increasing my speed on the flat

tony macaroni

I have now done a few sportives (EDD, WRC, Dales Grimpeur) and used the 2 x 20min based training to good effect to increase my stamina and ability to climb.

But when looking back on my performances, whilst my climbing ability was okay, I think I could make significant gains on the flat as I could never hang onto any chain gangs which would have been good to improve my overall times.

Any top tips for increasing speed/ strength on the flat?

Ta

dennisn

The sarcastic answer is get stronger, pedal harder, and pedal faster. The real life
answer is some form of interval training(which you say you're doing), gettting a bit more
aero, learning to relax on the bike so all your effort can go into pedaling, making sure everything on the bike is running smoothly, riding with a group that makes you work to stay with them, learning to restrain yourself from going out every night and hammering
yourself into the pavement by trying to go faster than the night before(sure way to burnout), last but really most important, rest harder than you train(you always seem to
go faster when you're fresh and well rested). Anyway that's how I look at it.

Dennis Noward

Toks

tony macaroni wrote:

I have now done a few sportives (EDD, WRC, Dales Grimpeur) and used the 2 x 20min based training to good effect to increase my stamina and ability to climb.

But when looking back on my performances, whilst my climbing ability was okay, I think I could make significant gains on the flat as I could never hang onto any chain gangs which would have been good to improve my overall times.

Any top tips for increasing speed/ strength on the flat?

Ta

Mate there's no silver bullet. You've just gotta keep working at it. In a competitive event riding more aerodynamically (on the drops) will obviously help. But if you wanna get faster without the sliippery positioning you simply need to ride fast(ish) on the flat - 2 x 20's, sweet spot rides, chain gangs, longer tempo rides, long TT efforts and short and harder(5 min) than TT pace efforts.

mr-ed

Keep going to the chain gangs even if you get dropped. Its probably the best training you'll be able to do for what you want. If you keep going you will notice an improvement, if you found it easy it wouldn't make any improvements!

bahzob

How do you get dropped by chain gangs?

The usual way this happens is due to concertina effect when lead has to slow for some reason or other (usually a corner). Then when picks up speed again there is a lag before the rider behind speeds up as well. As this lag is passed down the chain the gaps between riders gets bigger and bigger so that at some points the chain snaps.

There are 4 solutions I can think of to help avoid this:
- stay close to the lead. This makes it easy to see and prepare for changes of pace. Downside is that its difficult to do unless take turns on lead, which I know can be difficult if new to sportives and dont come from racing background (applied to me which is why I dont mind it if riders rest at back of groups, provided at least there are a few sharing the pace.) Even if you cant be close to the lead at all costs dont be the last on the back. That way if the chain breaks you will at least have company.

- Regardless, vary attention from near to far. You need to pay attention to wheel in front and those immediately around but keep looking ahead of group as well. This will help you anticipate if a change of pace is coming and prepare accordingly. (also its safest way to ride in group)

- Look at the course profile and plan ahead. On most sportives there are sections where it pays to be in a group, others less so. Also there will be some where if you get dropped from one group another will be along later, others not (feedstops obviously important in this). If concertina happens it may be more sensible to accept it and not bust a gut.

- If in danger of being broken from chain and you do want to stick to it the effort you need to make will be 30seconds or so intense/max effort. As with all cycling if you think you need to make this sort of effort you need to train for it. So simulate this in training, do 10 minutes easyish effort (as you would in group rolling along) then imagine suddenly falling behind and do 30secs all out to "catch up".
(Note doing this will also help inform you about what to do in real life. The intense efforts above take their toll, everybody has a limit on how many they can do. You dont want to find this limit out on an important day. If you can only manage 3 or 4 of these efforts in training then you know your limits. That said doing them can increase confidence. These efforts hurt but there is a point after they start to hurt when you feel yourself catching the group and then they hurt less. (shortly after they hurt even more but hopefully you will have caught the group up and be able to rest).