Coachingsarah & anthony

WORST KIT EVER, HOW YOUR CRANKS ARE SLOWING YOU DOWN & JAKE PAUL | RIDER SUPPORT

with Rider Support

33:55·15 January 2024

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RIDER SUPPORT

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Shorter cranks (160mm) let you sit lower on the bike and spin a higher cadence, helping you accelerate out of corners and respond to attacks faster.
If you're unsure whether the pain is DOMS or injury, it's probably DOMS — actual injuries send a clear signal your body doesn't want to move.
After a hard session, skip the next hard effort and ride endurance instead; most riders only need two quality sessions per week regardless of total volume.
Moving through the bunch by being friendly and asking for gaps gets you further forward than fighting for wheels — and nobody punishes the aggressive rider like experienced riders do.
Cycling teams never build lasting brand equity because sponsor names change every season; that's why pro kit feels meaningless and riders retire into obscurity without building their own identity first.

Anthony & Sarah are back for more "Rider Support". This week they look ahead at the best of 2024 cycling kits (and a throw back to the worst kit ever), chat about the trend towards shorter cranks and answer all your burning questions.

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KEY QUOTES

“he said it allows roters to get lower on the bike and that's going to reduce the wind exposure also when you have shorter cranks you're going to naturally have a higher Cadence which means you can accelerate faster out the corners respond to attacks and he said a misconception around torque the the old belief was that longer cranks provided more torque however he said this necessarily isn't true and that can be offset by The increased Cadence”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“broadly you only need to be doing two hard sessions for most people a week anyway so regardless if you're trying to volume 6 hours a week or 20 hours a week you only really have two key sessions so if you've got Doms from a session on a Tuesday don't go out on a Wednesday or maybe don't go out on a Thursday for your next hard session just ride endurance and do your next hard session on Friday or Saturday”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“if you're injured you don't feel like training your body is giving you quite a clear signal that you shouldn't train today whereas DS is more kind of Insidious you know you will know the difference”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT8 SECTIONS

Newbie questions and Red Bull buys Bora

It's episode 948 of the road man podcast it's Friday and Sarah's here with more newbie questions Sarah you didn't get canceled in week one on video so welcome back for video week two and I don't know what number episode on audio we are for newb questions yeah it was interesting we got some we got good feedback and bad feedback backlash it's called backlash outrage wow I actually wasn't really expecting the amount of comments on YouTube it's a different type of viewer on YouTube I think or maybe it's because on Twitter and you know don't read the comments I've kind of curated who follows me if anyone is negative or nasty I just block them straight away but there was some people on YouTube and I just think when you talk about a particular Rider last week we spoke about matchie vanderpol this happened to me before on Twitter I spoke about what happened in the CH of France with RIT at ola welta I was like oh with with uh with enemies like RIT who needs friends or something like that I kind of came out and support a sep cus and I mean people came for me so the same thing happened last week with matchie vandero the fans came out and droves and basically you know took us took us apart r Red Bull have taken a controlling stake in Bora what do you make of this story I think it's really good it's good to see really big Brands coming in and investing in cycling I did last year for the Church of France fam I did a spotlight on sponsors and the sponsors that are currently pumping money into the sport are a lot of them are very very small Brands one of them was like a big motor home company another was one of the companies that globally SE sells scents so puts it into perfumes puts it into your lotions all of that kind of stuff so kind of obs cure companies uh have been typically uh sponsoring cycling teams so I think it's good to see these really big big companies of plenty of money behind them coming in boss plung has come out plung plug plune pl plune we got plug but he's come out and said that cycl needs to be more like Jake Paul now I don't know if that's the best example in the world cuz Jake Paul is I think widely regarded as the most hated man on the internet so I don't know if cycl needs to be more like him quickly explain to people who Jake Paul is I don't know if anyone needs to know who Jake Paul is like everyone knows Jake Paul is he's the biggest YouTuber in the world or one of the biggest ones he's a big mouth on him he's a big mouth on him he's not a character that I love he's not a character the internet loves but I can see the sentiment from the Y is my boss because he's like we need to attract more attention around it there's definitely classier ways to do it his statement is a little bit weird cuz he's like we need a strong series of linked major races and like I'm immediately thinking like what you mean like the classics like we already have strong series of linked major races but I think there is a marketing problem the way cycling teams are viewing competition he says is they view each other as competition when they really should be viewing the Champions League the PGA Tour even we watch the darts over Christmas how amazing of a job have the darts done at marketing almost everybody in Ireland and the UK now watches the darts around a Christmas period cyclin has a marketing problem I agree and I don't know if plug was really trying to kind of push this back upon the actual cyclists themselves because it's tricky isn't it I mean Pro cyclists were the original in influencers if you think about Michael Jordan and pro lists Pro athlet sorry pro athletes yeah they were the original you know influencers that's why you went and bought a pair of Jordans was because Michael Jordan um it's it's funny though pushing it back onto the cyclist they already have a job to do you come back in from a 6-hour training ride do you really want to document the whole thing and post it online I know hang on I I know it works for the athlete as well because it increases their profile and it's you know what what's good for them is good for the sport but yeah I don't know do they do athletes want to do that do they want I don't think it's about what athletes want it's about a necessity for there's no such thing as social media anymore social media is the internet like does it take away from Cristiano Ronaldo being a footballer because he also

