Coachinginterview

46.6 KM/HR FOR 6 HOURS | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

with Ryan Collins — Ultra cyclist holding multiple WUCA/Guinness world records, including the 6-hour indoor velodrome record (~277 km) and 6-hour outdoor velodrome record (259 km) set in 2024

42:41·7 April 2025

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RYAN COLLINS

Ultra cyclist holding multiple WUCA/Guinness world records, including the 6-hour indoor velodrome record (~277 km) and 6-hour outdoor velodrome record (259 km) set in 2024

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ryan Collins broke 8 WUCA/Guinness records in 2024 — including a 6-hour indoor velodrome record averaging ~46.6 km/h (~277 km), and a 6-hour outdoor velodrome record at 259 km. Doctors had told him he'd never ride again.
The 2017 accident: car pivoted at the last second on a two-lane road. He was 2 miles from home after a hero threshold session. 6-7 fractures, reconstructive surgery on upper body, ligaments gone, bones destroyed not just broken.
The Olympic-track-hopeful path ended a week before he was due to fly out and join the team. The reconstructive surgery happened on the dates he was meant to be racing for selection.
Doctor's "you'll never ride again" was the breaking point — but a small group of friends pushed him toward dreaming bigger as their own mental health crisis intersected with his.
The 3 tweaks that made the records possible (training, fueling, aerodynamic optimisation) didn't require pro team budget. The blueprint applies to time-crunched amateur record attempts as much as elite ones.

TOPICS

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.

Ryan Collins, an ultra cyclist based in the United States, broke eight WUCA/Guinness world records in 2024 including the six-hour outdoor velodrome record (259 km / ~43.2 km/hr) and the six-hour indoor velodrome record (~277 km, ~46.1–46.6 km/hr). Collins sustained six to seven bone fractures in a 2017 training ride collision and was advised by doctors he would never ride again. His six-hour record fueling protocol used two gels per hour at approximately 45-50 grams each, delivering roughly 90-100 grams of carbohydrate per hour, with hydration kept separate from carbohydrate intake. Indoor velodrome lap times averaged 16 seconds with deviations of one to two seconds attributed to positional adjustments and fatigue, particularly arm cramping that began at approximately 4.5 hours. Collins trained at over 20 hours per week and incorporated strength training, gym work for muscular adaptation, and yoga two to three times weekly as part of a holistic performance approach. He identified aerodynamic positioning informed by arrow sensor data, strategic fueling protocol design, and potential use of altitude venues such as Mexico City as the three primary levers for future record improvement.

If you want to understand the training side of this, the pro rider training episode breaks down what that volume actually looks like week to week. And if your power numbers have plateaued, the seven fixable VO2 max reasons episode is worth your time.

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.

EXPERT
Ryan Collins broke 8 WUCA and Guinness world records across 2024, including a 6-hour indoor velodrome record at approximately 277km (~46.6 km/h average) and a 6-hour outdoor velodrome record of 259km.
Source: Ryan Collins career record on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
ANECDOTE
Collins was identified as a US Olympic track cycling hopeful in 2017 and was due to fly out to join the team a week before the 2017 vehicular collision that ended his original Olympic trajectory and required full reconstructive upper-body surgery.
Source: Ryan Collins first-person account
ANECDOTE
The 2017 collision involved a car making a sudden pivot in his direction on a two-lane road during a recovery spin home from a hard threshold session — Collins sustained 6-7 fractures with bones "destroyed not just broken" and severed ligaments requiring replacement.
Source: Ryan Collins, on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
ANECDOTE
Collins's record-breaking performances in 2024 were achieved on conventional sponsor-supported equipment rather than pro-team-scale budgets — making the underlying training and fueling protocols structurally accessible to time-crunched amateur ultra-cyclists pursuing similar attempts.
Source: Ryan Collins resource description

KEY QUOTES

“I had full reconstructive surgery on my upper body I had bones that were not just broken but destroyed um liament gone or severed so they had be replaced and that surgery was the couple yeah was taking place when I was supposed to be flying out contesting for this Olympic bid.”
Ryan Collins — Ultra cyclist and 6-hour indoor velodrome WUCA world record holder (~46.6 km/hr)

