Climbing Steep Hills

May 27, 2014 by Lee Agur

Climbing Steep Hills

Climbing a Steep hill is a gut busting experience, but with some of these tips hopefully it wont be as painful or dreaded as it previously was.

First of all, we are not talking about an ordinary hill here, if you want climbing techniques for hills read this post. Steep hills are a whole other animal all together.

Compact Ring

Before you even begin this precipitous climb set yourself up for success, make sure your bike is set up properly. Consider if getting compact cranks or even triple cranks upfront is right for you. If you are grinding away at 50 rpm for any extended amount of time then it may be time to make a switch.

Before The Climb

If you know the steep hill is coming up, take it easy before the climb, restore your energy. If you are in a group allow them to take turns upfront, try to come into the climb as fresh as possible.

Mental Game

Brain wash yourself into “loving” the climb, always saying how easy it is going to be or how you are looking forward to it. The mental game is a most of the battle, it is the same for any type of work… It sounds ridiculous, but I promise it makes it better.

Reduce Weight

Make sure to only pack what you need… especially if there is a store that you can get things at or an aid station on the other side.

Don’t Start Too Hard

Make sure that you don’t go in to oxygen debt immediately, you may hate life half way through the climb if you started out too hard.

Zig Zag

See that picture up above? The pros are doing it… so should you! I zig zag in order to reduce the grade and make it easier on myself, especially if it is a hill that is leading up to a strava segment. If your cadence is starting to slow to a grinding halt zig zagging may just save you from an embarrassing stall.

Take Wide Corners

Take the outside of the corners effectively reducing the grade. This will save your legs for steeper sections of the climb.

Stand up

Use your body weight to help you getup the hill. Make sure to rock the bike back and forth gently in order to put your body weight directly over the pedal on the down stroke.

Pull Down

As the grade continually increases you will need to start engaging more muscle groups in order to complete the climb. While standing up, pull down on the handle bars with both hands to give yourself more power.

Core Strength

It takes a lot of core strength and proper weight distribution to complete a steep climb. Your lower back might start to scream in agony, but just remember the mental mind games and how much you “love” it.

Secret Weapon

As with any hill… envision rocket boosters attached to your bike… it is practically cheating it is so effective.

Interval Training: Why It Works

April 23, 2014 by U.M.

Interval Training: Why It Works

A number of athletes turn to interval training in order to improve their performance. Interval training involves periods of high-intensity riding that alternate with low-intensity rest periods. The purpose of interval workouts is to improve a cyclist’s speed/power as well as his or her level of endurance. Here is a look at precisely what interval training does and why it works. [Read more…]

How Far Is Too Far?

April 16, 2014 by Lee Agur

How Far Is Too Far?

It’s great to be enthusiastic about cycling! When you love something you don’t just want to do it often, you want to do it well. It’s common for an athlete to push him or herself, trying to outdo their own record for mileage and/or speed. But it’s possible to push too hard. [Read more…]

What is Criterium Racing

April 11, 2014 by Aaron Robson

What Is Criterium Racing

If you are looking for something a little different to add to your bike racing calendar, or you just want a fun way to improve your bike handling skills, consider signing up for a criterium race. Criteriums are personally my favorite race to ride in, and everyone I know who has come to watch one has loved the whole event. What’s not to like?

What is a Criterium Race?

Criterium races (or crits, for short) are short, fast races held on closed loop courses usually between 0.5 and 2 miles in length. Crits differ from standard road races in that there is no fixed race distance. Instead, you race for a predetermined length of time…well, sort of. Here is how a crit works. The race starts off just like a standard road race – after the gun, the field will take off around the loop, jockeying for position, attacking, normal race stuff. The first distinguishing feature of crits are ‘primes’ – these are similar to intermediate sprint points in road races, but there are usually a lot more of them in crits. As the field loops past the start/finish line, a race official will ring a bell signifying the end of the next lap is a ‘prime’. Primes are often cash or merchandise prizes for whomever gets to the line first! Because they usually pop up every 5 minutes or so during the race, they tend to keep the pace fast and exciting.

