Cycling and running are both things we learn to do as kids and as such I’m sure most of us feel fairly confident that we can do them well enough. If asked most people’s limiting factor to speed in those activities the answer would be fitness, finding the time to train and equipment.
The technical aspect of cycling gets overlooked because when people start taking it more seriously they can already ride and the emphasis is on training hard and spending as much money on carbon as you can afford. Both of those make you go faster but if you were switching to a new sport you’d learn how to master it before splashing out on the best kit.
It’s obviously easier for me to talk about rowing but taking the time to learn the technique and get the right force curve makes a far bigger difference than the boat one rows in. Yet despite having that knowledge from one sport I’d failed to apply this to cycling. I’ve been very lucky in that the physiological benefits from years of rowing training meant I can move a bike ok but it wasn’t until I got a Wattbike to help with preparation for this year’s Etape that I realised quite how inefficient I was.
The first thing I did was look at the rankings for 60 minutes and set about trying to do that for an hour, apart from various pieces of me being splattered all round the room after I blew up with 15 minutes to go there were some other key learnings. Apparently a good force pattern from the pedals isn’t the perfect figure of eight I was effortless producing, according to Eddie Fletcher the Wattbike magician I was losing 0.75m per pedal revolution with my signature profile. I might as well have been cycling through mud.
I was only pushing on the way down not squeezing the pedal all the way round and at 85rpm I was about 15rpm shy of the efficient cadence. I dropped the resistance, increased the cadence and focused on getting a more efficient force profile from the pedals. In the next hour I went 700m further and didn’t explode over the gym since then I’ve done some longer more technical sessions and am preparing myself for another crack at my 60min pb – my legs can’t wait.
Well, it has certainly been a busy few days.
Eddie and his team are on a round the world trip at the moment. This week they had been invited to present at the ‘Identifying and Developing Australia’s Next Generation of Cyclists’ Conference in Adelaide. This inaugural conference, organsied by the National Talent Identification and Development Program from Cycling Australia attracted delegates from throughout the country from the state’s cycling, triathlon, sports academy and sport institute organisations, with the speakers including Simon Jones the former head men’s track coach for the British team. There have been a few interesting Tweets and a blog post from Come Cycling with Me.
Currently topping the 4k individual pursuit Wattbike Ranking is Rhys Gillett a young cyclist from Ballarat within one of the talent programs and overseen by Tammie Ebert, the Senior Coordinator for Cycling Talent ID in Australia. Awareness of Rhys’ utilisation of the Wattbike in his training encouraged Tammie to invite us to present.
Intrigued by the product and the integration of it within British Cycling at all levels, Eddie’s presentation was enthuisiastically received. From our part we were hugely impressed at the healthy cross-pollination of ideas between both cycling and triathlon and the desire amongst all delgates to continue to innovate in order to stay ahead of the curve and the rest of the world. It looks as though the Wattbike will soon become an integral part of Australia’s Talent ID programme as well as an important mechanism to engage young people and drive membership within Cycling Australia. Numerous orders placed and many new friends made Eddie’s (or Fast Eddie as he has come to be known) trip enjoyable and well worth while. Next stop is US Cycling in Colorado Springs on Monday.
Back in the UK I was back at the Brawn GPs wind tunnel on Tuesday seeing the magic happen. I spoke at length with a couple of engineers and finally understand what a rear diffuser actually is, which while completely unrelated to cycling is interesting when they talk about it so much during the coverage of the Grand Prix. Simon Smart and his team from Drag2Zero where testing a number of athletes in the windtunnel. I was there to help them with some physiological data relating to how the new position impacts on their ability to produce the power required to ride fast. I met with Ed Waterston, Marketing Manager of Scott in the UK and tested him, if he agrees I will post some data and pictures here shortly.
Finally, to and a rather bitty post, I spoke with James Cracknell yesterday evening. He has enjoyed using the Wattbike, and some of that competitive flare that made him so good at rowing is back, especially when he realised that one of the Danish rowers, Soren Madsen is only 700 metres behind him. James will be a guest blogger over the next few months, so look out for his posts.