“I remember sitting back in 2023 trying to figure out what the heck am I going to do and thinking back to just my friends and the promise that I made to them that I was going to go after these records and it came together and I thought well I guess this is the plan we're going to go after the Outdoor World Record why not.”
Ryan Collins — Ultra cyclist and 6-hour indoor velodrome WUCA world record holder (~46.6 km/hr)

“I always have a bicycle I will always ride and enjoy it and uh but what that competition will look like it's unknown at this time.”
Ryan Collins — Ultra cyclist and 6-hour indoor velodrome WUCA world record holder (~46.6 km/hr)

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT10 SECTIONS

Meet Ryan Collins, record-breaking ultra cyclist

Ro man welcome to the podcast today today I have the pleasure to introduce Ryan Collins to the podcast he is a world record-breaking Ultra cyclist one of the fastest Men actually scratched that the fastest man on the planet over six hours Ryan's story is one of extreme highs and devastating lows in today's episode we'll dive into the meticulous preparation and training that allowed him to break world records and redefine what's possible on two wheels but we'll also talk about the moment that changed everything an absolutely horrific car accident that nearly ended his career and his life how do you come back from something like that what does it take to rebuild not just physically but mentally and return stronger than ever welcome to the Rob man cycling podcast Ryan Collins Ryan Collins welcome to the RO my podcast oh thank you so much it's a pleasure to be here Ryan let's start with 29 M an hour for 6 hours I don't even know what the question is there why maybe it's been a crazy story why uh why not you know go all in it's like them guys like why' you climb the mountain cuz it's dare it's like it's not a very satisfying answer we're going to have to go a bit deeper than that what inspired it what inspired it so this was a wild Journey um and it started back years and years ago um so starting back 2017 I was identified as an Olympic hopeful and this would be for the track so all of a sudden my life completely changed I had my my goals in place I was going to be an Olympic hopeful like I was going to contest for the team and this is the biggest trajectory you why not go all in but then a week before I was to join the team I was involved in an accident I was out training and uh I was involved in a vehicular Collision that uh completely derailed and changed the outcome of my life you got hit by a car training on your bike training on my bike I was coming home from a training ride I just executed one of the best sessions it was a threshold session it was insanely hard one of those sessions where you start the day going I don't know if I want to do this I don't know if I can do this and then you execute and it was you you pushed like tooth and nail to get through it and you do it and that sense of satisfaction and accomplishment hits you and then you're two miles away from home you're recovering enjoying the nice Spin and then all of a sudden it's over um what happened I I was involved in this accident and uh I needed reconstructive surgery I was scraped off the ground um my bones sorry to interrupt uh even can you remember the accident like the specifics of what actually happened to you I just remember I was heading down the road I was in a time trial bars it was a two-lane road and for those who go on two-lane roads you know cars come at you all the time there's no like it just you're just used to it right um what you don't expect is for a car to Pivot at the last second and that's where it blacks out I just remember seeing a car coming at me a slight turn the next thing you know I hear screaming I'm on the ground and then I'm in the hospital that's the extent um I had full reconstructive surgery on my upper body I had bones that were not just broken but destroyed um liament gone or severed so they had be replaced and that surgery was the couple yeah was taking place when I was supposed to be flying out contesting for this Olympic bid how many balls did you break oh that's a good question I don't remember the specifics uh six seven uh yeah several fractures um and just so they're gone we had to replace them um so that was no joy but anyways that set set aside that was the whole track adventure Journey coming to an end uh a lot of things happened after that that's how I ultimately pursued Ultra cycling or longer distance training and and um competing um but during that Adventure I came across new friends who became my greatest supporters and they encouraged me to go after bigger things bigger opportunities new challenges and at the same time they too were facing and struggling with their own challenges with mental health and we casually were joking and they said you know you should go back and do something on the track you should try to do something insurmountable and ridiculous so what if you went after like an outdoor Vel Drome world record and somebody said well what about the indoor vrone records there's got to be something