The end of the race is where crits are really different. In a normal road race, you always know exactly how far you are from the finish. Not so here. The end of a crit race isn’t determined until shortly before the race actually ends. Here is what happens. While all the racing action is happening, race officials are monitoring how long each lap takes. Based on that, they will try to end the race close to the advertised duration of the race. At the appropriate point (usually 5-10 minutes before the end), they will ring a bell and display lap cards that tell the racers exactly how many laps are left until the finish. At this point, with a definite end in sight, the pace really heats up, and the racers typically have 3-5 laps to position themselves and prepare for the mad dash to the finish on the last lap!

The Good

There are a lot of great things about criterium races. Perhaps most importantly, they are awesome spectator events! Anyone who has watched a major bike race live knows that waiting a couple hours to see a bunch of multi-colored blurs zoom past you for a few seconds isn’t the most riveting viewing experience. Because crits are held on small, usually urban courses, you can pick a nice spot and see the action every couple of minutes – making it easy to follow what is happening in the race and providing plenty of chances to check out your favorite rider.

It’s not all about creating an awesome experience for those watching the race though – crits have been hands down the funnest races I’ve ever participated in. They go just about full throttle from start to finish, with attacks and counter-attacks happening all the time, and you have to be constantly alert to your position, who is around you, and how you are going to take that next corner. There is no chance of getting bored in a crit race!

In addition to the fun factor, crits are a great opportunity to develop fitness and bike-handling skills. Though the first few laps of your debut criterium might feel a bit overwhelming – there is nothing quite like heading into that first tight, 90 degree corner at 30+ mph with 60 or 70 other cyclists inches away from you – you very quickly get accustomed to the situation. You begin to corner with more confidence, you know exactly which lines to take to maintain your speed, and you no longer freak out about the close confines of the peloton. And, of course, you are doing all of this while your heart is threatening to burst out of your chest because you feel like you’ve been sprinting flat out for 10 minutes now – and the race has only just started!

The Bad

Not everyone is quite as enthusiastic about this style of racing as I am however. Criteriums can be prone to crashes, especially in the lower categories, when people are less experienced and haven’t fully developed the pack-riding skills to stay safe. The tight courses that a lot of criteriums are held on only exacerbates this problem, and a poorly laid out course can be downright dangerous regardless of your bike-handling aptitude. Starting off with lower-key crits is the best way to minimize your crash risk – most major cities will hold a weekly ‘twilight race series’ (no, nothing to do with the book) on weeknights, and these races tend to be smaller, shorter, safer races.

As we all know, crashing not only impacts you, but your bike as well. Humans are very good at repairing themselves – bicycles, unfortunately, haven’t evolved such abilities. I know a lot of people that don’t race crits because they don’t want to destroy their super expensive bike, to which I say ‘get another bike!’ A simple aluminum frame, mid-range bike can be had pretty cheaply and will be practically indestructible – aluminum is much less likely to shatter or crack from impact. In the event you are involved in a crash and break something, your replacement bill will only be a few hundred dollars, rather and a few thousand. And an added bonus – you can use the bike as your rain bike!

Is Criterium Racing For Me?

You’ve read about the good and bad sides of what is, in my opinion, an awesome style of bike racing – but is it for you? If you like excitement, speed and competition, it is! If you are looking for the next challenge on two wheels, give criterium racing a try. Even if you don’t love it, the benefits you get in fitness and bike skills will make you a much better rider on the road!

Bike Handling Tips for Early-Season Riding

February 28, 2014 by Aaron Robson

Early season riding conditions can be very challenging. During the winter, a ton of grit and salt gets dumped on roads to keep them grippy and snow-free, and, come spring time, all of that stuff ends up in one place – the shoulder where you want to ride. Spring is also pothole season, as water seeps into cracks in the road and freezes overnight, opening up holes the size of the Grand Canyon on your favorite roads. There are a few simple bike handling tips to keep your skin off the road and your bike in one piece.

SLOW DOWN!!!

This seems obvious, but it is easy to forget in the middle of one of your favorite descents. Slower speeds mean more time to react to what is in front of you. Slow down well in advance of corners so you aren’t braking hard while turning – doing so increases the chance of losing traction.

Take your lane.

Most of the road grit accumulates on the shoulder of the road, and you can avoid this by moving out into the travel lanes. Be VERY careful when doing this – think ahead, and don’t try to move out in front of a line of cars just before your corner. Wait for a large gap in traffic, and move out well into the lane, so cars aren’t tempted to try and squeeze by you. On long, switchbacking descents, I will usually just stay in the travel lanes to avoid having to move back and forth.

Relax.

