If you watch the Pro riders on the Tour de France, you can see that even the very best bike riders in the world crash. It also happens disturbingly often and many are quite spectacular, given that the are 200 riders tightly packed together in a frenetic gallop to the finish-line. It just takes one misjudgment or lapse of attention by one rider to cause a domino of riders to tumble.

Some riders also get bad luck more than others, like Julian Dean, who has signed with Green Edge; has had a crash filled racing career.

There are plenty of amateur riders around the world that take part in group rides, stage races, criteriums etc and since we all ride in close proximity to each other, crashes can invariably happen. But there are ways to avoid crashing where possible.

To help mitigate the chances of crashing, I have come up with the following tips:

Maintain your Focus 

Stay focused on whats happening ahead and don’t get distracted by your gadgets on the handlebars (GPS, power meters, computers).

Hold your Line

This means no sudden swerving and its a good idea to drink and eat at the back of the breakaway or where you can refuel without causing problems for other riders behind you.
Squirrelly riding is frowned upon in the peloton… be predictable, don’t be erratic with your speed and gently tap on the brakes when riding in the middle of the bunch. Stay away from riders that are not comfortable bike handlers.

Go with the flow and stay relaxed

Relax your grip on the bars and relax in the shoulder region. Relaxed riders are more fluid on the bike and will crash less often than tense ones.

Don’t Panic and overreact

The unexpected can happen but it does not mean you will crash. Sometimes the initial mistake is not the cause of a crash, but its the chain reaction…

Stay at the front of the group

This is usually the number one piece of advice any good rider will give you – stay near the front. But you have to be strong enough to get there in the first place and you have to be willing to contribute to the smooth running of the rotating pace line if there is one. If not, you’ll be pushed out and out towards the back.

Don’t be packfill

Ride positively, make your own attacks and follow other attacks. This way you will always be off the front and less chance for crashing!

Regardless, if you race enough, you will at some point be in a situation where you just can’t avoid crashing. Its happened to me a number of times and it is just part of the sport of cycling.

Some more tips on Cyclingtipsblog on how to avoid crashing

Crashing seems to be rife in the cycling world, it almost is a normal occurrence that it is almost an accepted part of the sport. You see the pros crashing all the time, you see experienced riders in fast USA criteriums crashing out, you see inexperienced riders

The benefits of cycling is plain for all: you get fit and it has been promoted as “non-impact” sport that is easy on your joints, but when you crash it suddenly becomes a high impact sport that can leave you out of action for months.  You see many new riders embracing the sport as they approach middle-age, it has certainly become the “new golf” and provides opportunities for social interactions on group rides. It also becomes competitive when riders start lining up at races, which are proliferating at a fast rate around the world.  Most riders who are successful at racing or have been racing for a while would have invariably crashed at some point or another. If you have not yet crashed, it becomes a matter of when it will happen to you.

You can take precautionary steps to avoid crashing by riding conservatively and taking no risks at all, but sometimes external factors, beyond your control, will contrive to bring you down onto the tarmac for a heavy landing. Sometimes, crashing is completely unnecessary and is usually the result of careless riding or blatant risk taking. Crashes can happen just from a temporary lapse of concentration, wet surfaces, or a sudden change in the road width or direction when it is least expected. There are times when crashing can be excused and other times when it is completely  uncalled for.

Bike racing involves a certain amount of risk taking, especially if you are a sprinter and the race is heading for a bunch gallop to the line. This 2011 season I’ve been quite lucky and have not been involved in any crashes, but in 2010 I did have several crashes one of which happened in a Shanghai race and also numerous close one’s in various races this year including this race in Xinyi and most recently narrowly avoiding coming down when two riders in the breakaway tumbled for no reason in the final lap in the Suzhou event.

Shanghai: Crash story

There is a race series in Shanghai that I took part in regularly for training last year. Its a pretty small race in my view with no prize money up for grabs and I treat it like a training fun race to gain fitness and practice certain tactics to try in bigger races, but some riders from the Shanghai area seem to treat this as a world championship which sometimes promotes risky behavior.