Rebuilding after a life-changing crash

Like that you should try that too and a third friend said well while you're at it what if you went after the world championship and we joked because at that time it just seemed so impossible like a world record no come on you at this stage me like no that's not going to happen fast forward several years later I know I have more experience I'm back on a bike which the doctor said would never happen and I now have support from so many generous sponsors that I never thought never imagin would come my way but even rewinding from all that Ryan when you're because I definitely want to get in and unpack somebody these crazy records especially 2024 I think he broke like eight World Records or something across the year that's right but you're in the hospital bed you've all these broken bones like how do you find the strength and the motivation to rehab because I guess there's different standards of rehab like there's rehab to the point where you can work an office job again there's rehab to the point where you can maybe you know run a 5k and it has a marginal effect on your life and there's rehab where you can become essentially a Pro bike rider again and like that's a totally different standard of rehab how did you approach your Rehabilitation even from a mental perspective to give yourself like I suppose permission to dream to be fully able-bodied after a life-changing crash that's a that's a great question and I think there's not really a straight answer the the first moment was Doctor walks in you're never going to ride a bike again and I think I took that moment that felt like a lifetime and I just broke down like up to that point cycling was my life I had so many friends that were cyclists and we'd get together on the weekends we'd do group rides we would have indoor training sessions together like my Social Circle was cycling my friends were cycling I woke up every morning looking forward to the next race that I was going to compete in or knowing what training I had later that day and all a sudden that was gone so I took that moment that felt like forever and I just I broke down like what am I what's next what can I do like a loss of identity oh exactly like like who am I what am I going to do and then I thought to myself I have never just sat here and not challenged the status quo so they're telling me I'm never going to ride a bike again just watch me I'm going to do it just one more time doesn't matter if it's just 10 minutes 15 minutes I'm going to sit on that bike maybe zero Watts I just need to sit on that bike to start and so from there I well fast forward a few weeks months we get to um physical therapy I get I get to start physical therapy so my parents had to help me in and I said bring my bike and I said why are you going to bring your bike I said I'm going to show the doctor whoever is working with me whatever program they're going to prescribe for me is going to be unlike anything they've ever done before everything has to incorporate this bicycle and if it's just literally holding the bicycle to get arm strength back just leaning up against it or holding the seat that's fine we're just going to touch the bicycle and everything's going to be just a like marginal G the magic healing power of that's right that's right it's got to have you know everything's just got to touch the bike and um we went that was a specialized tarmac it was an S works sl5 I feel like it should have be like in Lords it should be a religious pilgrimage now for people to just go and touch the sl5 yeah right you got a cancer diagnosis go to ryan5 so that was just but that was it like everything was marginal from can I touch the top tube and it was actually it worked out so well cuz it's a sloping top tube so you start by the seat post it was lower touch that can I slowly move my arm up cuz I had at for the longest time my arms were in slings so trying to get my arm to stretch and raise up was hard but if I could slowly move it up against the top tube it increased the stretch now I'm at the top of the head tube can I touch the handlebar can I hold can I actively raise my arm up to hold the handlebar you know so like it's just the slow improvements it's similar to what they would have done anyway you know if I was on a table and moving