Should pros run their own socials

Has an Instagram account absolutely not the idea that you can't do a race and also have like 10% your salary that's allocated to somebody posting pictures for you well that was my point my point is that I think that the teams need to invest in a social media team or a marketing person to kind of take some of the load off the writers and taking footage posting editing all of that kind of stuff so I agree everyone needs to be involved but the teams also need to accept some resp responsibility it's not just like okay Pitcock in your contract you must do 10 social media posts per month you know don't think it should be the team telling pitock to do it I think it should be pick's agent telling pitock to do it like the writers themselves is I'm a cyclist I'm a cyclist I want to go and ride my bike I don't want to post social media posts every day what's he do in 10 years when he's not a cyclist you know Rory mooy Wards these guys yeah they golfers they're winning tournaments maybe it's you know they're making generational wealth in golf and sports like this so they probably don't even need to do it but they're so tuned into life after sport Jordan as you referenced he's still selling sneakers 20 years after retiring because he built a brand and the cyclists aren't doing that if we think back one generation to riters who have stopped racing they're not even even Greg Lamont who we have on the podcast the Lamont brand isn't huge he's like 1100 followers on Twitter or something for someone who's won the Tour to France three times no I agree it should happen I just don't know I think there has to be a couple of stakeholders involved inner tubes shorter cranks all the Riders descend on cal every single year I've never been to calp it's a [ __ ] off I don't know why they go to calp other than it's cheap hotels there's Hotel Dam mon is the only like feature like that's how bad this place is but that's probably why they go there's no pubs clubs there's no strip clubs maybe maybe it's brutal I don't know why to go there it's like I've been there on Camp and it's miserable ry's not even that good so weather's not even that good I've been there in the snow brutal place don't know why never go to calp but they're there and they're doing some strange things in my eyes now they've I think a lot of the teams have you know the new rule where you can't actually have your handlebars bent in they're kind of trying to remedy that now before the actual season starts and getting the guys used to riding on straight handlebars there's some other kind of strange happenings going on the holds was a weird thing where you never never got into that you had to be under the age of 30 to ride your hoods bent in h yeah that I'm glad to see that's straightened out pardon the pawn but some of the other stuff that's going on the shorter cranks is an interesting one because the shorter cranks I seen Pitcock talking on the cafe roide with Matt Stevens Before Christmas H Matt Stevens does a brilliant job but he's moving to 160 cranks so 175 172 cranks which you wouldn't know what the hell I'm talking about but for a long time they were just standard if you were any height you rode 172 cranks if you're a big fellow over 6'2 6'3 you rode 175 cranks that was really it no one really questioned it pockock moved across to 160 cranks and he was explaining it for a number of reasons he said it allows roters to get lower on the bike and that's going to reduce the wind exposure also when you have shorter cranks you're going to naturally have a higher Cadence which means you can accelerate faster out the corners respond to attacks and he said a misconception around torque the the old belief was that longer cranks provided more torque however he said this necessarily isn't true and that can be offset by The increased Cadence so I don't know I think maybe we're going to start seeing a move to Shorter cranks which is going to fuel a move to Shorter cranks for everyone in the CF fours are going to be like and he's shter cranks he pockock are shter cranks and pockock is Tiny he probably had the you know shorter cranks anyway probably only 172 it was only really two sizes people rarely went lower wow that is interesting I could probably do with them myself if they help a Cadence I'm still struggling with that stuck at 70 rotations per minute cranks are going to help you there okay before we move on from that that story they're still using

