r/Velo

he does 3 rides a week, i do 5 or 6. hes been quicker than me since about may went through both our stuff and the difference is he goes properly easy on easy days. genuinely easy, like chatting easy. then he absolutely buries himself twice a week. i just ride sort of hard all the time, so hes doing less and recovering, im doing more and never actually recovering or actually going hard either. every ride is the same medium
the annoying bit is ive read this a hundred times and still did it

I'm riding a Giant TCR, since this was my first road bike I bought nearly 3 years ago. I put aero-wheels (60mm) on it and I love them (although the combination doesn't make much sense...)

Currently in the process of looking for another bike for next season and I will very likely buy an aero-bike. I'm wondering whether you can feel the difference compared to a climbing-bike - not only in terms of how it rides, but will the aero-bike be faster on a route like 50km with 500vm or 100km with 1000vm etc.?

What are your experiences?

Had a debate with a buddy about a new bike he was going to buy for crits. We were talking about the best crit bike and I said a Scott Addict RC is the best crit bike out there right now. Here’s my reasoning.

It’s got the best stiffness to weight ratio out there. It’s super light. It’s not an aero brick. And it can fit large tires.

For a crit, aero is less important than most other race disciplines. It’s more about positioning, tactics, bike handling, and just knowing how to read a race. So going for an all out aero bike is less important. Having a super light yet stiff bike will help with all the micro accelerations out of corners or responding to moves. With the stop/start nature of crits, that will be more important. And with how shitty the roads are, being able to run a fat tire is a huge benefit. A 32 tire on wide rims that inflates out to 35-36mm while keeping the smooth transition on a wide rim is the way to go.

Thoughts?

And before somebody suggests it, I’ll save you the time of typing out the most overused cliche phrase on here, “the best crit bike is the bike you can replace.” Cool, great advice. We can replace any bike. How original.

I read that this sub is also open for beginners and I hope someone can help me with some tips to get started (Especially non-obvious things you might have learned too late).

I took up cycling as a hobby exactly a week ago today and each day I’ve been getting more and more informed on the topic, however I feel kind of lost because there is so much (sometimes contradicting) information out there.

For starters, I have a 25 year old GIANT OCR Compact Road which is too small for me (it was a hand-down). I did 101km with 500m elevation in 4h 30min on Sunday as a first real ride—I had done a max of 15km before that last week—and I didn’t feel much discomfort or ache even the next day except for my neck from looking forward on the bike. I’ve read that it might be because of how wide my horn/handlebars are. I am 190cm with 53cm shoulder width, my frame is labelled 50cm (no clue what that means either). Is that the problem or can I keep riding this until I get a new bike?

Secondly what should I aim for pacing wise and ride wise? Before Sunday I had 100km as a goal but it turned out to be quite easy, so now I’m stuck—should I focus on climbing since that seems to be the hardest? I read online that it takes multiple months to do 100km but I feel like that can’t be true, I am not very active and managed just fine.

I am also wondering about equipment. I want to wait for winter clearances to get a Wilier, Pinarello, or Merida racing bike to use as a sporting tool. Should i upgrade my Giant until then with clip in pedals and padded bike shorts?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I am specifying this specific age bracket because it’s the transition period of a lot of us where we no longer have as much free time compared to college to ride, and also have to juggle new responsibilities in a job and career and potential starting of a family, and managing familial responsibilities. But also not old enough to be considered Masters category and don’t have the wisdom and also free time that a lot of older people have as they are more set in their careers and retire.

I raced in college up until grad school and a little bit after I got a real job. a Total of 11-13 years of on and off racing. The past years I took some time off from burnout and wanting to focus on other life stuff but eventually found myself doing local crits. But I’m finding myself in this weird spot where I can’t commit the hours to train and stay competitive with the super young potentially cat 1-2 20 year olds, or the seasoned older cat1/2/3s or masters racers.

