FEATURED — LATEST EDITORIAL
Pinned by the teamBODY COMPOSITION FOR CYCLISTS: WHY 'LIGHTER IS FASTER' IS HOLDING YOU BACK (AND WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS)
BREATHING FOR CYCLISTS: THE OVERLOOKED TRAINING FRONTIER THAT ADDED 6% TO FTP
HOW TO CLIMB FASTER ON THE BIKE: 5 FIXABLE REASONS YOU'RE GETTING DROPPED (AND THE PACING TRICK THAT BEAT POGACAR)
CREATINE FOR CYCLISTS: I TRIED IT FOR 30 DAYS AND HERE'S WHAT THE DATA SHOWED
THE FULL CATALOGUE
340 more articlesCYCLING AFTER 40: THE SCIENCE OF GETTING FASTER WHEN EVERYONE SAYS YOU SHOULD SLOW DOWN
Sedentary people lose 10% of VO2max per decade. Masters athletes lose somewhere between 5% and 46%. The gap is training, not age — and the research on what actually works is clearer than the cycling internet pretends.
FUELLING FOR CYCLING: WHAT WORLD TOUR NUTRITIONISTS ACTUALLY RECOMMEND (AND WHAT THEY'VE CHANGED THEIR MINDS ON)
The 120 grams per hour pro fuelling message has migrated to amateurs who can't handle it. Dr Sam Impey, who works with Pidcock and Ganna, says it's probably hurting you — and the data from my own three-ride experiment agrees.
HOW TO PERIODISE YOUR CYCLING SEASON: THE SYSTEM JOE FRIEL, DAN LORANG, AND DYLAN JOHNSON ACTUALLY USE
"Just ride more" stops working at about 5 hours a week. The amateurs who keep getting faster across years are running real periodisation — and the three frameworks below cover what works.
HOW TO PEAK FOR YOUR CYCLING EVENT: THE TAPER AND RACE-DAY SYSTEM THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
The taper paradox: you need to do less, but doing less feels like losing fitness. The riders who get this right show up sharp; the ones who don't show up tired and wonder why the form they had two weeks ago has vanished.
HOW TO BUILD A CYCLING TRAINING PLAN THAT ACTUALLY WORKS: THE FRAMEWORK FROM FRIEL, LORANG, AND JOHNSON
Most training plans fail because they ignore the rider. The plan that works fits your weekly hours, your A-race, and your recovery profile — not the other way round. Here's how to build it.
HOW TO GET FASTER ON 6 HOURS A WEEK: WHAT ROGLIC'S COACH PRESCRIBES FOR TIME-CRUNCHED CYCLISTS
I went from 15 hours a week to 6. Power dropped less than expected and recovered fully within 12 weeks. The structure that made it work is the same one Dan Lorang prescribes to time-crunched amateurs.
THE 5 MISTAKES SELF-COACHED CYCLISTS KEEP MAKING (AND HOW TO FIX EACH ONE)
The cyclist who coaches themselves can get faster — but most don't, and the same five patterns repeat. Here's the diagnostic and the fix for each.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR FTP: 7 EVIDENCE-BASED METHODS THAT ACTUALLY WORK
Most FTP plateaus aren't a ceiling — they're a sign you've been stuck on the same two stimuli for too long. Seven methods, each backed by a named study or a coach who's seen it work in the peloton.
LOW CADENCE TRAINING: THE SESSION WORLD TOUR COACHES KEPT PRESCRIBING WHILE THEY WAITED FOR SCIENCE TO CATCH UP
The coaches knew. The pros were doing it. The internet called it outdated. Then a 2024 study in PLOS ONE showed 8.7% VO2max gains versus 4.6% with the same intervals at higher cadence. The coaches won.
THE SATURDAY SPIN
Get the week's training takeaways in one email.
65,000+ serious cyclists. What worked this week, what the pros did differently, and how to apply it.
POLARISED TRAINING FOR CYCLING: WHAT SEILER, LORANG, AND WORLD TOUR COACHES ACTUALLY PRESCRIBE
Most amateur riders sit 50% too hard on their easy days and arrive at hard days half-cooked. The fix is the same 80/20 structure the world's best endurance coaches converge on — and it's harder to execute than it sounds.
POWER METER TRAINING: HOW TO ACTUALLY USE YOUR POWER DATA TO GET FASTER
You bought a power meter. Now what? The gap between owning the data and using it is where most amateurs stall — and the fix is simpler than the cycling internet makes it look.
