Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
If i fall behind i'm putting the blame 100% on you and the bag!
Yeah I keep threatening to buy the ultegra di2 groupset once my work gets cycle-to-work implemented - whenever that is. But part of me thinks I should just wait and get it on a new bike so it all feels new and shiny.
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- Joined
- 5 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 1,215
We actually did the Puig Major today, descended towards Calobra and back into Pelenca. Really great day riding, good weather and amazing scenery.
Loved the decent.
Puig Major isn't overly steep, it just keeps going on. Especially after you've had around 70km ride in.
Think my legs were drained from poor eating yesterday. Today I was having a bit of banana every 20mins. Got through 3 bananas and 2 breakfast made sandwiches.
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For as much as I whine about my partner on here.. She's pretty well matched for me lol. Having getting jealous of all your trips to Mallorca I shown her a few pics of it and asked if she'd ever be keen...
She's super keen, now to a point I feel intimidated, and is saying we should go later in the year. I'm trying to deter her and say we should train but she wants to go full steam ahead lol.
She's super keen, now to a point I feel intimidated, and is saying we should go later in the year. I'm trying to deter her and say we should train but she wants to go full steam ahead lol.
Awesome.
I know the roads in Mallorca look amazing for cycling, but what are they like for traffic is she's not keep on that side of things in the UK? I know over here there are parts which are coastal and really busy and other parts more inland which are lovely and quiet.
She isn't a huge fan of busy roads but I think it's more British drivers than anything. It seems to be a sport with how close you can drive next to a bike without hitting them off. Sent her a few videos and pages to read.
Nah. Cranks don't generally rotate as well as wheels. I assume you are giving them a spin and they slow down really quickly compared to the wheel? The wheel has far more weight behind its momentum which makes it spin for far longer and feel more free moving.
Unless your cranks feel a little crunchy or sound crunchy when rotating or they are genuinely hard to move then I wouldn't worry.
Where do you live? Its bloody miserable here and has been for months at this point. I can genuinely count the days on one hand where I have seen more than 30 minutes of sun in the past month or more. Its been awful. Rain pretty much every day. Sometimes for days at a time. Where is my spring!
Essex. It's not just me being hopeful, I have had to clean bird poo off my car 3 days in a row and caterpillars are eating my box hedging. I also see some blue in the sky.
I can't help with the bird poo but I can recommend something for the box caterpillars!
Spain says hi
In other news, i'm debating whether to try out running tubeless, or whether to just stay safe. I've ordered some TPU tubes but never got round to fitting them as my standard Butyl ones have never had issues, but i'm wondered whether the skip it. Rims and Tyres and both compatible.
Got ours with AXA. Think we had them before with Aviva and it was similar. Only 1 is 'named' (mine) as it's over some threshold value, then just the 'number' of other bikes. I increased the cover for garage contents due to wanting the Turbo trainer covered in there. Our bikes are covered away from home providing they're 'locked' and at home 'locked behind a door' so have not secured them to floor anchors and such. I easily could but as our post code is in the lowest 'risk' bracket have needed to do very little. Fairly sure they only cost £45-55 extra per year. Will be seeing how much it goes up adding the new one - which I hopefully get this weekend!
Jerseys is an easy first answer - Gobik produce Pro team kit (Ineos/FDJ/Movistar), which will be very fitted small/aero 'italian sizing' but also likely the one you'll get as fairly usual team kit 'aero' cycling sizing. Should size similar to Castelli/Rapha/Santini/Sportful/etc. Own any kit from normal 'mainstream' cycling brands? It'll likely size similar to them.Cheers guys. I'm not overly worried about the distance. I've done much longer duration based events with running, so fueling/hydration i'm fairly comfortable with. From a guess i'd say i'm targetting 8-9 hours given the elevation.
I'd say looking at my history, i've averages around 2x 1hr rides a week for the most part. In December i had a decent couple of 2-3hr rides ad then trailed off in January as work for bad and February as the roads at my parents were too busy and i didn't enjoy it as much. As you say time in the saddle is probably a big factor. I definitely get uncomfortable on anything >2hrs and find myself shifting around a lot. I considered finding a bike fitter, but since i've got a fixed stem/handlebar (for the looks!) there's only really stem height and saddle i can play with without starting to spend big and i think i can explore those myself, my thinking on yesterdays ride was that both are a bit low.
