SMASH YOUR NEXT BIG RIDE
10 essential ways to boost your cycling
is used to set training zones, designed to improve di!erent parameters of fitness, be it speed or stamina, depending on the time of the season. But that power intensity information is also a useful pacing gauge because, like training zones, pacing is dependent on duration and e!ort. The problem is, despite power meters dropping in price, they still represent a serious investment. Training zones and pacing awareness are far more accessible.
According to Professor Oliver Faude of Basel University, FTP correlates to an intensity that’s similar to your blood lactate threshold (LTHR), which you can measure via a heart-rate monitor. Ride flat out for 30 minutes and, 10 minutes in, start your heart-rate monitor. Find out your average heart rate for the next 20 minutes and that figure is an approximation of your lactate threshold.
You can find out more about training zones on page 17 but, as a snapshot, you could ride for many hours in the energy-e#cient zone (60 to 70 per cent of max heart rate), while the red-line zone (90 to 100 per cent) will be minutes or even seconds.
3 RAISE YOUR FATMAX
Understanding power intensity and how your body responds is a great start to maximising your long-ride performance. But unless you train solely on a turbo trainer – or ride in a vacuum – there are multiple other factors that a!ect your pacing ability, again beginning with you. “Pacing is influenced by your metabolic response, which varies from one rider to the next,” explains professor of sport science, Louis Passfield. “A rider who racks up lots of miles will create a lean, fatburning machine as opposed to one who focuses on high-intensity, shorter e!orts that favour a carbohydrate-heavy system.”
When it comes to pacing sportives, arguably the fat-burning pedaller is in a stronger pacing position. A recent theory around pacing and metabolic response is ‘Fatmax’, which is the intensity at which fat oxidation peaks. The theory goes that as near endless supplies of fat provide nine calories per gram – rather than just four calories per gram for carbs, which maxes out at around 300-500g glycogen a rider depending on fitness – the higher a rider’s Fatmax, the more they can preserve glycogen levels for hard parts of the race and thus maintain more consistent pacing. From his research, Professor Asker Jeukendrup observed that the ‘best’ Fatmax zone was around 60-63 per cent VO" max or around 75 per cent of maximum heart rate. For less fit individuals, this dropped to 50 per cent VO" max.
Increasing the proportion of ‘good’ fats you eat and fasted training are two mooted methods to raise your Fatmax. Just beware of fasted training as, while
it’s hit the headlines for transforming Team Ineos riders into endurance juggernauts, it can leave you feeling light-headed and mildly nauseous. Muscle type also impacts pacing. A high prevalence of fasttwitch fibres means you can generate high but short power outputs, punctuated by long periods of lowerpace riding. A high prevalence of slow-twitch means you’re better as a steady Eddie. Crudely speaking, bulging thighs and calves might mean fast-twitch; lean and sinewy indicate predominantly slow-twitch fibres.
4 CLIMBING MASTERCLASS
“We spend a lot of time with timetriallists to examine pacing,” says exercise physiologist Jamie Pringle, “and when it’s a rolling course or you have steep hills, be it a TT or road race, in most cases it’s better to push harder on the uphills and ease o! on the downhills. It’s the same when riding with or against a sti! headwind.” This sounds obvious, but how many of you have approached a hill already blowing out of your chamois pad? The higher power output required for the hill then tips you over the edge (physiologically rather than topographically, we hope). Unless the downhill matches that between Conococha and Paramonga in Peru – reportedly 117km long, dropping from 4095m to 16m, and all bike-worthy – you’ll not recover on the descent and therefore kill your pacing strategy for the rest of the ride.
Cheung explains that if you’re attacking a fiveminute hill and know that when you’re fresh you can hold 113 per cent of your FTP for that period without cracking, knock o! 5-10 per cent and hit a fiveminute hill at, say, 105 per cent of FTP.