RECOVERY FOR CYCLISTS: THE PROTOCOLS WORLD TOUR RIDERS USE BETWEEN SESSIONS
Recovery isn't passive — it's the other half of training. The Pogacar first-hour routine, Dr Plews on HRV done properly, and why the same hard session at 50 needs more recovery than it did at 35.
STRENGTH TRAINING FOR CYCLISTS: THE EXERCISES, FREQUENCY, AND PROGRAMMING THAT ACTUALLY TRANSFER TO THE BIKE
After 30 years coaching, Art O'Connor says he's never seen a rider whose legs were the bottleneck. The 2025 meta-analysis of 17 trials and 262 trained cyclists agrees. Here's the protocol that earns its place in your week.
SWEET SPOT VS THRESHOLD VS POLARISED: WHICH CYCLING TRAINING METHOD ACTUALLY WORKS?
The cycling internet argues about this endlessly. The honest answer is that the right method depends on your weekly hours, your current limiter, and where you are in your season. Here's the decision tree.
VO2MAX TRAINING FOR CYCLISTS: 7 FIXABLE REASONS YOURS IS LOW AND HOW TO FIX EACH ONE
VO2max isn't a genetic ceiling. It's the visible expression of seven underlying systems, and a low number is almost always one of those systems being neglected. Here's the diagnostic and the fix for each.
WINTER CYCLING TRAINING THAT ACTUALLY BUILDS SPRING FITNESS: THE INDOOR PROTOCOL PROS USE
The amateur who hammers every indoor session for four months arrives at spring tired, untrained, and unable to absorb intensity. The pros do almost the opposite. Here's the structure that earns its place.
MARCO PANTANI: THE MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO TEST, THE MAFIA FILE, AND A DEATH ITALY HASN'T CLOSED
In 1999 Marco Pantani was leading the Giro d'Italia by five minutes and thirty-eight seconds. By lunchtime, his career was effectively over. Five years later he was dead. Twenty-seven years later the case is still officially open. Here is what the documents now say.
WHAT TO EXPECT AT A CYCLING TRAINING CAMP
First-time camp riders have the same five worries. None of them are about whether the riding is good. They're about whether they'll fit in, what to bring, and whether they'll be the slowest one. Here is what a proper training camp actually looks like — and the answers nobody puts in the brochure.
WHY GIRONA IS THE BEST PLACE IN EUROPE TO TRAIN ON A BIKE
Mallorca has the marketing budget. Tenerife has the altitude. Calpe has the cheap flights. Girona has the entire World Tour quietly living within ten kilometres of the cathedral. Here is why most pros, given the choice, pick this one.
THE 2026 GIRO D'ITALIA: 3 STAGES AND 3 RIDERS THAT WILL DECIDE THE PINK JERSEY
The 109th Giro d'Italia starts Friday in Bulgaria. Here are the three stages and three riders that will decide the pink jersey.
AEROBIC DECOUPLING EXPLAINED: THE CARDIAC DRIFT NUMBER THAT TELLS YOU IF YOUR BASE IS REAL
Heart rate climbing while power stays flat — that's not just heat or fatigue. It's a number called aerobic decoupling, and once you know how to read it, it tells you whether your base is real or whether you've just been counting hours.
CYCLING CADENCE BY AGE: WHY MASTERS CYCLISTS SHOULD SPIN HIGHER THAN THEY DID AT 25
Most masters cyclists pedal at the cadence they fell into years ago — 80, 82, 84 rpm. The body that worked at that cadence at 28 isn't the body riding the bike at 48. The fix is small, simple, and changes how the bike feels on every climb.
EFFICIENCY FACTOR FOR MASTERS CYCLISTS: THE SINGLE NUMBER THAT TELLS YOU IF YOUR AEROBIC BASE IS IMPROVING
Most cyclists chase FTP. Efficiency Factor is the metric that quietly tells you whether the work you're doing is actually building anything underneath it. For masters cyclists, it's the most useful single number on the head unit.
GLUTE ACTIVATION FOR CYCLISTS: WHY YOUR BIGGEST MUSCLE IS THE ONE DOING THE LEAST WORK
Your glutes should be the engine of every pedal stroke. For most cyclists they're a passenger — overridden by quads and hip flexors that have spent the day at a desk. The fix takes ten minutes a day and changes how every climb feels.