46.6 KM/HR FOR 6 HOURS | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

Ryan Collins broke eight WUCA/Guinness world records in 2024 across indoor and outdoor velodrome 6-hour events, averaging roughly 46.6 km/hr on the indoor track. He was told he'd never ride again after breaking six or seven bones in a 2017 car accident. Three tweaks made the records possible, and none of them required a pro team budget.

Key Takeaways

Everyone assumes you need a wind tunnel budget and a full-time coaching setup to break records. Collins did eight in a year without either. His arrow testing was a borrowed sensor, early-morning straight-line runs on empty roads, and hundreds of velodrome laps logging lap times. The fueling was two gels per hour, roughly 90-100 grams of carbs, with hydration kept completely separate from carbs. Each lap on the indoor velodrome averaged 16 seconds. A one-to-two second deviation from position changes or fatigue — that's how tight it is at that level.

The third thing was off-bike work. For years Collins trained 20-plus hours a week and nothing else. The past three or four years he added gym work, strength training for muscular adaptation beyond cycling, and yoga two to three times weekly. The performance transfer back onto the bike was real. It's like anything — the thing that limits you is rarely the thing you're already training. The arm cramping that hit at 4.5 hours into the six-hour record, forcing him out of position and costing seconds per lap, that's a strength and mobility problem as much as a cycling problem.

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