Rehab, legacy injuries, and longevity

My arm forward or back or against a wall it just involved my bike and it gave me that sense of purpose like I am moving towards this goal of being able to be on my bike so I'm going to involve the bike in everything that I do so here's a curveball that you probably wouldn't expected the interview to go down this direction but I've been chatting a lot with friends so I'm kind of at the end of my competitive cycling career you know I had my full-time years racing France US and Canada still have a cat one license but like I dip in and out you know might hit it hard for 6 weeks and come back and hit four or five races but I don't do like a big 25-hour week you know protocol like I used to and one of the reasons from stepping back from that protocol was I looked at my current training and then I looked at like my desired future self and I thought like if I just keep riding the bike 20 25 hours a week you know when I'm 50 when I'm 60 when I'm 70 I don't think it gets me the health outcomes I want I feel like I need to be doing you know more low intensity where I'm getting stuff way below LT1 I'm spend lots of time walking I know you can do that on the bike feel like I need to be getting Mobility flexibility balance especially strength work two to three times a week and what I've noticed since I stepped into this more balanced athlete is Legacy injuries that I have like I had a traffic Island in a race in France coming off the panes like 90k an hour broke scapula collar bone ribs had a crash in Detroit Racing for a stellis broke shoulder blades glenoid fossa again ribs and it's like at the time you rehab them and you get back to bike riding but the mobility and the strength you need to get back to bike riding isn't the same as the mobility and the strength you need to be able to squat your body weight to be able to two times deadlift your body weight and I've started seeing oh I wish I had have actually taken this rehab serious to a different level like I took it serious to the point that I could get back onto the bike but I ever took it serious to the point of I wonder if I wanted to be like a a hro athlete or a CrossFit athlete do I start having restrictions do you have have you had the same experience because I know you're pretty full gas on the bike at the moment do you let yourself think of what your desired future self is yeah that's a loaded question and actually that's a it's a great one CU it's one that I've been thinking of a lot recently and taking a step back to unpack different parts of that question for the most part my training for several years was Full gas bike everything was bike in the past 3 to four years we've taken a a a different approach and looking at the holistic approach to the athlete and Total Wellness longevity so not only are we full gas on the bike 20 plus hours a week but we're now looking at strength training so we're doing a lot of gym work a lot of muscular adaptation just beyond on cycling itself I'm not a cross athlete and I'm not going to start playing football anytime soon but it's more about that strength and like you said how can you be healthy and Powerful off the bike that stability that's going to help you with other things that help with future longevity and just Mobility yoga um I go to yoga with my girlfriend two to three times a week so we're looking at this holistic approach um to really make a better athlete I think the health outcomes that we've seen from those changes have transformed or transferred into cycling itself and while you might look at like the purest Sport and say cyclist should be this is going to be terribly Mis uh mispronounced but um should be lean and should be lightweight and we shouldn't be carrying extra muscle I know there's a whole another story to muscle and all that but bear with me on that one um yeah there might be some extra muscle that we're gaining that's not necessary for this sport but it helps with the Total Athlete and injury prevention and just overall wealth and that or health and well-being and I think that has been something that's been transformative for my for my training and performance yeah I guess it it really depends what we're optimizing for doesn't it like I get a chance to talk to World Tour guys all the time and some friends World Tour they're optimizing like make no

Training for health, not just performance

Mistake they're not optimizing for health they're optimizing for performance but we mimic what they do as amateur athletes even serious amateur athletes are around 20 25 hours a week we're not optimizing for performance we're optimizing for health if performance is a byproduct of that like amazing we get to win our local Cut One races we get to set some records but we're not paid High six figure seven figure contracts to optimize for performance cuz high performance comes at a cost it's not the healthiest thing is taking 140 grams of carbohydrates per hour for eight hours in Milan rainbow coming up is that going to be healthy for your good microbiome I don't think so right and so that it's that trade-off of what is right for you and we all have goals and I think that's where it's great where you can optimize for your goal and your challenge at hand um but that has been a big change that I've focused on from or over the past few years and then for what's next that's also a great question because I don't see myself competing at this level for the next 30 40 years so I think there what age you know I'm 30 look I've got a few more goals um that are left on my my radar and um once I accomplish those I think it's time to to dial back I always have a bicycle I will always ride and enjoy it and uh but what that competition will look like it's unknown at this time so when you sat down to map out I a coach years ago and I remember meeting them at the start of the year and he had this idea of a great exercise he said hey say we meet up a Christmas for a beer and you had the perfect season of your life what happen in that year that we looking back on they were chatting about going oh my God man can you believe how amazing that year was when you're looking at 2024 where you said eight World Records how did the planning process for that start that was insane so 2024 was probably the the best year I could have ever imagined um looking back the journey that we went through was absolutely incredible I remember sitting back in 2023 trying to figure out what the heck am I going to do and thinking back to just my friends and the promise that I made to them that I was going to go after these records and it came together and I thought well I guess this is the plan we're going to go after the Outdoor World Record why not out outdoor War oh vome outdoor velodrome record go after six hours six hours okay and I thought well if I go after six hours I'm probably going to check off the 100 km 100 mile and 200 km records at the same time I wonder if that's possible well but hey if I'm going after the outdoor record what if I also challenged the indoor record it'd be good prep right I mean all the training is going to be the same uh there might be some minor changes from outdoor to indoor but this would be a proof of concept if I can do the outdoor I can probably do the indoor but wait 6 hours and 6 hours there's also the ultra cycling 6- hour World Championship it's 6 hours it's basically the same thing and this would just tee us up three bigest events across the year and um why not just set up fkt the fastest no time across the Eastern United States it's good base training and it's going to precede all these six-hour events so why not and it's quite a specific time frame as well where it's it's not like you know carparts Bingham and Ghana have all gone for the six hour record so it's it's a stretch goal rather than just a total dream yeah and we thought about it we looked at some tests and there was a lot of things that needed to happen well in advance and this is where the strategy comes into play so we knew we had these three big events timing worked out almost perfectly we had September outdoor record if that was successful fantastic then we knew we were going all in in December for the indoor record and then we had the six-h hour World Championships which was in November so we had three events separated by roughly a month or so which gave us enough time enough time to recover adapt and then proceed forward if there were any changes we had to make 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

