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5 TIPS TO MAKE CYCLING SUCK LESS | ROADMAN CYCLING

21:39·25 July 2025

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The cycling internet tells beginners to watch YouTube bike fit videos, download Strava, and just get out there and ride. It's not wrong exactly, but it skips the part where you actually learn how cycling works. This solo episode is Anthony going back to the basics he had to figure out the hard way.

Key Takeaways

The 80/20 rule is the one that most beginners ignore because cycling culture doesn't reward it. Strava kudos go to the fast segments. Group rides sort themselves by who can hurt who. Everything points toward going hard every time out. But that's exactly what keeps people tired, sore, and eventually off the bike. Eighty percent of your riding should be genuinely easy. Conversation pace. Heart rate under 130. If you're breathing hard, you're already in the wrong zone. I've had coaches on this podcast build entire elite programmes around this exact principle, and the first thing they always say is that beginners get this backwards.

The other thing nobody tells you early enough is that your position on the bike is doing more damage than your fitness level. Heel on the pedal at the bottom of the stroke, leg almost completely straight. Plumb line from the kneecap over the pedal axle at the 3 o'clock position. Saddle level or just slightly tilted down. These aren't advanced bike fitter details. They're the basics that make everything else possible. It's like anything, getting the boring stuff right first is what makes the fun stuff possible. On the fuelling side: nothing needed under an hour, 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour after that, eating within the first 30 minutes before you feel like you need it.

In this solo episode of the Roadman Cycling podcast, Anthony Walsh outlines five foundational tips for beginner cyclists based on his own experience starting out in 2000 with Swords Cycling Club. On saddle height, he recommends setting the saddle so the leg is almost fully extended with the heel on the pedal at the bottom of the stroke, producing a slight knee bend during normal pedalling. He references a plumb line from the kneecap over the pedal axle at the 3 o'clock pedal position as the benchmark for saddle fore-aft placement. On cadence, Walsh states most efficient cyclists target 80 to 100 RPM, and that grinding at 50 to 60 RPM creates unnecessary muscular stress. On fuelling, he gives the guideline of 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour for rides over one hour, starting intake within the first 30 minutes. On training intensity, he describes the 80/20 principle: 80% of riding at conversational pace with heart rate under 130 BPM, 20% structured hard efforts. He references shammy cream brand Nutz by Dave Zabritzky and the 4iiii Precision 3 Plus power meter, which he describes as offering plus or minus 1% accuracy, 800 hours battery life, and a 9g unit weight.

If the 80/20 intensity split is new to you, the episode on why training slower makes you ride faster covers the research behind it in a lot more detail. And if you're past the beginner stage and your progress has stalled, the seven fixable reasons your VO2 max is low episode is worth your time.

KEY QUOTES

“Most efficient cyclists aim for a cadence of around 80 to 100 pedal revolutions per minute. When I started, I was probably doing 50 to 60 RPM, grinding in gears that were far too hard. And when I started using my gears properly, everything changed for me.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“For rides under an hour, water is usually sufficient. But for anything longer, you need to start thinking about fuel. I aimed to consume 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour when I was getting started. The key is you need to be eating early and you need to be eating often.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“I learned about the 80/20 rule, and this changed everything for me. The idea is that 80% of your riding should be easy, conversational pace, and only 20% should be hard efforts. This feels completely counterintuitive at first, but it works.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT5 SECTIONS

