Cycling

Cycling for fitness or competition

Cycling is a great way of getting fit, I've never been a fan of running or gym work. Give me a bike any time, be it in a city or long distance, mountain bike or even a few fast laps at the velodrome.

Technology plays a big part in modern cycling, carbon has replaced alloy, Mountain bikes have become lightweight full suspension rocket ships. Disc brakes and electric gear change is being seen more and more on road bikes. Computers monitor your speed and effort via an array of sensors and you can even see how your best time compares against others at www.strava.com

My Canyon Aeroad 9 Team

Whether you just want to see if you can beat your own best time or record your longest ride you will need to store the event on a smart phone app or a dedicated cycle computer.

I never ride without my Garmin bike computer. Wirelessly connected to various sensors on my bike and body, it records my cadence, (how fast I am peddling), this is important to achieve the maximum output in a physically efficient way.

I also record my pedaling power directly with a Stages Power Meter. As you get fitter its great to see how quickly you can recover a normal heartbeat rate after a monster hill climb.

Being a GPS device my Garmin records my speed and route, allowing me to record my path and upload it when I get home over WiFi to Garmin Connect or www.strava.com

I use Strava all the time to monitor my fitness levels against my previous best times and any other Strava user. You can compare yourself against several criteria such as other riders in your club or your age group.

If you manage to set the fastest ever recorded Strava time you get a King of the Mountain (KOM) badge for as long as your record holds.

If you're really ambitious and lucky enough to ride some of the famous Tour de France stages, you can compare your best effort against the Pro's. That's right, a number of Professional Tour racers use Strava and upload their times for all to see. Just don't expect to get many KOM's against those guys.

Huge cycling events

Many cities around the world stage huge cycle events, this year Jezza again rode in the Five Boro Bike Tour, an annual recreational cycling event in New York City. Held on the first Sunday of May, the 40-mile (64 km) ride regularly attracts over 32,000 riders.

The route takes riders through all five of New York's boroughs and across five major bridges. The entire route, including bridges and expressways which normally prohibit cyclists, is closed to automobile traffic for the day.

Considering the amount of riders taking part, the event was remarkably well organized and apart from the the odd bottleneck I had a great ride completing the 40 miles in 2 hours 13 mins.

Some of the 32,000 riders at the start of the Five Boro event in New York 2015.

Velodrome Racing

Track racing is hugely popular with the fans but only a few cyclists have ever ventured onto the banked curves of a velodrome. For good reason, track bikes have NO BRAKES! and no gears, in fact you can't stop pedaling as it's a fixed gear. It may seem counterintuitive but these things are for the safety of the riders.

It also requires a different type of fitness, with only one gear and quite short races the rider needs huge power to build up speed but then needs to pedal at well over two revolutions per second (known as cadence) to maintain a high speed.

My all carbon track bike at Kissena Velodrome.

Racing - Time Trials

This style of cycle racing attracts some of the fittest athletes you will ever meet, frequently competitors are also triathletes. Bikes are typically at the extreme end of the design and technology spectrum, made almost entirely from carbon with the focus on improved aerodynamics.

I recently entered a number of State Championship time trial on my TT bike, riders start at 30 second intervals and the course I rode was a little over 14 miles with some long hills, some of the guys were traveling at over 50 mph in a full racing tuck on the downhill sections.

Criterium Racing

A criterium, or crit, is a bike race held on a short course (usually less than 1 mile), often run on closed-off city center streets.

The racing is fast and furious as riders jockey for position, frequently one or two riders will make a break off the front of the pack during the early part of the race, but they are usually reeled back in when things get serious in the closing stages. And because the courses can be quite tight with sharp bends, high speed bike handling skills in a tight pack can win or loose you the race.

Riders are split into groups depending on their ability from Cat 1 the best to Cat 5. Cat 1 + Cat 2, and sometimes Cat 3 generally race together, and depending on the size of the entry Cat 4/5 will have a separate race.