THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO CYCLING COACHING

Bealach Mor Training Guide: Scotland's Most Spectacular Sportive and Britain's Highest Road

One hundred and forty kilometres through the Scottish Highlands. Bealach na Ba — Britain's highest paved road — with gradients that touch 20 per cent and hairpin bends carved into the mountainside. Three hundred riders. No mobile signal. And scenery so extraordinary that you will stop pedalling just to look.

Why Your Bike Fit Is Never Finished — The Iterative Process Most Riders Miss

A bike fit is not a one-time event. Your body changes, your flexibility shifts, and the position that worked last year might be hurting you now. Here is the review cycle that keeps your fit current.

Blood Lactate Testing for Cyclists: The Practical Guide

FTP gives you one number. A lactate test gives you two thresholds, a curve, and a map of exactly where your aerobic and anaerobic systems hand off to each other. Once you have that map, every training zone you set is based on physiology rather than arithmetic.

How Breakaways Work: Racing Tactics for Amateur Cyclists Who Want to Race Smart

The breakaway is not about who has the biggest engine. It is about who reads the race, picks the right moment, and manages their energy while everyone else panics behind.

Community18 min read

Bunch Riding Skills for the Nervous Rider: How to Hold a Wheel, Read the Group, and Stop Being Terrified

You're not scared of cycling. You're scared of the wheel six inches from your front tyre. That's a different problem, and it's fixable.

Cycling Cadence: The Science of Finding Your Optimal RPM

Everyone has an opinion on the right cadence. Most of them are wrong — including the one you picked up from a magazine in 2014 and never questioned since.

Seated vs Standing Climbing: When to Sit, When to Stand, and Why Most Cyclists Get It Wrong

Standing burns matches. Sitting saves them. But knowing when to switch — and why — is the difference between cresting a climb with legs to spare and blowing up two-thirds of the way up.

Coming Back to Cycling After Months or Years Away: The Honest Guide

The bike has been in the garage so long it has become furniture. The legs remember what they used to do. The lungs have a different opinion. This is the honest guide to coming back.

Critical Power and W': The Model That Explains What FTP Cannot

FTP tells you where your engine sits at threshold. Critical power and W' tell you how hard you can go above it, for how long, and exactly when you are about to blow up.

Cycling Data Analysis: Making Sense of Your Numbers Without Losing Your Mind

Your head unit records 40 data fields. Your training platform adds 30 more. Your watch contributes another 15. Somewhere in that avalanche is the handful of numbers that actually tell you whether you are getting fitter — and the rest are just noise with a nice graph.

Data Overload: Which Cycling Metrics Actually Matter (And Which Are Noise)

Your head unit can display 40 different data fields. Your training platform tracks another 30. Your watch adds 15 more. Somewhere in that avalanche of numbers are the five that actually tell you whether you are getting fitter — and the rest are noise dressed up as information.

Community19 min read

Descending Faster and Safer: The Complete Guide to Confidence, Speed, and Technique on a Road Bike

You earned every metre of that climb. Then you white-knuckled the descent and gave it all back. Body position, braking, vision, bike fit, and the mental game — broken down so you can finally ride downhill like you trained for it.

E-Bikes for Training: How to Use Pedal Assist Without Undermining Your Fitness

The fastest-growing segment in cycling is also the most misunderstood training tool. Used well, an e-bike solves problems that willpower alone cannot.

The Three Energy Systems Explained for Cyclists: Why Your Training Works (or Doesn't)

Every pedal stroke draws from three energy systems working simultaneously. Understanding which one is doing the heavy lifting — and when — is the difference between training with purpose and just riding.

Exercise-Induced Asthma in Cyclists: Recognising, Managing, and Training Through Bronchoconstriction

That tightness in your chest five minutes into a hard effort might not be poor fitness. Up to one in four endurance athletes has exercise-induced bronchoconstriction — and most have never been diagnosed.

Building Fatigue Resistance: How to Stay Strong When Everyone Else Fades

Three hours in, the road kicks up, and you have got nothing. Your legs felt fine at hour one. Your FTP has not changed. But your ability to access it has collapsed. That gap between fresh power and fatigued power is the most trainable weakness in amateur cycling.

Community19 min read

Fitting Cycling Training Around Work and Family: A Practical Guide for Busy Riders

You have a job, a family, and maybe eight hours a week if the stars align. Here is how to stop pretending you are a full-time athlete and start training like the time-crunched rider you actually are.

How to Set Up Your Cycling Head Unit Data Screens for Every Ride Type

Most cyclists run one data screen with eight fields and never change it. That screen is lying to you on at least three of those rides.

Heart Rate Training Zones for Cyclists: How to Set Them, Use Them, and Stop Getting Them Wrong

Most cyclists set their heart rate zones once, using a formula they found online, and never touch them again. That is why most cyclists train in the wrong zones.

Heat Acclimation for Cyclists: The Practical Protocol for Hot-Weather Events

You have trained all winter in 8°C drizzle. The event is in Mallorca in July. Your engine is ready but your cooling system is not. Heat acclimation fixes that — and it takes less time than you think.

Community22 min read

How to Read a Road Race: The Pattern Recognition That Separates Experienced Racers from Everyone Else

The fittest rider in the bunch does not always win. The rider who sees what is happening — who reads the race before it unfolds — finishes higher than their power numbers say they should.

Community19 min read

How to Ride in a Pace Line: The Practical Skills Nobody Teaches You on the Club Run

You can understand the aerodynamics of drafting perfectly and still be terrible in a pace line. The skill is not physics. It is rhythm, communication, and knowing when to pull through and when to sit on without shame.