The leg strength is definitely the big one. Looking at my power curve from 2023/2024 it drops down quite a bit after 1.5hrs. Admittedly i can probably count the number of >2hr rides on both hands!
The Strava estimated FTP sounds much more likely. Garmin thinks it's 280w which i think is a bit high. I know i can change it manually but then it kind of ruins the ability to see progression and it's nice it auto calculates! I'll admit i've never done a formal FTP test, but with the Garmin training it thinks holding 240w is relatively easy!
@bastic Yeah, 3700m of elevation over 166km. Yesterday i did 44km with 485m elevation so more or less 1/4 of the distance but with an 8th of the elevation. It's definitely the hills i need to be stronger on. As mentioned, i'm hoping it gives the incentive to drop the weight! Plus i've got to October so a good amount of time to get better.
The other concern i have is speed. I'm not a particularly fast cyclist (was never a fast runner either!) and yesterdays ride was around a 24km/h average pace. I'm sure when entering the event i had to put an estimated pace and the lowest category was 25-28km/h so i'm not even fast enough for the bottom threshold and that's without factoring in the distance/elevation! Obviously speed should improve with training (another reason i think a plan might help me) but it does worry me a little!
"During the march, those who cannot follow the set pace and are overtaken by the green flag will be out of the race, so they must slow down and drive with caution without hindering the rest of the road users who pass through them and complying. traffic rules and traffic signs."
That deffo might apply to me!
Hmmm, the other concern is Jersey size. Apparently it has to be worn during the event. I'm generally between sizes a lot between L-XXL depending on brand, and especially with the hope of losing weight that could change again. The brand is Gobik, i'm wondering if i should try and order one ahead of time to check sizing. Last thing i need is something not fitting during a long ride!! The other assumption is that the quality of a "free" Jersey will be considerably less than that of a bought one, given their website shows prices around €80-€100 and the event is only €45! So could be wildly different anyway. Or am i overthinking things here?
Ok onto the harder stuff to answer... Ignore FTP (whaaaaaaat!). It's almost utterly useless for what you'll be doing. Yes it's a handy metric for structuring training, Functional Threshold Power. Ok great so generally it's the maximum you can hold for a 60 min effort. It is your threshold for an hour. You're meant to be utterly empty afterwards and unable to do more. You're talking about spending the whole day on the bike. At NO POINT do you want to be doing an hour at threshold. You'll need to stay out of your threshold as much as possible! That is the 'red zone' where you'll be burning a bunch of energy and into your reserves you'll struggle to recover from. You'll maybe only start tapping into that (if you've any left) in the last hour or less of the ride. Until you reach that point you need to survive without using it wherever possible. Your Power Curve at the 4 hour point is what you need to focus on. Currently around 150W. Boosting that to 200W regardless of your FTP value will benefit you far more!
The distance and climbing involved you'll need to be managing your effort. The willpower and focus for that, fuelling accordingly and (as you know from your long running), your effort level 'just slightly more than ticking over' so you can easily fuel an ongoing achievable effort in your low zones (HR Z2/3) will be key. You need to be 'in the zone' mentally (and physically from training) where you can just keep going at the same rate. You know then you can complete the ride... Being able to ride at that rate almost indefinitely. You're not just doing a couple of hours. So in my mind that is what you need to be training for - long sustained efforts. But you also need to be training that going uphill. So a good climbing technique you can sustain for long periods just as easily as you can sustain on the flat... But lets be honest - you're doing an event in Calpe - there will be very little flat so almost pointless riding any! So also some good practice on descending well and efficiently (doesn't mean fast) will also pay you dividends for your energy use if you can get some good technique. You'll be descending usually just as much as you're climbing in anything like this - it'll be a horrible long day if you're a nervous descender.
Chucked the GPX onto RWGPS so can take a look at it (my work firewall doesn't like the website) - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45860606
Looks fantastic!
Should be fine. Low enough!
Long climbs like it are hard to find around or train other places for (this is why there's so many Pro cyclists in Calpe/Denia). You've basically chosen to do an event in one of the top places in Europe for cycling mountains, so that's what you'll get!
