It is important to get the correct saddle height, otherwise you will be more prone to injury. Also if the saddle height is wrong your cycling will be less efficient.
When making adjustments to the saddle position it is best to make small adjustments at a time.
When you have found the correct saddle height and you are happy with it, make sure you keep this same saddle height for all your bikes. This is especially important if you do a lot of cycling and have different bikes for racing and training.
One difficulty I have when measuring the saddle height is – what actually is the top of the saddle? It depends where you take the measurement on the saddle. – e.g. saddle is unlikely to be perfectly flat I try to take the measurement of the saddle in line with the down tube and the heighest part of the saddle (i.e. in the centre of the saddle).
Cycling on British roads can feel like a battle between David and Goliath; in an accident between an SUV and a bike, there is only going to be one loser. There is always going to bad driving on the roads, but the only thing we can control is how we cycle and react to situations. Defensive cycling is just a term to describe the different things we can do to give ourself the best chance of cycling safely. Yes, it would be great if we all had Netherlands style cycle infrastructure. But, until cycling nirvana arrives, we have to make the best of the current situation. Some of this advice is nothing more than common sense, but hopefully will give people more confidence to cycle.
Tips for defensive cycling
Look and signal before moving. Cyclists are not always great at looking over their shoulder and giving an indication where they are going. Develop the confidence to look over your shoulder; this is important for manoeuvres such as moving into an outside lane to turn right.
Take a good position in the road. Don’t always hug the curb. You are more visible if you ride a 1 metre from edge of road. In the diagram below, it shows how a car can better see the bike cycling further out in the road.
When I stop at traffic lights, if possible I move to the centre of the lane so the car has to be behind me, rather than allowing the car to squeeze past.
Be very wary of riding on the inside of large vehicles. This is a potentially very dangerous move. Many fatalities occur because cyclists get caught in a driver’s blind spot when the lorry turns left. I know those stickers ‘Cyclists stay back’ are annoying, but you have to be wary of this danger.
Box Hill is one of Britain’s most iconic climbs. The statistics don’t look particularly impressive – 2.5 km with an average gradient of 5%, for a mere 129m height gain. If Box hill was located in the foothills of the Pyrenees, it would barely mention a footnote. But, given it’s accessibility and closeness to London, it has become a popular test for every type of cyclist from the Olympic road race to beginner sportive riders. It is a challenging climb, but also manageable enough for just about everyone to ‘enjoy’ going up Box hill – even if you’re on a Brompton foldup.
It also offers great views of the surrounding countryside. Box hill is also known as ‘Zig Zag’ hill for the couple of hairpins which really give it an Alpine feel – just for a short time whilst climbing Box Hill, you can imagine yourself away from London and cycling up a ‘proper’ climb.
Box Hill – Sum of Marc
The Olympic road race was a once in a lifetime event, but fortunately it has left a lasting legacy. The Prudential London-Surrey Classic is becoming an important road race and it includes Box hill amongst other climbs. In 2014, Adam Blythe won a thrilling race. Also, the Olympics has made the climb even more popular, featuring in innumerable sportives and becoming one of the most popular Strava segments in Europe.
I visited Box Hill just before the Olympic road race in July 2012. It was a couple of days before the Olympic road race and I thoroughly enjoyed going up Box Hill 9 times. I’ve never been back, even though it is tempting.
At this time of the year cycling takes a bit of a backseat, but I’m still able to clock up quite a few winter miles. Every mile helping to boost that very long term project of improved fitness for 2015. If you’re wanting a quick fitness fix and noticeable improvements in form, winter miles are a very hard and slow way of going about it. Every time I go out, there is part of me which thinks – it wouldn’t really matter if you missed today. But, then there is the other part of me which thinks, if I do 50 miles today, perhaps that will knock 2 seconds off a 100 mile time trial time in July.
Fortunately, I would be out cycling even if I never planned to race in 2015. I’m happy to clock up the miles for the sake of cycling – rather than as a means to an end. Today was a steady 60 miles towards Kilnsey Crag and Littondale; in terms of enjoyment it was one of the best rides of the year. I could get used to being a cycle tourist. Perhaps I could grow a beard and get a touring bike with proper mudguards – not these lightweight, aerodynamic, clip on ‘I’m a racer at heart’ type mudguards jobs.
The weather is remarkably good for December in Yorkshire. Just 6 degrees, but warm enough to make it pleasant; and dry. Of course – when I say dry – I mean the absence of rain. There’s still enough water on the road to get soaked through – especially when you leave your front clip on mudguards in Oxford.
