- The Tour de France may be behind us for another year,
but one thing you can rely on to keep you company
is Ask GCNything.
I took a note from last week's edition
from Si and Dan And I'm going to include
just a little bit more rapid fire,
quite simply because so many of you
take the time to get in touch.
We're gonna return the favour
and answer some more questions for you.
But first up is this long-form answer
or question from Joshua Pearce who asked,
"Hashtag TorqueBack how do I become a professional biker
"or race for a team?"
Well first of all, most thanks very much
for getting in touch, Joshua.
Fundamentally, in the first instance
you just need to love riding your bike.
Secondly, try and hook up with a like-minded group
of riders locally, but I think ultimately
you wanna join a cycling team or a local club.
And they will basically give you an opportunity
to ride with the group, one of the most important
skills if you're gonna consider racing in the first place
and then what you need to do is get yourself into
some races and at your age, at 16, most of the racing
that you'll be doing, aside from any time trials
that you may choose to do, is to race on a closed circuit.
And then, if you really want to turn pro,
you need to start performing well in these races
and build up, stay focused, get plenty of rest,
make sure you keep enjoying riding your bike
but improve your race craft, improve your fitness,
and expose yourself to more different sorts of racing.
And actually, it's a good idea
to do some mountain biking as well,
maybe a little bit of a cycle across
to get as versatile as you can, and all basically
through the age classifications with the junior and under 23
you need to keep improving and if you want to be a pro
you need to win some races.
And if you start winning races on a national level
you'll then get picked up ultimately
by the national team and then you'll take it to
the next level, which is riding internationally
in the bigger races and it's there,
that if you're good enough, if you win for example,
you'll catch the eye of professional team managers.
But work hard, rest a lot, and enjoy riding your bike.
And also, the cherry on the cake,
how about watching this video?
- Do not worry if you do not have the best equipment.
Now I know that for a lot of us, many of us in fact,
actually looking at and lusting after expensive bikes
is part of being a cyclist,
but if you don't have an expensive bike
then don't worry because it is the rider
and not the bike that makes the biggest difference.
Just look after what you've got
and keep it clean, keep it well maintained,
and, to be fair, if you get good results consistently
someone's probably going to start
giving you bikes for free anyway.
- Next up we have this question from Dani down
in the comments section, @bobo_wyoming.
"I did a biomechanical analysis
"and he said that I'm pedalling really bad,
"but I've been doing it for so long.
"How can I improve it?"
Well Dani, thank you very much
for getting in contact with us.
But, firstly, don't worry because many people
have built up techniques over the years
because simply just got on a bike
and started riding without really giving any
particular thought to the way that they're riding
and if you think about it, if something's comfortable,
especially riding a bike,
why would you ever change?
Now, it's amazing how adaptable the human body is
and regardless of the position
that somebody's riding on a bike,
you can actually get remarkably efficient
even in an incorrect biomechanical position,
but you can still make improvements
and you can still change.
Now I wasn't obviously there,
we don't need exact details of how badly you're
pedalling or if you've got an incorrect position.
But first and foremost, if there are positional changes
that have been asked of you,
make sure you do those incrementally and over time.
Don't do any big positional shifts
or any sudden positional shifts
because that could result in bad knees for example
or even a bad back.
But you can get more efficient.
Now, in relation particularly to pedalling technique,
what you want to do is think, while you're on the bike,
about how you pedal.
Think about the muscles that you're recruiting
and ultimately think about making smooth,
fluid pedal strokes.
Now this is a subject that we tackle
in a lot more detail here.
There's Dan, there's Si
riding along the coast in California.
Give this a watch.
Hopefully it'll help.
- First up, we're actually going
to do some backpedalling.
Not literally but metaphorically
because an overwhelming body of research
including our own have shown that pulling
up on the pedals, scraping through the bottom
of the pedal stroke, does not
make your pedalling more efficient.
- Now, your body will naturally put power
to the pedals in the most efficient way for it.