Why Cycling Should Feel Awful First

This is how to make cycling suck less. My top tips for beginners. But before I give you the usual advice about bike fits and padded cycling shorts, I need to tell you something that's going to sound completely mental. The biggest mistake I made when I started cycling wasn't buying the wrong bike or wearing the wrong kit or even being unfit, which I was. The biggest mistake that I made was actually trying to enjoy it. Now, I know that sounds backwards, but hear me out for a second. For the first 6 months of my cycling journey, I was focusing on having a good time and feeling amazing. But I completely missed the point. I was fighting against everything that makes cycling actually work and making myself miserable in the process because nobody tells this to beginners. But cycling feels horrible at first. It really feels awful. And you know what? It's supposed to. Your body is learning something entirely new, a new movement pattern. Your muscles are adapting and your brain is trying to figure out how to balance. It's trying to coordinate through traffic. It's trying to figure out distribution of effort and make you comfortable. If you go into it expecting immediate joy, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. But here's the thing. Once you stop trying to enjoy it and forcing that enjoyment, and you start focusing on actually doing it right, something magical happens. It becomes genuinely addictive. And I'm not talking about the fake sort of gym bro addictive. Oh, I absolutely love exercise. I'm talking about the kind of addictive where you genuinely look forward to your ride tomorrow. That type of addictive. Today, I'm going to share with you the exact strategies to transform my cycling from something I dreaded into something I genuinely crave. These aren't theoretical tips. These are hard one lessons from someone who's made every mistake in the book so you don't have to. Let me take you back to where all this started for me. The year was 2000 that I was in college. This was way before global cycling network existed. Before Straa, before Garmin bike computers, before carbon fiber frames were everywhere. Information about cycling was really scarce. If you remember that time, if you wanted to learn about cycling, you basically had to figure it out the hard way. I'd gotten into cycling because, well, I was pretty broke. I was a college student and I had no money. I needed transport. But I'd also watched the tour to France. Steven Roach won it in 1987. So I had those memories when I was a kid and I thought it looked unbelievable. I was, you know, intoxicated by it. So when I heard about an exIrish pro cyclist who was selling his old bike, I jumped at the chance. I used all my savings. This wasn't any bike. This was a proper racing machine. And he threw in all his old cycling kit with it. It was so cool. He actually brought me, which is weird looking back on like a six-hour spin on one of the days that I was buying it off him. But he threw in everything. shorts, jersey, helmet, shoes, the works. I remember going home and looking at myself in the mirror. This was the night before my first group ride with Sword Cycling Club. I looked apart like full team kit, proper bike, the clip-in pedals. I genuinely thought I was going to rock up and blend right in with the local cycling club. Next morning, get a good breakfast into me and I ride up to the meeting point. I'm feeling pretty confident, almost a little smug. There were about 15 other cyclists there already and I wanted to make a good impression. So, I rolled right up to the front of the group. I went to stop and say hello and boom, down I went right in front of everyone. I had absolutely no idea how to clip out of those pedals. Like zero. The XPro had shown me how they worked. But in the moment with everyone watching, my brain just completely froze. And I'm lying there in the ground still attached to the bike like pure humiliating trying to figure out what had gone wrong and how to uncip while 15 seasoned cyclists looking down at me. That was mistake number one that day and I was about to make dozens more. Like they helped me up. They had a bit of a laugh about it. You know the usual. We've all been there, but I was already pretty shaken. My confidence was shot. And now I was trying to keep up with riders on the ride who've been doing this for years. And I was making every rookie mistake you can imagine. I didn't bring any food or water with me. This turned out to be a 4-hour group ride. And I had no idea about group riding etiquette. So I was like overlapping wheels. I was surging ahead when it was my turn to roll through on the front when I should have been like holding position with the guy be beside me and staying in formation.