I arrived in Yorkshire with minimal packing. I didn’t pack any cycling energy bars, so have been relying on ‘normal’ food that you might find in the kitchen. It’s amazing that, to cycle, you don’t actually have to spend a small fortune on proprietary cycling bars. I found a honey sandwich was enough to get from Bursnall to Halton Gill. Yes, it made me feel like a real cycling tourist to be eating kit-kats and honey sandwiches.
For mid-winter, I’m in pretty good shape. I managed close to 900 miles in November. The hours spent is even more impressive. If I spent that time on a time trial bike on the A50, I could have done twice the mileage. I have an old saying ‘Yorkshire winter miles count double.’ Because it can all be painfully slow at this time of the year. But today I managed to keep a reasonably impressive average speed; and as the light began to fade, I upped the effort to get back before it was really dark. Four hours on the road, 60 miles on the log.
The whole ride was pretty undramatic. I would like to say the roads were exceptionally quiet – they were in places, though in recent years I’ve noticed a big increase in Yodel and white vans, making frantic last minute Christmas deliveries. I know the convenience of internet delivery is very useful, but for the cyclist trying to enjoy quiet roads, it’s not the best development.
Still that’s the only complaint. Mostly it was enjoying the Yorkshire Dales scenery and clocking all those all important miles for the winter mileage saving bank. If I get to 700 miles by the 25th, I might give myself Christmas Day off.
Before the national hill climb championship, the Cyclist magazine commissioned me to write an article on the national hill climb championship. The article is published in this months edition (Jan 2015), which came out recently. – There are some good photos of the hill climb championship too.
If you’re looking for some more in-depth articles on cycling, it’s worth checking out the Cyclist Mag. It’s mainly pro-cycling, but hopefully, the essentially amateur hill climb championship makes an interesting counterpoint to the other road racing.
Talking of hill climbs check out this video by Thom Heald featuring Bristol South CC rising hill climb star Robert Borek. Robert is one of the many new converts to the discipline of hill climbs, and in this video he talks about his enthusiasm for the strange attraction of riding fixed gear bikes up steep hills.
Up Up Up from Thom Heald on Vimeo.
Hill climbing is a niche within a niche. It was one of the original tests of a cyclists skill, the proving ground before time-trials and road races. Now somewhat forgotten, a hardcore band of thin-limbed riders spend their Autumn sacrificing beer and cake for a shot at amateur bike racing glory.
A friend was talking about a theory that the mind can have a big impact on the body. In particular, some niggles in the body can be a result of mental issues. The example they used was stress – manifesting in the form of back pain. The back may be perfectly strong, but to deal with the mental stress, the body deals with it by having pain in the back; furthermore it is claimed releasing this stress in the back is actually a good thing.
If you have have a fall, and injury your knee, it’s pretty certain what the cause is. But, if you wake up the day after a ride, and find a mysterious injury / pain – then it may be some mental cause – often unconscious, and not an underlying physical cause.
I’m no expert on this kind of thing, and I’m sure there are doctors who would disagree – but it is interesting. In particular, I’m sure there have been times when I’ve gained some kind of minor niggle, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the enforced rest did a lot to improve my long-term form.
One thing I should add, when I have had persistent niggles in knees – Physiotherapy did a very good job in getting it better.
I also often think about to my early 20s, where I was injured for several years – meaning I only took up cycling in the late 20s. From a cycling point of view, this was hugely significant. If I’d taken up cycling 10 years earlier, my cycling career might have been quite different. I don’t have any regrets though because, in this lifetime, I am glad I didn’t become a professional cyclist.
Colds
The other interesting thing is that I nearly always get a cold in November / December. During the racing season, I try to hold off any cold. But, once the season is over, I let go of any resistance and almost invite a cold. It’s the best time of the year to have one. A week off the bike, and I’m enjoying it; it’s amazing how much time you have when you don’t cycle 250 miles a week.
It doesn’t always work. I’ve had inopportune colds, just when I don’t want it. But, I think there is something in the idea we can have a mental influence over the body – either positive or negative. My feeling is that we are only just touching the surface of this mind-body link. I’m sure in hundreds of years time, people’s awareness of this will be greatly expanded and we will gain greater intuition and ability to influence this link.
But, at the moment, it’s back to the Vicks vapour rub and snotty handkerchiefs – and dreaming of cycling up Col du Tourmalet in the Pyranees next summer.
The racing season presents many dilemmas – how many days rest do you need in between intervals – should you do intervals at 100% or 99%?
The winter season presents a very different kind of dilemma – not least – how often are we to clean our winter training bike?
