This week we're testing your knowledge of cycling sponsorships — turns out most of us have no idea what these companies actually do — plus we're tackling whether cramming 500km into Christmas is a smart training move, and settling some heated debate about group ride etiquette and communication.
Key Takeaways
- Most cycling team sponsors are poorly activated; companies sign sponsorship deals but do little to actually engage fans or explain their business, leaving the sport with a massive marketing gap.
- The Festive 500 can work, but only if you have adequate recovery time, a clear goal (social vs. fitness), and your baseline training allows for a 500km spike without derailing your overall plan.
- Intermittent fasting over Christmas to 'make up' for overeating is counterproductive — your body doesn't reset at midnight. Instead, focus on consistent fueling throughout the week and small deficits where possible.
- Self-coaching for a major event like Badlands is risky without expertise in periodization, progressive overload, and pacing strategy; a coach provides external perspective and accountability that's hard to replicate alone.
- On group rides, use hand signals and small gestures to point out hazards rather than shouting callouts, which create panic and background noise; reserve actual shouts for serious threats like cars or black ice.
- Group ride etiquette isn't about forcing equal work — people have different goals and fitness levels. The real issue is riders who sit in all day and sprint for cafe sprints without contributing.
Expert Quotes
"They signed the deal and that's kind of it done — they don't really activate. My Wosh is a classic example of it's on the back of UAE shorts and almost no one knows what My Wosh is."
"Your body doesn't understand dates and timeszones. It doesn't go 'oh it's midnight, oh it's Sunday night and it resets' — it doesn't understand that it's Christmas. It understands you're massively overfueling, you're massively underfueling."
"You're paying somebody to care. You're paying somebody to be invested in this journey to celebrate it with you. I love getting a text off one of my clients saying their target event went really well."