Aero testing with Rule 28

Tell you why Reap is the first company I've seen that isn't chasing sales targets and the mass Market they're chasing something very rare Perfection every bike they make it's crafted in the UK Factory and it's not not about slapping a maiden 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 rad 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 write a reap for yourself and you're writing something crafted with intent so if you're serious about cycling check them out it's reap bikes.com I absolutely love my own and I couldn't recommend it highly enough back to the show sorry let's I want even try and deconstruct you know the what the requirements are to break these records I'm guessing whats per kilogram not a super hot consideration for a flat record but you probably spent a lot of time figuring out CDA Arrow absolute power talk to me about that training Arrow journey in preparation for this year yeah so the training for that and the arrow part were were both huge um I very fortunate to partner with rule 28 so when I shared with them that I had these ambicious goals they were yeah and they're they're always on top of all the equipment finding the latest you know Tech and uh just testing everything relentlessly to find the fastest apparel and so Sam got in touch and said like we're here to support you let us know what you need so I shared with him the goals shared within the speeds and he said this is the fastest setup you could possibly have with your kit and we just went all on that so that was the first setup um different wind tunnel tests determine helmets positioning and from there that was mostly it um self-funded on wind tunnel everything self-funded yeah brutal that's hitting that's hitting the pocket hard yeah so also Sor let me take a step back so self-funded meaning so wind tunnel test I've never been in a one tunnel this has all been through self uh third parties so I've just been taking data from other companies saying these are the right helmets based on these Riders and I'm like well that position is very similar we're going to ride around the V drum and do some minor testing um but other than that testing has been all on my dime from getting like a noio from like a like a arrow sensor um trying to get that all tested how did you find those cuz I I have uh where is it at the moment I've one of these I haven't really started playing around with yet similar type thing gimly oh yeah I've been trying to get my hands on one of those oh yeah hit me up after I'll I'll hook you up an intro with the founder oh fantastic yeah so no show um just eBay just yeah trying trying to find stuff useful or did you need to I guess there needs to be a little bit of Bro Science to figure it out doesn't there there there is and there's a whole lot of Side Stories here that we could go down I am nowhere near a Vel Drome so getting to a Vel Drome is about a 2 and a half three hour drive and um the biggest challenge that I has when you're aot testing it needs to be more or less controlled right like so riding on an outdoor velodrome when you have massive winds you're not riding a straight line so even if you're just trying to count times on laps it's not helpful when you're getting blown off and deviating from your line every lap that made it hard and you can't ride a veler or a track bike on the open road um I don't have the roads to do that so testing outside has been hard so we tried to transfer everything from my time travel bike over to the track bike and so I would do Straight runs on the open road I would try to train 4 in the morning before any cars were on the road so I could just go straight for five minutes or so and then turn play around put the front brake onto the truck bike I can't do that on the factor bike different change out the fork no

