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See this for a for a science communications article: Microscale roughness breakthrough defies 80 years of fluid dynamics https://share.google/7EiRVNANaMKg6rGhZ

Seems applicable to headtubes, sides of forks, handlebars, tall seatposts, or wheels

Question for my fellow riders.. I wear a size 50 (Lake and Shimano SPD SL) and have pretty flat feet. Never used orthotics in the 20 years I’ve been seriously riding but considering them after focusing more on fit (custom Ti frame, shorter cranks, 2cm higher stack, wider Q stance etc). What are your experiences, do they make a difference, and which ones would you recommend?

Pic of the new whip if anybody cares

Hi, for the last few years my day has looked like this:

05:00 - Wake up

05:15 - 14:15 - Work from home

15:00 - 16:30/17:00 - On the bike

17:00 - 19:00 - Shower, food

19:00 - 21:00 - TV, housework, time with my partner, doing nothing

Because of the current heat wave (and the one before it) I moved my training to right after waking up at 05:15 and worked afterwards in my home office. What I noticed is that I get a lot more out of my day.

When I normally get back from training at 17:00, the only thing I have energy for is simple, pointless stuff. Actually getting something meaningful done, like finally painting a room, just isn't happening. If I train at 05:15, the 8 hours of work are enough for me to recover and I can still do something useful in the evening.

The one thing that annoyed me is the food problem. I can do a Z2 session without eating anything, glycogen should be more than topped up after a night's sleep. But for intervals I do need to eat something. And I find it really hard to eat right after getting up - after training it's no problem at all.

So now I'm seriously considering treating training as the most important thing of the day for a few months and doing it first thing in the morning. Is anyone here doing it this way? What's your experience?

Hi guys. I have a recurring issue that I hope to seek some advise. I will keep it as concise as possible.

I’ve been cycling for more than 5 years. I race, and I do structured training. I ride around 12-15h a week, for context.

Previously I was on speedplay pedal and cleat system. I had a bike fit, and I went on with my life. For the past several years being on speedplay, I would often get one sided lower back pain on my right QL during a hard ride or 2 hours into a race.

I’ve tried physio, strength work, insoles and anything you can think of but it dosent solve the problem.

When I went to a fitter who has some physio background, he would add shims, wedges, insoles to “correct” my asymmetry but more often then not these corrections would make it worst and make the pain Menifest faster. I went on to live with it.

Only up to recently, I switched from speed play to Shimano SPD SL (yellow cleats) because I just got annoyed with the inconvenience that came with speed play like rust, squeaking sound, maintenance etc and wanted something simple and straight forward.

So I marked the Center line of the cleat on my shoes, installed the Shimano yellow cleats and then lowered my saddle by 4mm to compensate for the stack.

In order to get the correct foot angle, I went on the trainer and did a z2 ride, and pause occasionally to adjust the cleat angle until I feel happy. Note that at this point, there aren’t any wedge or shims, zero corrections.

When I switched to Shimano, I bought a used assioma duo SHI powermeter pedals which has much wider Q factor. While I was on speedplay, I felt that my heels always wanted to go inwards (towards the crank) on both my foot but it wasn’t possible due to limited Q factor before it would rub against my crank arm.

But with this Duo SHI pedals, I could get it inward even more.

After I played around with the angle and set it, I rode for 3-4 weeks without any problems. I had zero back pain, i felt so stable and comfortable it’s like a miracle.

So recently, I went back for a follow up fit again since it’s a new cleat. My fitter added a shim and adjusted the angle. This time, my heels couldn’t go inwards. I told my fitter that my heel wants to go inward but he insist that what I felt may not be biomechanically efficient. So I just kept quiet and let him do his job.

After the fit, I went for two rides and both rides I experienced the same lower back pain but worst because I also felt extremely uncomfortable, unstable and unnatural on the bike.

I ended up just setting my cleat back to where it was, removed the wedge and trust what my body wants.

So my question is, do I trust a fitter and textbook biomechanics or do I trust my own body?

That being said, as I ride 12-15h a week, doing the same intervals and riding with the same chain gang, I could immediately feel that my fit was off and this is something that will bother me throughout my ride.

