Practise practise practise. It's the only way. You will get better. There's inclines I used to struggle to get up in the bottom gear of my mtb and now I storm up in a high gear on my roadie.
Road Cycling Essentials
- Thread starter Matutu
- Start date
- Status
Practise practise practise. It's the only way. You will get better. There's inclines I used to struggle to get up in the bottom gear of my mtb and now I storm up in a high gear on my roadie.
I suck at descending - I hate feeling out of control, so I brake all the time. But yeah, to your point, different people do seem to pick up speed at different rates. Damien goes faster than me, and our mate Wally drops like a stone. Weight shouldn't make a difference, from a pure physics point of view, but there is definitely something going on. Surface area would theoretically make the most difference.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 4,790
- Location
- London
Some odd things going on with my ride data - my 310XT complained that it ran out of space about 90km in and it seems to have missed out a lot. The ride was definitely 74 miles/119km, plus I did an additional 3km as I took a wrong turn (and did an additional hill!) but Garmin has the distance as 110km:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/314434862
Strava has it at 116km:
http://app.strava.com/activities/54889547
V odd!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/314434862
Strava has it at 116km:
http://app.strava.com/activities/54889547
V odd!
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 4,790
- Location
- London
I'm not a great descender either but I felt much, much better today than I think I ever have. I guess it's all about relaxing and having confidence in your brakes and bike handling skills!
DHB are good (see Wiggle), rate highly on price vs performance usually. I only have some Roubaix bib longs by DHB but they are very good for the price.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-aeron-cycling-bib-short/
Or stretch to;
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-aeron-race-cycling-bib-short/
These are also pretty decent as i have some;
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/altura-airstream-bibshorts/
Last edited:
So my ride escalated a bit today. Was due to go out with a few mates and few of their club, thought I'd get thru about 100 miles depending on how I felt. Felt good so stuck with them. Just got back after doing 148 miles! First imperial century and double metric. Bit of an increase of my maximum of 80. Just sat in an ice bath to help me recover a bit.
Just what I was thinking!
Wow... I'm doing that distance next week, in a car to London!
Very well done mate. Did you guys stop for breaks? How was the pacing? (Strava?)
Well riding average was 16.9 for me, had a few stops for couple of slower members in the first 50, and stopped for about 30 minutes for lunch, other than that was a case of comfort breaks and few technicals, found the pace OK, although struggled over the last 30 or so to keep up with the others, and typical luck got about 5 miles from home and lady who I was riding with got a puncture. The only one of the day!
Ride on Strava is here
http://app.strava.com/activities/54912948
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 4,790
- Location
- London
Nice!
Thats my first real ride out as any sort of group, and a practise for a charity ride at the end of July, although that is only 130 so should be easy after today 
The other 4 I rode with today are all riding Lands End to Dover non stop (madness) I'm doing home to dover with them, not in their league yet.
The other 4 I rode with today are all riding Lands End to Dover non stop (madness) I'm doing home to dover with them, not in their league yet.![[DOD]Asprilla](/styles/overclockers/avatars/8.png){kind=avatar}
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 Nov 2003
- Posts
- 14,033
- Location
- Surrey, by the river
As the French would say; "Hat!"
Join a club!
Seriously, it's by far the best way to improve your cycling. It's not just for fast people that want to race, there will be members of all ability in pretty much every club. Looks like Featherstone Road Club is the nearest to you. Their club runs start in castleford and they have an easier-paced run as well as their main run.
Most clubs will let you come out with the club run to see if you like it before you join. Whats the worst that can happen? If you feel that you cant keep up or dont like it, just turn round and go home.
Aye, I might do that in a few weeks time as I want to see how I do first. BBM is the closest one to me, but a recent incident put me off them - someone got impatient when leading a slower group, speed up and one of the lad called him a d-bag. The kid got pushed over when clipped un because that guy didn't like to be call that.
Petty.
When did you guys start joining a club, if ever?
Gah. Why would people flag a Strava segment as hazardous when it's perfectly safe? I understand flagging a segment that runs through sets of traffic lights, or, say, runs downhill at speed to a STOP sign or whatever, but why flag a climb on a back road in the middle of nowhere?
I'm guessing someone got the hump when someone else spanked them going up there.
I'm guessing someone got the hump when someone else spanked them going up there.
Make another one that is very similar to that one?
- Status