Dear Athletes,
This week we are going to start a series of bike focussed emails. On 24 June, I wrote about the importance of understanding the bike leg of a triathlon and maintaining it is not all about soft pedalling and saving your legs. You can find this email here.
Over the next few weeks, we will dissect the importance of that email and how you may adopt the various techniques so you maximise your time spent on the bike in a triathlon.
To recap what I have previously stated, at times, the bike portion has often been disregarded with respect to its importance on race outcomes. Where in fact an athlete with an aggressive, strong bike leg can completely alter race outcomes. The bike takes up 78% of the total distance of a sprint or standard distance race, or approximately 48-50% race time. It is significant! To be a strong cyclist you must be fit on the bike, understand your gearing and know when to attack and when to allow others to do the work .
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. This week we are going to start with the machine itself – how well do you know your bike? You should know it very well, because it is an extension of your body in every race you do.
Your bike equipment and position
A smaller frame will always be more responsive If you have a choice of bike frame – always select a smaller frame over a larger one. This doesn’t mean find the smallest bike you can find and expect to go fast. A ‘small’ frame will allow you to hold your drops, shift forward on your seat slightly as if you were chasing or attacking on the bike and you can clearly see your front wheel hub. With this type of fit you are able to manoeuvrer the bike beneath you and control it with your body weight.
Components
Disk brakes are more responsive and better in the wet, more complicated if you get a flat, but if you take care of your equipment that should be rare. Cranks, keep them at 172.5 (unless you are very tall/short and require a specific crank length), any shorter and your cadence will be too high for a fast run (we will cover my ideas on this in a later email). Handlebars should not be wider than your shoulders, to ensure you minimise the chance of neck tightness and soreness.
Don’t sit like a pure cyclist
Have your bike setup sit you more forward and slightly higher than a road cycling position. This will enable you to reduce the load on your quadriceps, which when loaded excessively on the bike will negatively impact your ability to run fast. The focus is on aerodynamics and speed rather than comfort, after all it is a race.
Fit WT legal Aero bars
Race legal aero bars should be fitted to your bike. Every stage of any race you may need to chase or stay away from a chase group, so a close to aero position should be adopted for speed advantages. Your aero bar pads must be low, at the height of your handlebars to ensure you are remaining in a low aerodynamic position.
Know what gears you have setup
You should know which gears you are most effective in, you should know what gear combinations you need in hills courses for different gradients and you should also know what gears you can push for a sustained period of time. You should also adapt your gearing to suit courses, don’t always ride the same run of gears. In a slightly more controversial opinion I have, I believe in WT racing you should look at moving away from compact gearing. Compact gearing was developed for cyclists, not triathletes. A typical WT triathlon course does also not cover mountainous stages like those of a professional road cyclist. In addition to this, and despite popular opinion, too high a cadence on the bike will negatively impact the run for a triathlete (we will look at this in a later email).
Tyres & Wheels
Train on heavier wheels than your race wheels, to save the fast feeling of your race wheels for race day. When selecting which wheels and tyres to ride, you must always consider weather conditions and road surfaces and learn what you ride well on in which conditions. On race day, look at the course and make decisions on wheels and tyres, including tyre pressure (we will look at this in more detail in later emails).
Bike computer
You need one of some sort. If you can afford a power meter, get one (we will look at this in a later email), but heart rate, time and speed are still very good measures of performance. Get as much information as you can on your bike computer given your budget.
Care for your equipment
During the bike leg of a triathlon, it is you and your bike Vs everyone else. Look after your equipment, because you are relying on it to perform. Always clean and care for your equipment and it is less likely to fail you when it counts.
Transporting and looking after your bike
When transporting your bike to races it is likely you may have to partially take your bike to pieces, e.g remove wheels, loosen headset to rotate handlebars perhaps. It is vital that you can take apart and reassemble most of the components on your bike. Having confidence in your ability to fix and readjust most components on a bike will remove a lot of stress and anxiety if you haven’t got access to a bike mechanic. Also consider carrying small spare parts, especially if racing somewhere that spares may not be easily accessible.
None of the above should have been ‘new’ information for you. Your bike and bike equipment is the foundation of your understanding of the bike discipline of a triathlon.
The ‘winning formula’ I always adopted in racing and now in coaching are my two rules of performance. These are - To be fitter than your competitors. To know more than your competitors.
We will be looking at these two key criteria with regard to bikes over the next few weeks.
Until then, clean your bike and ensure you understand and know the gearing you are currently using.
We are going to spend the next few weeks learning how to make this stuff go fast!
Ride well.
Emma