I got caught up in a crash that was completely unnecessary near the end of the final lap of one race. I was cruising along on the outside of the peloton looking to position myself to do well in the final sprint. I had no one on the right of me and had plenty of room to move, and I was moving up slowly but surely. On my left there was a rider who was anxious to get out of the peloton when he saw me cruise slowly by. Half of my bike was in front of him and he started to try and nudge his way out to which I responded by accelerating slightly but safely. The next thing I knew, another rider that was in front of him veered sharply into my path and went down. You can see it all unfold before your eyes like slow-motion and I did make it past the rider who went down, but my rear wheel was still in the air and as it crashed down, the weight of my body crashed down onto the saddle and caused the seat post to snap clean off. The next thing I knew I was lying on the ground with my bike on top of me! I get up to get back on the bike to at least try and finish the race, but the bike was mangled that it was not rideable.  The guy who caused the crash, stayed upright and he finished second. The crash had taken out four of the top six contenders for the series overall win. My point here is to illustrate that this crash was completely avoidable if the rider had stayed where he was and moved out after I had passed him, he would still have time to pull out a good result. It so happens that this particular rider has a reputation for being dangerous and twitchy during races, it was not the first time that this particular had caused crashes by blatantly careless riding at such a small event.

USA Superweek crashes

Sure, I have had my fair share of crashes – most of them as a result of other crashes and other riders being aggressive towards me when wanting to take the wheel I am on. I recall one particular crash that was mostly my fault. It was during a Superweek race in the Chicago area and there is money up for grabs if you finish well. So there was well over 100 riders all vying for position in the closing laps. I had moved up into the top 30 and was looking good. In what I believed was the last lap and coming up to the final corner, I saw a small gap on my right that I thought I could slot into in order to move into the top 20 and launch my assault. These are types of scenarios riders are faced with in these kinds of races, and there is some degree of risk taking that you have to take to advance your position. This is an acceptable part of racing and I took the 50/50 gamble with trying to get myself into that small gap – it was closed by another rider who saw me coming and prevented me from getting a clean slot. This resulted in my handle-bars colliding and I lost balance and went straight down at 30 miles per hour (just over 50km/h) and slid across the road, ending my chances of a top finish and managing to get some serious road rash and damaging my bike. Was this my fault? Yes it was for taking the risk and no because the other rider  saw me coming and closed that gap. Since I already committed to the move, I had no where to go.

Two years ago I was in another big crash at Superweek that was clearly caused by another rider’s unbridled aggression. I had been following a well-known sprinters wheel (he had motioned for me to follow) and within the space of one lap on the super fast Evanston course, I had moved from mid-pack of 200 riders to just outside the top 10 with only five laps remaining. I was feeling so good and believed that I would have a great chance of getting a great result in a pro race but there was a German pro rider who wanted the known-sprinters wheel that I was securely fastened on. He started elbowing me and trying to get me to concede. I would not budge, so on the next corner he repeated his tactic and I just kept my ground. The German rider was not going to give up and kept doing this to me for four corners. On the fourth corner he actually did a bigger shove and this pushed me straight up onto the curb, I was up on the curb with my handlebars rattling the barriers that were there. I had almost regained control and was trying to get back down onto the road when my handlebar caught the barrier and ripped right out and into the pack of riders. I went straight down, very hard. I believe I was slightly concussed and my hand and shoulders were the hardest hit. They had stopped the race and had the ambulance come on course ready to take me to the hospital, but I regained composure and declared that I was going to complete the race despite my bike being all beaten up and some bad body injuries. Sram neutral support got me one of their Sram equipped bikes with Zipp 404s and I was restarted the race on the borrowed bike. My adrenalin kept me going and I was able to collect 22nd (in the money). But I never knew who the culprit was, I was livid for a long time about how this rider was so aggressive to cause such a big crash. He obviously wanted the wheel I was on that badly.  It goes to show how riders are willing to take unnecessary risks it to win or place well at all costs.

Real Cyclist?

As a sprinter myself, I am no stranger to risk taking. But I am more patient nowadays and know how to position myself better for the sprint so that it can be a clean safe sprint. Racing in New Zealand seems to be hard safe racing for the most part, although it appears that some serious crashing happened at New Zealand’s Tour of Southland for two years in a row that had a few riders broken bikes and bodies! Crashing is part of a cyclists life – if you are new to racing,  you will crash invariably at some point or another. It happens to everyone. Some more serious than others like Wade Wallace’s article on The Broken Collarbone where if you are not considered a “real cyclist” if your collarbone has never been broken. I am in the same boat as Wade, I don’t want to break my bones just to prove that I am worthy of the title of real cyclist!  I have been very lucky to some degree with my past crashes that I have not done any major damage. I still have neck and shoulder issues from my past crash injuries and need to see the chiropractor or physio from time to time.

