- [Matt] How much more do you reckon I need? This is me seventh load.
- [Simon] Over the course of your riding life, you'll hear many words of wisdom and
pearls of knowledge from those who think they know best. If you hear any of these,
give them an extremely wide berth.
It's GCN's Top Ten Worst Pieces of Cycling Advice.
Back pedaling on descents.
- Descending time needn't be time wasted. Basically, put your brakes a little bit
on descent and pedal backwards to increase the training effect of descents.
- All right.
- Can you feel it kicking in?
- Oh, for sure.
- You should increase your heart rate on descents, keeps you warm when it's very
cold, as well.
- Yeah.
- All the top pros do it.
- This frankly bizarre piece of training advice is really one best avoided.
Sweat out your cold. You're suffering from a cold, and feverish.
You're told to wrap up warm in multiple layers of clothing and go out for a ride
in order to sweat it out. Now, this may have been what they did in the olden days,
but you're more likely to end up on antibiotics, and ruining months of hard
effort if you choose this rather foolish path.
Use 53 x 12 uphill until you reach a standstill. A controversial training
method which has little or no merit whatsoever, and is therefore best avoided
at all costs.
- Ow!
- Do you feel the burn?
- Ow! Oh, I can feel a popping. And a grinding.
- Whoa, Si!
- Brilliant. Oh, God.
- Don't drink anything on a long ride. We are not camels. We are humans.
Bear in mind how much fluid we lose during moderate exercise, and that's roughly one
liter an hour, and the only outcome if you take heed here is a one-way trip to
Dehydrationsville, and possibly worse. Bonkers.
- You're sure you don't want one of mine?
- No, no, honestly, mate, I'll be fine.
- Come on.
- No, no, I'll be fine. I'll be fine.
- Put a plastic bag on your saddle to keep it dry, or how to look like a plonker.
Who does this? Why?
- Oh, no way, it's been raining. Saddle's wet.
- Oh, it's soaked, mate. Look at the state of that, it's actually wet through.
Not mine, though, Si. Completely dry underneath.
- That is good.
- You can't buy that...
- It's still raining.
- ...that sort of knowledge.
- You're not going to take the bag off?
- No, it's a perpetually dry saddle. That's the thinking.
My saddle will always be dry.
- I can't keep a straight face.
- Try one-legged, uphill pedaling.
- It's supposed to help improve your pedaling circle.
- Oh, right.
- So basically from a standing start, one leg, and off we go. You need a low gear to
start off with.
- You bloody well do.
- And then you actually do little wheelies as you go along, which is quite...
- And please, don't try racing.
- Three, go! I think my left leg's a bit stronger, actually.
- Yes!
- Nice. Can we do that again with the left leg?
- Don't wear gloves in the winter to get used to the cold. Yeah, right.
Why not then bother wearing a thermal jacket either?
Look, there is some merit in the toughen-up ideology, but not wearing
gloves in subzero temperatures is basically like saying, "Why not go out
today and not change gear? Or brake?
Do you fancy giving frostbite a go? Ludicrous.
- Would you change gear for me, please?
- Sure, mate, what do you want?
- Could I have the 11?
- Yeah, absolutely.
- There you go. - Thanks, mate.
- You really should wear gloves, you know.
- Train without food, gels, or energy drink on a long ride. Okay.
We could all do a couple of hours without taking food on board,
especially at low intensity, but anything over two hours and beyond will need some
sort of energy top-up. The pros do it and so should you.
- I don't know, I don't know what's wrong with me.
- Well, we've been out all day, and I haven't seen you eat anything yet.
- Simon, how many of you are there? I can see six of you. Six Simons!
Si, have you got any food?
- Oh, good God. Oh, my.
- Ride as hard as you can from the bottom of a climb.
- Pacing, riding to an average power, best way to go.
- How to get yourself into the red and never recover.
- Come on, Si! It's all about the max effort, mate! Old school training as hard
as you can on the climbs, come on! It's not about tempo, it's about going as hard
as you can. Old school.
- You all right, Matt?
- [inaudible] a bit early, Si. Got myself into the red.
I'll be all right in a minute, just maybe wait a bit, or, yeah.
- You can use grass to mend a puncture. Have you tried it? Straw,
maybe, and quite an incredible level of patience combined with dexterous ability,
but grass, no way.
- How much more do you reckon I need? This is my seventh load.
- Just another couple.
- Si, how long is this going to take? I've got work on Monday.
- You're doing really well, mate. It's not much longer at all.
Just a bit more grass.
- Could you give us a hand?
- Ah, no.
- What are your worst pieces of advice? Let us know in the comments below.
- Can you feel it, kicking in?
- Oh, for sure.
- You should increase your heart rate on descents,it keeps you warm
when it's very cold as well.
- Yeah.
- All the top pros do it.
- For more GCN Top Tens, click here.
- And if you haven't yet subscribed, simply click on Matt.
You know it makes sense.
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