Pros ditching tubeless for clinchers

Clincher back using Clincher back using Clincher okay so this is not going to be popular either yeah it's like disc brakes it's tube tubeless all of these things that you know groups of cyclist absolutely just despise each other over you know old school versus new school thinking so they're gone back to Clincher I think from my understanding of it it's only for training they've gone back to it because they're testing new equipment as they always do at this time of season and there's a move to developing different types of tubeless which maybe isn't quite there yet all the manufacturers have decided we're using tubless regardless I fought it for a long time because you get sealant everywhere and last season I finally said you know what I'm going tubous everything and I was tubous everything I kind of enjoyed it I got into it got into topping up Zealand got into kind of ruining the kitchen with Zealand everywhere but this year a lot of teams seem to be going back to Clincher again with specialized turbo cotton Tire on 26 mil and a fast tube inside it I'm assuming but maybe you'll never have to learn how to use jubiler yeah the sealant for me particularly my gravel bike was an absolute godsend last year so I don't think I would ever move away from that okay let's hop on into the questions question number one Anthony I've seen a lot of comments about new kits for the pro teams this year now I know you don't think wearing proit is the done thing but which ones do you think are cool so do you know what is weird with Pro kits and I think I had Cory Williams on the podcast talking about this and it's weird now that Cory Williams is actually left Legion you know he's gone to a different for next year he's G to Miami Blazers or something which is bizarre wrong decision in my view he's built his own brand and left yeah but what was interesting talking to him and he's the only one I've heard talking about it and maybe it ties back into the conversation around brands at the start cycling team don't build any equity in their brand each season your sponsor you're supporting quickstep floors and quickstep Floors become something else the next season you're constantly supporting a brand name rather than supporting LA Lakers Manchester United and I think that's why it's not cool to wear Pro kits because all you're doing is really you're going out in a a Bora hand scove who wants to wear a Jersey from a Cooker Company yeah no I agree I think people well particularly for me I follow people rather than the team so everyone knows I'm a massive Al Al Philip fan so I will follow him and RL I will probably support him now that he's moved as well you know so it's more Rider based than team based for me and that's why I would never ever wear a full cycling kit I think most of them are absolutely hideous anyway not this year's one we talk show in a second but before we jump into them can I want to talk to you honorable menion that is the worst kit ever what was going on in the designer's mind when they sat down to create this kit one of the best looking races in the world Colombians and they've made them look horrific in this kit the worst kit of all time are being agreement absolutely so for those who have never seen this kit the girls the ladies are all really really gorgeous and the kit has this kind of sash across the crotch in a skin color so it looks like basically you can see the person's genitals lady bits that's like that's like something you'd say when you're five it just feels like there's nothing left to the imagination there at all they don't look particularly happy with the kiss either none of them are smiling that's definitely won't have a look at the other kid I'd love to get you for Christmas or something I would wear it with pride one of the most iconic kits I've ever seen is you know chiellini and that kit that he wore I don't think it was a a team kit it must have been when he had retired but it was basically a muscle Su no that was I think he wore that in a race I think maybe his final time trial he wore that in a race and I I could be confused in time trials but that might be the time trial also the Cavendish came past them very different ends of their career cavish on the way up Chini on the way down cavish came past him in a time tral and clipped one leg out and pedal past him one leg in the pedals and it was massively seen as this disrespectful you

