What's your weakness?

KHodge

We can't all be good at everything, but I was wondering what you struggle with the most. For example, is your problem short sharp climbs, or going fast on the flat, or getting power in your legs? Cycling Plus will be running a feature on turning your weaknesses into strengths so if you've got a short coming that you'd like to turn around, then let us know about it!

Blacktemplar

Age.

No matter how hard I work at it, I can't seem to get any younger

kieranb

Going down hill fast, especially cornering downhill in the rain.

PHILATHAM

Cakes !! :oops:

Gizmo_

Short sharp climbs for me. Long gradual climbs I can 'diesel' my way up quite happily, but anything over 10% for more than a few yards and I'll just stall. I hate it because I see having to stop as failure, and I absolutely refuse to push under any circumstances.

Of course, I probably know the answer: train more, some Rule 5 and above all carry less timber!

StorckSpeed

Crisps !!

Oh and Loooong steady climbs.
I can power up short climbs with the best, but Long climbs are a nightmare, get dropped and can never catch the wee guys.

Bunneh

Women in lycra and short, sharp climbs.

thegreatdivide

I'm not too shabby at getting up hills - both short and long - it's coming down them that's the problem for me. I’m still a bit twitchy on the brakes. Some of it’s down to the fear of smashing my arm up again and some of it's down to just being a bit rubbish at braking and hitting the apex. I’ve got several Alpine and Pyrenean adventures in the works for next year and I want to get my descending nailed.

Edit – re reading my post what I’m trying to say is I need some help taking corners, specifically on fast descents!

CiB

Bunneh wrote:

Women in lycra and short, sharp climbs.

I managed to combine the two on the Blenheim 100 miler the other year, struggling up Belas Knap (nr Cheltenham if anyone knows it) with a v well formed lady cyclist just ahead of me for a few yards kept my mind off the pain and the unsuitable gearing I had then.

Weakness? Maintaining speed when faced with a short up after a long flat run. It drops away too easily.

pb21

Riding into a headwind.

Seem to be relatively bad at it, probably psychological.

bompington

I have none.
















Apart from greed, lack of self-discipline, excess weight, laziness, ....

jonomc4

long gradual climbs - and I have tried ever technique under the sun!

and fit women in Lycra.

- I have just found the answer! Follow a fit woman in Lycra up a gradual long hill (though I will need a reward at the top to act as an incentive)!

Flexisurfer

Speed on the flats for me, love going up and down hills the faster the better but it's getting up to a nice speed on the flats :roll:

Frank the tank

Climbing, descending, flat roads, rolling (undulating) roads, riding in the cold,riding in the heat,riding in the wet, riding alone, riding in a group, short rides, long endurance rides,riding in the dark and riding in the daylight.

Everything else is a breeze.

Anonymous

Headwinds. Everything else I can just about cope with, but present even a gnat's fart and I am dead. Would be interested to know how to build up 'resilience' to that. Love climbing, getting better at descending and quite happy on the flat, but I just have 0 stamina when it comes to pushing a headwind

Have dusted off the old turbo so will see.....

upperoilcan

Another one for Women in Lycra..

But above all Kryptonite........

Bastard stuff.

bompington

coriordan wrote:

Headwinds. Everything else I can just about cope with, but present even a gnat's fart and I am dead. Would be interested to know how to build up 'resilience' to that. Love climbing, getting better at descending and quite happy on the flat, but I just have 0 stamina when it comes to pushing a headwind

Have dusted off the old turbo so will see.....

What is it about headwinds? Logically, we all know that you just grit your teeth and keep going, and that pedalling at, say, 200W into a headwind is exactly as much work as pedalling at 200W with a gale behind you. But it always feels like a personal affront somehow, doesn't it?

Anonymous

Also relatively.

I ride with quite a strong chap usually, and while I can destroy him up any sort of gradient, he can usually sit next to me into a headwind and ride it for a looooong time whereas eventually I will drop back and tuck in behind him. He can also hold this at quite a speed.

I know there is the power/weight debate, and I guess as about 10kg lighter perhaps I have an advantage (80 vs 70kg). I guess I need MORE POWER (or something?)

CambsNewbie

I can't seem to cope with sharp hills. A long gradual gradient is no problem but anything sharp and I struggle. Went out with the other half recently and even though he's about 20-25kgheavier than me and doesnt cycle as much as me, on the hills just left me behind!

Not to good on corners either! Had a big off last year when misjudged a corner, went into it way too fast for my bike handling skills, locked the rear wheel and hit a kerb, landing heavily on my back (luckily on thick grass). Since then I'm overly cautious on corners.

Kieran_Burns

StorckSpeed wrote:

Crisps !!

Oh and Loooong steady climbs.
I can power up short climbs with the best, but Long climbs are a nightmare, get dropped and can never catch the wee guys.

Are you me?

badly_dubbed

mine would be sustained effort in a group, anything 20mph+ and im shelled out the back in under 10mins....

Sharpy_lad

Short recovery periods to produce hard efforts time and time again.

Pross

Plenty of them but I think they are all made worse by my biggest weakness which is the inability to put myself through pain. Instead of taking Jens' 'shut up legs' approach I take a non-confrontational stance with them and say 'yes, you're right - it hurts so let's go a bit easier'. When I was young, fit and light I should have been far better than my results suggested but it was that lack of mental toughness that stopped me. Now I haven't even got the semi-decent physical condition so it's even worse!

verylonglegs

Pross wrote:

Plenty of them but I think they are all made worse by my biggest weakness which is the inability to put myself through pain. Instead of taking Jens' 'shut up legs' approach I take a non-confrontational stance with them and say 'yes, you're right - it hurts so let's go a bit easier'.

I have this with cycling only, one of the reasons I decided years ago to not worry about average speeds and times. It's odd because I've always been able to absolutely turn myself inside out when running with intervals and pace work, back when I was doing pre-season training for football years ago and the x-country I do in the winter now. Try and do the same with cycling however and I just can't take myself to that edge so it remains on the boundary of leisure and fitness for me as an activity.

random man

Frank the tank wrote:

Climbing, descending, flat roads, rolling (undulating) roads, riding in the cold,riding in the heat,riding in the wet, riding alone, riding in a group, short rides, long endurance rides,riding in the dark and riding in the daylight.

Everything else is a breeze.

Stop being so negative - you're great at wheelsucking

Frank the tank

random man wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

Climbing, descending, flat roads, rolling (undulating) roads, riding in the cold,riding in the heat,riding in the wet, riding alone, riding in a group, short rides, long endurance rides,riding in the dark and riding in the daylight.

Everything else is a breeze.

Stop being so negative - you're great at wheelsucking

That's not wheelsucking, I'm just checking the cleanliness of the rear break caliper and seat post. :roll:

team47b

Grouting.

baldwin471

All of the above.

donkykong

big macs

Initialised

Got to be climbing.

andy46

Why am I not as confident going around right handed bends as opposed to left handers?

I'd also like to be able to climb a bit better (though I am getting better)