KEY TAKEAWAYS
Urban cycling can feel like navigating an action movie, but it doesn't have to be terrifying. Anthony and Sarah break down practical, confidence-building strategies for staying safe around traffic, intersections, and unpredictable road users—plus they tackle whether altitude tents and expensive gear upgrades are actually worth your money.
"All of this has an overriding principle and the overriding principle isn't the traffic laws it's not you know to please drivers it's to get home safe."
"If you're getting doored you're riding within dooring distance of a car so move out take the lane—you need extreme ownership of your safety."
"Data is a proxy for feelings and you can't look at data in a vacuum—you need to marry data with how you're feeling."
Anthony recommends taking the full lane in urban cycling whenever passing distance from traffic would be unsafe, on the basis that lane position forces drivers into a deliberate overtake rather than a squeeze.
Source: Anthony Walsh, Roadman Cycling podcast
Anthony's recommendation is to ride at least one metre out from parked vehicles at all times, removing the dooring hazard category entirely rather than relying on visual scanning of each car.
Source: Anthony Walsh, Roadman Cycling podcast
Tram tracks taken at a shallow angle are a well-documented urban-cycling crash mechanism; Anthony's specific recommendation is to cross them as close to a right angle as possible.
Source: Urban cycling crash data, summarised on the Roadman Cycling podcast
Altitude tent adaptation typically requires 8+ hours per night plus 2–3 additional daytime hours in-tent for weeks of consistent use to deliver measurable haematological gains — travel and other interruptions effectively reset the adaptation clock.
Source: Altitude training research, summarised on the Roadman Cycling podcast
Coach Olav Aleksander Bu (Blumenfelt / Iden) reportedly forgoes massage, ice therapy and sauna in favour of additional sleep — citing sleep as the most restorative and regenerative lever available, with deep sleep producing growth-hormone pulses.
Source: Olav Aleksander Bu, referenced by Anthony Walsh on the Roadman Cycling podcast
“Cycling paths everyone's like oh I'm on a bike path I can guard down be safe cycling paths are actually for me probably a little bit more dangerous than the roads because they are very very unpredictable and our guard is generally down a little.”
“You need to spend a lot of time at altitude so eight hours a night on most studies isn't enough so you need to be eight hours a night plus probably two three hours during the day inside the tent to get those adaptations to it and you need to do that for prolonged periods of time so if you're traveling or work and it breaks it up it resets the clock.”
“Olaf Buu who's the coach for Blumfeld and Gustaf Eden he talked about how they forgo massage they'll forgo ice therapy they'll forgo steam room saas for extra sleep he's like sleep is the most restorative and regenerative thing you can do when we're in deep sleep we're getting bangs of natural human growth hormone.”
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