The Ride That Nearly Broke Me

I was falling backwards about an hour in. I crashed again coming up to a traffic lights. I was so focused on making sure I unclipped at the traffic lights that I rode straight into the back of the rider in front of me. I brought me and him down. By this point, I was battered. I was exhausted. I was completely out of my depth. My legs were cramping because I hadn't eaten or drank anything. I was dehydrated and I was starting to make dangerous mistakes because I was trying to keep a pace that was completely beyond me. With about 20 miles to go, I made the decision. I pulled a pin on it and I made a call that actually in retrospect probably saved my cycling career. I admitted defeat and I called my dad. I asked him to come pick me up. I'll never forget the look on his face when he arrived. I sitting down on the curb still in my full pro kit, but I was absolutely defeated. And that night, I seriously considered selling my bike. I felt like a complete fraud. Here I was looking like a proper cyclist, but I couldn't even manage a basic group ride without falling off twice and needing to call my dad to be rescued. But something about that experience. I still don't know what it was. Something about it stuck with me. Maybe it was the glimpse I've had of what cycling could be like when those other riders were flowing effortlessly through the countryside, shoulderto-shoulder. Maybe it was just stubborn pride. Either way, I knew I had to figure this out. So, that's when I started learning the fundamentals. And that's what I'm going to share with you today. I didn't learn these through YouTube videos or online tutorials, but through painful trial and error, asking questions, and slowly building up this knowledge bank that would eventually turn me from a liability into someone who genuinely loves being out on the bike. The first tip is to get a bike fit right from day one. This is hands down the most important thing I can say to you, and this is where most people go wrong. I can't stress this enough. If your bike doesn't fit you properly, you're going to have a miserable time no matter what else you do. When I first started cycling, I adjusted my saddle height so my feet could touch the ground when I stopped. That was my theory. That felt safe and logical, but I was totally wrong. What I didn't realize was that having your saddle too low, it creates incredibly inefficient pedaling motion that puts a huge strain on your knees and makes everything much harder than it needs to be. Here's what you need to do to set your saddle height. When you're sitting on the bike with your heel on the pedal, at the bottom of the pedal stroke, your leg should be almost completely straight. Not locked out, but almost straight. This means that when you're pedaling normally with the ball of your foot on the pedal, you'll have a slight bend in your knee at the bottom of the pedal stroke. I went from struggling on gentle hills to climbing them pretty comfortably just by raising the saddle about 2 in. It was like someone have given me a completely different bike. But saddle height is just the beginning of the bike fit. The saddle position, as in the four and a is pretty critical, too. A general rule at home is that when your pedal is at the 3:00 position, a plum line dropped from your kneecap should fall somewhere over the pedal axle, like the spindle in the middle of the pedal. If you're too far forward or back, you're not using your leg muscles efficiently. And nobody told me this as a beginner, but saddle tilt, as in the up and down angle of a saddle, also matters enormously. I used to have mine tilted slightly upwards because I thought that would give me more support, but what actually did was put pressure in all the wrong places and it made me constantly be trying to inch forward, which is really uncomfortable. You're aiming for a level saddle. Even one with a very slight tilt downwards is usually much more comfortable. The handlebars are equally important. If they're too low, you're putting too much weight on your hands and you'll start to get numb hands and you might get a strain in your neck or shoulders. But if they're too high, you're sitting too upright and you're just catching so much wind resistance. You see this in beginners a lot. I'd recommend starting with the handlebars around the same height as the saddle and then adjusting from there based on comfort. Hey everybody, let's take a quick break to talk about the bike I'll be riding this season, Reap. I've been lucky enough to ride all the top brands in the world over the past few years, but these Reap bikes, they're not the same. And I'll tell you why. Reap is the first company I've seen that isn't chasing sales targets and the mass market.

