Why the bike is not all about soft pedalling and saving your legs...

Why the bike is not all about soft pedalling and saving your legs...

by Emma Carney (AUS) -
Number of replies: 0

Dear Athletes,

This week we are considering the bike. It is important to understand the bike leg of a triathlon is not all about soft pedalling and saving your legs.

At times, the bike portion of a triathlon has often been disregarded with respect to its importance on race outcomes and how an athlete with an aggressive, strong bike leg can completely alter race outcomes.

To be a strong cyclist you must be fit on the bike, understand your gearing and know when to attack and when to sit. Course evaluation and the specific techniques of bike racing all take time to learn, but are very valuable if you are going to race consistently well.

Below are more details on what can be done on the bike – 

Portion of the race we are considering

Sprint Distance 20km bike and Standard Distance 40km bike = 78% total distance of race = approximately 48-50% race time

How to Race a Triathlon BIKE

Every athlete, regardless of their bike ability must train to be fit on the bike – aerobically and anaerobically. It is also important athletes learn to cope with the bike leg of the triathlon on their own, as often they will find themselves in situations in races where other athletes will not ‘help’ or be as cooperative as they may like. Athletes must be coached to understand triathlon is an individual event, and opportunities to work with others may arise – particularly in the bike leg - but more often than not, they cannot rely completely on this occurring.

It is important all athletes have a smooth T1 (swim to bike). Transition 1 can see some large changes occurring in athletes’ positioning, due to the fact the athletes are moving from the slowest discipline (swim) to the fastest discipline (bike). Any time gaps that appear following the swim will visually appear greater immediately when out on the bike purely because the speed of the discipline has increased. It is important to have your athletes commence the fastest discipline as soon as they possibly can. Coaches must ensure they coach their athletes to be mentally strong in this first section of the bike and chase any pack or group of athletes in front of them.

Each pack on the bike needs to do the following – 

Lead Bike Pack

The lead swim pack will initially decide the lead bike pack, with those slowest in transition 1 dropping to the second pack on the bike. The focus of the lead bike pack is generally to ride the first section of the bike fast, so as to demoralise any chasing group from working to catch them. In top level racing, the lead bike pack will be well practiced at rolling turns and riding together, because they will do this often, as they usually exit the water together. The lead bike pack is usually at its fastest for the first half of the bike leg, but does not maintain this pace throughout the race.

Bike Chase Packs

All chase bike packs will need to ignore some widespread myths of triathlon racing and remain mentally tough when chasing lead packs. Major myths to ignore include -

  1. ‘Save your legs for the run’. Often coaches instruct athletes to save their legs for the run by avoiding working on the bike. This is pointless for two reasons.
    1. Firstly, if every athlete chasing is to adopt this view, they will all lose more time and make winning almost impossible.
    2. The fastest runners in a triathlon usually come out of the fastest bike pack – or all those who worked hard on the bike.
  2. ‘No one would work with me’. Often athletes blame the fact that they could not get athletes to work with them to form a chase group. If you are a strong cyclist and are making an impact on a group off the front, you will receive help. If you are the strongest cyclist you must be prepared to do the majority of the work and entice others to help in the easier sections of the course. Athletes chasing also have no choice. They must be fit enough to cope with their weaker swim. In situations where athletes are bullied or forced to contribute to a chase on the bike, they will generally not ride well and actually slow the progress of the group. The strong cyclists of each group (usually 2-3) are better off focussing on the task at hand and just ignoring those who aren’t contributing. In actual fact, by getting the slower riders to the back will drop them sooner, so the entire pack will become more efficient.
  3. ‘You cannot win a triathlon from over 45seconds down out of the swim’. If an athlete is 45seconds down out of the swim, and given the fact that pure swim specialists in triathlon have never been capable of running world class 10km running track times, if a run specialist is to, at minimum hold the lead swim group at 45sec (ie ride the same time) they will be capable of running down the swim specialists in the run section. This has been proven countless times. A run specialist need only hold the swim deficit time on the bike so the triathlon is won on the run. This fact emphasises the importance of bike fitness for runners.

So how do you chase or hold a lead packs advantage throughout the bike portion of the triathlon?