Best and worst pro team kits

Know disrespecting one of the greatest sprinters of all time and I could be confusing that maybe they're not the same ones I don't think chiellini really goes a damn about anything any Anthony then nothing has impr proven Tyler Hamilton is a bad boy well he's not really like we've had him on the podcast but Back in the Day post US Postal post US Postal that's a tongue twister post US Postal Tyler Hamilton had this bad boy reputation and this bad boy team emerged built around Tyler Hamilton rck racing this is another one of those Jers they look like the Hell's Angels of cycling it went badly wrong this jersey I don't hate this at all I really really don't hate this I think this is kind of cool and because has got like this skull crossbones kind of like massive big emblem across the chest you don't have a big hideous sponsor across the chest I don't know I I really really don't hate this it's like a mushroom psilocybin trip gone wrong or something it's horrible okay let's go into this year's kits this year's well speaking of Mark Cavendish in the aanish the the photos that these teams release are sometimes absolutely comical there's a kind of a iconic in invert com's picture here of Mark cendes they've they're they've got smoke and a yellow light behind them trying to make it look kind of cinematic oh I think it's the Jersey is nice I mean it's just nice he he rocks it because he's in you know he's got the the rainbow bands and yeah he's Mark Cavendish is cool so I think EST have a Brandon problem EST when immediately if you say to anyone cycling and doping you think estana straight away because there's been such a checker past and they haven't changed the color in so many years that I still associate that color with doping doping I think David Brandon problem I would have liked to see them move totally away from that color into an age where there's never been even a sniff of a positive test or a rumor around Mark cendes give him a new color get him away from that Old thing to break the Tour of France record this year yeah actually that's a really really good point Bahrain have put on a lovely little detail to remember Gino M majer who passed away who got who died basically out in his bike last year it's Swiss T Swiss yeah so just a little decal underneath the uh the the the chest kind of Icon ride for hash ride for Gino I think that is so nice he was such an integral part of the team so it's a lovely little detail yeah some of the other ones we won't harp on about these too long but some of the other ones I like oh hang on a second we can't move past the shorts for the French team the lack of brown shorts the lack of brown short the m i Am devastated they were absolutely iconic they weren't iconic they were shocking they were iconic and they just looked class and now they're gone it's just boring black now well they might actually win some races now with Bennett in the team so true uh the last one I want to mention is EF education because they done a great job with the Irish Champion Ben Healey yeah the kit is cool because it's very difficult to make an Irish kit with of being really like oh you know where is me Lucky Charms kind of thing very Irish very tweet I think they have absolutely hit at on point honorable mention for me for the little track kit when I heard little they were I when I heard that they were going to redesigned the kit last year I was like oh this is going to be a disaster little TR is probably my favorite kit in the bunch of Ni kit in Paton this year I think yeah yeah Bora is always the nicest kit but I'm going to say little is nicer this year and one last men mention for UAE it they just look like winners the kit just looks class but you have to live in Monaco to wear that kit yeah it's like you can't live anywhere else you see Pacha rocking his 250 Grand watch on hisago it's like he looks like he's balling you use that in the lanes around Dublin London you come home covered in muck and hor [ __ ] and cow [ __ ] it's like you're not so cool white Kit public service announcement for anyone who is not at race weight it's not a good look don't do it do yourself a favor go with a little trackit okay question number two radman love the show my question is when do I know it's DMS and when do I know that I'm injured also should I just

