Image by Luca Pedroni

An individual time trial is a straight-forward discipline that is used as introduction to cycling races in many countries. After a short introduction to the simple rules beginners are able to ride a fair time trial.

Nevertheless, time trials are difficult to master and even professionals can improve their time trialing significantly. It’s hard to understand that one rider is much better at the major events like the prologues of the Tour de France and World Championships than his opponents.

How can we explain the superiority of Fabian Cancellara?

1. Optimal Anatomy. Big riders perform better on flat time trials. More than 90% of power output is used to break the wind. Wind resistance is enemy number one in time trials. Nevertheless, obesity will always be punished so time trialists should be slim and fit like all other cyclists. Weighing around 80kg seems optimal for flat time trials, but lighter athletes can ride really great time trials.

2. Extraordinary Physiology. Like all other professional cyclists Cancellara must have an extraordinary physiology. One specific skill that must be superior is the threshold power. He is able to generate many Watts at his threshold power.

3. Perfect Body Position. An optimal body position minimizes the aerodynamic drag, thus, requiring less Watts to ride fast. Actually, body position is where you can make the biggest improvements on your overall aerodynamics. So, if you don’t have the budget to buy an expensive aerodynamic bike, please remember that a good body position is much more important than e.g. disc wheel etc.

4. Aerodynamic Equipment. Optimized aerodynamics includes proper materials that are optimized for body size, riding style and aerodynamics. I’m not sure whether Cancellara’s materials are any better than other professional riders but one thing that surely matters is that he continually optimizes his aerodynamic equipment. Visiting a wind tunnel is the best and most scientifically way to find the right combination of bike setup.

5. Mental Power. Racing against the clock is a special dispipline that some riders love and others hate. Being good at pacing yourself throughout a time trial is a skill that should be trained and mastered to become a world class time trialist.

6. Specific Time Trial Training. Cancellara trains specifically for time trials and the training is optimized towards improving his threshold power. It requires a great training amount and high quality training principles over years to develop a large aerobic engine.

7. Tapering for Major Competitions. Instead of focusing on great performance in races every single week, it’s important to give the highest priority to very few events throughout the season and make a proper tapering protocol for these events. That increases performance and the likeliness of success.

8. X-factor. History shows that some riders just ride much faster than everyone else and we will never be able answer why. I know what many people think about professional cyclists and I have the same thoughts regularly.

Though, we have to remember that one athlete always will be the fastest. That’s the game.

Thus, there might be other reasons than doping that will explain why riders like Fabian Cancellara is so much better than everyone else at time trials. If you have any suggestions, please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Many riders spend too much time on recovery training because they keep telling themselves (and everyone else) how important their recovery training is. They believe that recovery rides are just as important as regular training. I don’t agree. These riders are not aware of the difference between recovery rides and simply just recovery.

Recovery rides are not as important as regular training. Recovery rides don’t improve your endurance significantly and they only slightly accelerate the recovery process. Regular training has a much higher, positive impact on your cycling performance.

What do you think will have the greatest impact on your performance: Adding 1 hr extra recovery training or 1 hr extra endurance training?

If you had to reduce your training time with 1hr per week which training session would be the most critical to miss? Probably not the recovery ride…

Thus, my conclusion is that recovery rides are NOT as important as regular training. Though, I must emphasize that the recovery process (not recovery rides) is a cornerstone in high quality training principles.

How can you optimize your recovery rides?

Reduce training time
Most cyclists spend too much time on their recovery rides. I believe a single recovery ride should never last more than 10% of your weekly training amount. Thus if you train app. 10 hrs per week, your recovery rides should never last longer than 1 hour.

It does not makes sense to spend more time on recovery rides since these rides reflect the previous training you are recovering from. If you want to get the most out the time you train, you should consider to simply eliminate your recovery training. It’s very likely much better for you to ride an extra hour another day.

In 2007 one of my riders made it to the national team with only 9hrs super effective training per week. He would never have been able to that if he did recovery rides of 1-2hrs.

Due to limited time, we decided to skip every single recovery ride. Instead he had two or three days per week without training. These days without training he recovered from highly effective interval training (and took care of his education…)

That’s just one example and proof that even elite athletes can perform great without recovery training. If you are limited in time, it’s worth considering whether you should change your strategy.

Wear a heart rate monitor
The best way to make sure the intensity doesn’t get too high, is to wear a heart rate monitor. Keep your target heart rate around 60% of your maximum heart rate. That should do the job. Light exercise increases circulation and helps you to speed up the recovery process. There will not happen a miracle overnight, but it’s probably better than nothing. I know that many of you already use a heart rate monitor, so take this tip as a reminder.

Train other skills
Since training time and intensity is reduced, recovery training is an opportunity to train other skills. You could easily add some technical training to your recovery ride without reducing the quality of your recovery training.

It’s free, extra training that will boost your overall performance and it’s fun. If you have a mountain bike, you can learn several technical tricks while you are performing your recovery training.

I hope you can see my points and if you are one the riders I mention in this post, feel free to defend your opinions.

