A RIDE WITH YANTO BARKER

The former Great Britain and Team ONE Pro rider takes us into the world of fatigue and family time management

RETIREMENT PLANS

Depending on who’s asking, my actual time spent cycling these days varies. I have to sneak in rides where I can sometimes! Like every other cyclist with a young family you have commitments that take over your life – one of the big differences since retiring as a professional is having to ask permission!

RACE MEETINGS

Where possible I arrange business and social meetings along ride routes just to get some miles under the belt each week. I’ll still try to get out on the bike three times a week – if I can squeeze a fourth in I will. I’m fortunate that I have sisters living nearby who love to spend time with their niece, which means I get to ride at weekends too.

TIME SPAN

It helps to spread rides out over the week with a longer one at the weekend. I stick to tried and tested routes around Box Hill, Surrey, because they offer a great mix of hills, flats and a coffee stop. Although I don’t compete anymore I know all my Strava stats going back to my time as a pro and try as much as possible to keep up my fitness levels based on them.

IN A SPIN

Because I’m working in the cycling industry I make sure I keep my hand in with all aspects of it. I’ll ride on Zwift, follow new developments and even have business meetings at spin classes – as well as enter the odd competition when I can. I’m doing Prudential RideLondon again this year and did the Battle On The Beach off-road enduro last year too. I guess I can’t lose the competitive streak.

FITNESS FIRST

I’ve got a keen interest in fatigue and recovery in cycling, especially examining how the body adapts to training demands. When I was cycling at least 25 hours a week there was a big focus on base training but when you’re only doing six to seven hours a week it’s irrelevant. If you want to get more out of the body in a short time, then intervals come into their own. I think that having 25,000 hours of biking under my belt helps add some insight to the work I do now too. Yanto Barker is a former professional cyclist and founder of Le Col, performance cycling apparel (lecol.cc)