subject which we did a video on,
as you can probably expect.
This is myself and Si comparing
a lightweight bike and an aero bike on a climb.
- But the fact is though, if your average speed,
when you get home from a normal ride on a Sunday,
is 26k an hour,
actually, you're not really going to see any benefits
from riding an aero bike except for one or two exceptions
on your ride are you.
First of all, there's comfort as well.
'Cause aero bikes have always had a bit of a rep
for being slightly harsher than a lightweight bike.
I mean, they're also, ironically enough,
flexy generally, aren't they?
Because they're now in their frontal profile,
so they don't get that kind of torsional rigidity.
- But certainly, I had a misconception really
when I first got onto deep section wheels.
You know, you look at these things, and you think
they look incredibly stiff.
And actually when you get on them and out of the saddle,
the side to side flex of these deep section wheels
is quite significant compared to a normal box section,
even training rim.
All right, that is it for this week's
Ask GCN Anything.
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All right, a couple more videos for you to watch right now.
A recent one, in case you missed it,
is just down here.
And that is Matt explaining how to ride up and down
hairpin bends.
Or if the numbers that I quoted in terms of gear ratios
were completely confusing to you earlier,
you might want to see an explanation of gear ratios,
Which you can find by clicking just up there.