Best riders in the World

When you watch the Tour de France or any major Pro Tour race, you can often see the best cyclists in the world crashing. Perhaps their risk taking is even bigger, when you have 200 guys galloping in for the bunch sprint at 65-70km/h and it only takes one guy to make a mistake to cause a domino effect where the bunch would demolish spectacularly. There is alot more at stake for these riders so they take more risks, both making dangerous moves as well as entering the world of doping (you can read a very interesting account New Pathways to Pro Cycling) to get an unfair competitive edge on rivals.  The good thing is that cycling is slowly cleaning this up and the pro peloton has slower average speeds as a result of this.

Questions for discussion: What is your view on the risk taking element in the sport of road cycling? My next post will provide you with some tips to avoid getting into a potential crash situation and how to take calculated but safer risks.

Given that I am attempting the 2011 Mongolia Bike Challenge, my first major multi-day endurance mountain biking event, I thought it was pertinent to come up with a few solid tips and strategies for completing the race to the best of your abilities. It is hoped that this post will be useful to other mountain bikers who are thinking about doing their first multi-day stage race.

Mutli-day endurance mountain biking events are becoming increasingly popular such as the  BC Bike Race in Canada and Cape Epic in South Africa, just to name a couple. Multi-day endurance mountain bike racing has to be one of the toughest disciplines out there simply because mountain biking is like an individual time-trial and you have to be self-sufficient and mentally you have to be strong. I have talked to a number of experienced mountain bikers to glean some worthwhile tips and strategies to share with you, namely Craig Johns, Cory Wallace (Kona Factory Team) and Radek Tuma who has competed at Cape Epic.

Top Tips and Strategies

Cory Wallace (Professional cyclist)

• To prepare for a race like the Mongolia Bike Challenge I think it is important to get in some longer riders of 4-6 hrs to make sure the endurance system is intact and that the body can develop the ability to burn fat as fuel.  I will generally focus on building this endurance in the early part of the season and up to 4 weeks before the big event.  Once the endurance is laid down I will make sure I hit up some mountain bike and road races to sharpen the high-end systems and then I will try to taper it down for the 7-10 days just prior to the event.  I will still ride a decent amount in this time but I will make sure it is easy and that I don’t tire myself out as the biggest key going into a big event is to be well rested!

Cory racing singletrack

• Race strategy Tips:  Pacing is key. It is easy to get overly excited in the first few days of a stage race and ride harder then you should be and then pay the consequences later on in the stage race.  It is key to keep a level head and try to stay steady for the first few days and then hopefully have some fuel left to hurt the other riders once they are tired further into the race.  Small things like drafting, getting a good start and not surging too much are all keys in properly managing the energy that we have and not let any of this valuable resource get wasted.

•  Nutritionally it is nice to have a low glycemic meal for breakfast.  generally something with lots of fats and proteins in it which will be able to provide a sustained level of energy throughout the day.  Once the race is on I will generally keep to nuts and figs for the first half of the day and then move onto bananas, gels and other higher glycemic, quicker energy options later on as the body demands easy sugars to keep the body going to the finish line.  Of course having a solid caffeine supply throughout the day is also very beneficial!

•  For equipment I am a big fan of the 29er wheels for longer events as they are a little bit smoother and climb very well.  Having unscathed/fresh tires is a key to avoid losing big time due to flat tires.  Having a couple extra tubes, a pump, chain tool, allen keys and small bottle of lube will deal with 95% of the problems we will occur out on the course.  Other then that it is important to ride smooth and steady to prevent any unecessary damage/mechanical which could cost the race.

•  Positive outlook: For any endurance race I believe the most important thing is to have positive outlook and to not little little bumps get in the way of what is always a great adventure.  Win or lose, the memories which come from pushing yourself to the limit while riding across some of the most beautiful places on earth are those which will stick with us all for a very long time.