Intervals.icu: The Free Training Platform Most Cyclists Are Sleeping On

You are sitting on months of training data. Power files, heart rate traces, ride after ride after ride. And most of it is doing nothing except filling up your Garmin Connect dashboard. Intervals.icu turns that dead data into decisions you can actually act on — and it costs nothing.

Mental Strength for Racing: What to Do When Your Brain Says Stop

Fitness gets you to the start line. What happens between your ears decides where you finish.

Negative Splitting in Cycling: Why Starting Slow Makes You Faster

Every sportive you have ever ridden, the fast group left you behind in the first hour and you caught most of them by the final feed station. That is not luck. That is physics, physiology, and the most underrated skill in amateur cycling.

5 One-Hour Cycling Sessions That Deliver More Than Most Two-Hour Rides

You have got 60 minutes. That is not a limitation — it is a design constraint. Here are five sessions that deliver disproportionate returns in the time most people spend scrolling before a ride.

Pacing by Feel: The RPE Guide for Cyclists Without a Power Meter

The cycling internet will have you believe that training without a power meter is like driving blind. It is not. The best riders in the world still rely on feel for the hardest decisions in a race. Here is how to build that skill properly.

Pedalling Efficiency: The Drills That Make Every Watt Count

You have spent months building fitness. You have the FTP, the endurance, the intervals in your legs. But if your pedalling technique is leaking watts at the top and bottom of every stroke, you are working harder than you need to for the speed you are producing.

Polarised vs Pyramidal Training: Which Model Actually Works for Amateur Cyclists?

The internet has turned training distribution into a religious war. Polarised versus pyramidal versus threshold-heavy — here is what the research actually shows when you strip out the tribalism.

Progressive Overload for Cycling: How to Build Fitness Without Breaking Down

You know you need to do more to get faster. But the order you add that stress matters more than the stress itself — and most training plans get the sequence backwards.

Race-Day Anxiety: A Practical Toolkit for Cyclists Who Want to Perform Under Pressure

Your body is not broken. It is preparing. The sweating palms, the racing heart, the third trip to the portaloo — all of it is your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do before a high-stakes effort. The question is whether you have a plan for working with that response or whether you are going to let it run the first 10 minutes of your race.

Rider Phenotype: Understanding Your Strengths and How to Train Around Them

Every cyclist has a signature. A shape to their power curve that says more about who they are on the bike than any single number ever will. The question is whether you are training with that shape or against it.

Riding in Wind: Aerodynamic Strategy, Pacing by Power, and the Mental Game of Headwinds

The fittest rider in the group is not always the one who handles wind best. The smartest one is. And smart, in this context, is entirely learnable.

Sprint Training for Amateur Cyclists: How to Build Race-Winning Power Without a Velodrome

You do not need a track, a lead-out train, or a 1,600-watt peak to sprint well. You need neuromuscular sharpness, the right gear at the right moment, and the confidence to go when it matters.

Structured vs Unstructured Training: When the Plan Should Bend

You bought a training plan. You followed it for six weeks. Then on a Thursday evening the sun came out, a mate texted, and you went for a two-hour café spin instead of your scheduled sweet spot intervals. You felt guilty about it. You should not have.

Threshold Intervals for Cycling: The Sessions That Move Your FTP (And the Mistakes That Stall It)

Threshold work is the most direct route to a higher FTP — but only if you dose it right. Here's where it gets really interesting: most riders do the right session at the wrong intensity, the wrong frequency, or both. This guide covers session structures, progression, and the mistakes that turn a sharp tool into a blunt one.

The Time-Crunched Cyclist's Training Guide: How to Get Faster on Five to Seven Hours a Week

Most training plans are written for riders with 10-15 hours a week. Most of us have 5-7. The answer is not to cram a big plan into a small life — it is to build a plan that fits the hours you actually have and makes every one of them count.

Getting Started in Time Trialling: The No-Nonsense Beginner's Guide

Time trialling is the most honest discipline in cycling. No drafting, no tactics, no excuses. Just you, the road, and the clock. And you don't need a TT bike to start.

Community23 min read

Track Cycling for Road Riders: Why the Velodrome Makes You Faster on the Road

Cavendish, Wiggins, Thomas, Hayter — the common thread is not genetics or geography. They all came through the track. And the skills they built there show up every time they pin on a road number.

Training by Feel: How to Ride Without Data and Still Get Faster

Your head unit tells you how hard you are working. Your body already knows. The riders who get the most from their training are the ones who can read both — and know when to trust their legs over the screen.

Cycling Training Camps: How to Make a Week of Riding Count as Real Training

A training camp is not a holiday with a bike. It is a compressed training block that can deliver three weeks of adaptation in seven days — or bury you so deep that you spend a month recovering from it. The difference is structure.

Why Consistency Beats Intensity: The Case for Showing Up

You have not missed fitness because you did not go hard enough. You have missed fitness because you did not go often enough. The compound effect of showing up — even when the session is not spectacular — is the single most underrated variable in amateur cycling.

What to Record in a Training Diary — And How to Actually Use It

Most training diaries are graveyards of unused data. The difference between a diary that sits there and one that makes you faster is not what you record — it is what you do with it afterwards.

How to Keep a Training Log That Actually Makes You Faster

Your head unit records every watt, every heartbeat, every metre of elevation. TrainingPeaks draws the charts. Strava gives you the kudos. But none of them capture the one thing that explains why Tuesday's intervals felt awful and Thursday's felt brilliant.