Hitting a small patch of gravel or wet spot won’t necessarily cause you to crash. Overcorrecting for a small skid of your back tire will. Staying relaxed and confident will help you ride through small skids instead of tensing up and turning the small skid into a huge wipe-out. You can build this confidence through other types of cycling – mountain and cyclocross riding will both give you the experience of feeling your bike sliding through turns, which will help you become a more confident road rider.

Obstacle avoidance.

Be it potholes, glass, or ice, there is a lot of stuff on the roads that you and your bike would rather avoid. Your first key to avoiding this nasty stuff is to look ahead – the earlier you see something, the easier it will be to avoid. When you know what you want to avoid, doing so requires a bit of practice. Anyone who has managed to hit the only pothole on a clear stretch of road knows what I am talking about – your bike will tend to go where you are looking. If you are looking at that one pothole, there is a good chance you are going to hit it. Instead, work on keeping your eyes focused on the clear path you want to take, and your bike will follow.

Bunny-hops.

Sometimes, despite your proactive road reading and all of your best obstacle avoidance techniques, you just can’t ride around something. Often this has something to do with the 2 ton hunks of metal passing by on your left. This is when the bunny-hop comes in handy. Bunny-hopping is like jumping on your bike – both wheels lift off the ground for a split second. If you have never done this before, practice at slow speeds first. Clipless pedals make it much much easier and safer as well. When you do encounter something you can’t ride around, don’t try to jump too high – for potholes, your wheels barely need to leave the ground.

Keep these tips in mind when you head out on your next ride, and you will be well equipped to deal with whatever the spring roads will throw at you!

Four Steps To Avoid Overtraining

January 23, 2014 by Lee Agur

Four Steps To Avoid Overtraining

Anyone can suffer from overtraining and in fact, it’s more likely to occur in beginner cyclists as they try and do too much, too soon.

As you go about doing your regular cycling sessions, one thing that you do need to keep yourself very aware of is the concept of overtraining. Some people mistakenly believe that overtraining will only happen to serious athletes and top notch cyclists who are training for hours each day, but this just isn’t the case.

To help ensure you are doing everything you can to prevent overtraining, let’s look at four steps you should take.

Sleep Well

First, one of the top things that you must keep in check is your sleep needs. If you are not sleeping enough each evening, this is going to sacrifice the recovery you make between rides and will most definitely put a dent in your recovery.

You should be sleeping at least 7 hours, preferably 8 or more during intense training times.

Take At Least One Off Day and A Cross Training Day Each Week

Second, it’s also important that you take at least one day off each week to allow for complete rest and recovery. Don’t exercise 7 days a week or you are on a fast road to overtraining. Remember, your body needs time to recover, so don’t be afraid to give it that time.

In addition to that, you would be best suited to doing a day of cross training as well at a moderate intensity level. Go for a swim or take a leisure walk with a friend. There are many ways to move and keep up your fitness without it being an intense ride.

Don’t Fear Carbohydrates

Make sure that you are eating enough carbohydrates as well. If weight loss is your goal, you may be cutting back on this particular nutrient quite readily in your diet, but that will set you up for some problems down the road. As your glycogen stores become more and more depleted, you will notice that it becomes harder and harder to do the rides you set out to do. Eventually, high amounts of fatigue will set in and when they do, your rides will cease to exist. Overtraining will set in and you’ll be required to take time off.

The most important times to consume carbohydrates are during your rides (especially ones at high intensity) and immediately after rides. After you have replenished the glycogen and carb stores you can go back to your paleo diet that is low in carbs or The Paleo Diet for Athletes.

Assess Your Stress

Finally, be sure that you assess your stress levels. Remember that it’s not just exercise stress that can add up and impact your cycling performance. You can also start to experience stress from relationship, financial, or work related issues and this can wear you down as well. You want to keep your life as stress free as possible and that will go a long way towards helping you avoid overtraining.

So keep these quick tips in mind and you can forge onward and put the risk of overtraining behind you.

Maximizing Your Performance

January 20, 2014 by Guest Post

Maximizing Your Performance

This training article comes courtesy of Leah Guloien and Jamie Riggs, General Managers of the Cycling Division at Burnaby’s Catalyst Kinetics Group.

1. “What’s holding you back?”