Training through DOMS vs injury

Train through DMs like push through or am I better off resting and recovering okay so I'll quickly just talk about what dams are dams is that really awful pain that you get after training it's caused by these minuscule little tears in your muscles that happen when you do strength training when you push yourself on the bike and that's the horrible dull pain that you get it can last about three or five days in fact when you get DMS you wake up after a hard session with JS that's not the worst day day one is easy it's actually day two that you're in chronic pain that's what I find anyway after strength training it seems to be because it's delayed onet muscle sorus th is an acronym for that yeah and the delay is normally for strength training the next day is okay the day after is the worst for cardio I find it different if you do a bike race you wake up the next day and you're super sore and the day after you're actually fine yeah should you like how do you know the difference between that and an injury experience you'll know if you're injured because injuries are painful Dums are uncomfortable and that might seem like a subtle distinction but when you've experienced both them if you don't know it's an injury it's probably just Dums if you're injured you don't feel like training your body is giving you quite a clear signal that you shouldn't train today it's quite a cute isn't it whereas DS is more kind of Insidious de you know you know it's yeah you you'll know you will know the difference I would say to this listener that it is DMS that he's experiencing so what's your advice for pushing through well I with an injury you shouldn't train with Doms I think just right slightly easier there's no point going back into the gym or back out running or back doing another hard session like broadly you only need to be doing two hard sessions for most people a week anyway so regardless if you're trying to volume 6 hours a week or 20 hours a week you only really have two key sessions so if you've got Doms from a session on a Tuesday don't go out on a Wednesday or maybe don't go out on a Thursday for your next hard session just ride endurance and do your next hard session on Friday or Saturday yeah exactly and what I found is a little bit of kind of Light massage foam rolling really really helps because you're getting the blood circulating to that area and that will help with kind of recovery and becoming less painful okay okay next question question number three and this is from Stephen Kay Anthony and Sarah in sport we have rules then we have unsporting Behavior which is different I've raced as a cat too last year and to be honest I push the boundaries with sporting and unsporting behavior to get promoted and last year I think I got a bit of a name as an aggressive cyclist within the bunch Anthony do you think particularly in the racing Bunch there is even such a thing as unsporting Behavior it really seems like the rules of the Jungle in there anything goes and it's eat or be eaten is there a line that you would never cross yeah like this lad has got it so so badly wrong like there is 100% unsporting Behavior like you're a cat too catch yourself on like people have worked the next day people are picking up the kids from school later that day like you're pushing the line between sporting and unsporting behavior there's just there's no place for it in cycling it's dangerous at the best of times you don't need people with unsporting behavior obviously there's a there's a rush in certain points there's going to be a pinch to get to the front and there's only a fixed number of places the roads 10 wide and there's a 100 people trying to be at the front but bike handling sorts that out like you know one person's going to be able to go through gaps that others aren't and fitness sorts it out and they're the people that are at the front the most experienced the fittest not the people who are most aggressive like there's a way to move through the bunch and I've had this conversation last year with one of our Lads in roadman where like as you're moving through the bunch you can fight someone for a wheel and you can be like oh you know you're both trying to go for this little Gap or you're both trying to basically cram two PE there's only one person can go into this Gap so you are in a position where you're fighting someone else to get into this Gap like a much nicer way to do it is like you try and

Moving through the bunch politely

Move through the bunch and I learned it from just watching one of the best Irish riters K on Power and I had a team manager who said to me just follow him and watch him for a couple of days in a race and I just watched how he moved through the bunch and he moved through the bunch like speed dating and so that's what I was trying to do now he he touched guys on the hip and he'd be like oh how are you doing party how's you getting on how's the family you mind if I get into that little Gap there cheers really appreciate it and up to the next person talk to him I actually need to get up the front there to talk to a teammate any chance I can just move through that I'll catch you later how you fix for food all the way through and he'll just he'll go around a bunch making friends yeah and there's no fighting for Wheels there's no one sporting Behavior everybody is safer for it nobody likes a rider who's unpredictable nobody likes a rider who's unsporting and the guys who are sporting the guys who are at the front of the race the guys who are fitter the guys who are experienced they can also have a nasty enough side if they need to to get rid of riders who are unsporting there's a you know a a common understanding at the front that everyone's predictable and safe and that's why they're allowed near the front not because they're somehow you know law of the Jungle yeah yeah I agree Stephen Kay wow I I think that you you need to kind of change your outlook in this I mean I have a very limited experience racing but certainly if there's somebody kind of bullying and unsort UNS supporting Behavior means to me well a million things I mean is he also in the car park letting down tires is he putting laxatives into people's bottles like what how far does this go but yes Steven I think certainly have a listen to Anthony's advice there and uh pull it back a little bit Jesus okay question number four I get my fueling all wrong I know you tried the super sapience Gadget a few months ago do you recommend this or how do I make sure I'm fueled for training sessions performance and then recovery I'm also trying to lose 5 kilograms too so I'm in the tricky situation where I need to fuel to train but I also need to get into a calorie deficit I didn't love super sapiens I think it's a great idea and I think it's something I maybe will Circle back to at some point but I felt it left too much interpretation to the user and you nearly I just didn't really understand how to use that data and I didn't have time to go and research it myself so for people who don't know what super sapiens is it's a gadget that you pin to your arm and it basically monitors your glucose levels throughout the day it sends all that information to an app and theoretically you can then look at okay I had bread for breakfast my glucose level spiked and then I had a massive drop in my energy levels and my mood therefore sugar is not good like that's at a very basic H explanation of what it is so yeah we did use it we got information from it yeah but the problem is like at I had Alexander bu on the podcast and we talked about this like fuels substrate like carbohydrates are a substrate and then they're influenced by so many other factors like cortisol levels sleep cycles so you could get up in the morning weigh out a fixed amount of oats for your breakfast eat them and observe the effect on your blood sugar and it's X effect then you can go to bed the next night have wake up have the exact same portion of oats and it's going to have y effect on your blood sugar two totally different effects because you had a different sleep or you have different stress levels that morning so for me that's what made it a little bit unworkable at the moment because I didn't know how to interpret that data but to actually answer his question like you want to lose 5 kg but you also need to fuel for sessions well you need to fuel for sessions you get your deficit at other parts of the day so if you're going out and you're riding you need to be eating you know commen it with that ride if it's A Hard Ride you need to be fueling maybe 60 to 100 grams of carbohydrates per hour during the hard R hard section of the ride if it's easier you get away with a little less but you need to be having a calorie deficit