Training Plateaus in Cycling: A Systematic Framework for Finding What's Actually Stuck

You're doing the work. The numbers aren't moving. Before you add more intervals, find out what's actually stuck.

Training Effectively with Heart Rate Only: The No-Power-Meter Guide for Cyclists

A power meter is useful. It is not essential. Millions of riders got fast before power meters existed, and the heart rate monitor on your wrist is more capable than you think.

The Cyclist's Warm-Up and Cool-Down: What Actually Works and What's a Waste of Time

Most cyclists either skip the warm-up entirely or spend twenty minutes doing something that makes no measurable difference. The research is surprisingly clear on what actually moves the needle.

Raising Your Watt Floor: Why Your Easy Pace Matters More Than Your FTP

Everyone obsesses over FTP. The number at the top of the range. But the riders who win races and survive sportives are the ones who raised the floor, not the ceiling. Here's why your easy pace might be the most important number on your bike computer.

What Professional Cyclists Do Differently — And What Actually Applies to You

You have watched the same training videos, read the same studies, and followed the same coaches on social media. The difference between a professional cyclist and you is not information. It is application.

Community20 min read

Why Training Alone Stops Working: The Blind Spots Every Self-Coached Cyclist Develops

You have done everything right. Structured plan, consistent hours, decent numbers. And yet the progress has quietly stopped. The problem is not effort. The problem is that you cannot see yourself clearly.

Working with a Cycling Coach: How to Get the Most from the Relationship

Hiring a coach is the easy part. The riders who get results are the ones who learn how to be coached — and that is a skill most people never think about.

Zone 2 Training: How to Actually Do It Properly

You know zone 2 matters. You have read the articles, listened to the podcasts, nodded along to the science. And then you went out and rode it 15 watts too hard for two hours because it felt too easy. This is the execution guide.

Zone 5 and VO2max Intervals: When to Use Them, How to Dose Them, and What to Expect

Zone 5 is where the ceiling lives. Every watt of FTP, every second on a climb, every race result you care about is ultimately constrained by the aerobic capacity sitting above it. But Zone 5 is also where most cyclists get the dose wrong — too much, too soon, too often, or at the wrong time of year.

Cyclotour du Léman Training Guide: 180km Around the Most Beautiful Lake in Europe

180 kilometres around Lake Geneva through Switzerland and France, with the Alps as a backdrop on one side and the Jura on the other. The Cyclotour du Léman is not about climbing. It is about distance, discipline, and the ability to keep turning the pedals over when the kilometres stop being scenic and start being honest.

Dartmoor Classic Training Guide: 107 Miles of Devon's Most Honest Cycling

107 miles through Dartmoor with 2,400 metres of climbing distributed across dozens of short, savage Devon hills that never let you rest. The Dartmoor Classic does not have a signature climb. It has fifty of them, each one steeper and narrower than the internet prepared you for.

Etape du Dales Training Guide: England's Hardest Sportive Through the Yorkshire Dales

One hundred and eighty kilometres. Four thousand metres of climbing. Park Rash at 25 per cent. Fleet Moss at altitude. And not a single flat kilometre to recover on. The Etape du Dales is not a sportive that rewards steady-state fitness alone — it demands the ability to punch above threshold on short, vicious climbs and recover before the next one arrives.

Giro delle Dolomiti Training Guide: How to Prepare for Six Stages Through the Dolomites

Six stages through the Dolomites in seven days. The Giro delle Dolomiti is not a single event — it is a week of accumulated climbing where the rider who recovers best between stages finishes strongest on the final day.

GranFondo Strade Bianche Training Guide: Tuscany's White Roads on Two Wheels

One hundred and thirty kilometres through Tuscan vineyards, Crete Senesi clay hills, and the legendary strade bianche — hard-packed white gravel that turns every tyre choice and bike-handling decision into a conversation with the terrain.

Haute Route Pyrenees Training Guide: How to Prepare for Seven Stages Across the Pyrenees

Seven stages from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. 800 kilometres and 20,000 metres of climbing across the steepest mountain range in European cycling. The Haute Route Pyrenees rewards the rider who can absorb punishment on day three and still produce power on day seven.

London to Brighton Training Guide: Your First Charity Ride and the Truth About Ditchling Beacon

Fifty-four miles from Clapham Common to Brighton seafront, ten thousand riders, one hill that everyone talks about, and the quiet realisation at mile 40 that you are going to do something you were not entirely sure you could.

Medio Fondo delle Dolomiti Training Guide: Your First Proper Dolomites Day

106 kilometres through the Dolomites with 3,000 metres of climbing across Passo Pordoi, Sella, Gardena, and Campolongo. This is the route that turns a strong club rider into a mountain cyclist.

Sportful Dolomiti Race Training Guide: 200km and 5,000m Through Italy's Toughest Gran Fondo

200 kilometres, 5,000 metres of climbing, and Passo Manghen — 18 kilometres at 7.5 percent average with ramps to 12 that arrive when your legs have already been working for five hours. The Sportful Dolomiti Race does not pretend to be anything other than what it is: one of the hardest single-day cycling events in Italy.

Cingles du Mont Ventoux Training Guide: How to Climb Ventoux Three Times in One Day

Three ascents of Mont Ventoux in a single day. Bédoin, Malaucène, and Sault — 4,500 metres of climbing through Provence heat, Mistral wind, and the famous moonscape above the treeline. The Cingles is the day that separates the rider who can climb from the rider who can climb tired.