So you do not have to think about pedalling in circles.
- As promised, I've gone for a longer rapid fire round.
Hopefully not longer in the way I answer the questions.
It's just that I've got nine here
so I'm going to pack a load in.
First up is this from Olly Cook in the
comments section who asked,
"Where do the riders go when they abandon?
"Do they just have to sit in the car until the end?
"I feel you guys are qualified to answer."
Little bit cheeky there Olly, but no you are right.
They'll sit in the team car,
but if the team car's full, more often
they will actually go and sit in the broom waggon
which is the last vehicle on a race.
I have been in the broom waggon a couple occasions
when I've been feeling a bit dodgy.
But basically what you'll do,
you're pulled to the side of the road,
race commissaire will take off your number
and then you'll either have to sit in the car,
or you're going to sit in the last vehicle on the race.
Next up is this from Kevin Gunaman who asked,
"When pedalling the bike,
"is it normal to have some inwards movement
"of your knee or should it be straight
"up and down movement only?"
Well Kevin, we're all built biomechanically differently,
skeletally, so once you get on a bike and start pedalling,
you can't actually help what happens in terms
of the direction that your knee goes.
A lot of you may have noticed that my knee in particular,
my left knee, actually tracks
ridiculously to the inside.
So I've got one knee going like that
and the other knee doing that.
It is quite natural,
I think it was actually the result of one of my falls,
but, you can actually shift it slightly.
If you go and see a bike fitter,
they can actually put some shims in your shoes
to try and straighten things up.
But, it is actually quite normal.
Some people have their knees out,
some people have their knees in,
and some people are lucky enough to have
a perfect, sort of, set of tracking, basically.
Okay, next up is this from Paul Graham.
"Why is it when teams warm up
"they have something up their nose?
"What is it, and what effect does that do to the body?"
Well, there are several things, two things really,
that riders will put up their nose
or on their nose during a warm up.
Generally for a warm up for a time trial,
there are things called a turbine
which is basically something that clips on
to the top of your nose and opens up the airways
to assist with better breathing.
Sometimes actually use it in the time trials themselves.
Others, it just helps them warm up
to just improve the airways.
Another that you'll see,
is riders sticking bits of cotton wool up their nose
and generally they'll have some sort of
menthol on there like a Vicks or something like that.
And that, again, helps clear the air passages.
Although, there's no actual scientific proof
it actually improves anything.
But, saying that, still, a lot of riders use it.
Perhaps there's a bit of a placebo effect.
Next up we have this from Gunks Hunter,
"How did Matt win the national championships?
"Sprint, break, we love you Matt. Smiley emoticon."
That's nice, thanks very much Gunks.
Well I actually won the national championships
by a solo break so I did have time to sit up
and enjoy the moment but yeah, solo break.
Next up is this from Owen Jones.
"Hi guys, have you got any tips for going on rides
"with slightly slower friends?
"Apart from the obvious benefit of them
"drafting you for most the ride, of course.
"Thanks for all of the great videos."
Thanks very much, Owen.
That's a really really good question.
Going with slow friends, first and foremost,
if they've got a light bike,
maybe try going out on a heavier bike.
Go out on a bike with mud guards.
Of course, sit on the front a lot more.
Another one is maybe to put on a set of heavier tyres
or knobbly tyres.
Or, if you've got a choice of bikes,
and say for example your friends are on a light road bike,
why don't you go out on your mountain bike,
with big knobbly tyres.
A heavier bike, more traction,
just makes it a little bit more difficult.
Next up is this from Brad King, who asked
"Why are pedals you clip into called clipless pedals?"
Well back in the day, the pedal system you used to use
was a flat pedal with a cage and a toe strap attached.
And they're actually called clips and straps.
But now, we don't have clips and straps,
it's just a system that's based on a ski binding.
There's a company called Look
who introduced this system back in the mid 1980's.
Therefore, as there's no clips, they're called "clipless".