Answering this one question, and developing a strategy to turn that weakness into strength, will pay dividends with faster times and stronger rides. Most athletes, for example, never consider they’re breathing? Many athletes breathe with quick shallow breaths, which not only wastes energy, but also hinders your bodies’ ability to burn fat as fuel. Taking 5 minutes per day before bed to practice ‘belly breathing’ is one of the simplest and quickest things an athlete can do to change their performance. To do it, lie on your back in a relaxed position, and place one hand on your abdomen. Now focus on taking deep breathes using your diaphragm, if you’re doing it right your belly will be moving up and down quite a bit. If you feel yourself tensing any neck muscles, stop, and refocus on breathing from the belly. A few minutes a day, and you’ll be started down the path towards becoming an efficient breathing machine!

Fitness testing is another way to examine your current performance level. At Catalyst Kinetics Group we start every athlete off with a comprehensive physiological assessment, which quantifies every aspect of your performance, from your breathing frequency and cardiac function, to blood values and muscle oxygen saturation. These types of assessments require expensive equipment and knowledgeable people to run them, but you can get a great start on your own with nothing more than your bike, a stopwatch and a heart rate monitor. See below for an example of a field test we use to build an athlete’s training program.

Fitness test: After a 30-minute warm-up, pick a straight, relatively flat stretch of road that you can ride at least 20 minutes with a minimum of stops. Start your watch and ride a 20-minute time trial, making sure to record power (if available), heart rate, and speed along the way. Record these numbers for later, and see below for some ways you can use them to build workouts.

2. “Have a plan”

It’s been said a million times, but this simple advice will pay off for anyone with ambitious cycling goals. It can be as simple as writing out the ‘Fondos, races, and rides you hope to do this year on a calendar, and taking a look at the spacing between them. This can have surprising results, as maybe you weren’t aware exactly how close together those two massive rides you were planning were, or didn’t notice a gaping hole with no events just waiting to be filled.

Once you have your main events penciled in, go through and mark out your next most important training periods, the easy ones! A big ride, race or Fondo take a lot of energy, both physically and mentally, and it can be easy to ride the wave of endorphins that comes from completing one of these events into another hard week of training. The result is that you find yourself in a deep ‘hole’ of fatigue, with that next big ride looming on the horizon. So after each big goal event, be sure to schedule an easy week of training, and from there you can start to rebuild toward your next personal best.

3. “Keep the easy stuff easy, and the hard stuff hard”

One of the most important benefits to having a plan laid out in advance is that you are in effect giving yourself a reason to go easy sometimes. If every ride you head out with no idea about what you have done or what’s up ahead, it is very easy to fall into the dreaded ‘junk mile’ trap. These rides feel great. You’re pushing the pedals, working up a sweat, as well as an appetite. But then you notice that no matter how much you ride, you aren’t losing any weight, or that no matter how fast the average speed on that three hour Saturday ride, you’re still getting creamed in the local group ride sprint.

Instead of pushing it every day, arrange your weekly rides so that a few, no more than two, are your hard rides. The rest of the time on the bike should be spent at a pace where you can easily hold a conversation with a person beside you. These rides truly do lay the base of fitness, logging time in these easy zones allows your body to adapt structurally to the load being applied. More blood vessels, increased density of cellular powerhouses, and a whole raft of other changes that turn your body into a super efficient, fat-burning, watt-churning machine.

Example Structural Endurance Workout: Ride for two hours at a ‘conversational’ pace, keeping your cadence between 85 to 95 RPM. Every 15 minutes do a short, 15-second sprint, and finish with 5 to10 minutes at 110 RPM.

The two hard days are the chance for you to explore your limits. Since you won’t be as tired as you would have been had you been riding ‘medium’ all the time, your hard efforts will be truly hard, taking your legs and lungs up to their maximum capacity. By pushing against the limits of what you are currently capable of, you will see your ability to sprint and hang on to the fastest guys in town increase dramatically. Thirty-second all out intervals are all the rage lately, but in reality there is no end to the sessions you can dream up. Whether they’re short sprints or longer five and ten-minute efforts, they all have a place in a well-rounded cyclist’s plan.

Example Short Interval Workout: Start out with a 30-minute warm-up, gradually increasing your effort level. Include one, 8-minute interval at an effort level of 8 out of 10 during this warm-up. Next, proceed to do six 30-second maximal efforts, staying in the saddle as much as possible, ‘spinning’ rather than ‘mashing’ the pedals. Leave at least four minutes of very easy spinning between efforts. Finish the workout with another 10 minutes at an effort level of 8 out of 10.