Winter training bike looking suspiciously clean
There are two main schools of thought in this direction. The first school suggests religiously cleaning the bike after every ride, with at least once a week complete strip down and degrease.
The second school of thought suggests the best interval for cleaning the winter bike is roughly once a year in early April before retiring the winter bike to the loft.
Those who follow the first school of daily cleaning are either professional bike riders or those who actually do very little winter training. They may pop out on the roads, should the weather be suitably inviting, but generally they prefer to keep their bike out of the wind and mud. No point risking anything when its 5 degrees outside and winter slime covers the road.
Winter mud, near Henley
Unfortunately, most of us are more likely to fall in between the two. We don’t quite want to commit to cleaning the bike after every ride, but once you put it off once, it’s very hard to get round to ever cleaning it – because you know within 12 hours it will be just as muddy as it is already. So you rationalise it by saying, well I might as well leave it another day. I’ll clean it when there is a week of dry, sunny weather forecast (i.e. never). Instead, we just learn to grow accustomed to the muddy winter bike; it starts to become a badge of our ‘old school’, cycling in any weather kind of mentality. It’s a strange logic and hopefully one that doesn’t spill over into personal hygiene. Though, I did have a school friend who claimed after three weeks his hair would start cleaning itself. We were a bit dubious, though we never got too close to inspect for ourselves.
Perhaps that is the next development in bike technology, forget electronic 12 speed which no-one needs – what about the self-cleaning winter bike with automatic greasing and repair maintenance? I’d buy one of those.
The problem with writing this piece is that the more I write about cleaning my winter bike, the greater the growing guilt about the layers of mud on my own down tube. It’s really not that hard to clean a bike, and it does give a wonderful sense of satisfaction when we rediscover the frame colour is a bright blue rather than a muddy brown. It’s just fortunate that I’m going to go out on a winter training ride in a couple of hours – I might as well leave it until I get back….
At the moment, I’m riding without a plan – and it’s quite an enjoyable experience.
During August, September and October it was all tightly structured intervals. November is the complete opposite, unstructured and no intervals. As mentioned previously, I find myself riding around at 15-16mph wondering how on earth do you manage to come back from a ride with an average of over 17 mph.
Riding around Otmoor, I saw a mini chain gang of four riders hammering it on a late November afternoon. The guy on the front was on a time trial bike, giving it some welly. I felt no desire to latch on the end.
I kept my steady pace. But after three weeks of nothing more than level II, I was curious to remember what it was like to go hard up a hill. On the way up to Brill from Oakley I decided to give it a go. For the first five seconds it was a bit of a buzz as you remember the speed and effort of cycling fast up steep hills. But, after 10 seconds it was also a reminder of the great effort needed; it felt painfully slow. I dragged the winter bike up in a respectable time, but it was nothing to get too excited about. Racing feels along way away.
In a way, winter is a good balance to the preceding months. It’s like slow recovery rides are a good balance to hard intervals. Similarly a couple of months of just accumulating miles is a good balance to the work dedicated on the top end. Usually in January, I might consider different training methods, and more higher end work. But, that is always much easier to do when you have a good solid aerobic base.
Having said that – a good day of weather yesterday encouraged me to give my summer bike – the Trek Madone a final farewell fling before winter retirement in the loft. I’m not sure if it was the bike, weather or I was just bored of plodding. But I kept a very respectable pace all the way to Henley and back, averaging a very commendable November average speed of 18mph for the 55 miles. It still gave me time to think about the National Hill Climb splits. I’m not sure which is most impressive, how slowly I went up first half or how quick I went up the second half. As Jimmy Hill used to say on the BBC Match of the day – It’s a game of two halves, Gary’.
I am in real mile munching mode at the moment. nearly 800 miles for November already and it doesn’t really feel like I’m training. Though I’ve been going very slowly up hills, I still can’t wait for next years hill climb season!
There is a virtual prize for any local rider who can identify the locations of the two roads. I would struggle and I took the photos
At the end of the hill climb season, you finish with great top end form, but the less exciting, base aerobic fitness has been given a bit of a back seat. Late October is not the time to be getting 5 hour slow, steady rides under the belt.
After a couple of quiet weeks, the top end form soon dissipates; or perhaps it’s just that you don’t have any motivation to see if you can still sprint up hills. Instead, my thoughts turn to all those miles I’ve been missing out on, and all the miles I need to be getting in.
I was born in a frankly pre-historic, last millennium type analogue era. It was a time before heart rate monitors, power meters, Strava and all these notions of efficient training. I was brought into cycling on the traditional Sunday Club run. At the end of the 12 hour, 110 mile ride, you would just put your feet up and stuffed your face with food – there was no logging on to see how you were digitally comparing.