I don’t think I’m necessarily burnt out. Its just that I can’t commit to the training hours to stay competitive in the local fields and I’m also much more risk averse due to families/job/finances.

Also none of my same age teammates from college are cycling now.

Im curious for those in this age bracket. How has riding been for you? Are you still racing? What are all your old teammates of your same age doing now?

I've seen countless videos and read countless articles. It nearly always comes out to doing z2 base miles, doing intervals, min-max training and core exercises. I know there is no shortcut but if someone has limited time, like ride only weekend one day 3h and the other 1h what would be the best strategy to get better/faster?

In such cases, I've found out that z2 is absolutely worthless. Riding inZ3 and Z4 on climbs (sustained 1h) produced better results. Do you guys agree? Any other things that can be done to 'improve'?

Maybe 1 day a hard interval session and the next a 2h z2 ride?

Im cat 2 close to cat 1 and have done many big races so i think im a decent bike rider. I’ve seen crashes in 4/5s and their never really that bad and they’re at low speed. Obviously usually just stupid mistakes because people dont have as much skill but in p12 races the crashes are always worse especially last couple lap crashes or in field sprints

I race Cat 3 crits mainly and seem to always finish just inside or outside the top 10, but I've noticed most of the guys that are on the podium seem to ride way less than me. I'm sitting at about 11,000 KM on the year and these guys are at like 3k-4k. One guy barely rides at all it seems like. Is there something they're doing that I'm not? Should I be riding less? Maybe lifting on some days instead?

I know more mileage isn't a direct ticket to success, but I'm just lost on how they can be so successful without much time in the saddle

Hi all, I've got a question regarding the Garmin load focus and how it assigns specific rides. It consistently says Low Aerobic shortage. Today I went out with the intention to do a solid Z2 ride and try to get a base ride. 1.5h with my HR in Z1 - Z2, power between Z2 - Z3 and once again a Tempo ride instead of a base ride. I think the only time I've seen base is when I go out with my wife and sit most of the time in Z1 or below. Is this normal? I know I shouldn't really care that much but just wondering what the logic behind this is.

Hi everyone,

I could use some advice. I’ve had a really bad problem with muscle cramps during cycling. I’ve been doing sports on and off for most of my life, and I got into cycling about two years ago. I’m not doing huge mileage, probably around 2,000–3,000 km per year, mainly because I don’t have much free time.

This year I started training more seriously, including indoor trainer sessions and intervals, and my performance has improved quite a bit. I’m 78 kg and currently around 228 W FTP.

The problem is that I still get severe cramps quite often, especially on harder or longer rides. I’ve recently started adding salt to my water, and that seems to have helped, but I’m still worried because I have my first proper amateur race this weekend and I’m getting a bit nervous about it.

Do you have any life hacks or practical tips that helped you with cramps? What could be causing them in my case? Is it mainly electrolytes and hydration, or could it be fatigue, pacing, lack of conditioning, nutrition, etc.?

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially things I can realistically do before and during my first race.

Hello! I've been cycling for three years, since I started doing triathlon, but I've recently decided to focus on cycling instead because it's just more enjoyable. I'm planning to start road racing next year and I'm excited by all the possibilities, but I'm having a hard time identifying an A race. In tri it was easy because I'd do 1-2 70.3s a year and that was the target. Crits and road races are much shorter, in contrast, and you can do more of them, and they generally don't seem to be as high of stakes- if you have a bad race one week there will be another one coming up soon enough.

My goals for next year are primarily to understand how racing works (ie tactics), improve FTP, PR local hill climbs, I guess upgrade from cat 5 to cat 4, improve handling skills, among others, so not really racing or performance goals. I'm lucky enough to have a lot of racing options next spring and summer across California. There's a crit series in LA that has a championship race, there's the "state championships" for crit, RR, time trial, Manhattan Beach Grand Prix is driving distance. There's the Redlands crit.