Tour des Stations Training Guide: 267km, 8,000m of Climbing, and One of the Hardest Days on a Bike

Two hundred and sixty-seven kilometres. Eight thousand metres of climbing. Seventeen hours on the bike. The Tour des Stations is not a sportive — it is an endurance test that asks whether you can climb more vertical metres in a single day than most riders accumulate in a month. The start line is at 4am. The finish, if everything goes right, is before the sun sets.

Tour of Cambridgeshire Training Guide: How to Prepare for the UK's UCI Gran Fondo Qualifier

128 kilometres of closed Fenland roads with 300 metres of climbing and 30 kilometres of crosswind. The Tour of Cambridgeshire looks flat on paper and rides like a time trial in a hurricane. This is the event where echelon skills matter more than FTP.

TransAlp Training Guide: How to Prepare for Seven Days Racing Across the Alps

Seven days. Three countries. 700 kilometres and 17,000 metres of climbing from Bavaria to Lake Garda in teams of two. The TransAlp is the event that tests your legs and your partnership in equal measure — the strongest rider means nothing if the team cannot finish together.

New Forest 100 Training Guide: Your First Century Through England's Most Beautiful National Park

100 miles through ancient woodland, open heathland, and the quiet lanes of the New Forest. No mountain passes. No 15 percent ramps. Just the honest question that every cyclist eventually wants to answer: can you ride a hundred miles in one day?

Bike Position and Aerodynamics: The Practical Guide to Free Speed

Most of the speed you're leaving on the road costs nothing. Position changes, clothing swaps, and a smarter helmet choice can save 15-25 watts before you spend a penny on equipment. This is the practical guide to claiming those watts.

Cadence Training for Cyclists: Drills, Neuromuscular Efficiency, and When to Spin vs Grind

Most cyclists have a cadence. Few have trained it. The difference between self-selecting 82 rpm out of habit and choosing 92 rpm because your neuromuscular system can handle it efficiently is the difference between fighting the pedals and flowing with them.

Criterium Racing for Amateur Cyclists: Cornering, Positioning, and Race-Day Tactics

Criteriums are the most violent hour in amateur cycling. Short circuits, tight corners, constant surges — and the strongest rider rarely wins. This is how to race one without crashing, burning all your matches in the first ten minutes, or finishing mid-pack wondering what happened.

How Cycling Performance Changes with Age: The Data, the Decline, and What You Still Control

The performance decline with age is real, measurable, and smaller than most cyclists fear. Here is what the published research actually says — the rates, the benchmarks at every decade, and the specific things masters riders still control.

Cycling After a Break: The Complete Comeback Guide

You used to ride. Then life happened. Now the bike is calling again and the first ride just told you everything you feared — the legs, the lungs, the watts are all somewhere else. This is the complete guide to getting them back without wrecking yourself in the process.

Heart Rate Monitor for Cycling: The Complete Guide to Training With HR

A heart rate monitor is the oldest piece of training technology in cycling and still one of the most useful. This is the complete guide to using HR properly — when it tells you more than power, when it lies, and how to combine both.

Racing and Riding in the Heat: Performance, Safety, and Surviving Southern European Sportives

Your body becomes a different machine above 30°C. Cardiac drift accelerates, glycogen burns faster, and RPE lies to you. This is the performance and safety guide for riding and racing in the heat — what happens physiologically, how to manage it on the day, and when to pull the plug.

Cycling Lactate: What It Actually Does (And Why Everything You've Been Told Is Wrong)

You've spent years blaming lactic acid for your burning legs. Here's the thing nobody tells you: lactic acid doesn't even exist in your body. And the molecule that does exist — lactate — is one of your most important fuels.

Mental Fatigue and Brain Endurance Training: The Performance Limiter Nobody Talks About

You are three hours into a five-hour sportive. Your legs are fine. Your fuelling is on point. Your power numbers say you have plenty left. And yet the effort feels enormous — every pedal stroke requires a decision to keep going. That is not physical fatigue. That is your brain quitting before your body needs to.

Pedal Stroke Efficiency: What the Research Actually Shows About How You Pedal

You have been told to scrape mud off your shoe, pull up on the pedals, and make perfect circles. The research from the last two decades says most of that advice is wrong — and the things that actually matter about your pedal stroke are not the ones most cyclists focus on.

Race-Day Nerves: The Science of Pre-Race Anxiety and How to Make It Work for You

Your heart rate is 20 beats above normal and you have not even clipped in yet. Your hands are clammy, your stomach is doing things it should not be doing, and the voice in your head is running through every possible disaster. Here is the part nobody tells you: that response is not a problem. It is fuel. The difference between nerves that destroy a race and nerves that drive one is entirely in how you interpret them.

How to Plan Your Cycling Season: Choosing Events and Building Your Year

Most amateurs train reactively — signing up for events on impulse and cramming fitness. This is how to plan a season like a coach would: A/B/C events, reverse-engineered timelines, and a structure that survives real life.

The Self-Coaching Framework: A Complete System for Cyclists Who Train Alone

You already know the mistakes self-coached cyclists make. This is the other side — the complete framework for doing it right. Annual planning, weekly structure, testing, autoregulation, and the honest conversation about when self-coaching should stop.

The Cycling Training Pyramid: Getting Your Priorities Right

Most cyclists obsess over interval protocols while sleeping six hours a night and riding three weeks out of every five. The training pyramid flips that instinct on its head — and the numbers behind each tier explain why.

