How many times have you heard someone say “I’ve added 5watts to my 20 min power” with a large grin on their face? Lots I imagine! We all know how much work goes into gaining those watts, especially for someone who is already highly trained.
However training is only one dimension of going fast on a bike, you could have mega watts but be as aero as a house brick. So that’s what I’m here to waffle on about, how to go fast for as few watts as possible!
Kit
I’ll start by saying there’s nothing more Euro than a cotton sock, jersey and shorts and swinging religious necklace combo, however it is absolutely not fast! Save that for the café days, not the number pinning ones.
- Skinsuit – Absolutely always wear a skinsuit, there are some that claim to be faster than others but they’re all faster than a jersey and shorts. One with pockets are ideal for road racing. If you can get away with a pocketless one and a gel up the leg of your shorts for crits then do so.
- Aero socks – faster than velotoze and much easier to put on – what’s not to like? I’m biased but Huub make the best ones on the market currently.
- Helmet – there’s some conflicting evidence on this. If you’re not going to overheat, wear the aero lid. If it’s a warm day and you’re worried about overheating, rock the vented variant.
There are more steps and extremes you can go to, I like to keep it functional though. Stick to those three and you will go faster.
The little things
It is vital to let your body adapt to riding in a low, bent elbow aero position like a sphinx. Build time into your training session to practice doing so and then build it into your specific efforts, especially if you’re doing them on fast sections of road.
It’s particularly hard on your hamstrings, glutes and triceps so do plenty of stretching and make sure you work on them on strength and conditioning days.
And lastly test everything in training first, having a problem in training isn’t the end of the world but it can be on race day. Make sure everything works before you go pinning a number on!
We have even more aero gains which you can get from your bike equipment and how to to get the very most from your performance on race day.
Get in touch to find out more about of endurance performance nutrition program.