South Australian Masters Cycling Association

2 weeks ago

SA Masters Cycling Association Training Day

Kristin Lewis, Echelon Cycling Studio

Thanks to those who were able to make it along to this session on Saturday 11th January. Below is a brief summary of the key issues that we discussed plus a few details about Echelon Cycling Studio at the end! Hope to meet more of you at future sessions that SAMCA will be offering.

Safety/bike skills
• Biggest factor in safety is to be aware of who/what is around you in a bunch
• Some riders may be less comfortable with riding close – give them some room!
• Always hold your line and be predictable in your movements while on your bike
• Ride good position. This means staying near the front at key parts of the race (from both a strategic and safety point of view). Alternatively, if you are someone who doesn’t have the ability to sprint well at the end, try breaking away or stay out the way in the final stages of the race and learn by watching from behind.
• If someone in the bunch does something that you consider ‘unsafe’ during the race, follow them up after the race has finished and have a conversation. Speak to them in a way that you would like to be spoken to and work through the issue with the objective of achieving some clarity and improving safety for everyone.
• Most of us love our cycling but also have a life and loved ones outside of cycling – remember this when racing and don’t take undue risks that compromise your own safety or the safety of others.

Racing bunches
• Small groups of 2 – 6 riders generally work best doing longer ‘time trial’ style turns. The rider on the front does 30s – 2 minutes on the front of the group with other riders behind them. Once they finish their turn, they flick their elbow and move across to the side of the group where the wind is blowing from before drifting to the rear of the group.
• Larger groups of 6+ riders may work best doing ‘rolling turns’. This has the group essentially in 2 lines – a pace line moving forwards taking turns of pace and another line which is moving riders backwards before they join back into the pace line. When it is your turn on the front of the pace line, the idea is to maintain the consistent speed of the group and keep pressure on your pedals until your back wheel clears the front wheel of the rider who has just pulled off the pace line into the line of riders moving backwards. Once you have cleared their wheel, you need to reduce your speed so that the next rider in the pace line can maintain the speed of the group rather than having to accelerate further.

Training tips + Echelon Cycling Studio
• My observations of most cyclists are that they spend a lot more time than necessary riding at low – moderate intensity. While this is helpful to build endurance, it is critical to complete some of your weekly rides at high intensity if you want to improve! This is consistent with current sport science research and also is much better use of time! This could involve riding up hills where you are pushing the pace, swapping turns with some other riders on a flat ride rather than just ‘cruising’ or doing some indoor power based training as described below.

Echelon Cycling Studio (ECS)
• We launched ECS in late December 2019. The vision for ECS was to help cyclist improve their performance in a time efficient way using state of the art power technology. Our indoor cycling class programs are set by our team of coaches who have state, national and even international racing experience and are designed to be a high intensity addition to your weekly outdoor rides which will significantly improve your performance.
• We are centrally located at 361 Greenhill Rd, Toorak Gardens Further information/bookings - echeloncycling.com.au ... See MoreSee Less

Echelon Cycling Studio – The easiest way to work hard and the fastest way to cycling fit