Cycling with Chronic Conditions: An Evidence-Based Guide for Riders with Arthritis, Diabetes, and Heart Conditions

Your diagnosis changed your medical records, not your right to train. This is the evidence-based guide to cycling with arthritis, type 2 diabetes, and managed cardiac conditions — what adapts, what doesn't, and how to keep progressing.

Community23 min read

Drafting, Echelons, and Through-and-Off: The Group Riding Skills That Save You 30% of Your Energy

Bert Blocken's wind tunnel research puts a hard number on drafting: 30-40% energy savings at close following distances. But sitting on a wheel is only the start. Through-and-off rotation, echelon positioning, and reading the rider ahead are the skills that separate riders who survive in a group from riders who drive one.

How to Train for the Granfondo Stelvio Santini: A 16-Week Guide

The Granfondo Stelvio Santini finishes on the highest paved pass in the Eastern Alps — 2,758m, 48 hairpins, and roughly 25% less oxygen than the valley floor. This is how you prepare for it properly.

Heart Rate Zone Training — Why It Still Matters (Even With a Power Meter)

Power meters measure what you produce. Heart rate measures what it costs. Both numbers matter, and the second one is the one most riders have stopped reading.

Community22 min read

How to Find and Join a Cycling Club: The Complete Guide for Nervous Newcomers

You've been riding solo for months, maybe years. You've seen the club riders sweep past in their matching kit, moving like one organism, and part of you wants in — but the other part imagines getting dropped after two miles and riding home alone in shame. That fear is almost universal. And almost always wrong.

How to Read a Power File: What Your Data Is Actually Telling You

Your power meter records everything. The .fit file sitting on your computer after every ride contains answers to questions most amateurs never think to ask — and the ability to read that data separates riders who train from riders who just ride.

How to Train for the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Challenge: A 16-Week Guide

273km. 4,000m of climbing. Repeated short, savage côtes through the Ardennes forests. The amateur version of cycling's oldest Monument is one of the longest sportives in Europe. This is how you prepare.

How to Train for Marmotte Granfondo Pyrénées: A 16-Week Guide

The Pyrenean sister to La Marmotte Alpes. Same organisation, different mountains. 170km, 4,600m of climbing, and a summit finish on the Tourmalet. This is how you prepare.

The Mid-Season Reset: How to Fix Stale Form Without Losing Fitness

Your form has gone flat. The numbers are there but the legs are not. Every ride feels like work and none of them feel like progress. You do not need more training — you need a reset. And the research says a short, deliberate mid-season break costs you far less fitness than you think.

How to Train for Nove Colli: A 12-Week Guide for Italy's Greatest Gran Fondo

Nove Colli is 200km, nine climbs, 3,900m of vertical, and late-May Italian heat that breaks riders who prepared for the elevation but forgot about the temperature. This is how to arrive at Cesenatico ready for all of it.

Coaching23 min read

Post-Ride Analysis: How to Review Your Cycling Data and Actually Get Faster

The ride is over. The data is sitting on your Garmin, waiting to tell you something useful. Most riders glance at the summary, check their Strava segment times, and move on. That is a missed opportunity.

Coaching25 min read

Understanding Your Power-Duration Curve: How to Find and Fix Your Limiters

Most amateurs know their FTP. Very few understand their full power-duration curve — the shape of it, what it reveals about strengths and weaknesses, and how to use it to direct training. This is how to read it and act on it.

Power to Speed in Cycling: The Cubic Relationship, Aerodynamics, and Getting Faster Without Getting Fitter

The relationship between power and speed is not linear. It is cubic. Double your watts and you gain roughly 26 per cent in speed, not 100. Understanding why — and where the watts actually go — is the single most useful piece of physics any cyclist can learn.

How to Train for Quebrantahuesos: A 16-Week Pyrenean Preparation Guide

200km across the Spanish and French Pyrenees, 3,500m of climbing, and a finishing col that kicks at 7.7% when your legs are already cooked. The Quebrantahuesos earns its name. This is how you prepare for it.

Community24 min read

Riding with Your Partner: How to Share Cycling When Fitness Levels Differ

You love riding. Your partner wants to ride with you. But one of you is fitter than the other, and every shared ride becomes a negotiation between going too easy and going too hard. This is the most common friction point in cycling relationships — and it is entirely fixable.

Running and Cycling: The Crossover Training Guide

Running and cycling share the same aerobic engine but load the body in completely different ways. This guide covers the fitness transfer between both sports — how to convert running performance to cycling performance, how to structure a week with both, and how to avoid the injury trap that catches most single-sport athletes when they cross over.

Community20 min read

Solo Riding: Safety, Pacing, and Getting the Most from Training Alone

Solo riding isn't a consolation prize for people who can't find a group. It's one of the most powerful training tools available — if you approach it with a plan, the right safety habits, and an understanding of what makes solo hours count.

The Time-Crunched Cyclist's Training Framework: How to Get Faster on Six Hours a Week

Six hours a week. That is enough to get meaningfully faster — if you stop wasting three of those hours in the grey zone. Here is the framework that turns limited time into structured progress.

How to Train for the Tour of Flanders Sportive: A 12-Week Guide for We Ride Flanders

We Ride Flanders is not a climbing event. It is a cobbled war of attrition across 235km of Belgian roads in early April. This is how you prepare for it properly.

How to Use Training Load Without Overthinking It

The Performance Management Chart is a tool, not a coach. Here is how to use training load numbers without letting them use you.

TSS Explained: How to Use Training Stress Score

Training Stress Score distils an entire ride into a single number — but that number is only useful if you know what it actually measures, where its blind spots sit, and how to build a training week around it. This is the full picture: the formula, the benchmarks, the budgets, and the mistakes that cost cyclists weeks of wasted work.