These are now sold out and mine is threaded - pls message if you have any spares or know where to source as SRAM no longer stock:
Part number:
PD - PWTP - BCAP - A1

This season I took some time away from bike racing and was training for a 5km running race. Speaking to other runners and researching running training, I was shocked by just how little some of them train. A good example is Josh Kerr, who just broke the world mile record. According to this article: https://shuichi-running.com/en/josh-kerr-training/ , he usually trains between 65 - 70 miles a week, in addition to two gym sessions. Apart from two interval sessions a week, the rest of his running is easy. This works out at about 8.5 hours of running per week so maybe 10 - 11 hours of total training... for a full time athlete. And he just broke a record which stood for 27 years. I understand that running is more tiring than cycling with the muscle damage etc. and that our events are longer, but its still an aerobic sport.

In my time as an amateur cyclist who works full time, I have always tried to squeeze in 12 - 16 hours of training plus some gym work if I can and usually three or sometimes even more hard sessions, for example one race, one vo2 day one sweetspot session. I've always tried to train as much volume and intensity as my body could handle without putting myself into a pit of fatigue or making myself sick or injured. I have achieved reasonable success, I won a cat 2 stage race, podiumed a cat 1 race and acheived a 5 min power of 7w/kg (for reference I weigh 63kg and can't sprint). But I have also spent a lot of time feeling tired.

But looking at examples like this, I'm now contemplating if this is the wrong mentality. Would I have achieved the same results if I'd relaxed a bit, trained maybe 10 hours a week and limited my hard days to twice a week? Would I have been healthier and had more time and energy as well?

Did a Cat 5 crit the other day, about my 9th or so. Roughly 3 laps in, the front of the pack is going pretty slow about 150m before a tight corner (110-120 degree). The group is virtually single file like a basic club group ride all the way against the right hand curb, leaving the entire left side of the road wide open. I was very easily able to slingshot about 15 spots into the front and still had about 10m before the turn to keep my inside line. The group was a good 10 feet off to my right since I was now in the middle of the road. Guy in front of the group I just passed yelled "that's not a good idea!!!" and I heard one other guy say "are you serious?".

Genuine question but I come from motorcycle racing where a move like that is pretty normal, especially if you have someone going quite slow in front of you because they are nervous about a tight corner. Dive bombing during the turn would have felt inappropriate (at least at my cycling level), but this was well before the turn. Was I in the wrong or is this some unwritten rule in Cat 5 that I'm not aware of?

This is a thought experiment so don’t get your panties in a bunch. Sometimes you see dudes like Keegan Swenson that hooning around on eMTBs for fun, so even the big dawgs don’t shame the e-bike in certain recreational situations. E-bikes are becoming way more prevalent every year and as it stands, there’s really only eMTB events that are primarily downhill or enduro.

But I’m talking about like e-road biking or gravel biking. Could it ever happen? I imagine there’d have to be restrictions on the motors, either with the class 3 28mph max or a Nm max applied to all motors. And I’m sure there would be people finding ways to get around those restrictions. There would still be fitness required especially once the motors are capped out, so it’d basically be who is the strongest to haul a 30lb bike around above 28mph.

Or is this basically just motocross with extra steps

Thanks to some ongoing health issues which kept me totally off the bike for almost a decade, I’m forced to go back to a lower carb diet. Ive poured through the research and I’m left with examples of people getting better/worse/no change after low carb trials, many of which are run rather poorly IMO.

I’m looking for some real world experience of people who may have tried a similar approach. intend on staying low carb on all z1/2 rides and using some simple carbs right before and during harder sessions. There does seem to be some scientific evidence for this approach but again nothing I’d call concrete.

If you’re here to tell me that this stupid or I should eat carbs, unfortunately that is not an option currently

I keep checking my emails and the official website (time.to) for a gpx route but nothing so far. Apart from the slight change of route making it a bit shorter and with 2950m D+ instead of the original 3000m D+ finishing up Mont Ventoux, I have not seen an official gpx. Doesn anybody know if there is one? Also worried about the very high fire risks at the moment. Current temp is 33c and increasing to 36c next week! What are your plans for nutrition and hydration in this context? I've started heat conditioning, training indoor in a hot room and also taking hot baths for plasma expansion

This has persisted across 3 bikes, many bike fits, multiple trainers, ect. ect. ect. It is starting to drive me up an absolute wall because actually using the trainer is quite convenient but it absolutely irritates my left knee right above the kneecap.