I'm pretty interested in doing a stage race, so I guess that's a logical choice for an A race? But there are few options for stage races near me- I'm not on a team so I don't think Redlands is an option. My options on the west coast seem to be Valley of the Sun and Tuscon Bicycle Classic, which are too early to be A races, Tour of the Gila, which is pretty far away and at altitude, Baker City Cycling Classic, which looks pretty intense, and Tour de Bloom, which looks like the best option for me by far. But is a stage race too ambitious in my first year of racing? I'm cat 5 women so the distances/times are pretty short (just 25 mins for the crit at Bloom!).

I'm really just in it to learn my first year but I want to give my coach a concrete date to work towards. Obviously it's early, just thinking about this as we're planning offseason/base and I start racing in January. Any advice for a new racer on how to organize your season??

I just started cycling two weeks ago. Been able to work up to an hour to hour and a half per ride mainly working with a flat loop I've been riding. Any specific type of training I should be doing this early or just working on building up my body in zone 2 and getting accustomed to riding? If you have any training tips you think will be helpful all tips are welcome ! Right now riding about 4 days a week and also lifting 3-4 days a week - workouts split into half upper half lower days.

I'm comparing a few (cheap) options for an endurance bike on which I want to run 32mm GP5000.

• Wheelset 1 : 50mm deep, 22 internal, 30 external width, 1550g
• Wheelset 2 : 35mm deep, 25 internal, 32 external width, 1660g

I'm thinking #2 would be a better match with the 32mm tires (but not perfect for the 105 rule). But I wonder if #1 wouldn't be faster due to the extra depth. Obviously deep and wide would be perfect, but the prices are much higher.

I've always struggled with how to pace out races and fast group rides. I'm particularly focused on 50 to 150 mile gravel/mtb rides and races. I primarily use heart rate data to pace myself along with how I'm feeling in the moment. Last season, I worked with a coach and got fit, but when it came to racing, his advice, always had me racing very conservatively. I stepped away from coaching and I've been focusing on a few quality hard group rides a week and fun big rides as often as possible. I've also mixed in a handful of gravel 100 mile races.

This weekend I had one of my best performance on a fast group ride. I was able to stick with the A group all day. That said, I felt like I was on the limit for a few big chunks of the day and was just waiting to blow up at any second. In my head, I decided there were plenty of people behind me and if I blew up, I could go with a slower group. That said I'd rather that not be my strategy for every big day. Below my heart rate zone Data for the day.

Any advice on how to choose when to back off so you don't blow up your day. Or trying to figure out how many hours in a zone you can ride?

**Zone** |**Range** |**Time** |**Percent**
Zone 5 |>183 bpm |0:00 |0%
Zone 4 |166-183 bpm |58:36 |25%
Zone 3 |148-165 bpm |2:00:09 |51%
Zone 2 |113-147 bpm |52:37 |22%
Zone 1 |93-112 bpm |0:00 |0%

Edit: I do gravel and marathon mtb races

Hi-I will be riding an event in October on a 60-mile hilly course (three 20mi laps). The course has two aid stations. Bottle handups are not allowed. So each time you need to fill up your water, you basically have to stop. The event/race starts at 8 am and I am a 45yo m.

Last year, I think I had too much coffee and Gatorade before the start, so I had to stop to pee since my bladder was about to explode and turning pedals was too painful. The downside was that I was with a fast group until the pee break, then rode the whole course basically by myself. I never really stop to pee, even during my long rides. This year I would like to perform higher in my AG and don't wanna fall behind due to a nature break :)

My question is: how would you manage your hydration before (the previous 24 hours) and during an event like this? I think I can do it with two larger bidons, although that wouldn't be ideal. I am planning to have a double espresso instead of a cup of coffee on the event morning. Also, I am not planning to drink much water on the race morning. From what I read, your body retains more water when you consume carbs, so maybe an extra spoonful of pasta with each meal? Any other strategies I should consider?

What I'm really asking is how I can regulate my peeing (pee less) while still properly hydrating my body for high-level performance. Thank you!