Coach Phil Timothee shares his experience of what it’s like to do an Ironman triathlon when the training goes right, all the way up to 10 days to go, when it takes a turn for the south…. race preparation / …
Category: Race Strategy
How to Throw Your Bike
How to Execute a Bike Throw: Let the final pedal stroke lift your butt barely off the saddle if you are not already standing Drop the shoulders Straighten the arms forcefully Push the butt off the back of the saddle …
How to Team Time Trial
Tips for making your team time trial a success, with 2015 US National Team Time Trial Gold Medalist Brianna Walle. Optimal performance in a team time trial requires attention to lots of details. Wenzel client and professional racer Brianna Walle …
Bike Racing 102: Tactics to Win With
Each competitor starts a race with unique physiological abilities. Some people are better at sprinting or at climbing, while others ride better in the wind. Some are just plain stronger and better at everything, while others aren’t outstanding at anything …
Seven Steps to Improve Time Trial Performance
How to Win a Time Trial — or at Least Set a PR! As a pure test of cycling athleticism, little compares with the time-trial. Every roadie will want to have a decent TT in their repertoire if they want …
The Vocabulary of Road Racing: A glossary of tactics
Racing without a fundamental understanding of tactics is like going to a joust without a lance. You’re going to get skewered. In the absence of tactics, the strongest riders would win all bike races. Strategy and tactics are the tricks …
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Time to Train for Cyclocross? The conflict between road and cross seasons
Cyclocross, which started as a way for road racers to have fun, add some variety to their training programs and avoid racing withdrawal in fall and winter has recently become a major sport in its own right. Where wrecking road …
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Pre-Riding a Cyclocross Course on Race Day
I like to arrive at the course early to watch one of the other races and do a pre-ride. Pay attention to the starting process. Are they doing call-ups? If not, make sure you arrive to the start line in …
Winning in the Heat – Tips for Racing in High Temperatures
In the spring and summer, internally generated heat limits training intensity and affects the outcomes of races. Only about one fifth of the energy released by a athlete’s body during cycling ends up as useful work, with the other four-fifths …
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Stay Calm, Stay Safe, Win
The first few criteriums for a new racer are often a humbling or even terrifying experience. I remember speaking with the manager of a national level pro squad about goals for each of his riders in a downtown crit. One …
Winning – It Could Happen to You
Many riders enter races for which they are not suited. Skinny little climbers enter flat crits with huge fields. Big-muscled sprinters enter hilly road races. For the most part the results are as expected. One needs powerful legs to win …
Improving Your Cyclocross Start
By Anne Linton MD A cyclocross start requires an all out sprint to establish a good position that can impact the remainder of your race. You may have a great start and end up in the lead pack for the …
Guidelines for Successful Pacelines
As a race breakaway starts to organize, it forms a group working together to succeed in their escape attempt. However, when not all the riders in the group are working smart and cohesively, the group will almost always fail or …
The Good Teammate – How to Be Positive Part of a Team in Cycling
Cyclists mostly know at some level that bike racing is a team sport and that we need good teammates to help us win. Sometimes listening to the stories and complaints of club racers, though, I wonder if most riders know …
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Let’s Get Real: In season training and tactics
The racing season is here. Racers are hitting peak fitness and doing their best racing of the year. In some districts there are opportunities to race six or seven days per week including the track, mid-week TTs and twilight criteriums. …