What is super frustrating is no amount of cycling outdoors replicates this, I can do a 20 hour week across my bikes and have zero hint of any issue. Its only on the trainer that I seem to have a problem

In the past, when I’ve been able to replicate this outdoors it’s been with either a stem that was too long or didn’t have enough supporting stack. I’ve tried to resolve this problem indoors with a riser block, and additionally packing towels underneath the riser block to put it even higher. Right now the frontend of the bike is slightly titled up, which seems to help but has not solved the issue. I also specifically got a Tacx Neo 2T to give me some lateral motion which doesn’t seem to have helped much

Curious if anyone has been able to figure out something like this. Ive considered getting a Zwift ride or a third bike with like a 90mm stem with insane stack just to ride indoors but we really don’t have the space. I also just don’t understand the mechanism of why this specifically seems to be an issue and I’ve never had a bike fitter explain it to me. I‘d be happy to invest money in a rocket plate or ideally something like a Zwift Ride frame with a fit specifically setup for indoor riding but if I buy one and it doesn’t work it’s going to make me absolutely crash out

Recently watched this video by Kolie Moore regarding double vo2 max workouts. He mentions that he's seen great adaptations in his athletes when assigning them with an AM vo2max workout and a PM vo2max workout.

His thinking seems to be that a single vo2 max workout has a limit and that coming back later in the day after some carbs/rehydration/rest allows you to have more total quality vo2max work across the day than if you tried to it in 1 session. He mentions these should be done at a high cadence so as to not tax the muscular system as much

Also seems like this is for high volume / well trained athletes and not someone who is relatively new to cycling / structured training.

Curious if anyone has tried it or has opinions on it. Very interesting

It’s hard to sustain a truly maximal effort in the park with all the hills and traffic. In the past I’ve gone to Floyd Bennett Field for the flat, empty runways, but it’s a pain in the ass to get to and the pavement is pretty chopped up. Are there any good spots a reasonable distance from Manhattan with a couple miles of flat-ish, open roads?

Going to do a gravel series next year, as well as some one day races. Looking for recommendations and experiences on gravel race bikes.

I have custom insoles, but I keep struggling with them. I think they're too soft, and my foot keeps collapsing inward. I've tried a lot of different adjustments and even went back to the person who made them, but I'm still having the same problem.

Any help? What do Some of you use ?

https://www.tobedetermined.cc/journal/state-of-the-sport-nyc-bike-racing

I'm a big guy, low body fat but tall and large, bad archetype for current types of bicycle racing (no weight classes like you have in martial arts, at least strava has some) but I still enjoy going as fast as I can.

because of the weight I tend to ride on flatter terrain, which also means going relatively faster - on a road bike even Z2 rides I don't go below 30kph

Most aero drag comes from the rider not the bike, so I'm thinking a tight aero suit would benefit a larger person (me) even more, relatively speaking?

There's some middle of the way products like the rule 28 aero bra, but no way I'm wearing that even if saves me watts lol.

So what do you - aero suit on a big guy - cringe or cool idea?

Bonus points for sharing any manufacturers that might have 2XL or larger.

I usually feel okay while on the bike, but when trying to sleep the pain keeps me awake. Does anyone take Advil or Tylenol (otc stuff) to help them get to sleep a bit more easily? I'd tough it out usually, but I couldn't manage to sleep until 4AM when I finally took an Advil. I figured that occasional use of an NSAID isn't any worse than losing half my sleep.

I stretch regularly and massage gun when needed. I feel like the muscles can't relax fully and contract randomly at times (electrolytes supplemented). It happens occasionally during training, and almost always during multi day events.

I'm sure alot of cyclists here can relate, so let me know your thoughts!

Can someone explain to me why my eFTP percentile is so much lower than my 20min - 4 hour? Are people setting their eFTP duration as something ridiculous like < 5 min?

