Faster on flats and wind??

BMKN

I did my first sportive yest 140Km, I noticed that I fly up hills of any incline and I lose people behind me for a few km, I catch up closer to larger groups if there is a long climb after a long flat the people I gained distance on catch up maybe 10mins later, I am terrible at flat and a head wind anything above 20kph head wind, is there anyway I can train for it? I do intervals etc and I dont want aero bars, I have an aero bike.

bernithebiker

Sounds familiar.

If you're light then you climb well. If you're heavy built you go well on the flats. That's just the way it is.

Yes you can work to improve things, but I find the best gains are from getting as aero as I can.

There are exceptions to the rule, but basically you have to work with what you're born with....!

BMKN

Im going to consider gaining muscle in winter.

neeb

You'll get a little faster on the flat with experience - speed on hills is mostly just power to weight ratio so not much technique involved. On the flat, developing a more aero position on the bike and/or skills riding in a bunch are things that take a little more time to acquire. Also you may gradually develop a faster natural cadence (natural as in it feels efficient) which may help (it won't help just changing gear and pedalling faster.. ).

More muscle (as an object in itself) won't help... You just need to increase power at threshold and shorter durations by training for that.

ollie51

How tall and heavy are you? (Trying to get an indication of overall build).

BMKN

Im 5ft 10" 10st 8lbs

LegendLust

Go and live in Belgium. That'll toughen you up

marcusjb

bernithebiker wrote:

There are exceptions to the rule, but basically you have to work with what you're born with....!

Yep - not much you can do with the size and shape you are. I'm 5 foot 8 and 9.5 stone - so will generally stretch ahead on the hills, and be caught on the flats. As for head-winds; small, light riders are not going anywhere fast.

Bit of technique helps (keeping lower etc.). But, most small riders are never going to be sat on the front of the bunch pulling everyone along for long turns and if there is a head-wind, it is pointless going up front for very long at all, just don't have the pure horse-power to keep the pace.

meanredspider

LegendLust wrote:

Go and live in Belgium. That'll toughen you up

Do you mean Belgium? Having lived in both Belgium and Holland and can confidently say that Holland with toughen up the OP. Huge open areas of flat ground (or, worse still, water) with nothing but ditches for shelter (ditches make crap shelter from wind). When I moved here from the Scottish Highlands, I had to completely recalibrate what forecast wind speeds would feel like. 15knots in Scotland was fine - 15knots here and it's going to be relentless! Fortunately I fit into the bigger rider camp so it's nice to see the small guys suffer for once

BrandonA

How is your pacing? I ask as I wonder whether you are putting in too much effort going up hill and then not having enough energy for the flats. You could be passing people on the climbs are they are riding more evenly meaning they then have the energy to re-take you on the flat.

Also, when riding into a headwind I find it best to get as aero as possible and ride in the drops and to also spin a higher cadence.

ollie51

BMKN wrote:

Im 5ft 10" 10st 8lbs

that's not really that bad, for reference I'm the same height as you but pretty much bang on 9st. Unless you live somewhere really flat or ride with much heavier people, this could be more to do with pacing.

jibberjim

You presumably have an aero bike, but an extremely unaero position. Whilst there are people who are capable of significantly increasing their power uphill compared to the flat, they also tend to be able to do it into headwinds (due to the inertial reasons which is causing the difference) So if you're much slower than people you outclimb in both the flat and into headwinds and you're not much lighter than them, then it is aerodynamics which are the cause.

The difference between an aero and normal bike will be a couple of percent of your overall cDA it's almost all the rider...

meanredspider

What's a good aero position worth in power terms at say 20mph? Whilst following another rider at that sort of speed (maybe a bit faster) knocks about 50W off my power requirements and 70W when following a small group, I find it much harder to measure a difference in sitting up and on the drops - even into the wind. That may simply be both a less good position and a less effective (for me) riding position. I can see the difference if I'm descending fast and power requirement is the square of speed (but only proportional to Cd and frontal area if I remember correctly).