5 PARAMOUNT POSITIONING
When it comes to pacing hills, the steeper they are, the more conservative you should be, partly because gravity chafes but also a steep, short descent means less recovery time. Research shows that road cyclists are more e"cient when remaining seated until the gradient hits 10 per cent. Tip over to 11 per cent and standing becomes more e"cient. And it’s not just on the climbs that position influences pacing e"ciency.
On the flats, how you sit can also save you minutes over a sportive. The exact mix of positions throughout a ride is highly individual but don’t fall into the drops trap. Unless you’re highly trained, sitting on the drops for long periods leads to back pain and inconsistent pacing; in fact, it’s been shown that even pro riders only nestle into the drops for around 25 per cent of a multi-stage ride.
6 DRAFTING BENEFITS
Like the pros, you can generate a higher, more consistent pace by riding in a tight pack. Back in 1979, scientists studied wind resistance and power output in racing groups, measuring a 47 per cent energy saving when riders followed at a rather improbable zero metres, but still a healthy 27 per cent at 2m back. Even at 3m, benefits have been noted.
Research by Bert Blocken, professor of physics at Eindhoven University, showed that you can even conserve energy and maintain better pacing if it’s your turn up front. “Sitting just 1cm behind realised energy-saving benefits of 2-3 per cent for the front rider,” he explains. At that distance you’re bordering on morphing into a tandem, but Blocken says it’s not unrealistic. “While more akin to track riding, on the road cyclists hide behind each other in a staggered fashion, so it’s not just one long train linked by just a centimetre. That said, a more real-world 15cm still sees a 1.5 per cent conservation of energy.”
7 DECEIVE YOURSELF
You can actually con yourself into riding faster. In 2011, Kevin Thompson, of the University of Canberra, asked a group of cyclists to do a 4km time-trial against an on-screen avatar that the riders thought was going at their best pace. In actual fact, it was 1 per cent faster. Despite Thompson’s deception, the riders kept up with their virtual rival, cycling faster than they ever had before. “That showed us the body has an energy reserve of 2-5 per cent,” Thompson says. The method seems to work
even when riders know they’re being duped. A team at Indiana University later worked with Thompson to replicate his study and, again, most riders beat their best speed by 2 per cent when racing the avatar. Then the researchers told the athletes they had been deceived and asked them to race again at 2 per cent faster pace than their personal best. “They still managed to beat it,” says Thompson. “They’d shifted their pacing template.”
8 RECCE REWARDS
Another huge part of learning pace control is practising the course you’re going to compete on. “Recreational riders can check out the course online but, when it comes to the elites,” says Thompson, “we’ll often visit the course and record key sections on a GoPro then play it back again and again. Psychologically you have a more accurate pacing algorithm.” Whatever your riding experience or level of fitness, poor pacing can result in a shameful bonk. However, a combination of training tools and greater self-awareness should set you on the fastest path for pacing perfection.
9 USE THE WEB
Riding a climb for the first time? VeloViewer is a tremendous resource, adding an absurd level of detail – the showpiece being a heatmap gradient graph – for any Strava segment in the world, and allowing you to plot a strategy for each. We’ve seen many a rider crack due to either not knowing, or being given du information about, the length of a climb because they’re then unable to measure their e ort and pace correctly.
10 WHAT (AND WHAT NOT) TO CARRY
Knowing your sportive course is handy for deciding what you should carry. Say you’re riding L’Étape du Tour and there’s a feed station at the summit of the first climb and that climb comes straight away, you’d be mad to fill a couple of water bottles when a well-hydrated person starting the event might get by on half of one – a full 750ml bottle, with cage weighs more than the whole frameset of, say, the Cannondale SuperSix EVO.
The same applies if a long climb finishes a ride – do you really need to lug a full bottle up it? If not, squirt what you don’t need onto the road or, better still on a hot day, over your head, and chuck any food you don’t need away (into the designated disposal area, obviously). Food is another area we can really focus on to fuel our needs and ensure we aren’t glorified shopping trolleys, unnecessarily ferrying snacks through a mountain tour.