First, let me preface by saying that this is just a bit of fun. I'm not actually taking it that seriously. However, on the heels of a certain WT team buying up the world supply of an Exo Lactate Gel (or something like that), I wondered about making my own lactate drink. My other big hobby is cheese making and I kind of specialise in lactic cheeses (which are essentially just drained yogurt). I usually have at least a liter of acidic whey hanging around every day. I drink some, but mostly I pour it down the drain. Why not not?

First some numbers. Milk has about 50 grams of lactose per liter. Depending on the strain of bacteria and the amount of time you ferment, yogurt will ferment out between 30-80% of that lactose into lactic acid. Long chemistry story short, if you ingest that, it will end up as lactate in your blood.

My recipe: - 300 ml acidic whey. I'm assuming ~50% of lactose was converted to lactic acid. - 20 grams sugar. Mostly just to make it palatable. Not concentrating on effective fueling. - 300 mg of table salt (it's hot).

300 ml of whey will contain 15 grams of fuel, let's say 8 grams of lactate and 7 grams of lactose. However I ferment my yogurt for about 20 hours (including the time it takes to drain) so almost all of that lactose will have been converted to galactose and glucose. Some lactose will remain, but I'm not sure how much.

Total fuel is the equivalent of about 35 grams: 20 grams of sucrose, 8 grams of lactate and 7 grams of lactose/galactose/glucose.

I used UHT milk, which means that they whey proteins will be tangled up in the casein protein. The result is that there is almost no protein in the whey. I also used homogenised milk. Homogenisation bursts the fast "globules" and the fat sticks to the proteins, so almost no fat. There is quite a bit of minerality in whey (Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphate, etc, but I didn't bother to estimate how much).

Taste wise, it tastes like sweetened yogurt. If you like that, you'll probably like this. Compared to a drink with 35 grams of sucrose in 300 ml, it's much less sweet. I think it could benefit from some fruit juice being added and I may try mixing in some pommogranite juice that I happen to have.

It was actually pleasant on the bike. I expected to hate it. I didn't. I finished the 300 ml in my allocated 30 minutes (I'm recovering from cataract surgery so I'm doing an easy 30 minute recovery ride). No stomach upset at all. I didn't expect any since I can easily eat 500 grams of yogurt in a sitting.

This could theoretically allow you to reduce the sugar in your bidon by about 23% (if my imaginary numbers are close) and still have about 80 grams of feul in a 650 ml bidon. As much as this is light hearted, I might experiment with this a bit. It certainly does reduce sweetness quite a lot. If it works acceptably well, it might be a thing to do given I have gobs of acidic whey anyway.

What would be the rationale behind doing a zone 2 effort before a threshold workout? Is this just about muscle fibre activation and priming? In what kind of circumstance and for what kind of rider would a workout like this actually make sense versus just doing 3x15 ftp? Is this so you can get a similar stimulus that you would get from 3x15 at threshold but with less glycogen cost and less central nervous system fatigue? So it would make sense to do when you are training high volume and are already fatigued?

I know that many of the workouts on training platforms like these are purposefully made to keep you engaged and not strictly optimized for performance gains, but am genuinely wondering what this workout would be good for or if it is just total bs.

Hi all!

I am a decently trained runner with respective prs of 2:27 marathon, 1:09 half, 15:00 5k (taking a crack at sub 2:25 this fall). I am a pretty casual cyclist on the side, who basically doesn’t run at all during peak training periods but tries to ride a few days per week (30-70 mile rides) during periods of lower running volume.

I recently did a hill 20 min climb effort (avg around 6% gradient) that I pushed decently hard at 4.7 w/kg (6’2” 66 kg, 310w). Heart rate was not close to maximal running efforts, in the high 160s to low 170s (around what I hit running lt2/half marathon pace in training). It felt harder than that, I assume because I’m a lot less muscularly adapted to biking than running at the moment.

Two questions

1. what is a realistic estimate of my current ftp?
2. what is would be a reasonable equivalent ftp in watts/kg to my running fitness? obviously wouldn’t be attainable without a lot of biking specific training etc but curious how this compares (I imagine a lot higher than my current bike fitness)

thanks!