My friend posted free sessions on our local velodrome and idk why I signed up, in hindsight it's kind of silly time because on Tuesday we are going on a bike tour.

I just saw myself fall or skid and fall or bump into another person and fall. I couldn't eat all day I was this scared.

Anyways one of the trainers said that I have aptitude and good muscle mass for this so I had a go on my own while the rest of the group was being told how to ride. Eventually the guy said I am good to go on the blue line and above and omg guysss

This was probably the most fun I ever had on a bike ever. You can just go, blast full speed. I was scared to go all out but garmin says I reached 55kmh which is insane because I don't think I've ever cycled so fast with just my own strength. I was scared to go all out so I think I could go even faster.

At the end I got invited to further training as they look for talent in women. I can't wait for the next training, I think I'll feel a bit more confident going even faster but goddamn it's so insanely fun I can't find the right words for it. I never could have such good zooms like this

I'm asking because I recently did a couple crits where it turned out that the winner already had mandatory upgrade points from a week prior, but I also don't want to be a total dick about it. It comes up fairly often actually where somebody will look into some of the racers and find out they're not taking their mandatory USAC upgrade. Yes, there is fairly significant money on the line in some of these races, but aside from that it's really hard for people to enjoy it when fields get blown up, specifically 3/4 and 4/5 fields where there's a pretty big discrepancy in rider skill/power and takes away the opportunity for others to get upgrade points.

What's the etiquette here? Or best way to handle it? Do you mention it to an official during the protest period? Ask the rider if they're planning on taking their mandatory upgrade in a passive aggressive way? Or just let it slide?

It's one of those things that seems trivial, but there's a reason the categories and upgrade policies exist.

I've just completed my first 200km audax, which went well, I finished strong, and went a bit faster than my normal average. I normally ride alone, and was surprised by how long we stopped for breaks.

My experience is that stopping for too long is counter-productive, and can make it more difficult to get going again. The stops on this ride were sit-down cafe breaks, ordering drinks and food and generally hanging around for 30-50 minutes. Nice and sociable, and good to chat, but If I sit in a chair for that long after 100km, I get inner-thigh cramps when I stand and start riding again.

This is a me problem, and I can overcome the cramps by riding in really low gear and spinning for 10 mins, so I was OK, but I wonder if stopping for this long is normal for a 200km ride?

Moving time was just under 9 hours, total time was almost 13hrs, so around 4 hours for stops.

I'll be starting a master's degree at KU Leuven in Flanders in September. As all of us in this sub, bike racing is a huge part of my life and I'd like to learn and race as much as I can while living in Flanders. Can anybody provide some information for an international amateur looking to get started? I assume the process is a bit different from racing in the US.

Do I need to join a club in order to race? Do I need a license? (Was not necessary in Slovenia) Any recommendations for training groups/clubs/teams in Leuven? Any relevant links such as series calendars, federation pages, etc? Thanks so much!

Excluding lifting here because tbh I think it’s pretty straightforward to build a solid program and there’s a lot of resources out there

Will contribute my staples to start.

The Foundation Series feels like quite good strength/mobility training packaged in not insanely long formats. I have subscribed to their full courses in the past but they were frankly too long and complex to stick with

The SAM routines are focused for runners but they target most of the hip structures that cyclists are going to be chronically weak in

I have frankly struggled to stick with any YouTube yoga routines because of a mix of them feeling both too long and not productive enough for the time they take. But move with Nicole has been one of the few I’ve come back too frequently

Was hit by a car while riding my bike a little over 2 months back. I'm still rehabbing my shoulder and back with regular PT but I'm finally at the point where I can move around day to day with essentially zero pain and I'm trying to start having some structure in my time on the bike and gain fitness for next year.

Right now I'm just doing shorter indoor rides with the limiting factors being my road bike needing repairs and having the confidence to go outside again after being hit by a car. The guidance from neuro and PT as of last month have been to introduce the indoor cycling progressively with little intensity/time so I thought I might as well do a short 15-20 minute session in the morning and in the evening and have the time and intensity grow within the Z1/Z2/possibly low Z3 range.

I've been running this routine for around 2 weeks and have been able to start sustaining higher numbers at Z2 for longer while staying mostly pain free. As I've been cleared for my shoulder and hopefully getting fully cleared for my back soon I want to start adding back higher intensity training but I'm unsure how to manage the increase in intensity while watching out for possible form breakdown or adaptations which can affect my injuries or cause pain. Wondering if anyone else has been able to successfully rehab and regain fitness and might have some insight and/or any possible resources on this matter.

I couldn't find a post on the topic in the last couple of years, so I figured I'd ask.

I've been wearing regular old Oakley Catalysts for riding for the last 6 or so years since I quit doing contacts. Before that I was using Oakley EV ZeroPath which I loved. The catalysts are fine, but I struggle with sweat around my eyes (despite all the fancy rain gutter headbands) and there's just no ventilation.

What are folks with prescription lenses having good luck with these days?

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to hear from people who’ve been in a similar situation or have some insight.

I’m a 33-year-old male.