I've hit a similar snag with mine... All the talk with LBS and the initial pricing things where looking around the 4.2k mark as I'd factored in components being swappped as they built it. Turns out the parts they need to swap out (it wasn't built) I still have to pay for... Then the changes (saddle, bars, cranks) are extras on top and the price is getting far closer to 5k than I like... Especially as I told my Ms-who-will-be-Mrs-at-some-point "oh around 3.5" as I had under estimated it from the outset and figured I'd pay a bit of cash for the difference so she didn't 'see' it. But I certainly don't have 1k in cash lying around!Smart man! lol
I was picking all the parts I'd like for my new bike yesterday. With a healthy bit of man-math here and there, it's not that bad of a number. To me. To the Ms-who-wishes-to-be-Mrs, it wasn't a good number
So very shortly I'll (likely) have the following for sale... Hopefully box fresh/sealed but make me an offer if any interest:
Power Comp/Sport saddle in 143mm - https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Specialized/Power-Comp-Saddle/NY2P £85 new
Specialized alloy bars, Shallow bend/drop 44cm - https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Specialized/Expert-Alloy-Shallow-Bend-Road-Handlebar/5UQU £55 new
Shimano R7100 105 12-speed cranks 172.5mm with 50/34 rings - https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Shimano/FC-R7100-105-Double-12-Speed-HollowTech-II-Chainset/Z8DR £101
DT Swiss 470 DB wheels, probably have Roval branded hubs but also could be DT - https://www.99bikes.co.uk/component...sc-brake-wheelset-with-turbo-pro-tyres__47318 £200-400
Currently trying to get LBS to price match the same bike on Sigma but different colour for £3175.99 vs my LBS website £4249.99
Hell for that difference I'll buy it myself and build it up, then strip and get it resprayed if the colour bothered me!
Especially not with 15km long climbs!
Cranks never seem to spin as well as a wheel - unbalanced in their rotation and have less inertia. But they should feel 'smooth' when rotating by hand with very little resistance and certainly no 'feeling' of roughness/draggy. BB bearings tend to 'rumble' more as they wear and you can almost feel it through your feet when pedalling more than through your hands in a stand.
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Or just buy some more Box. Can do you some good deals on 3L pots!Don't worry, I'll get some special dressing sprayed on to them after work.
Or even the big shaped topiary Balls, Cones & Spirals!
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Awesome post, and good to know not to focus much on specific zones. I didn't know if it was sensible to focus on them as a general training pattern. On that front then, is following a plan even worthwhile, or am i better just trying to get out on a regular basis and getting as much time in the saddle as i can in the week (probably around 3-4x1hr rides) and then at weekends try and get 2-3hr rides each day and building up those weekend rides over time, and trying to target what hills i can.
My usual ride of an hour is around 16 miles and 200m ascent. I'm not sure there's anything local where i can throw in much more than that and squeeze into a lunch break, without doing hill reps anyway.
A tricky part could be the summer heat and how much that destroys me. I'm sure my wife will be happy if i buy a turbo to stick in an air conditioned room
Got to say, that climb especially fills me with dread! The only slight benefit is that there's nothing "crazy" steep throughout, just a lot of long sustained climbs in the 5-9% range
My usual ride of an hour is around 16 miles and 200m ascent. I'm not sure there's anything local where i can throw in much more than that and squeeze into a lunch break, without doing hill reps anyway.
A tricky part could be the summer heat and how much that destroys me. I'm sure my wife will be happy if i buy a turbo to stick in an air conditioned room
Got to say, that climb especially fills me with dread! The only slight benefit is that there's nothing "crazy" steep throughout, just a lot of long sustained climbs in the 5-9% range
Make sure you fall on the bag lol
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- 5 Apr 2004
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- 1,215
Today was around a 70km ride in to Ronda. Then back 140km and 1000m.
Felt like I got my legs back after under fueling on the first day.
Did some fun racing on the rolling hills with the other tour riders on the way back in the afternoon. Surprised by the second wind you get in the afternoon
Felt like I got my legs back after under fueling on the first day.
Did some fun racing on the rolling hills with the other tour riders on the way back in the afternoon. Surprised by the second wind you get in the afternoon