Improve your average speed
From structured sessions to tweaks to your kit, raising your speed relies on many factors
“Average speed is one of those metrics everyone likes to brag about to their friends,” says Liam Holohan. “If you want to travel further in your allotted training time, there are a series of factors to consider and apply to your training routine.”
Making those improvements through drills and structured sessions, tweaks to your kit and riding style, along with routine ride-outs needn’t detract from the enjoyment of the ride, and when training alongside other riders can ensure every ride has a purpose. You can work on raising your speed out on the road or indoors on a trainer, reducing your body weight if needs be. Other useful ploys to engage include... 01 ROUTE PLANNING
“The less elevation, the more ground you’ll cover. Use route planning apps, such as Strava or Komoot, to plan a route, minimising the elevation. Also, look out for the number of junctions and small roads as having to stop all the time will ruin your average.” 02 WIND DIRECTION
“Check the wind speed and direction. In the morning the wind could be easterly at 15kph, this could then be set to change to 10kph part way through your ride. This would mean you’d want to head out with a tail wind, so you’ve less headwind to contend with on the return leg.” 03 JOIN THE PACK
“At a speed of 30kph, the average rider is going to be using 70 per cent of their energy to cut through the air. One of the best ways to reduce this is to ride with others. Research shows that a rider ‘in the core’ of the peloton can reduce their drag significantly. You can use that extra energy to ride faster at the front, before recovering in the slipstream of the group.” 04 SUITS YOU
“You can reduce your drag, thus improving average speed, by making some upgrades to your bike and kit. Start with clothing. It’s the cheapest thing to upgrade and will have a measurable effect. Tight-fitting clothing, such as a skin suit, is a good starting point. A filledin, aero road helmet is going to bump up that average speed slightly, too.” 05 BUY UPGRADES
“You’ve got to drop a lot more money to reduce drag from here on in. Think of deep section aero wheels, aero road bikes or a TT bike. A study found that full mudguards were more aerodynamic than the same bike without.” 06 PLAN AHEAD
A RIDER ‘IN THE CORE’ OF THE PELOTRON CAN REDUCE THEIR DRAG
S I G N I F I C A N T LY
“Having a structured training plan is by far the best way to improve your average speed. I find that most amateur cyclists will do the same training year-round,
leading to fitness plateaus. Make sure you’re taking on plenty of carbohydrate before, during and after your ride, and stay hydrated with a mix of electrolytes and water.”
07 GO AERO
“Keep an aerodynamic position on the drops as much as possible. Pacing will also go a long way to ensuring you don’t ‘blow’. Aim for a negative split, meaning that the first half is slightly slower than the second half, a tried and trusted tactic for most time-trialists.”
08 SOUND OUT
“When training at home listen to up tempo music. Research shows that music helps block out feelings of fatigue and reduces the perceived amount of effort a rider is putting into a training session.”