Next up we have this from Minjin025.
"I'm not a racer, I'm just a weekend warrior
"but is it okay to run tubes that have been patched?
"I run them between 115 and 120 psi
"and I weigh 185 pounds,
"84 kilos for you goofy metric people.
"Thanks very much!"
Well, that is a good question.
But, back in the day when I first started out
and I wasn't sponsored, I had to buy all my own equipment,
I did patch up a lot of my tubes.
I think there are quite a few tubes
running in the rinse that has kind of
five or six patches on
but as long as it isn't a massive bit of damage
to the inner tube, it's a small kind of puncture,
and they are well patched, you take your time doing it,
there's no problem at all.
Finally is this, from Adhidev Mukherjee, who asks
"What are the cons of external cabling
"in a more entry-level roadbike?
"Should one hold back and invest
"in an internal cable bike, especially for a beginner?"
That is a really, really good question,
but my advice would be this.
On an entry-level bike, the cables are externally routed.
Okay, the disadvantage, one small disadvantage,
is that it's not quite as aerodynamically efficient
as a more expensive bike with internally routed cables.
But, the advantage you will have,
of the internally routed cables,
is that they're far easier to maintain.
So, for an entry-level bike, save a bit of money
and go for externally routed cables if I were you.
And, actually I've got another one
here finally, from Indulonman.
"Who is the woman saying it's now time for cycling shorts?"
Well, the answer to that question is,
it's Lizzie Deignan (mumbles),
British road champion and former world champion
and former silver medalist in the Olympic games.
Well, I'm a little bit exhausted
after that rather rapid, rapid fire round.
But we're gonna slow things down.
One more question, and it's this, from Manuel W.
"Hey GCN, I'm from The Netherlands
"but I want to train and be able to ride up hills.
"Now the problem is Holland is pretty flat.
"The biggest hills we have are speed bumps.
"What is the best way for me to train to go uphill?
"Hashtag torqueback".
Well, thanks very much for getting in touch with us, Manuel.
It is a perennial question from those of us
living in particularly flat areas,
but before I throw to a video,
exploring this subject in a bit more detail,
I do have a couple of tips, which I hope will help.
Now, if you've got a home trainer,
and I've done this in the past,
try stacking up the front of the home trainer so it tilts
your bike to the angle that replicates you riding up a hill.
So, a few catalogues, stack it about that much
and it will actually replicate the angle
of riding up a hill,
although the kinetics will, of course, be different.
And then, try riding sat in a saddle
but on a far lower cadence,
putting a lot of torque through the pedals.
That's one way.
Another way, is to do the same thing,
so stack the front of the bike up
but use a very large gear and ride out of the saddle
and do one minute intervals riding as hard as you can
out of the saddle using a big gear.
And although it isn't perfect,
it will replicate certain facets of riding uphill.
And another one, is to get yourself a smart trainer
and Zwift which almost perfectly, actually,
replicates riding outside on climbs
but in a virtual world.
Or, in addition to that, you could watch,
as I mentioned before, this video here.
(rock music)
- [Cyclist] Another option is to give yourself
some extra resistance on the road.
Now that could be riding around with your brakes on.
Although, that's not something we particularly recommend.
But, it could also be wind.
That's right, a head wind.
Although often incredibly annoying,
it can actually be used to improve your climbing.
So if you ride into one for half an hour,
you're gonna be putting out some big watts,
a pretty low speed, just like climbing.
- Well that's it for another edition of Ask GCNything.
Thanks very much for getting in touch with us
and please do keep those questions coming,
using the hashtag "Torqueback" down in the comments section
or over on social media as well.
And, if you haven't already subscribed
to the Global Cycling Network, it is free.
Click on the globe and that way
you won't miss another video.
Now, for a couple more videos
in relation to training on climbs,
how about clicking just down here for going downhill safe,
or specifically, descending safe.
Or, click up here for how to get faster
on hills without getting any fitter.