Super Sapiens and food diaries

Throughout the rest of the day and the unglamorous way to do that it's just using my fitness p and tracking what you're eating for the rest of the day and making sure you're in a deficit but the part to be in a deficit isn't on the bike the part to being a deficit is when you're like we I have a second help in a dessert I agree and with regards to Super sapiens I think you can do a lot we've really we we all really do we talk about a lot on the podcast get very hyped up about gadgets and information but I think a good place to start is actually taking a food diary on my fitness palette or writing what you're eating down how that made you feel how much energy that gave you in the bike and actually cataloging exactly how many carbs you had during your threshold session your endurance session And discussing in that diary how you felt and how your recovery was then after and actually getting to know your body and know what works for you not just really relying on this kind of thing that you pop on your arm that would be my advice because you will start to see patterns you will start to understand your own body and it will just become second nature for you then okay next question this is from Kevin if you want to be Fit for Life what is the best and most easily available form of Fitness that just about anyone can participate in preferably without the need for equipment walk Walking yeah I agree walking a lot of people can't run we Anthony has been doing a lot of running lately and we were chat chatting recently about the amount of people that we cycle with that don't run due to like knee and hip problems and I've often commented that people always go from running into cycling not the other way around because if they've been running for a long time they might have kind of niggle and the bike right kind of takes away all that impact and I think walking is absolutely perfect it's such an important Health indicator as you get older as well a really important Health indicator is as you get into your 60s 70s 80s and 90s a health indicator is how fast you can walk a kilometer in and the faster that you can walk that kilometer in has a huge indication on how healthy you are as a person overall so I think walking is absolutely amazing stick in a podcast or just meditate get yourself a couple of dogs and you'll definitely get the steps in yeah I think one of the most dangerous pieces of advice ever was Sean Kelly's piece of advice that's been widely requoted and cyclist have talked about it for years that never stand if you can sit never sit if you can lie down if you can lie down always go asleep because what's happened is that piece of advice maybe for World Tour cyclist is good advice but you have Club cyclists thinking I can go for a two-hour ride and then for the rest of the day I can't get on my feet anymore all the fatest people I know that are Club cyclists you know cat ones cat twos they're all do their training and then they have a lot of Baseline movement they're gardeners they're Builders they're electricians they're on their feet nonstop they're moving a lot because there's no replication for it and if you want to you know Advance the walk a little bit without the need for equipment throw a backpack on with a couple of bottles of water and carry those around you know rooking has become super popular now but all it is is carrying a load yeah rooking is really really cool as well you did we went on a hike a couple of months ago you had like a 15 kilo pack on or something oh my God I don't know how you got through it but yeah it definitely adds another element to a hike that was was kind of you know pretty tranquilo it really added a workout for you so I think that's great advice okay question number six this is from Ryan hi Anthony I've been riding with a group for about 12 months now and I'm the weakest I've learned to ride the wheel which keeps me there or thereabouts and really only and I really only get dropped up the climbs my problem is because I'm so gassed from the GetGo my focus seems to disappear and my thinking and processing information goes out the window apart from getting Fisher is there anything I can do to help my brain stay sharp no one has said anything but I would say there have been mushing about my B handling decisions and the odd misstep I make interesting yeah I question that it's a fuel

