5 Cycling Tips to Stick with the Fast Group ( A )

Hey, vegan cycles! Today, we're going to talk about how to stay with guys faster than you. I'm gonna milk this for everything. It's worth but I got to ride with Levi Iie primer and Phil Gaimon and I'm not faster than them by any means not even that great of a rider period but I was able to stick with them to the top of the climb. Get a cool little video with Phil and take some pictures. It was awesome. I used some techniques that I want to share with you. So here are five tips on how to stay with riders faster than you. The five tips are managing your energy, position, alternation muscle, groups conservation, and data. Now obviously these five tips aren't going to increase your watts by a hundred or two hundred. I'm gonna make you an amazing rider but it can do you make those marginal gains that can make a huge difference. There are times where you might have gotten dropped one minute or two minutes before the top and that was the whole difference right or ways that you can apply these techniques and have a fun or ride or more enjoyable ride with guys way out of your league. Because it is super duper important to ride with people faster than you like if you're always riding with people slower than you, you're not going to get better. So let's ride with faster guys. But let's go through some techniques to help you make it more enjoyable or to stay on just a little bit longer. Maybe you can stay with that front group- the lead group, the top dogs in no time.


1. Conserving energy
Managing your energy seems obvious that if you're gonna ride with guys faster than you, you're going to manage your energy. But this is not what we practice we preach it. You don't practice it. I've done this as a rider riding with people that are faster than me. I look at them. I respect them. I think they are awesome. So then I try to impress them. I go to the front. I drill it. I take twice or three times as long of poles. We hit a small climb and I go off the front or whatever I try to show them that I'm not weak and try not breathing when we're all riding. I'm holding my breath because I don't want them to think I'm suffering. I mean this is a common mentality as a beginning or riding with experienced riders to try not to look like your week was a huge mistake. And it is honestly if you're trying to earn the respect of guys on the rides that you can look up to. Managing your energy is going to be a much better way than to go on the front and then you get to the climbing. You get dropped. No good. Don't take those big poles. Don't try to flex your arms to take your pools. Don't be a d hole and skip but when you do take a small one. You don't have to try to show everyone how strong you are. Just make your pole get back in line. Conserving energy, a game that I've played as I look at my power meter and I will do my best to get the lowest amount of watts possible to the big climb. I'm like trying my best to spend no energy staying in the back. Don't go off the front. Those sorts of things manage that energy.



2. Position
Position is super important for two different reasons. One is on your way out to a big climb on the flats. You’re going to stay in the back. Obviously, but I've seen guys brand new riders. They are very uncomfortable with being on the wheel, even though they're in the back. There are 45 by links off the back and so you're not getting as much energy savings as you should, especially if your fitness is not to the caliber of everyone you are riding with. You need as many handicaps as possible just to finish the ride. So stay close to the wheel and the person in front of you. Stay in the backstage sheltered. Think about where in the wind is coming from. If the wind is on your left, it's kind of coming at an angle. Try to get the right. A lot of times you'll ride two by two and the guys on the left side are just getting smashed by the wind and the guys on the right side arm. So don't let the guys super strong be in the wind that order needs to be flipped and especially when you're on the climb, when you are about to hit the climate is really important to be the first one on the climb. It's really going to play into your favor to have some slipping room. Don't destroy yourself to get to the front of the pack before the climb is that kind of makes no sense and talks about managing energy. But if you start the climb and there are 20 guys behind you, if start to blow up and you need a little bit of a break, you can use that slipping room to slow down, you know, get your breath and fall to the back of the pack and sometimes that's all you need just a little bit, 30 seconds of not pinning it to recoup or if it's a really big group and it's a small climb, you can start the climb and go say 11 miles an hour when everyone else is going 12 miles an hour, and by the time you get to the back of the pack, you might have already crested the hill. So you went from the front to the back, you've lost a lot of time which still with the group then on the Descent. You can kind of sort of thing. So don't be in the wind and on the climbs. Start up front so you can fall back through the pack and conserve that energy.


3. Alternating muscle
Most of us use our main quads, the front of our legs and we just hammer. This kind of goes into maybe pedal stroke or pedal efficiency. But if you're not as strong as everyone else, you're going to want to try to shift around. Your muscle groups that are active muscle groups. Use your calf muscles, hamstrings, quads, core, and back doing everything you can to try to shift the muscles that are being active around so that they have more time to recover. It takes practice for sure. It is more of a full pedal stroke. It's more actively thinking about how you're lifting up on the pedals. But you can do this without thinking too much, just by changing up the way you're riding standings sitting high cadence locates. I mean all these things are going to recruit a different set of muscle groups, so for example, when I started climbing, I will start a very high cadence 9200 and I use my internal motor, my heart. I load that up with most of the required amount of energy and then as I start, my heart rate starts to get really high and I'm like having a hard time breathing a click down maybe like 60 rpm and then I'll stand and I'll do much more of a muscular endurance, much muscular strength so that I'm pushing that energy into my muscles and I'm letting my heart rate come down to catch my breath and as soon as my muscles start to blow up. I will then drop down and go back into a high cadence. I flip between those standing setting high cadence located a trick that I've used is to say I'm going to stand for one minute and sit for one minute and then you also have these little bite-sized pieces. These goals that are right close to you. I'm just gonna sit for one minute and then you have like a reward. I get to stand for one minute that will help you recruit different muscles and possibly be able to get it elongate, be the ride of the climb. The amount of power you're able to put out sit standing high cadence located all those things using your calf muscles and your hamstrings to delegate more of the required energy to other things. You don't just get super fatigue in one muscle group.
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