Example 10 minute Interval Workout: Take the average power you found during the 20-minute field test (see above), and multiply it by 0.85 and 1.05. These two numbers will become your high and low-end thresholds. During a 2-hour ride, do two intervals of 20 minutes each, alternating 3 minutes at the low-end threshold, with 2 minutes at the high-end threshold power. If you don’t have access to a power meter, you can also use average heart rate, adding and subtracting five beats to your average during the field test to find the high and low end threshold values.

4. “Take care of your body”

Addressing muscular imbalances and inefficiencies on the bike, whether it is as a result of habitual patterns that the body has become accustomed to or as a result of an incorrectly fitting bicycle can assist in helping you achieve your optimal performance.

Designing a pre- and post-cycling routine can help set you up for success. Purchase a foam roller to help with muscle activation and localized tension within the muscles. The glutes and the quadriceps are important areas to focus on. Some specific exercises we like to incorporate prior to our PowerRide sessions are planks, thoracic spine openers and bridges. Activating the core, opening up through the chest, and activating the glutes are all-important to a strong posture and alignment on the bike.

After intense or long sessions on the bike, it is important to cool the body down properly and not only in the sense of pedaling easier. Making sure to stretch out the body and return the body back to an ideal posture is important. Stretches such as spinal twist, pigeon pose, and downward dog are all great stretches post cycling. Take 10 minutes and pick 5 to 10 stretches and hold each for approximately 30 to 60 sec, always easing into the stretch and never pushing to the point of pain.

We hope you’ve been able to learn something helpful from this article, and wish you nothing but the best in pursuing your cycling goals.

Leah Guloien and Jamie Riggs are General Managers of the Cycling Division at Catalyst Kinetics Group, a Vancouver area, multi-disciplinary health clinic, physiological assessment and sports & fitness training facility.

Thinking of doing a Granfondo this year? Check this one out: Okanagan Granfondo

The Basic Goals of Training

January 8, 2014 by Lee Agur

The Goals of Training

The principles of cycling training are fundamentally basic. Your goal is it overload and then allow for adaptation. Rinse and repeat.

So what are you trying to overload?

There are three variables in cycling training:

Volume – How much
Intensity – How hard or how easy
Frequency – How often

In training the goal is to increase (overload) either volume, intensity and/or frequency in order to obtain “overreaching” (explained below) then allowing yourself to recover (adaptation). Repeat that process until you reach your desired goals.

The key to training is finding the correct combination of these three variables.

Great – What is the correct combination?

That really is the art and science behind a training plan. It really depends on the individual and their goals. For instance, someone trying to complete a century ride is likely going to focus on volume, where as, someone preparing for a criterium race is going to focus on intensity.

There are a lot of factors to consider when developing a training plan. Take something as simple as age, imagine a person at 20 and how quick recovery is. Now imagine that same person at 55. Generic training plans are much better than nothing and serve as great bases to work from, but you should take the time to educate yourself on what your body requires and when.

Overreaching

There are 4 classifications when talking about cycling training:

Undertraining – When you spend too much time resting or recovering and not enough time on the bike, your performance does not improve.
Acute overload – Positive physiological adaptations and minor improvements in performance, you are getting better albeit slowly.
Overreaching – Optimal physiological adaptations and performance, your training plan should be designed to overreach.
Overtraining – Physiological maladaptations and performance decrease, you feel very fatigued and have a lackluster attitude for training.

At the end of last season I spent a lot of my time in the overtrained classification, mostly because I solely focused on intensity and it drained my batteries at a very rapid rate. Again, overreaching is the goal, but it is difficult to know how little is too little and even more so how much is too much.

The essence of cycling training is very simple, but there are so many different ways to achieve the same goal. If you are new to training I suggest a cycling coach, even if it is just for a few months, they can save you a lot of wasted time and energy.

Information for this post gathered from: USA Cycling

Exercises to Strengthen Core

January 7, 2014 by Guest Post

Exercises to Strengthen Core

If you read the last post on core muscles and cycling, then you ought to know how important this group of muscles is and if that’s the case, then you’re probably wondering how best to improve them. Crunches only strengthen one small area of your core; you need exercises which work the whole system effectively.

