I was a Tour de France fanatic for years, and learned riding strategies from watching the men in spandex shorts, lycra jerseys, and bumble-bee helmets maneuver the race. I read articles online from Bicycling and Velo News, and also took to heart whatever advice my pals sent my way.
But in 2009 I lifted my studies of cycling to higher level, focusing it more specifically on my training and diet and on my actual riding strategies.
I moved to Dubai in 2006, and immediately found my way into the active cycling community. I was already pretty passionate and disciplined about the sport, and without fully knowing what I needed to know, I managed to break four personal bests within my first year of riding there.
- Mileage for the day, from 100 miles, to 160 miles: on a long-distance, partly mountainous charity ride from Dubai to Fujairah.
- Mileage for the year, from a total of 3000 miles, to 3100 miles: October 2006-October 2007.
- Average speed on a ride, from 20 MPH, to 21 MPH: numerous times on our "leisurely" Friday morning rides through metropolitan streets and desert roads.
- Fastest speed reached, from 38 MPH, to 44 MPH: a few times on a descent.
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| Dubai-Fujairah charity ride for Emirates Association for the Blind (2007) |
Improving my turning skills
For the longest time I was nervous cycling through turns. In Dubai, there were many roundabouts to navigate, and desert sands often gathered around the inner curb. I dialed down my speed going into these roundabouts, and took a wider turn through them to avoid those scattered sands. To add to these two mistakes, I relied on my sprinting ability to close the gap, once we exited the roundabouts. This misjudgment kept me in our double paceline for the first half of the ride, but I was bonked by the second half and often got dropped by the guys.
The analogy I found most useful in altering my judgment and improving my turning skills was this: Imagine I had a matchbox with a few matchsticks inside. Every time I sprinted, I burned one of these matchsticks. Because of my tentative riding on these turns, I must've sprinted more often than I kept track of and effectively emptied my matchbox of energy, before a tough ride was finished.
So I consciously focused on my turning skills during our weekly training sessions, and made the following changes:
- I kept my speed up going into the roundabouts, instead of dialing it down.
- I followed our double paceline throughout the turn, instead of sliding off and wide.
- I kept myself more into a tightly-drafting position to minimize gaps in front of me, and thereby minimize any need to burn a matchstick (i.e., sprint).
Looking through the rider in front
Yes, it's funny, but in our tight formations, we look to be literally on top of each other's ass and back wheel. Through my rides in Chicago, I was often alone, and didn't have much experience with the sort of rides we did in Dubai. So it was a novice mistake for me to concentrate too much on the ass and wheel in front of me. Admittedly I was nervous about riding too closely, and crashing into the rider ahead.
To improve, I physically shifted my gaze from downward to straight ahead, more now on the back and head of that rider and also what was in front of him or her. This was a dramatic change in strategy. Now I could survey better what was going on in front of me, and ride accordingly.
One time, for example, I was well-ensconced in a lead pack, and we were burning rubber on the road at over 30 MPH. At this speed I was in a hyper-concentration mode, or else I'd risk a terrible crash with a mental lapse. I checked my mind (clear) and my body (strong), so no problem there.
But the rider in front of me was "losing the wheel" in front of him. He was struggling to keep up his speed. I monitored this closely, because I was looking through him, and the second that the gap reached a certain point I quickly accelerated past him.
It's not just a physical exertion, but a strict mental game, too. Without precisely quantifying anything, I determined an allowable gap to form in front of him, beyond which I wouldn't have been able to close it myself, once I passed him, without burning off whatever matchsticks I had left in me.
When he hit the threshold of that allowable gap, I passed him in a flash. It took just a couple of seconds to do so, saying "On your right!" to alert him and sliding back into the double paceline in perfect stride.
It was a terrific calculation, and a superb move on my part!
Winning the mental game
I altered quite a lot of my preparations for a ride, but most of it was physical rather than mental. But these physical improvements helped me tremendously with that strict mental game. The better I could rely on the endurance and strength of my body, the more I could concentrate on our ride and the better I could judge what strategy to deploy.
In other words, I kept a good reserve of matchsticks in my box, and essentially avoided getting anywhere near close to "red-lining" my body with lack of oxygen or excess of lactic acid. This kept my head cleared.
On another ride, our double paceline had long disintegrated, and we were just a bunch of scattered riders with still a long way to go. Fortunately I managed to draft behind one guy who was tall, and going at the right fast clip, that is, one that I could keep up with.
At this speed, we were actually passing other scattered riders up, as I safely and comfortably kept myself at his wheel.
Then, out of nowhere, another rider sprinted past us. Before, my impulse would've been to chase after him. I felt strong and confident, and of course I caught up to him. But at great cost to my energy reserves.
In the split second on this ride, however, I decided to stay on course, and kept drafting behind the tall guy. Again, without precisely quantifying anything, I knew we were already going at high speed, and surmised that that rider who sprinted out of nowhere had to elevate his speed even higher than ours. I quickly determined that he was not going to be able to keep that up, and undoubtedly he burned more than a few matchsticks in that strenuous effort.
Sure enough, in another minute or two, Mr. Tall Guy and I passed up that dude!
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| Me, at the top of an arduous climb in Musandam, Oman (2009) |
Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!
Ron Villejo, PhD
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