(whooshing)
- Cycling is an intrinsically social sport,
I mean I love going riding with my friends
because I get to share the fun
and it helps me push myself harder in training.
- But cyclists are competitive beasts,
it's often been said that two cyclists
or more is basically a race,
as anyone who's been on a group ride,
ripped to shreds by inconsiderate individuals will tell you.
So here are three sessions to help you not just
keep up but also to drop your mates
on your next group ride.
(upbeat music)
We all know that rider in a group ride
that sits on and sprints for every town sign
or even worse, the cafe.
This session will have you surging past them in no time.
To combat these riders you will need
to do the following session.
Ride at a high speed for around 90 seconds.
If you are using a power meter,
around 50 watts above your threshold would be ideal.
If going on feel then you'll want to be
feeling uncomfortable by the end of the effort.
Once through this first part of the effort
you will then need to stand up and sprint
for at least 75 to 100 meters.
This is a maximal effort.
A technical and physical session,
this is as much about working on
sitting on the wheel and out of the wind
as it is about raw power.
In other words, trying to replicate
being in a lead out.
This is much easier to practice on a group ride
than it is in a real bunt sprint on a road race
because there are fewer people
so positioning is much less stressful.
Try to stay second or third wheel
when in a group but remember always stay safe.
(upbeat music)
This comes in handy at traffic lights
or at corners of junctions so you can
accelerate hard and fast to get up the others.
Before they know it you've got a 10 meters gap
and they've got to ride really hard to catch back up.
If this happens all ride it can totally
destroy their morale.
For this session you need to stay seated,
start from a slow speed in a relatively high gear.
Talk it up with max power for 15 seconds,
look ahead and not down, try to keep good form
and not rocking the bike.
For this session you want to be going
uphill or on the flat but definitely not downhill.
Recovery for one to five minutes between the efforts,
start out with five minutes recovery
but as you adapt to the session,
reduce the recovery time.
This simulates lots of corners on a group ride
or in a criterium race.
Ideally you want to train it so well
that it starts to look effortless
and you can stay seated and they simply
won't know what's happening.
(upbeat music)
Have you ever been on a group ride
where the pace becomes erratic and inconsistent on climbs?
This session will help you cope
with those surges and better your climbing ability.
The principle is to do a long, unsteady effort.
Change pace from a bit below threshold
to a bit over threshold.
Don't ease off too much between the surges
or your mates will be able to recover.
Remember, this is not a set of intervals,
it's more like a threshold effort
with surges over threshold.
So the time you're not surging is not
a recovery, even though it's going to feel
easier than when you are on the pedals.
So yes, it is going to hurt and if you do it
wrong you'll blow up and drop yourself
which isn't really the idea, obviously.
So make sure you do not start out too hard,
you'll need to be on a decent hill
with at least 10 minutes duration ahead of you.
Start out with one minute surges
alternating with one minute slightly below threshold.
You can base it on feel or go 20 watts over, 20 watts below.
You can progress gradually to 40 watts over
threshold surges with 30 watts below.
That is a real killer.
You're going well if you can do that
for the entire climb.
If your mates get wise to the regularity
of your surges then it might help them to hang on.
In that case, it's good to mix it up,
for example, surge for 30 seconds or 90 seconds
or even two minutes.
To start with, keep the easier below threshold
time to the same length as the surge you just did
but as you get better at it, try reducing
the easier off time to just 30 seconds.
If you do these three sessions correctly
it will help you combat your pesky mates
who sprint for town signs and surge on every hill.
If you know anyone who is guilty
of these annoying traits, make sure
you share this video with them
and give this video a big thumbs up
if you've experienced these on a group ride.
You can find more training videos
on screen now and check out the January sale
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