Bike Fit and Finding Your Cadence

They're chasing something very rare, perfection. Every bike they make, it's crafted in the UK factory. And it's not about slapping a made in Britain label on a bike from a Chinese factory. It's about control. From the first sketch to the final build, they're hands-on, ensuring that every detail is dialed in. That's very rare in an outsourced world of mass production. What sets them apart is innovation. While others pump out the same old designs, reaps pushing boundaries. They're not following trends, they're setting trends. Think precision and performance like an F1 car for the road. Absolutely no compromises. And it shows and you can feel it when you ride the bikes. These bikes are built for riders who demand the best. Whether they're chasing podiums or just want a machine that feels like an extension of your body, a piece of art, it's not hype, it's substance. Ride a Reap for yourself and you're riding something crafted with intent. So, if you're serious about cycling, check them out. It's reapikes.com. I absolutely love my one and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Back to the show. Tip two is to master your gearing and cadence. This is where I made some of my biggest mistakes earlier on, and it's where you can make some huge ground. I had this macho idea that I needed to push big gears to go fast. I'd see other cyclists spinning, you know, this kind of spin to win. They spin in their legs really quickly, and I think they're working way harder than necessary. I couldn't have been more wrong. Cadence, if you don't know, is how fast you're pedaling. And that's measured in revolutions per minute. Most efficient cyclists aim for a cadence of around 80 to 100 PE pedal revolutions per minute. When I started, I was probably doing 50 to 60 RPM, grinding in gears that were far too hard. And when I started using my gears properly, everything changed for me. Instead of trying to power through hills in a big gear, I started to shift down and keep my legs spinning. Now, it did feel weird at first. It actually kind of felt like I was cheating at first cuz I wasn't working as hard. Think of it like this. Your legs are like an engine and they have an optimum RPM range where they're most efficient. When you push too hard of a gear, it's like lugging your car engine. You're working harder, but you're not going any faster and you're putting unnecessary stress on the system. I remember the first time I used my gears properly on a long climb. Instead of standing up and grinding out the gears on the climb like I usually did, I shifted down into an easier gear and I kept my cadence high. I flew up that hill feeling fresh while riders who looked fitter than me were starting to struggle beside me. The key is to make sure you shift up the block. You're shifting into your so your hard gears are going to be right down the bottom. Your 11, your 12, your 13. You're going to be shifting up into your 28, your 32. But you need to be doing this before the hill starts. Don't wait until you're already struggling on the hill to change gear. As soon as you feel your cadence dropping or your legs starting to slow down, that's when you need to shift. Tip three, invest in proper cycling shorts. I know, I know. Lyra shorts look absolutely ridiculous and the idea of putting padding in your shorts seems unnecessary. And I thought the exact same thing. I spent my first few months cycling in regular football soccer shorts. And I paid the price. After about an hour in the saddle, I'd be shifting around constantly trying to find a comfortable position. My sitbones would be screaming. And don't even get me started on the shafing. But I genuinely thought this was part of cycling. what you had to I I'd heard this kind of tale of cycling suffering and how hard it is and I thought this is what people meant that you had to suffer through it to build some kind of tolerance. I even actually transitioned for a brief period into wearing soccer shorts over my cycling shorts as I was too ashamed to wear Lyra shorts in case my football friends seen me. Eventually I finally broke down. The shafing wore me down and I just started wearing proper cycling shorts, nothing over them, and the difference was night and day. Suddenly, I could ride for hours without discomfort. The padding isn't there to make a bad saddle comfortable. It's there to provide a smooth interface between you and the bike. Cycling shorts are designed to be worn without underwear, in case anyone is doing this. And I know that feels weird at first, but the underwear, it creates it because the underwear has seams in it and that's going to create friction and that completely defeats the purpose of cycling shorts. The fabric is designed to move with you and to wick away moisture from your skin.