The greatest excitement for measuring performance was the annual Cycling Weekly mileage double spreadsheet. I used to cut it out and put it on my wall. There was a simple target to fill in as many miles as you could. The more miles the better. This is what is now called ‘Old School Cycling‘ – but we were real men in those days, no indoor virtual races from the comfort of an internet connected roller ride. And I would rather Cycling Weekly kept publishing a paper mileage chart rather than these adverts for Ritmo – which, on principle I have no intention of ever trying to understand.
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Anyway, grumpy old man ‘things were better in my day’ complaint over.
For no particular reason, I get to winter and generate a target to try and do 1,000 miles in each of the winter months – November, December, January and February. There is no good reason for this; no scientific basis that the key to a 4 minute hill climb in October is doing 4,000 miles in the preceding winter. But, it’s good to have a target, especially one where it doesn’t matter so much if you miss out a bit.
To be honest, 1,000 miles a month does requires quite a lot of discipline – especially as the nights draw in and the weather turns remorselessly colder and wetter. I don’t think I’ve ever managed 4,000 miles for the four winter months, but I’m sure if I can do it this year, the 2015 hill climb season will be my best ever….
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80 miles down – 3,920 to go
After two weeks of testing the waters – nothing more than the odd 32 mile ride (even if they did take 2 and half hours). Yesterday was chance to go out for a proper winter training ride. Five hours of plodding a lonely furrow through the Cotswolds.
If winter miles can feel a bit like a chore at times, yesterday was one of those great days for cycling, where you are just grateful to be out in the perfect autumn weather. If winter training could always be like this…
November 10th. I’ve never seen so my flowers still out.
At 10 degrees, it was as good as it gets in mid-November. I took a meandering route to Bourton on the Water and Lower Slaughter; these have been voted the prettiest villages in England, and for good reason. It does make a refreshing change to be spending Sunday cycling through the late Autumn fall – rather than stopping off at a motorway station on the M6 after a brief 4 minutes of torture up some hill climb. I like the off-season – a reminder there’s more to cycling than racing.
I used to do recovery rides at 18 mph, I now seem to do them at 14-15mph – is this a sign of progress? I’m not sure, but probably is. Earlier this year, my recovery rides got as low as 11mph, a combination of NY traffic lights every 50m and the American heat.
The basic principle of recovery rides is to make sure your muscles do actually recover from the micro tears that you subjected them to in harder rides the day before. Hard training only works, if there is sufficient recovery afterwards. The temptation for the over-enthusiastic rider is to ride hard every day and never allow the super-compensation to occur. Using a power meter for the first time this year was of interest. One thing that stood out is that if you want to get a higher power figure, you needed a good period of recovery. It was after this 2-3 days of recovery that you saw higher power figures. Bashing yourself everyday gives a plateau at best. It reminded me of the Obree Way – Obree used to train incredibly hard and then wait 3-5 days to train again. It seemed ridiculously minimalist training and I thought I’d never want to train once or twice a week, but I can understand why it worked now.
How hard to do recovery rides?
I don’t particularly like wearing heart rate monitors, so only do when necessary. On a low intensity recovery ride, 60% of maximum heart rate is a rough guide to avoid going too hard. For me, this is often coming back at an average speed of around 15mph. I do recovery rides purely on feel, and don’t really look at a computer. It is an effort, where you could engage in light conversation without getting out of breath. In terms of power, they tend to be in the range of 100-200 watts. (with a rough threshold one hour power of around 320 watts)
Are recovery rides better than sitting on the couch?
Sometimes it’s good to have a complete day off the bike, if only for the mental and psychological break. But, generally, low intensity recovery rides can be better than doing nothing. Gordon Wright felt that these rides were of substantial benefit.
Firstly low intensity rides help a good blood circulation to the legs to aid in recovering the muscles.
Low intensity rides help prevent the muscles closing down and really going into rest mode. This means that your next training session will be more profitable. (This principle is why Grand tour riders can go out for up to 3 hours on their ‘rest’ day.
Aerobic conditioning. If you are an endurance athlete, any small improvement in base aerobic fitness can help general base fitness. As a very rough rule of thumb, the pyramid principle suggests most training should be done at a low intensity. Smaller quantities at the highest intensity. If you are a time pressed athlete, you could ditch some of the low intensity rides and focus on the intervals, but if you have the time, low intensity can help. I see it as the Yin and Yang approach. On the one hand, really intense intervals which stretch the body out of its comfort zone and limits – to act as a balance, steady low intensity riding.
