How to cycle faster is a topic that most cyclists can relate to. The best advice is just to train harder or longer or both. But there are other things that come into play. Some things you can do nothing about. Some require only a bit of attention and others can require a great deal. Here are 10 things that can slow you down which you can address to cycle faster.

The Big Thing That Slows You Down

Drag is the single biggest thing keeping you and your bike from going infinitely fast on flat ground. Drag is the sciency term for a force that pushes backwards along your line of travel. Your bike is subject to different sources of drag.

Kind of a Drag

Mechanical drag is friction from your chain along with bearings in your wheels and bottom bracket. Mechanical drag is also the result of tire drag or rolling resistance caused by the constant squashing of the tires against the road.

No. 1 Mechanical Drag

Mechanical drag is pretty much a small, fixed number. It hardly varies from bike to bike but more so between cheaper bikes and high-end bikes. But even expensive ceramic bearings do very little to make a noticeable dent in mechanical drag. The chain is the biggest source of mechanical drag and there haven’t been any real advances in reducing chain drag recently because the contemporary roller chain is remarkably efficient. Basically, the main thing you can do to minimize drivetrain drag is to keep your bike properly maintained and your chain oiled.

No. 2 The Contact Patch

Tires are one of the single biggest things that can slow you down and here’s why. A pneumatic tire has a flat spot where it touches the ground, aka the contact patch. About half your weight is on each tire, making the contact patch a little smaller than 1-inch square in size. As the tire rolls forward, the leading edge of the contact patch moves around. Rubber is bent and flattened. As the tire rotates it bends over and over again. The constant bending involves friction that adds up and slows you down. Not much you can do about it except for keeping your tires topped off before every ride.

No. 3 Tire Osmosis

Tubes can leak up to 10 psi per day. The loss in pressure may not be obvious by just squeezing the tire with your fingers but it affects cornering, acceleration, and speed. Tires and tubes made with better quality rubber compounds tend to ward off osmosis and offer lower rolling resistance so an upgrade and tire replacement can help you to cycle faster.

No. 4 Hard Tires

To contradict rule No. 3 — too much pressure can actually slow you down too. It basically makes a light rider bounce around on the bike. Proper tire pressure is a feel thing. Just because the tire might have 160 printed on the side-wall doesn’t mean you should automatically do it. That is a maximum number printed for your protection and applies mostly to racing. Experiment with it to find your ideal tire pressure.

No. 5 Wide Tires

The most common size of road tire is 23mm. However, the trend to run wider 25mm tires is growing. If you’re an experienced road rider, you might notice that 25’s handle different, maybe a bit more stable, particularly through corners, but they can be slower on smooth surfaces although it might be unnoticeable. In general, the wider the tire, the more rubber that has to be flattened on each revolution of the wheel. 23’s are the preference of racers for a reason.

N0. 6 Clunky Shifting

Cables and derailleur springs stretch and wear. Pivots, chains, and teeth wear out. If it takes two or three pedal revolutions to complete a shift, it means less time hammering and more time messing with gears. It’s typically because you need a tune-up. It happens gradually and you begin to take it for granted and then it won’t shift at all. Keeping cables tight and derailleurs tuned keeps you at top speed with quick shifts to help you cycle faster.

No. 7 Added Weight

This one’s a no-brainer and has been drilled into cyclist’s heads for decades. Things you may have missed though are tools in your toolkit, added water bottles full of water, or extra gear in your jersey. One often overlooked heavy item is wet clothes. Even a light sprinkle can add weight to fabrics.

No. 8 Floppy Clothes

There’s a reason why cyclists wear tight clothes. It’s because unnecessary flappy clothes give you an aerodynamic disadvantage. This one can be fairly significant. If you can hear it or see it, it’s slowing you down. Tuck it in or discard it and get a skin tight jersey. It will help you cycle faster with the least amount of effort.

No. 9 Upright Position

Some road bikes have two torso positions; aggressive and passive. It’s typically controlled by the stem that angles up or down as needed. If you’re riding in the passive or upright position, your torso is catching the wind and slowing you down. Remedy it by removing the stem and flip it upside down for the aggressive position. If you have a flat stem and it won’t flip, consider swapping it for an angled one. (See “Handlebar Setup in How to Do a Proper Bike Fit)

No. 10 Air Temperature

Physiologically, depending on the distance of the ride and the temperature, your leg muscles may not be operating at full potential if it’s cold outside. A one-percent decline in local muscle temperature can reduce muscle force by up to 10 percent. On the opposite end of the scale, higher temperatures cause overheating and should also be avoided if you’re trying for a speed record. Additionally, air density is also affected by temperature, pressure, and also by humidity. Temperature has a more pronounced effect on air density than humidity — cold air contains more molecules per cubic meter. For example, on a cold day, you need to work harder to maintain the same speed because the air density is higher than on a warm summer day.

Cycle Faster Bonus Tip: Gluttony

The main fuel for exercise is carbohydrates. They are stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen. The body is only able to store a relatively small amount of glycogen which is why keeping it topped off is so important. However, overdoing it can slow you down especially if you eat a lot right before a ride. Everyone has different levels of comfort regarding eating before cycling. It’s important to test what works for you. In general, allow 2-4 hours after eating before cycling. But generally speaking, any kind of gluttony before riding can slow you down. It’s because the blood goes to your stomach to help digest the food instead of going to your muscles to deliver oxygen.

You can use this bike calculator if you’re serious about it. Input things like time, energy expenditure, and weight to get a rough idea of how much you’re slowing.

What??? Obviously… Well… not so obvious to too many.

So many people are so focused on increasing their endurance that they forget to focus on speed. People go out and continuously bike 3-4 mph under their goal race pace. Hell… I was one of those people! I just focused on increasing my distance each week…

When I first started biking I had one speed… Medium fast! I would get on my bike ride 30 miles medium fast. A few days later… 20 miles medium fast. Next ride… guess what medium fast.

I figured if I could do 60 miles at a certain speed that I could kick it up a few mph during a race due to adrenaline and pure will. It was true, I could kick it up a notch… but that was usually just in the first quarter and then it was pure survival mode from there… I usually came across the finish line looking like the grim reaper was drafting behind me and about to overtake me!

I would fall to the ground in agony from the lactic acid build up in my legs… cramping up, dehydrated and feeling awful. I just thought that meant that I left everything out there on race day and was usually quite pleased with myself. Stupid.

What I did not know at the time was that if I had trained a little faster I would have gotten my muscles used to the intensity. Your muscles and body adapt to be able to handle the stresses it is given. The best way to bike faster is to increase your speed and allow your body to adapt!

Once your body adapts to a faster speed it will be able to handle the slower pace at which you biked before much more easily. Once I discovered this all too/not so obvious fact I did speed intervals. Yes intervals! I biked faster than my goal race pace for 20 minute segments, took a bit of a rest and then did it again. It worked!

To Bike Faster You Need to Bike Slower!

Seriously? Yes seriously!

I learned that in order to bike faster you need to bike faster and once I did… gone were the days of medium fast and now I just biked fast fast! I did not learn that in order to bike faster you also need to bike slower. So I spent too much time overtrained and tired, and it actually resulted in me slowing down.

Soo… what’s the deal? Well… You can’t bike fast all of the time, your body just cannot handle the high-intensity training. You have to allow your body to recover and adapt. When you rest and go slower this is when all the physiological changes take place and you actually get faster! All that stress that you cause your body with the high intensity training is wasted if you do not allow your body to recover and adapt. It is actually the single most important thing I have ever learned in cycling! Now it is the single most important thing you have ever learned!