Hacking CDA on a budget

Changing out the fork yeah change out to the TT Fork you know that's actually an interesting idea I don't know if we could do that I I'm got to say it work hit up R he'll fig yeah I haven't even consider that that's actually wild I used to do it I had back in University I went sure the same I was on the har track team and I was trying to figure out the whole arot testing thing and I two I time TR Bike by Planet X and track bike by Planet X changed up the fork put a front brake on and then got to do my track testing on open roads with the front bre that's actually very smart there you go you got to hack it when you're broke yeah no I just I just tried to run super early and I did hundreds of laps in Vel drum testing and testing and just said more or less these are the uh the conclusions we can draw from these runs and how low did you get your CDA what's your race C when you get into it uh you know that's also a great question I don't I don't feel comfortable giving an answer because I don't know how accurate it is so when I was testing it was more or less from the change in the absolute number not the number itself so I don't know how accurate that number is so you likely still have some gains to make if you jumped into the wind tunnel with some of the you know Simon smart the big wind tunnel gurus of the sport I think there's a lot that I gave up and when you got into like looking back to the indoor vrum record each lap was like 16 seconds around the vrum so we knew on an average a 16-second lap was normal but then there were some laps that were 15 some were 14 some were 17 or 18 and you're thinking okay what's the deviation in two seconds what happened did I lift my head up um did I deviate from the line two seconds is huge cuz I remember ride in Pursuit and if you go from like a 152 to a 153 like you know you've gone from a 152 to a 153 like it sounds crazy for anyone that hasn't written track that you could tell the difference between point one of a second but you really can tell the difference if you're a track Rider in 0 one of a second going around and then the momentum goes against you like once that fixed gear starts slowing down so like how do you have such wild deviations of a second on it so I thinking back there were times where I just my arm started to cramp up it was like four and a half hours in I'm like I need to come out of this position I cannot I cannot so getting into I guess it's the pursuit position when you're on the bars and just trying to stand up briefly when you're going 30 m hour 29 miles an hour and all of a sudden you just stand up and stop loss and power you got more resistance against you and you I felt it immediately went I can't do this again I am slowing down yeah and so it's hard to get back up to speed is the problem yes you're you're turning this massive gear and then like you can't just Coast like you're trying to pedal and you're effectively slowing yourself down uh so that was hard I chat to Alex Dela and we kind of deconstructed his error record and he paced it slightly wrong last 10 15 minutes he really locked up and he's saying like there's no loner place in the world than on the a big gear on the track when you start to tie up did you have that experience oh yeah that was a hard day I remember I was about two hours in and I just thought to myself this is hurting and I wish this didn't Hur I wish this doesn't hurt right now like if this is how I felt at 5 hours and 50 minutes fine I'd be okay but I've got another four hours to go are you kidding me and then it just kind of time Drew on but then you got to that last 10 minutes and you went oh God this is awful and if you're on the open road I think that's different because there's different scenery you can kind of slightly take your mind off of the action on hand I've been going around that Vel drone for hours it's the same line that I've been staring at and 10 minutes felt like hours it felt like days and there was nothing you could do I mean actually there was you could just stop like there was nothing telling me that I couldn't

Fueling and hydration on the velodrome

Stop like I could get off at any moment but why why would I do that I'm going after this record I'm going to push myself to the absolute limit and it was just so isolating just there's you just need to go at this point go what's the rules around feeding on the vrum are you allow take hand UPS yes you can take hand UPS um the challenge that I had was I there was no once I had a bottle in my hand I had to just eject it and my fear was if I had a bottle and I missed what would happen to the water what would happen to the liquid would the liquid go on the vome would it become slick um once I discarded the bottle would that land somewhere and also get it slick which could be a problem um so I I had people on the floor on the apron and they were cheering me on um but yeah that was the uh the concern with taking hand UPS and you're fueling primarily gels primarily gels I had two gels an hour um so I had about yeah it was about a 50 and a 45 gam or a 45 and a 45 uh gram gel every 30ish minutes did you have a strategy for staying Arrow while you're were taking them or did you just need to take the aerodynamic penalty there was a slight penalty and that's where you get that marginal change around the track um but I just had it stuffed in my chest so if I needed it I could just pull it out I tried to stay as Arrow as I could um just one hand in rip the tip squeeze it and just discard it so try to do as minimal movement as possible but there was still a penalty associated with it because your head's not down you're not tucked and it because it's got I assume it's a UCI record so you're not allowed do anything funny with a hydration pack on the front to close off that area which is a huge benefit yeah we could have a hydration pack did you do it in the front yeah so I had it tucked in the front I was able to carry some water with me um but also just getting that tube up we tried to get it angled so I wouldn't have to move my head too much U but that was also another challenge because inevitably you have either a tube it's got to tuck away or it sticks out and so there was just from the studies that we read There was always some sort of penalty um even if you just tucked it away just the movement of your hand back into the suit was a minor fraction that's hard isn't it there's always something it's kind of interesting like we were successful there's no doubt about that but there's still opportunity you know there's still stuff if we went to the wind tunnel if I had that support to get there like there was more we possibly could do to make this faster if you redone the whole thing for 2025 what's the big changes you'd make if I redid the thing so I think from that perspective it would come down to we I think we found some positional changes immediately we got off the bike and we said oh if we had done that that would have been some minor improvements um so position would have been one thing um the fueling leading up to it would have been another uh location would that actually location would probably be the top pick um would you go to altitude yes Mexico City asali yep we had a connection to get there and at the last minute things fell through and since this was all self-funded it was more convenient to get to uh to California and Carson um but if we were to do this again it would definitely be in AUST cantes how' you go about making the calcul if you're going to be faster despite the obviously the air is thinner so you're getting through a little bit faster altitude but you're getting less oxygen into the working muscles how do you go about making that calculation isn't that an interesting thought so less less oxygen but mainly this is an aerobic effort so at this point if you're working at an aerobic effort you have an increase in your heart rate because there's less oxygen but it's effectively just an increase in heart rate so it's not like you're going into the red in order to maintain an aerobic effort so if we trained it wouldn't be that much of a difference to maintain this effort compared to an our record where if you're at your limit that's where you're going to see um more of a difference more of an impact to your performance I wonder does it change fueling as