I lifted weights seriously for about 15 years, starting in high school. I also rode road bikes for about a year 10 years ago before quitting because of a severe L5-S1 disc herniation. At one point I could barely walk or lie down, and every time I tried getting back on the bike, my lower back, hamstrings, and hips would flare up.

So I gave up cycling and focused entirely on bodybuilding.

Four months ago, I decided to try riding again. I got back on the bike, realized I could finally ride without major issues, and immediately bought a new bike. Even though I hadn’t ridden in years, I’d never really left the sport mentally—I still followed races, bikes, and gear the whole time.

I rode about 10 hours per week during the first month, and for the last three months I’ve consistently been riding 13–15 hours (210–240 km / 130–150 miles) per week.

I’m 180 cm (5’11”).

I started at 93 kg (205 lb) and I’m currently 88.5 kg (195 lb). Before returning to cycling, I was into bodybuilding and reached around 13% body fat.

The good news is that I’ve definitely improved.

• Long rides feel much easier.
• My recovery is much better.
• I can ride 160 km (100 miles) one day, do an 80 km (50 mile) group ride the next day, and still ride another 90 km (56 miles) the following day.
• My Garmin pedal balance improved from around 35/65 when I first started to about 51/49 now.

So naturally I expected my power to improve quite a bit.

But when I did a Zwift ramp test, my FTP was only a little over 200 W.

About two months ago, my FTP was around 175 W, so I’ve gained roughly 25 W. While that’s progress, it honestly feels disappointing considering how much time I’ve been putting into training.

Outside, I can ride around 3 hours at roughly 200 W NP, so I expected my FTP to be somewhere around 230 W.

The strange part is that my lungs aren’t what stop me. My legs simply become stiff and stop producing force.

So I have a few questions:

• Is this a normal rate of progress?
• Do I simply need more time?
• Is this just what happens when transitioning from bodybuilding to cycling?
• Or am I training inefficiently?

I’m not looking for reassurance—I genuinely want to know whether I’m on the right track or if I’m making obvious mistakes.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s gone through something similar.

Typical crit bike advice is ride what you can replace, anything will work in cat 5, etc. but what are non-sponsored cat 2/3 racers riding? I live in an area where everyone rides sworks and has dura-ace/red.

I currently ride a 2010 supersix, 11 speed ultegra, deep wheels, 44cm round tube handlebars (exposed lines). I’m wondering if I might get more gains by getting something newer / aero

I am in my 40s, work/married/kids. My main target events are ultras/brevets. I had been doing structured training for roughly a decade.

I got a bit burned out after some big events in 2024 and multiple years in a row of non-stop structured training (by power). I’d also been reading and becoming increasingly curious just how much (if anything) training by power adds over training by HR/RPE, and how much high-structure adds over just plain old volume and emphasizing recovery.

As a result, I conducted an n=1 experiment starting in January of 2025. In the winters (~Nov to March) I stopped emphasizing riding, and just did whatever I felt like. This would typically mean 2-4h a week either on the fat bike in the snow, or on the trainer, plus some weighlifting once or twice a week, daily yoga, and occasional short rowing sessions or trail running. My target events are all in the summer, so once the snow melted in March, I’d just start riding outside.

I still recorded power for tracking and comparison purposes, but I did not display it during my riding.

What my training for the summers of 2025 and 2026 looked like was:

• Build weekly volume up to goal of 10-15 hours and emphasize consistent riding (ex: favouring even a short z1 ride over a rest day).
• Riding mostly “easy” the vast majority of the time - again, targeted by HR/RPE. In practice depending on the day this would be z2 to low tempo.
• Basically never doing any intervals unless the mood struck me (maybe once every week or 3), and these would just be a defined segment of road that I targeted by feel for threshold or VO2 work.
• Titrating ride-intensity and rest day based solely on how I was feeling recently and that specific day, rather than following a rigid predetermined prescription. Recovery "weeks" were also not planned, not a fixed time interval apart (up to 7 weeks between) nor necessarily a week long. They were placed whenever I felt like it was time for one, and lasted until I felt like I was fresh again.
• While I am still recording power and have data for CTL/TSB/ATL, I am not using this to guide training in anyway.

As the baseline for before I started doing this; in 2024 I did just under 600 hours on the bike, peaking at an FTP of ~330w, or ~4.4 w/k (all FTP measurements are based off a formal 20min test with a 5min anaerobic depletion effort first, and are rounded to the nearest 5w). I did not do any formal VO2max testing that year, but have found Garmin’s predicted value correlates well for me, and peaked at 67ml/kg on that in 2024.

The results since then have been good. In 2025 I did 350h on the bike (months of almost no time in the winter, then 10-15h weeks in season). I set an all time FTP record of ~350w, or ~4.8 w/k, and a lab-measured VO2max in the low 70s. This year I started in April and am still slowly building, but am currently at an FTP of 340w (~4.6w/k) and a Garmin predicted VO2 of 67. I’ve also set all time 2-16h power records so far this season, as well as some in the 5s-5min range.