Fueling Lessons and Begging for Strawberries

You don't need to spend this fortune on cycling shorts. You can go for a pretty cheap option. If you scout around the internet, you'll find some pretty good entry-level stuff for 30 to50 for your first pair. Look for shorts with a good shami. That's the padded base and flat seams. brands like the Catathon and Wiggle do some great entry- levelvel stuff. But also, if you're doing longer rides, invest in some shammy cream. That's like an anti-shafing cream designed specifically for cycling. I use it on any ride over an hour. Now, there's the one I use is these nuts from Dave Zabritzky. I absolutely love it and it's made a huge difference. Tip number four, learn to fuel and hydrate properly. This is where I made some of my most painful mistakes. I used to head out for long rides with nothing but a water bottle. In my head, I thought if I can get used to training dehydrated, when I start training with water, I'll be flying. It'll be like rocket fuel. But by the time I was halfway through a two to threehour ride, I was bonking. Like that's when your blood sugar crashes and you feel like you've hit a wall. I'll never forget where I really totally came apart on one ride. I really learned this lesson the hard way. I still about 25k from home and I suddenly felt like I'd been sedated. My legs turned to jelly. My brain felt foggy and I could barely maintain 10 km an hour. I had to stop on the side of the road at a guy selling strawberries. I had absolutely no money and I had to beg this guy for a punet of strawberries. I literally think I said, "You don't want my debt on your conscience." And I came back and I did pay him back the next day. But begging for strawberries on the side of the road is a new low. The rule is simple. For rides under an hour, water is usually sufficient. But for anything longer, you need to start thinking about fuel. I aimed to consume 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour when I was getting started. And on longer rides, you can go a little bit higher. The key is you need to be eating early and you need to be eating often. You can have stuff like energy bars, bananas, even just an old school jam sandwich. That works really well. When you get a bit more serious, you can go to sportssp specific stuff, but you're trying to avoid that dizzy, weak feeling. When I'm heading out, if I'm doing a long ride, I'll usually aim to eat my first snack within the first 30 minutes or so, and then something every 30 to 45 minutes after that. Hydration is equally important. I used to think I was fine as long as I wasn't thirsty, but dehydration massively affects your performance, and it affects your performance long before you feel thirsty. So, aim to drink 500 mil of fluid in normal conditions and more if it's hot. One game changer for me was learning to make my own energy drink as well because you're mixing fuel with hydration here. You can buy commercial energy drinks or you can make your own with a pinch of salt, some fruit juice, and some water. It's cheaper than sports drinks and it honestly it works just as well. If some of the the sports drinks really hurt my stomach, so I found that those homemade ones really worked well for me. Tip number five, plan your routes like the pros do. Now, this might sound advanced, but route planning is an art form that can make or break your cycling experience. My early rides were disastrous, partly because I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I used to just head out and see where I ended up, which sounds romantic until you're still like 25k from home. You're exhausted and you turn a corner to see there's a massive hill you didn't anticipate and you don't have the energy to get up this hill. I ended up walking up some of these climbs, which is massively embarrassing looking back, and it was demoralizing at the time. Now, I plan every route in advance, and I use apps like Straa, Commute, or even just Google or Apple Maps to check the elevation profile before I leave. For beginners, I'd recommend starting with flatter routes and gradually starting to add in hills as your fitness improves. There's no shame in avoiding big climbs early in your cycling journey as you're trying to build your fitness and confidence. You're just trying to start this journey. You're not prepping for the tour to France straight away. Here, I also plan my routes in loops. So, I have multiple bailout points. If I'm planning a 40 mile ride or 60k ride, I'll make sure I'll have some spots at 20, 30k in where I can cut the ride short if need be. And this takes the pressure off and lets you enjoy the ride without worrying about getting in over your head.

Wind Planning and the 80/20 Rule

Wind direction is something else to be considered. And I wish I'd learned about this earlier. Riding into a headwind is exhausting. So try to plan your roots where you're riding into the wind early on when you're fresh and then have a tailwind to help you home. I use an app called My Windock for this. I'd highly recommend it. It's brilliant. You can drop your GPX file into it and it'll show you the wind all the way around. Road man, whether you're a weekend warrior or a world tour rider, the right tools can make all the difference. Enter 4's precision 3 plus power meter. The latest innovation from 4i, designed to help you reach peak performance. The Precision 3 Plus power meter is a compact yet powerful unit. It weighs just 9 g and it's packed with features that set it apart, including integration with Apple's Fine Mind network, giving you the peace of mind by letting you track your power meter wherever it is. Plus, you've got up to 800 hours of battery life. We all know that accuracy is key and 4 Eyes delivers a groundbreaking plus or minus 1% accuracy thanks to their unique 3D strain gauge technology. For those seeking even more data, the Precision 3 Plus Pro meter offers dualsided power meter metrics, giving you detailed insights into pedaling efficiency, torque effectiveness, and left right balance. For Eyes offers versatile product options to suit your needs. Choose from ride ready parameters with pre-installed units on Shimano cranks or up for factoryinstalled parameter where you send in your crank set for a custom installation. Ready to elevate your cycling game? Trust for eyes precision 3+ parameter. Precision performance and peace of mind allinone. Learn more by visiting for iii Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.com. That's 4i Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii i i iii.com. I'm going to put that in the description down below. Tip number six, build your fitness gradually. Here's where I made my arguably biggest mistake. I thought I needed to suffer every single time I went out on the bike to improve. No pain, no gain. I'd go out and I'd absolutely hammer myself on every ride, thinking that pain was progress. What actually happened was I'd be too tired and sore to ride for several days afterwards. Then I learned about the 80/20 rule, and this changed everything for me. The idea is that 80% of your riding should be easy, conversational pace, and only 20% should be hard efforts. This feels completely counterintuitive at first, but it works. Easy riding should feel easy. You should be able to hold a conversation. You should be able to sing along to your favorite Ed Sheeran song. If you're breathing hard or your legs are burning, you're going way too hard. And I know it feels like you're not working hard enough when you're doing this. But trust me, this is where the magic happens. I started tracking my rides with a basic computer. It showed speed, heart rate, nothing fancy, just something to show me the key metrics that I needed. And this helped me learn what easy actually felt like. For me, easy means keeping my heart rate under 130 BPM. And the hard efforts, that's the 20%, they should be structured. Maybe it's a few hill repeats or some intervals or joining the local group ride, but these should be planned efforts, not random suffering. So, there you have it. the six things that completely transformed my cycling from something I endured to something that I genuinely love. Now, I want you to try one of these tips on your next ride. Just one. Pick one that resonates with you. Maybe it's adjusting your saddle height. Maybe it's planning a better route or just slowing down, enjoying the ride a bit more. Don't try to implement everything all at once. Just pick one thing and see how it feels. And here's what I want you to do. After you try that one thing, come back and let me know how it went. Leave a comment below. Tell me which tip you tried and what difference it made. I read every single comment. I promise you. And I love hearing about progress that athletes are making. If this video did help you, do me a favor and hit that like button because it helps the channel to reach more people who might benefit from these tips. And if you want more content like this, make sure you subscribe and ring the notification bell so you don't miss future videos. Remember, every cyclist you see out in the ride, they look effortless and comfortable now, but they started exactly where you are right now. They just learned these fundamentals that make all the difference. You absolutely can do this. Cycling is meant to be enjoyable, and with the right approach, it will be. Thanks for watching this video and I'm going to see you on the next