Heat, carbs, and gut absorption

Well so fueling that would also be yes because with the I would agree I think that would be an impact with higher trying to think about this higher heart rate higher blood flow less was that less blood flow to your gut so less digestibility so how would that change um that's interesting I'd have to look at that one it's probably quite individual as well I would imagine like how much less blood flow to your G so you're going to be able to utilize the carbohydrates less effectively yes but how much less effectively so how much extra carbohydrates you need put in or at a point can you just backlog it then can you backlog the whole system where you're putting in too many carbohydrates utilizing too small of a percentage so that's what we did we actually tried all three of those strategies for um my different world record attempts um so how I fueled for the outdoor vrum was completely different from the indoor vrum and thinking back to what we were talking about for Mexico I think I would pursue something similar to what I did with the higher heat uh it would be more of hydration straight hydration separate from carbs higher carb low doses every 30 minutes low carb High electrolyte composition for fluids and um try to reduce the strain from uh dumping carbs again it's highly individual but I think that's what would work best for me yeah it's a fascinating little science experiment and then I think you can start adding in like the tech is getting so much better like than when I was taking Racin super serious parameter yeah like it was in and everyone was using parameters but in the last couple of years is see like core temperature sensors now were're looking at sweat analysis like this is just like a new frontier that's starting to open up even like whoop and heart rate variability had Jeremy perers uh come over and see in the studio we a really interesting talk about whoop and when you start connecting whoop data to your training Peaks and paring huge amounts of data like if you look at your your last 10 times you've hit significant powers like you know maybe top five 10 minute poers top five five minute poers what's your heart rate variability pattern in the days and weeks leading up to that and can you start to Pull A Part patterns that by maybe ding back your training 10% and arriving at a slightly lower CTL to your event you're actually more powerful just stuff that isn't common sense with our normal coaching practices yeah have you spoken with I believe her name is Kristen Holmes so she's the uh the director of whoop and U I think it's human performance at whoop um trying and get a hook up yeah she we can uh after this we'll we'll get you introducted or introduced um but she's got a wealth of knowledge so she's worked with different sport teams and she's done all these tests that are just I don't want to say unconventional but there's so much that you can do with this data that has been unexplored and she's been a Pioneer to say well what if and she's been working with these Elite teams parsing out the data try to say what conclusions can we draw from these different studies and how can we apply this in different ways that's just transformative to sport because there's so much out there like you said and um for the most part it's all exploratory for me if you know I try something and I go oh this seemed to have worked let's try it again and again and again um until that concrete data comes out and then it becomes truly public it's trying to explore and find what's that next game like what what is there that we can change and modify to draw some sort of optimization do you know who graem auy is yes like graem auy is brilliant over this part of the world and famed for his tinkering with bikes and taking ceramic bearings out of his washing machine and putting them into his bottom bracket on his wheels and just mad scientist stuff but I really feel we're on the brink of being able to do more mad science like whether it's you know Dan Bingham working with the Danish team Pursuit team and having them wrap kinesio tape all up their shins a few years ago like we're getting really good and affordable like consumer products like whether Aro products or to home test sweat products heat sensor products I think there's going to be a next generation of mad scientist ories and I don't know if you're not leading that wave I'm trying to I'm not trying to lead but just trying to learn more I mean that's my passion Human Performance I just love learning more about myself I mean I'm super excited