It’s an interesting question because of spinning’s popularity and the fact that many serious riders enter spinning classes frequently in the winter season.

I believe most people can benefit from spinning classes. Spinning bikes are different to ride than regular road cycling bikes, but the physiological adaptations are so close to adaptations from road cycling. Thus it’s almost certain you will improve your cycling performance when you enter a spinning class.

Though I have to say that it’s impossible to compare 1hr spinning with 1hr road cycling. There are many external factors that will influence on your perceived exhaustion (temperature, humidity, music, instructor etc.) Thus, you might very likely subjectively feel you’ve worked harder than you objectively have (a power meter might tell you a different story…)

Also remember that most spinning lessons are made with fitness people in mind. They want to entertain and train people who enter the fitness room once or twice every week, not cyclists who train 8, 12 or even more hours per week. I don’t think it’s a bad decision, but it’s worth to remember when you are road cyclist with a much larger training amount and a different goal with your training.

I have previously outlined how you can achieve better results with spinning and these recommendations illustrate why some riders might end up with the conclusion: “Spinning is not for real cyclists”.

I disagree with the above conclusion, because all cyclists can benefit from spinning classes if they remember the differences between regular cycling and spinning.

Share your experiences
Please write a comment with your experiences with spinning and how you integrate spinning in your training routine.

It has long been known that warm-up before physical exercise can improve your performance significantly. In many of my training programs, I actually recommend you to perform an incremental warm-up before interval training really starts.

Physiological benefits of warm-up

• Metabolic processes are temperature-dependent, thus many enzymes perform better at higher temperatures.
• Oxygen transport from blood to tissue is more rapid.
• Faster transmissions of nerve impulses.

Bottom line is that your body is better prepared for severe exercise after doing a proper warm-up.

In my opinion it’s an easy decision whether you should warm-up or not before important events. If you want to deliver the best performance in cycling races e.g. time trials then you should definitely learn how to warm-up. The best place to figure out what is the best warm-up protocol for you is when you perform difficult intervals.

Use the Trial and Error principle for Warm-Ups

It might sound a bit pragmatic but the best way to make a personal warm-up protocol is to use the principle trial and error. If you do difficult, intensive intervals sessions, it’s almost perfect test material to see how your warm-up protocol works. Yes, there are circumstances that are different at races. Since I expect you to perform regular interval training at least twice per week there should be lots of chances to try different setups…  

Basic principles of warm-up before endurance events

• Start at low workloads. If you begin at a high workload, you spend too much anaerobic power too early due to oxygen dept. It’s demotivating and might decrease your performance.
• Make small increments in workload. When you’ve started your warm-up your oxygen consumption will go up. If you make small steps in workload during the warm-up, you will to a large degree avoid oxygen dept. That will prepare your body for the most important part of your training session: The interval training.

Example: Quick, effective warm-up before interval training (~15min)

1. Begin easy pedalling, ~100Watts.

2. Every 2min, increase workload ~35-50Watts depending on fitness level.

3. When you hit the lower limit of your heart rate target zone, take a short break.

4. Easy pedalling 3 to 5 minutes (if you are in a hurry, please skip this step)

5. Begin your interval training

Enough theory, take action!

2009 was a fantastic year for me: April 30th Anna and I had our second child, a boy named Vitus. August 15th we got married. These two amazing events will probably be among the biggest events in my entire life. Nothing can be compared to these lovely memories.

What happened in 2009

Training4cyclists.com grew into a readership of more than 1200 RSS/E-mail subscribers and the blog was visited by more than 300.000 unique visitors and more than 1.000.000 page views. These numbers show me that I’m doing something right, but the e-mails I receive in my in-box convince me even more that this blog is getting quite popular.

During 2009 I received lots of positive e-mails from people around the world. It’s great to read these e-mails, because they motivate me to work more on Training4cyclists.com. I try to answer each and every one personally, but due to limited time I can’t offer personal consultations. If you’ve sent an e-mail and never had an answer, please e-mail me again.

What happens in 2010:

• E-book. The last couple of months I’ve been writing several chapters for an e-book about high intensity training principles. I’m not completely sure when the e-book is going to be launched, because I want to make it really powerful.
• Cycling Training Tips. There will be at least one post every week with different training tips for cyclists and triathletes. There will also be series of posts around certain topics like how to become a better climber, sprinter etc.
• Training Program Makeover. I will make posts where I outline how I will optimize a training program to maximize the outcome.

What needs your help in 2010

• New website/logo design. My web design needs a makeover, so if you are an expert at CSS and/or photoshop, I might have a job for you. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to help me.
• Feedback/suggestions. I read all comments and e-mails from my readers. If you have an idea for a post, please let me know about it. If you’ve tried the VO2 max booster program, I would appreciate your comments here.
• Share/promote. The best way to support Training4cyclists.com is to tell your friends about this blog. When you find an article you like, don’t forget to make a link on your own blog, tweet about it, share with your Facebook friends etc.

If you can help me with any of the about mentioned topics, I will be grateful. Thanks in advance.

Ps. Don’t miss the next post here on Training4cyclists.com about how to make the perfect warm up for interval training sessions.