Training While Travelling: How to Maintain Cycling Fitness on the Road

You have spent months building fitness. Now a work trip or holiday is about to take you away from the bike for a week or two, and the anxiety is already running. The good news: the research says you keep far more than you lose, and a handful of smart sessions on the road can shrink even that small gap to almost nothing.

VO2max for Cyclists: What Your Number Means

VO2max is the most-cited number in endurance sport and the least understood. Here's what it actually measures, how estimation methods compare to the lab, and why the number on its own tells you less about race day than you think.

Zone 2 Training for Cyclists: The Physiology, the Patience, and the Payoff

You already know zone 2 matters. What you probably don't know is why it works at the cellular level, why your body fights you every pedal stroke, and exactly how many weeks before the investment pays off.

How to Train for the Cape Town Cycle Tour: Wind, Heat, and 109km of Spectacular Riding

35,000 riders. 109km around the Cape Peninsula. The wind will test you more than the climbs. This is how you prepare for the world's largest timed cycle race.

How to Train for La Marmotte: A Practical 16-Week Guide

La Marmotte is not a sportive you can bluff. Four Alpine cols, 5,180m of climbing, and a finish up Alpe d'Huez. This is how you prepare properly.

How to Train for the Sella Ronda: The Complete Dolomites Loop Guide

Four Dolomite passes. One loop around the Sella massif. On Bike Day, the roads are yours. This is how you prepare to ride it properly.

Training Load Explained: CTL, ATL and TSB for Cyclists

The Performance Management Chart runs on three numbers: your fitness, your fatigue and the gap between them. Coaches have used this framework for decades. Here is what CTL, ATL and TSB mean in practice — the model, the maths, the mistakes, and how to read the chart without letting it read you.

What Mads Pedersen's Training Actually Teaches Amateurs

Everyone wants the number. How many hours does Mads Pedersen train? His coach will tell you — around 1,100 to 1,200 a year. But the number is a trap. Here's what actually built the engine, and what you can borrow from it.

The Metrics Pogačar Uses: Alex Welburn on Critical Power and W'

The pros track more than FTP. Alex Welburn researches critical power and W' — the metrics behind the numbers Pogačar's team uses — but his most useful advice for amateurs is about a stress budget most riders blow without noticing.

Inside Ineos: What Eddie Dunbar's Training Teaches the Solo Rider

Eddie Dunbar trains inside the most marginal-gains-obsessed team in cycling — and still comes home to Cork to ride his favourite loop on pure feel. On the podcast he explained why structure, feel and environment all matter, and the lessons translate straight to the rider training alone.

How to Watch the Tour de France Like a Coach

Anyone can watch the Tour for the finish. A coach watches the cadence, the positioning before a climb, the riders quietly eating on the flat, the faces in the last 5km. Here's how to read what the camera shows you — and turn three weeks of TV into a coaching education.

Belief Beats the Perfect Plan: Stephen Barrett's Coaching Secret

A WorldTour coach who guides Felix Gall says the perfect periodised plan is worthless if the rider doesn't believe in it. Stephen Barrett on belief, asking better questions, and the underrated metric of riding efficiently in the bunch.

Steve Cummings, the Maverick: What Self-Coached Riders Can Learn

Two Tour stage wins, an Olympic medal, and a reputation for doing everything his own way. Steve Cummings clashed with Team Sky's factory, experimented with his own nutrition, and raced on calculated instinct. Here's what the peloton's last maverick teaches the self-coached rider.

TdF 2026 Contenders: What Their Preparation Tells You

Pogačar races into form. Vingegaard disappears to altitude and goes quiet. Evenepoel builds like an engineer. The contenders for the 2026 Tour prepare in very different ways — and the contrast is the most useful lesson a masters rider can take from the build-up to July.

What Amateurs Can Learn From Tour de France Preparation

You'll never train like a Tour rider, and you shouldn't try. But the process behind their preparation — peak timing, fuelling, equipment, the taper — scales straight down to your sportive or club race. Here's how to borrow the method without the volume.

Cycling Over 40: The Complete Guide

Forty is not a downhill from here. The science says the rider who trains for the body he has — not the one he had at 28 — gets faster well into his fifties. This is the complete playbook: physiology, training, fuelling, strength, recovery, injury, bike fit, and the mental game. Not done yet.

The Masters Cycling Training Plan for Riders Over 40

Your best days aren't behind you — they're just on a different schedule. The complete training plan for cyclists over 40: the physiology, the periodisation, the strength work, and three 12-week blocks you can start this week.

Polarised Training for Cyclists: The Complete Guide

Most amateurs ride their easy days too hard and their hard days too easy. Polarised training fixes both. Here's the complete guide — built from two long conversations with the man whose research started it all.

How to Get Faster on 6 Hours a Week: What Dan Lorang Prescribes for Time-Crunched Cyclists

I went from 15 hours a week to 6. Power dropped less than expected and recovered fully within 12 weeks. The structure that made it work is the same one Dan Lorang prescribes to time-crunched amateurs.

Coaching13 min read

The 5 Mistakes Self-Coached Cyclists Keep Making (And How to Fix Each One)

The cyclist who coaches themselves can get faster — but most don't, and the same five patterns repeat. Here's the diagnostic and the fix for each.

Low Cadence Training: The Session World Tour Coaches Kept Prescribing While They Waited for Science to Catch Up

The coaches knew. The pros were doing it. The internet called it outdated. Then a 2024 study in PLOS ONE showed 8.7% VO2max gains versus 4.6% with the same intervals at higher cadence. The coaches won.