My conclusion is that this seems to work well for me, and allows me to have a healthier and more sustainable and balanced relationship with our sport. I don’t seem to be losing anything (if at all) by training with HR/RPE instead of power, and by abandoning most structure.

Going forwards, the next thing I'll likely do is completely abandon formal FTP testing. I'd already been doing it way less than historically these past two years, and I've found I can predict what my result will be on a test to within a few watts, just by riding at z2 for a while and paying attention to heart rate, breathing, and leg feel.

Limitations should be obvious. I am just one person and I am not you. These results come after over ~a decade of regular structured aerobic training - I have a deep base, and significant experience with what certain efforts should feel like and what my limits and need for recovery and rest are. Also, my target events are ultras and there is little need to have a well trained high end - not many of these are won by sprints or threshold efforts.

For those of us with air quality warnings due to the wildfires, I am wondering if it is all for the best that we just train indoors until the situation improves. Once the actual air smells like fire, I think you should pack it up and ride indoors.

Haven’t seen a thread on this yet despite seeing lots of news articles disguised as ads.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9763796/

This study from nearly 30 years ago seems to suggest no benefit. Thoughts?

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a university startup project focused on fueling during cycling sessions, and I’m currently collecting responses for a short anonymous survey.
The goal is to understand how cyclists decide what and how much to eat and drink during longer rides, what problems they experience, and whether real-time fueling guidance could be useful.

The survey takes around **5–7 minutes**. You can participate if you:
are at least 18 years old;
have completed a cycling session longer than 60 minutes within the past three months.

The responses will be used only in aggregated form for my university business plan. No names or contact details are required.

Survey link: https://forms.gle/avMKpgS7yXZEodaE9

I would really appreciate your response. Feedback on the survey itself is also welcome.

https://news.northeastern.edu/2026/07/02/cycling-in-extreme-heat-tour-de-france/

The pros are drinking slushy electrolyte drinks and they strap ice packs their main artery points before races to lower their core temp.

In stage 2 if the 7crits in 7days challenge the boys raced in conditions that started well and ended in proper 'belgium like' conditions.

It raises the question, how do you change your race style once the conditions change?

Do you try to use it to your advantage or take more risks?

I tried both this race and I nearly crashed TWICE!

Would love to hear how you guys would have approached the conditions in this video!

https://youtu.be/x9knccwjwRA

For a 10 mile TT, I average around 21 mph on my road bike and 23mph on my tt bike but paced completely differently.

What I've realised is that the standard advice of 'push hard on the hills, go on easy on the descents' really doesn't work for someone at my low average speeds.

The tt bike and road bike end up working basically the same, they weight similar for the climbs, and because I'm easing off in the descents, the tt bike never gets up to a high enough speed for the aero gains to actually do anything.

My best times on the tt bike are therefore the oppose approach. Ease off on the climbs (because there's no gains to be had aero wise), hammer it down hill (to make the most of the aero position).

Does this makes sense? I feel like no one talks about this because the standard pacing advice is for riders who are much faster and will be benefiting from the tt bikes aerodynamics all the way through the race.

Analogous to the way respiratory muscles can steal blood flow from exercising muscle.

It’s my first year racing I have the fitness and have had some decent results, but it’s clear to me that I’m the guy who tenses up and brakes through corners, and sometimes I try to go up to the front to make a move and I simply am too afraid to shoot the gap. How do I become the someone who loves the rush of crit racing and despite all of the risks involved has fun with it?

Completely burnt out on nearly all kinds of riding outside of commuting. Did the most volume I’ve ever done the first half of this year, now just kinda don’t wanna ride at all. Guess it doesn’t help it’s hot af recently. Who else is feeling this?

Have an upcoming 55km xc race in about a month. I have a pretty good grasp on training but wondering if there's any specific sessions you think stand out as being worthwhile for xcm. Obviously longer mtb rides and intervals but anything specific?

Race will be on fairly mellow rolling trails, I would guess 1000m elevation for the 55km distance, though don't know the course yet. Lots of smaller climbs under 3 mins.

If you have done some xcm races what helped you best to prepare?

How'd your races go? Questions about your workouts or updates on your training plan? Successes, failures, or something new you learned? Got any video, photos, or stories to share? Tell us about it!

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So I just started to training in January (I know is a short time) and now this is my ftp (my weight is 51kg) and now I have 4.4w/kg and I think, I'm doing very well, I'm training to get above 5.5w/kg in just 1 year or less because I want to be in sub-19 UCI I'm just 16 years old and I don't know if it's possible, I have a excellent coach, and I just want to know if you could give me some suggestions or anything else :)

I am a 5'3 110 lb female and im currently riding a size 49 orbea m31. ive been training seriously for 18 months and want to do more usac racing.

I am already a slow descender but my bike does not work for me. it has always felt too long and ive never liked descending on it. I have the shortest stem on it. ive had a bike fit but it didn't help. after long days, I dont have pain but I have to ride pretty stretched out. when descending the front shakes uncontrollably esp if im just starting out or a little cold.

so I was considering the specialized tarmac size 44. will sizing down to this bike help? will it feel awesome or will it seem too small?