  1. Ride faster –

Below is a table illustrating the time difference between completion times over 40km for athletes who ride at increasing speeds. It shows that if you are able to ride the course event at only 1km/hr faster than your competitors you will make at least a minute and up to 2minutes over those you are chasing. Riding faster does not necessarily mean you need to simply ride harder. You can also go faster by simply making important equipment choices and by riding the course smarter.

Average speed for bike segment 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43
Time to complete 40km 1hr 8min 1hr 6min 1hr 4min 1hr 3min 1hr 1min 1hr 59min 57min 55min
  1. Bike equipment and positioning –

It is assumed you have made sensible equipment choices. Some equipment considerations include –

  • Race legal aero bars should be fitted to your athlete/s bikes
    • Every athlete at one stage of the race will need to chase or will be chased, so a close to aero position should be adopted for speed advantages.
  • Move away from compact gearing
    • Compact gearing was developed for cyclists, not triathletes. Too high a cadence on the bike will negatively impact the run for a triathlete. A triathlon course does also not cover mountainous stages like those of a professional road cyclist.
  • Have your bike setup sit you more forward and slightly higher than a road cycling position.
    • This will enable athletes to reduce the load on their quadriceps, which when loaded excessively on the bike will negatively impact an athlete’s ability to run fast.
    • Focus on aerodynamics and speed rather than comfort, after all it is a race.
  • Tyres, wheels
    • Look at the course and make decisions on wheels and tyres (including tyre pressure). You must also consider weather conditions and road surfaces.
  1. Bike course checklist – (riding the course smarter)

There are always areas on a triathlon course which provide opportunities for an athlete to make up cheap time gains. Combined with a strong mindset (focussed on the task at hand) a properly designed bike training program and good equipment choices the task of riding 1km/hr faster than competitors can be very simply achieved. Some key areas to focus on for these time gains include –

  • Inclines/Descents
    • Inclines provide opportunities for strong, fit cyclists to break up packs, breakaways and simply alter the pace of the bike section. Attacking inclines consistently will have an impact on a field. This must be trained for.
    • Declines or downhill sections are very useful sections of the course, not only for recoveries from attacking uphill sections, but also for providing momentum to take into an uphill attack. Even very slight downhill sections are useful for smart cyclists who are attacking a bike section.
  • Corners
    • A simple way of making up time is to ride through corners quickly. A pre course review of all corners is useful for deciding which corners can be pedalled through and which corners cannot. Pedalling through a corner is a much faster option, but the dangers of this are obvious when looking at tight corners.
    • A corner ridden through quickly can provide a similar benefit to the momentum gain an athlete will achieve by using a downhill section for maintaining speed.
    • Ensure your athlete/s are prepared for all types of corners and also in all directions, as international racing might require riding on the opposite side of the road.
  • Wind direction
    • Head winds are very useful for destroying competitors. When leading, your athlete must understand where to sit on the road to ensure competitors cannot enjoy the drafting effect fully. Attacking into a head wind is also an efficient way to make time up, because this is the area where most athletes struggle the most.
    • Tailwind sections are useful for big gear chasing and setting up an attack using speed and momentum, similar to the use of riding corners fast and using inclines

With all skills in triathlon it is essential each athlete trains specifically towards what is required in a race. These bike skills are best performed by triathletes who are fit on the bike and are able to move between prolonged aerobic with shorter intense anaerobic efforts throughout the bike segment. It is important for chasing athletes to be aware the front pack is often made up of athletes who are close in swim ability, but varied on the bike. Therefore, if chasing groups of strong cyclists form, there is no reason why the leaders cannot be caught.

It is important to note that often it is not the first attack that will break up a bike group, rather it is a combination of attacks that will create the most damage.

It is also usual that the most progress can be made towards the second half of the bike leg, as athletes less fit on the bike begin to tire.

I hope today’s email will provoke some thinking and re-evaluation of how you may approach the bike leg.

While - as is always the case in coaching and racing – you may not agree with everything contained in this email, I hope you will be able to develop different ways of racing and start to construct different scenarios in your mind as the return to racing approaches. 

After all the athlete who is best prepared for the unpredictable is often the athlete who does better than the rest.

Ride well!

Emma