Polarised Training for Cycling: What Seiler, Lorang, and World Tour Coaches Actually Prescribe

Most amateur riders sit 50% too hard on their easy days and arrive at hard days half-cooked. The fix is the same 80/20 structure the world's best endurance coaches converge on — and it's harder to execute than it sounds.

Brian Smith on the Roadman Podcast: Why Suffering Still Wins Races

Brian Smith won two British national titles and finished 45th at the 1992 Worlds in Sean Kelly's group. He didn't float through any of it. On the Roadman Podcast, he explains why suffering still beats science, what Robert Millar taught him about the 53x12, and how MTN-Qhubeka rebuilt African pros through the people they sat next to on the bus.

John Wakefield on Team Bora's Endurance Blueprint

John Wakefield coaches Primož Roglič and Jai Hindley at Team Bora-Hansgrohe. Here is the WorldTour endurance blueprint he uses, translated for amateur cyclists targeting Badlands or Unbound.

John Wakefield on Building Endurance: The Team Bora Coach's Fatigue Test for Amateur Ultra Riders

Three minutes at threshold. A short questionnaire. Every 7 to 10 days. That is the test John Wakefield runs with Primož Roglič and Jai Hindley — and the one most amateurs targeting Badlands or Unbound have never heard of.

25 Coaches on the Biggest Training Mistakes

We asked the World Tour coaches, sports scientists and elite-level coaches in the Roadman archive what amateurs actually get wrong. The list is shorter — and more solvable — than you think.

What 25 Top Cycling Coaches Agree On About Improving FTP

After 1,400+ podcast conversations with the world's best cycling coaches, these are the principles every single one of them agrees on.

What Coaches Say About Getting Faster After 40

The over-40 cycling question comes up in every coaching conversation. Here's the consensus from the experts who've studied and coached masters riders.

What 5 World Tour Coaches Say About Zone 2 Training

We asked five of the world's best cycling coaches the same question about Zone 2. Here's what they all agreed on — and where they differ.

5 Endurance Lessons from Alistair Brownlee That Apply to Every Cyclist

Alistair Brownlee won two Olympic golds by mastering endurance. These 5 lessons from our conversation apply to every cyclist — whether you race or not.

Best Cycling Coach for Masters Riders Over 40

After 40, the training that worked at 30 stops working. Here's what to look for in a coach who understands masters physiology — and what most coaches get wrong.

7-Day Free Coaching Trial: What You Get and How It Works

Full access for 7 days. Personalised plan, coaching call, community access. No commitment, no card upfront. Here's exactly what happens when you start.

Cycling Coaching Results: Before and After From Real Riders

Real results from real riders. FTP gains of 90w, Cat 3 to Cat 1 upgrades, 16kg weight loss. Here's what changed — and what the numbers looked like before and after.

Cycling Coaching Testimonials: What Our Members Say

Every result on this page is from a named rider with a real number. No anonymous quotes. No stock photos. Here's what coaching actually produced.

A World Tour Coach's Training Plan for Amateur Riders

Dan Lorang coaches World Tour riders and Ironman world champions. Here's the training plan he'd build for a time-crunched amateur — and why it looks nothing like what most riders do.

How to Ride Faster Than 98% of Cyclists — John Archibald

John Archibald isn't the most talented rider on the start line. He's just the most disciplined. Here's what that actually looks like in practice.

Not Done Yet Coaching Review: What Members Actually Think

Not Done Yet is Roadman Cycling's coaching programme. Here's the unfiltered review — what works, what could be better, who it's for, and whether $195/month is worth it.

Cavendish's Coach on What It Takes to Win — Vasilis Anastopoulos

Vasilis Anastopoulos coached Mark Cavendish to his record-breaking Tour stage wins. Here's what his training actually looked like.

Power Meter vs Smart Trainer: Where Should Your First $650 Go?

Both tools measure power; only one works outdoors. Both cost around the same; only one replaces your winter. Here's how to decide which comes first — and why most cyclists pick wrong.

Zwift vs TrainerRoad: Which Platform Actually Makes You Faster?

Zwift and TrainerRoad both claim to make you faster, but they solve different problems. One is a training app pretending to be a game; the other is a game pretending to be a training app.

I Read Every Stephen Seiler Paper I Could Get My Hands On. Here's What I Learned.

I went down a rabbit hole. Eight weeks reading every Stephen Seiler paper I could get my hands on. The famous ones, the obscure ones, the 2007 autonomic study nobody talks about. Here's what twenty years of data from a lab in Norway actually says.

Cycling Coach Near Me: Why Location Doesn't Matter Anymore

In 2026, the best cycling coach for you probably isn't in your city. Here's why the 'near me' search is the wrong frame, and what you should optimise for instead.

Every Episode of Roadman Podcast with Dan Lorang

Dan Lorang has been on Roadman more than any other World Tour coach. Here's every episode, what it covers, and why it matters for age-group training.

Every Episode with Prof. Stephen Seiler

Prof. Seiler has shaped more endurance training in the last 20 years than almost anyone. Here's every Roadman appearance, with what to take from each.

Fast Talk vs The Cycling Podcast vs Roadman: Which One for You?

Three of cycling's best podcasts. Three different missions. Here's the real breakdown of what each does best — and when to reach for which.

How Much Does an Online Cycling Coach Cost in 2026?

Online cycling coaching ranges from $30 to $600+ per month. Here's what each tier actually delivers, where the value inflection points are, and how to pick the right level for your goals.