Sweat testing kits explained

I'm going home next week and I've got three different test or sweat tests kits that I'm going to try and trying to get down to the whole change and sweat rate and sweat composition that's going to be the biggest factor for me in my performance this year what sweat kits are you using so there's one called NYX so it's a bio sensor you stick right on your arm as you sweat in real time it'll tell you your sweat loss and your electrolyte composition um there's another one called levelin uh levelin is more of a lab test so you'll have um I'm trying to remember I think it's there's a patch you put on your arm this one is more difficult to use in my opinion um you have to work out for an hour um you either consume liquids as you choose or you don't um but then you have to weigh yourself before and after and so that tells you your sweat loss once you're done with your workout hopefully it's a consistent like race Pace one hour you take off this patch you stick it in a test tube and you mail it off to a lab and they diagnose it and they email you your results and you say this is the electrolyte composition that you lost within that that hour okay that's more specific yes well so you would hope it's at a constant temperature that's similar to race paace hopefully you've been accurate enough with your power your your execution so that is race Pace but there's a lot of variability between what is your sweat rate you know if you're just starting on a bike can you jump in at threshold for an hour probably not so there's going to be some change but I guess that's where the Theory comes in with sweat rate right so like your rate is variable but the composition is more or less consistent at least that's what I've been researching so yeah I haven't played around with it too much actually I must hook up I think there's one uh Chona based flow bio I think unless I butchered the name I'm going to try and book him on the podcast to try understand a bit more because I haven't played around with it too much yeah but if there's people like that uh you would like to pick their brain but you can't quite get access to them uh let me know and we can see if I can hook up a a chat and you can sneak me a few questions on the table for them yeah that'd be fantastic thank you like some of them are cool like like Dan Bingham and stuff last year was really interesting and yeah I'm sure Josh partner been out to your part of the world uh was interesting for you as well he's well see Dan is someone I've always idolized Dan I think he's incredible and just the things that he's done he's like the one cyclist that if I could um I would love to just spend an hour with him go on a bike ride and just pick his brain on everything yeah he's he's come out with some pretty wild like even his his shop was up is yeah they're pushing the boundary and the is the vortex cranks with the reduced Q factor on them or it's just interest and so I've been working with watch shop and they've been a huge supporter of my record attempts and just my ambition for the past few years I'm tremendously grateful for all their support have you used those cranks with the the Q factor cranks no not yet um but just reaching out to them with questions on aerodynamics and then of course the the extensions that they have um yeah there's a lot of science going on there yeah it's pretty cool and it and it's dripping into gravel as well now is the thing have you got any interest in that gravel's always interesting for me I would love to try and get into gravel the challenge that I have is there's no gravel near me and I am always on the road between traveling from Maryland New Jersey New York West Virginia wherever it may be I basically live out of my car and I can only carry one bike so I have my road bike and or time trial bike and at least I can ride that on the trainer uh inside um I don't want to take that on the gravel road Roan whether you're a weekend warrior or a world tour Rider the right tools can make all the difference enter 4 eyes Precision 3 plus power meter the latest Innovation from 4i designed to help you reach Peak Performance the Precision 3 plus param 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

Wider tires, efficiency, and 2025 plans

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the 6 hour track cycling world record speed?+

Ryan Collins holds the 6-hour track cycling world record at an average speed of roughly 46.6 km/hr on an indoor velodrome. He set the record in 2024 (WUCA, also ratified as a Guinness World Record).

How do you train for a 6 hour cycling time trial?+

Ryan Collins credits three specific preparation tweaks for making his 6-hour record ride sustainable, including sponsor-backed structured training and a highly periodised build. The focus is on pacing strategy, fuelling consistency, and accumulated aerobic volume rather than short high-intensity blocks alone.

How did Ryan Collins recover from a serious cycling accident?+

Ryan Collins was hit by a vehicle in 2017, one week before an Olympic team bid, shattering multiple bones. Doctors told him he would never ride again, but he integrated his bicycle directly into early physical therapy and rebuilt his athletic identity through ultra-distance goals, eventually claiming eight world records in 2024.

How many world records has Ryan Collins broken in cycling?+

Ryan Collins broke eight WUCA/Guinness world records in 2024 alone, specialising in ultra-distance track cycling events across indoor and outdoor velodromes, with his most prominent title being the 6-hour indoor velodrome record at roughly 46.6 km/hr.

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