Anyone Interested in Bike training program?

[jace48]

averaged upwards of 39kmph on the MTB.

Sadly I am still struggling on 20 Kmph on road bike

[deepakvrao]

averaged upwards of 39kmph on the MTB

Amazing.............well done.

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

Took part in the BSA Hercules Cyclothon held in Bangalore and looks like the training is showing some results as far as the aerobic fitness is concerned. Though, on the average speed side it was same as my last race (46 kms though) attempt I did not feel as tired as the last one after the race. Although this time I was riding all alone and did not find anybody to draft with. Following are my stats from the race.

Distance: ~ 27 kms
Time taken: 48 min 15 sec
Average Speed: ~ 33 kmph
Max Speed: 46 kmph

Was disappointed to find that the distance was further reduced from 36 kms to 27 kms for the Amateur ride. Owing to the last 3 weeks of high cadence riding I was still trying to ride the same cadence in 53/21 as base. Also tried riding on the drops and it was really amazing how much difference the riding position can make.

The event was awesome with around 5000 people riding on a closed road. The winner of the Elite category clocked around 44 kmph average speed.
How good is that from international standards considering there were no hill climbs in the route?

Cheers
Pankaj

[sumitpal]

The event was awesome with around 5000 people riding on a closed road.

Wow! How did they manage this?

The winner of the Elite category clocked around 44 kmph average speed.

Holding an average of 44kmph for 1.5 hours is really really cool! Congrats to Sabu!

How good is that from international standards considering there were no hill climbs in the route?

I suppose there is no good way to compare this as the teams are big and the peloton is really efficient and competitive. I just checked the numbers from the paris-tours 2009 results ( http://velonews.com/results/99105 ), Gilbert averaged ~44kmph on a 230km race!

Contador averaged ~50kmph on the 40.5km ITT in TdF 2009 which featured a climb so you can imagine how fast they would go on short races.

[sumitpal]

deepak, I am really enjoying my weekly TT but believe me I am not the kind of rider who can belt 39kmph on a MTB if the course is not suited for it . As I mentioned, this is a faster course with downhills. I am beginning to find the TT course interesting, on the faster side I have to learn to stay aerodynamic and push the bigger gears while the other side has good climbs where I need to figure out the kind of climbing effort I can sustain. I am discovering how my body reacts to TT effort.

By the way, I stayed 3-4 bpm slower than the average I had calculated from my last all out TT effort. I find that I am able to deliver more power this way, perhaps my LT is closer to 170 than the 174 suggested by the average HR approach. I let my heart rate drop a bit before the climb and don't let it go beyond 175bpm during the climb, this seems to help me sustain power on a 20min effort. I don't have the legs to sustain it for longer duration, learnt it from bitter experience. So base building is ON.

[RNair]

The winner of the Elite category clocked around 44 kmph average speed.
How good is that from international standards considering there were no hill climbs in the route?

Cheers
Pankaj

Very good speed on a personal level but it wont hold up even in the amateur category in EU. Raced a lot in Italy this summer and the average speed of amateur cyclists lingered around 38-40km/hr with 1500m of climbing!
Keep in mind that the BSA race was a road race. So it should be much more higher for the simple fact that they can draft too. Sure the Elite riders who rode know this very well themselves.

Not in anyway undermining the speeds, just pushing a fact. I would give my arm to ride at 40km/hr over 65km!

[kk27]

39kmph... man we aren't able to belt it out our Roadbikes.

just curious.... how long is this course....???

[sumitpal]

Kaushik, its a 11.5km course. I am noticing that I seem to have good form right now although I am still base building, I was chased by three guys on roadbikes on the climbing side of the course and I had to go easy after 10kms to allow the catch. The MTB is not as slow as we think.

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

The MTB is not as slow as we think.

Agreed. When riding in the Cyclothon I was suddenly surprised by a guy (foreigner) on MTB catching up at me and holding up for quite some distance. I might not have realized earlier but I guess he was drafting behind me on the flat sections and coming out on the inclines.

BTW Sumit, what ratios and cadence were you riding? And which MTB? It is really something to average 39 kmph on a 11 km course on a MTB

Cheers
Pankaj

[deepakvrao]

It is really something to average 39 kmph on a 11 km course on a MTB

Absolutely and when I think about you Sumit, your avatar comes to mind. Then to imagine the avatar [who is he BTW?], doing that speed........

[sumitpal]

When riding in the Cyclothon I was suddenly surprised by a guy (foreigner) on MTB catching up at me and holding up for quite some distance.

The Army guys kicked our (road bikers) ass on MTBs in Pune-Baramati this way, and they were not even on phoren MTBs. The advantage of road bikes shows up on longer rides though, the Army MTBers didn't organize their efforts and got dropped later in the race.

Pankaj, the average is quite misleading. I feel the averages reflects a good ride only if the course is a closed one, this particular course has a lot of downhills in which the rider can recover from the previous effort. I basically rode with a much lighter back pack, kept my hands TT style on the flat handlebar as far as possible and paced my effort and that helped me shave off 3.5mins over the last best effort, the average just depended on the course. I realized (just like your experience with drops) that more practice is needed to stay as low as possible on the bike.

I feel that at our level (entry level amateurs) averages are not important (they do motivate though ), it is more important to figure out what the basics are and work on them.

On pacing, I started off slow in such a way that the HR stabilized at 160. At some point I could feel that my legs would be able to take more load and I tried to smoothly step it up to a hard pace I felt I could sustain for a longish period. The last 2kms I rode hard and went well beyond my average HR ( 174bpm ) but made sure that the pace is such that I finish strongly at the end.

I have a Trek 4300, I had to go briefly on 42x18 but mostly stayed close to 42x12. So I am not pushing any big gears, its just the faster course.

[kk27]

11km not bad, I think some day I too will just do a 10km TT & see cause whenever we talk about TT it's the Bandra Ride for me & the whole ride is 50km with lotsa stops.

I must agree staying low on the bike demands a bit of effort, I've been consciously working on it & I come up to the bars only when I intend to spin it out.

[pranavnegandhi]

Absolutely and when I think about you Sumit, your avatar comes to mind. Then to imagine the avatar [who is he BTW?], doing that speed........

So I'm not the only one who correlates Sumit with Milton Waddams! He's a character from the movie Office Space. Search for that quote (and other fun ones) at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/quotes

.p

[uhk]

So I'm not the only one who correlates Sumit with Milton Waddams! He's a character from the movie Office Space. Search for that quote (and other fun ones) at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/quotes

.p

Add me to that list. That avatar is ingrained in my head now.

[sumitpal]

Yeah, this avatar is so cool. He is happy with his stapler and his office space next to the window from which he watches squirrels getting married and then...people mess with him and he burns the building down. They had some nice characters in the movie but the second half was just too serious.

Kaushik, I did that TT on the way back from a 50km easy ride. The ride was actually a better warmup, the legs don't open up properly with the usual 15min. of warming up. I have seen TTers warming up for a long time, I wonder what is the right approach/duration for a warmup for a TT.