How to Structure a Cycling Training Plan (Coach's Framework)

Every good cycling training plan follows the same five principles. Miss any of them and the plan breaks. Here's the framework coaches use, with the template you can adapt to any rider.

Is a Cycling Coach Worth It? A Cat-3 to Cat-1 Case Study

One rider. One season. Cat-3 to Cat-1. Here's the full picture of what coaching added — training structure, accountability, and specific adaptations — and when the investment pays back.

New Study Confirms Strength Training Beats More Miles After 40

A 2025 meta-analysis just reviewed 17 studies covering 262 trained cyclists and found strength training significantly improves cycling performance with zero negative effect on VO2 max. If you're over 40 and only training on the bike, here's what you're missing — and the cycling-specific approach we recommend instead of max-effort barbell work.

TrainerRoad vs Online Cycling Coach: Which Is Right for You?

TrainerRoad is a great product. An online coach is a different product. Here's when the $20/month app is enough, and when the $200/month human becomes essential.

Cycling Coach vs Triathlon Coach: Which Do You Actually Need?

Triathlon coach, cycling coach, or both? Here's the framework for deciding, based on where your time is leaking in race-day splits.

Best Online Cycling Coach: How to Choose (And What to Avoid)

There's no single best online cycling coach. There's the best coach for you. Here's the framework for finding them — and the red flags that should send you running.

Cycling Coaching for Beginners: You Probably Don't Need a Coach Yet

Most beginner cyclists don't need a coach. They need consistency, structured riding, and a community. Here's how to know when you've outgrown that and are actually ready for coaching.

5 Fixable Mistakes Self-Coached Cyclists Make (And How to Stop)

Self-coached cyclists don't fail because they're not motivated. They fail because they keep making the same five fixable mistakes over and over. Here's what they are and how to fix them.

Low Cadence Training for Cycling: The Study That Proved the Coaches Right

One number on the bike computer. Same sessions, same effort, nearly double the results. The science has finally caught up to what the best coaches have been doing for years.

Zone 2 Training: The Complete Guide for Cyclists Who Want to Get Faster

Pro cyclists spend 80% of their time at a pace so slow that recreational riders could keep up. The smartest thing they do — and how to apply it yourself.

How to Prepare for Your First Sportive or Gran Fondo

Your first sportive is a milestone. With the right preparation, it can be the best day you've ever had on a bike. Without it, you'll be crawling home wondering what went wrong.

How to Get Faster at Cycling: 12 Evidence-Based Methods That Actually Work

There are exactly two kinds of cycling advice on the internet: stuff that sounds clever but doesn't work, and stuff that sounds boring but does. Here are 12 methods firmly in the second category.

Cycling Periodisation: How to Structure Your Training Year

Training without periodisation is just exercising. You might get fitter, but you'll plateau, burn out, or peak at the wrong time. Here's how to structure your training year so you're at your best when it matters.

Polarised Training for Cycling: The 80/20 Approach Explained

The best endurance athletes in the world converge on the same training distribution: 80% easy, 20% hard. Professor Seiler's decades of research show why.

Personalised Cycling Training Plans: Why Generic Plans Always Fail

A generic plan doesn't know you slept four hours, that you're on night shifts, or that your knee flared up again. That's why it fails. Here's what a personalised training week actually looks like.

Is a Cycling Coach Worth It? An Honest Cost-Benefit Analysis

Not everyone needs a cycling coach. But for the right person at the right time, coaching is the single best investment you can make in your riding. Here's how to know which camp you're in.

What Does a Cycling Coach Actually Do? A Week Inside NDY Coaching

A cycling coach doesn't just give you workouts. Here's exactly what happens in a typical week inside NDY coaching — the five pillars in action, from Monday plan review to Sunday debrief.

Zwift vs a Cycling Coach: When the App Is Enough (And When It Isn't)

Zwift is useful. A cycling coach is something different entirely. Here is the no-fluff comparison, the decision framework, and the rider profile where each one actually makes sense.

Best Cycling Coach in the USA: How to Choose (No Rankings)

No ranked list. A straight framework for finding the right cycling coach in the US — USA Cycling credentials, gravel and gran fondo context, time zones, and an honest look at where Roadman fits.

Best Cycling Coach UK: How to Choose (No Rankings)

No ranked list, no marketing noise. A straight framework for finding the right cycling coach in the UK — British Cycling credentials, sportive and category-racing context, and how online coaching actually works.

Best Cycling Coach in Ireland: How to Choose (No Rankings)

You won't find a ranked list of Irish cycling coaches here. You will find the framework — Cycling Ireland credentials, Irish-calendar context, and the red flags to avoid — plus an honest look at where Roadman fits.

Best Cycling Coach: The Honest Decision Guide (No Rankings)

There is no universal "best cycling coach." There's the best coach for your goals, your calendar, your budget, and your market. Here's how to evaluate the market honestly, in Ireland, the UK, and the US.

Cycling Training with a Full-Time Job: How to Get Faster on Limited Time

You have a job, a family, and maybe 8 hours a week to train. Here's how to make every single one of those hours count.

Cycling Over 50: Training Smarter When Recovery Takes Longer

At 50, your recovery takes longer but your potential hasn't disappeared. Here's how to adapt your training without accepting decline.

Getting Faster After 40: The Cyclist's Guide to Age-Defying Performance

The data says VO2 max declines 10% per decade after 30. But the data also shows that trained athletes lose far less than sedentary people. Here's how to stay on the right side of that equation.