These 5 core exercises can be done anywhere, without any equipment and are effective:

V Twist: Start by lying on your back with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle and your feet off the floor (thigh should be perpendicular to the floor) and fold your hands over your chest. Then slowly straighten your legs away from you to the right until they are at a 45 degree angle to the floor. At the same time, contract your torso up and extend your arms forward. Then lower yourself (slowly!) back to your starting position. Feel free to contract your torso and reach out to the left or right as well. Repeat 10 to 20 times depending on ability.

Side Balance Crunch: Start with your left knee and your left hand on the floor and your right arm straight up. Extend your right leg so that your body forms a straight line. Pull the right knee to your torso and your right elbow towards your knee. Then straighten your arm and leg and repeat it ten times, then switch sides.

Plank: Start on your elbows and knees with your hands clasped. Then straighten your legs and raise your body so that your weight is being held up on your forearms and the balls of your feet (Feet should be hip width apart). Face the floor, don’t arch your back or stick your butt into the air and hold this position for at least 15 seconds. This move can be easily modified to the side plank and the circle plank.

Oblique Reach: Sit with your knees bent and feet on the floor. Then straighten your right leg into the air and roll spine into a C-curve. Place your left hand behind your head and extend your right arm towards your right foot. Twist your body a bit to the left, roll back a bit more and hold for one count. Then come back up. Do five of these, then switch sides.

Russian Twist: Sit on the ground and hold your feet in the air. Then lean back until you are half way to a sit-up, then rotate from side to side, pausing slowly when you reach the end of a rotation. You can make this exercise harder by adding weights – hold a weight ball out and follow it with your head while rotating your torso. Either one, 2 sets of 10 to 20 reps will do.

Some information for this post was gathered at real simple.

How Long and How Often?

If you have a relatively weak core to powerful leg ratio then you may need to do some of these exercises. I generally do core exercises while watching TV, when I am bored or for a warm up right before my “real” workout. To maintain your core you probably only need to do core exercises once a week, but if you are looking to improve core strength then these exercises should be done two to three times a week.

You can do any and all combinations of the above exercises in less than 15 minutes. If you do them regularly and correctly, you’ll notice a real difference in your cycling performance. Keep that core strong and let us know which exercises you use to strengthen your core in the comment section below.

Why Is Core Strength Important for Cyclists?

January 7, 2014 by Lee Agur

Why Is Core Strength Important for Cyclists?

When we think of cycling, the first parts of the body we generally think of are legs. Yes, it’s fairly obvious that our legs are important to cycling, but what may not be so evident is the role that other parts of our bodies play in moving ourselves along on our two wheeled beauties, namely our core! If you are serious about cycling this year and you want to do more than ride at a gentle pace down a sunny road or trail then you really need to start strengthening your core!

What is the Core?

There is a common misconception about the core: when the ‘layman’ talks about ‘core strength’, they usually think of the abdominal muscles, the ‘six-pack’ and so those who think that way tend do a hundred thousand crunches and then wonder why they’re not as good at cycling as they’d like! (If this sounds like you, don’t worry; you’re in good company).

The core muscles are actually quite a bit larger than just your abdominal muscles. They start at your hips and go all the way through your abs, up along your spine and to your shoulders and neck. The core muscles are complex muscles requiring far more than simple crunches in order to get stronger. However, if you do improve your core strength, you’ll find that your cycling will vastly improve.

Why Do Cyclists Want a Strong Core?

A strong core is vital to a strong pedal stroke as it is the platform that you push from. If your core is not strong and stable, it will fatigue and you will waste a lot of energy compensating and using smaller muscles, your body will move up, down and sideways instead of putting that energy into the pedals. Having strong legs but a weak core is like having a muscle car with a hyundai chassis.

If you have a strong core it will increase your power to your pedals, increase your endurance, allow you to be more comfortable on the bike (specifically reducing lower back pain), take corners more efficiently and have a more efficient pedal stroke. All of which are very important to any cyclist. Unfortunately, merely biking around won’t do much for your core muscles which is why you have to work them out separately.

Strong legs will only take you so far; a strong core will bear you to the finish line and beyond. Don’t worry; we have some great exercises coming up (One of the next posts so sign up for our newsletter below so you don’t miss it) that will have you strong and ready when it comes time for your training, races, and long rides. Until then, keep those wheels spinning!

If you would like to learn more on core strength and truly how important it is pick up Tom Danielson’s Core Advantage: Core Strength for Cycling’s Winning Edge