Bike handling fade late in races

Possibly a fueling issue but it just sounds more like a bike handling issue like yeah a huge chunk of carbohydrates that we take in get broken down as fuel for our brain so maybe if you're under fueled that's having an effect on your cognition but I would say it's more likly just a bike handling issue maybe it's a concentration issue but I think concentration and bike handling are kind of you know both on the same continuum I noticed this in mountain bike races last year it definitely wasn't a fueling issue it was a bike handling issue for me I could go on lap one of the mountain bike circuit and I was fine I could navigate my way through all the obstacles but as I got on to like whatever it was the seventh or eighth lap coming in towards the Finish obstacles that I was clear and no problem earlier in the race were starting to get really difficult and I was misjudging the space going through gaps and that was just I hadn't practiced bike handling at that level for that long before so it's just an exposure like graded adaptation thing you need to just do more reps of being focused and switched on for that amount of time you just maybe losing concentration yeah I mean I would go back to the the the fueling thing I know for myself many years ago in a different life of feels I used to play a lot of golf and like my front line would be fine my back KN would be absolutely horrendous because of that massive big dip in sugar and glucose and brain food that I would have once I started eating my focus just become so much better in the back nine and I really feel that this is probably something that Ryan maybe is missing out on if he's completely Gass and I've been that Soldier I'm in the red for most of our ride on Saturday and it's hard to eat and drink so because you're kind of thinking oh I can't you know even take my foot off the gas for a second to grab my bottle or get a gel or have you know a Munch so that probably is I think his biggest problem the other thing is just like try and catch yourself on try and just think am I focused here I'm I'm here sitting on the wheel am I just ball watching almost am I ju am I gone into a trance looking at the wheel in front of me and just think like Focus like be sharp so much wrong can happen and if you're getting mushing from people around you people are going to start saying to you like you know you're dangerous budy stay the back uh so this is something that you really really need to work on something that you absolutely need to focus on and take responsibility for your focus have your head on a swivel because everyone around you is in danger if you're completely switching off as well if you want to go out on your own go into La La Land go into dream world that's fine but absolutely not in a group so pull your socks up Ryan S I want to finish up with the my wosh session of the week we've had a lot of people starting to join us on the Tuesday night time trial which is roughly 16 kilm I know you're getting better week on week and this is a session you're going to be doing this week it's an old school session it's 2 by 20 minutes but so there's two different ways to raise your threshold you can work above your threshold and threshold is the kind of power you need for this TT effort so you can work above your threshold and pull your threshold up but that's quite taxing mentally if I give you a session on a Thursday night where you're doing 2 by 15 out of above your 20 minute power that's hard to do after a long day at the office so another way to increase your threshold is to work just below your Threshold at 88 to 91% of your threshold and this is called a sweet spot session one of my favorite sessions to do you can start prog this to doing longer intervals like 60 90 minutes at sweet spot but it's 88 to 91% of your threshold for 2 by 20 minutes and that's our My Wo session of a week and don't be fooled there's nothing sweet about this sweet spot it's an AB it's absolute hell but go enjoy Sarah thanks for joining us thank you very much so if you enjoyed this chat click up here and there's another conversation that I know you're going to love and

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why are pro cyclists switching to shorter cranks?+

Shorter cranks, typically 160mm, allow a more open hip angle at the top of the pedal stroke, reducing compression and improving power transfer at high cadences. Riders like Tom Pidcock have been spotted making the switch at winter training camps in Calpe. Anthony and Sarah cover the trend in this episode, explaining that many pros find the change improves comfort and aerodynamic position without sacrificing watts.

Do shorter cranks make you slower on a bike?+

No, shorter cranks do not make you slower and can actually improve performance for many riders. The reduction in leverage is offset by a cleaner hip angle, better aerodynamics, and the ability to sustain higher cadences with less muscular strain. The shift towards 160mm cranks among professional riders reflects growing evidence that the traditional 172.5mm standard was never optimal for most cyclists.

What is the worst cycling kit ever made?+

There have been several notorious offenders over the years, and Anthony and Sarah revisit one of the most infamous examples in this Rider Support episode. Poor colour choices, clashing sponsor logos, and outdated design trends are the most common culprits behind kits that have gone down in cycling history for the wrong reasons. The episode contrasts these with the best new 2024 pro team kit launches.

What did Patrick Lefevere say about Jake Paul and cycling marketing?+

Patrick Lefevere argued that professional cycling needs to market itself more like Jake Paul, leaning into personality-driven promotion to attract broader audiences. Anthony and Sarah push back on this in the episode, arguing that the real marketing problem sits with teams rather than riders. They make the case that agents should take a more active role in building rider brands so that athletes have a commercial identity that lasts beyond their racing career.

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