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

how high should my saddle be on a road bike?+

Your saddle height is correct when your leg is almost fully straight with your heel resting on the pedal at the bottom of the stroke. Anthony Walsh found this single adjustment improved his climbing more than weeks of fitness training had. Set it wrong and you lose power and risk knee pain on every ride.

why does cycling feel so hard for beginners?+

Cycling feels awful for the first several months because your body is adapting to entirely new movement patterns, balance demands, and effort distribution all at once. Anthony Walsh describes his first group ride in 2000 as a disaster precisely because nobody warned him about this adaptation period. Expecting discomfort upfront, rather than immediate enjoyment, is what keeps most beginners going long enough to improve.

what cadence should a beginner cyclist aim for?+

Beginner cyclists typically push too hard a gear at a low cadence, which burns out the legs quickly and puts strain on the knees. Aim for 80 to 90 RPM by selecting an easier gear than feels natural. Training your legs to turn over faster is a skill that takes weeks to build, but it pays off significantly on longer rides and climbs.

what is the 80 20 rule in cycling training?+

The 80/20 rule means 80 percent of your riding time should be done at low intensity and only 20 percent at moderate to hard effort. Most beginners do the opposite, riding everything at a medium-hard pace, which generates fatigue without producing the aerobic adaptations that actually build fitness. Structuring your rides around this split allows consistent training without burning out.

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Key Takeaways

KEY QUOTES

“Most efficient cyclists aim for a cadence of around 80 to 100 pedal revolutions per minute. When I started, I was probably doing 50 to 60 RPM, grinding in gears that were far too hard. And when I started using my gears properly, everything changed for me.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“For rides under an hour, water is usually sufficient. But for anything longer, you need to start thinking about fuel. I aimed to consume 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour when I was getting started. The key is you need to be eating early and you need to be eating often.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“I learned about the 80/20 rule, and this changed everything for me. The idea is that 80% of your riding should be easy, conversational pace, and only 20% should be hard efforts. This feels completely counterintuitive at first, but it works.”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

how high should my saddle be on a road bike?+

why does cycling feel so hard for beginners?+

what cadence should a beginner cyclist aim for?+

what is the 80 20 rule in cycling training?+

5 TIPS TO MAKE CYCLING SUCK LESS | ROADMAN CYCLING

Key Takeaways

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