Craig Johns (Coach, ex-pro Triathlete and top mountain biker)

• Pacing early in the race when feeling fresh is very important. The excitement of the race, feeling fresh and adrenaline can cause athletes to go out very quick resulting in a slower pace late the 1st stage and using extra reserves that are needed for the following days.

• Setting a hydration and nutrition plan is very important. What is even more important is the athlete sticks to it. If you wait until you are hungry or thirsty it maybe too late and your performance will already be compromised.

Radek Tuma (Cape Epic competitor)

• Keep the spare parts you may need with you and carry at least two inner tubes if running regular tires.  I recommend also carrying brake pads and a rear derailleur hanger (I bent one in Africa) and related tools
• Always have always enough water, maybe consider using a bladder. Osprey make some good ones like the Viper 4.
• Carry some basic first-aid kit (plaster, sunblock, painkiller)
• Have plenty of sore back cream – it is very important!!
• Most important - don’t go fast in first half of the race,  it’s a long stage race and after four to five days people will start getting tired. The second half of the event is where you can make the most time gaps on your competitors.

Bikedan’s Seven Top Tips

• Focus on eating low glycemic meals that don’t spike your sugar levels. It is important to have constant energy levels throughout the day. I’ll be consuming quite a bit of USANA products such as their Nutrimeal Shakes, Oatmeal Raisin bars, REV 3 Energy surge packs as well as the essential range of vitamins including grape seed extract for faster recovery.
• As Cory mentioned, ride a 29er bike for more efficiency and speed. I’ll be on the Orbea 29er Team bike!
• Conserve your energy and get into a smooth constant rhythm early on in the race. Attack your opponents in the later stages of the stage race.
• Consider using Tubeless tires and checkout WTB’s new TCS systems and their new range of 29er tires. By using the tubeless system you can eliminate flats and save yourself a ton of time.
• Prepare adequately by road riding – road training is the best for your endurance and ideally you want to do rides of between four to six hours. The longer rides only need to be once a week with a couple of 3-4 hour rides. You don’t need to go all out with trying to do mega-miles, in fact less is better. I spoke with a top mountain biker who was fresh from Cape Epic and he commented that he only does 12-14 hours a week for his training but alot of it at high intensity.
• In the last 7-10 days, you should be in taper mode. Can even take complete days off to recover. Most rides should be easy with a few intensity intervals thrown in. During the event, proper rest/nutrition to aid recovery day-to-day is crucial.
• Stay mentally strong and persevere even when the going is tough. Finishing a multi-stage mountain bike race is an achievement in itself.

Hope you found this useful and can apply some of the above tips for your preparation and racing. If you have any comments of your own about tips that have not been mentioned, please feel free to add them in the comments below.  Stay tuned to my website as well as Cyclingnewsasia for the Mongolia Bike Challenge updates. Hopefully I’ll make it out of the Gobi Desert and survive the mountains to tell the tales!

Usage of Rollers Provide for Good Spin and Balance Practice

Sometimes I just don’t want to head out into the Chinese traffic and train, so I often find myself training on rollers at least 2-3 times a week. Usually no more than 60 minutes at a time. There is an old saying that 60 mins on the rollers is worth at least 90 mins of riding on the road. However, those outdoor rides are still very important to do.

I had the opportunity to try out one of the Sufferfest videos – The Revolver: which is an extremely intense workout and should not be attempted by the weak-minded! You need determination to finish all 16 intervals contained within the video.  If you doubt your condition, you might want to ask your doctor before completing this workout.

I did my workout on my Cycleop Aluminium Rollers – which is probably not ideal for high power output, but it served to get my cadence very high and my heart rate hitting 170 + by the end of each 1min interval. They are great for working on efficient spinning technique and balance.  If you want to get the highest power you are capable of, then it is recommended to either get a resistance adapter for the rollers or use a trainer/stationary bicycle.

The Revolver DVD contains officially licensed UCI track racing (Track World Cup in Manchester), cyclocross (World Cup in Hoogerheide and Koksijde) and road racing (Road World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland). This makes it an exciting workout and you feel the extra urge to sprint with the World Champions!

Before the Sufferfest or ultimate torture begins, you are warming up for six or seven minutes, beginning with the group ride through the Portala Valley in the US. You up the tempo when it hits the 250m velodrome and the last couple of laps complete your first interval. The crack of the gun spurs you into action!

This is how your power profile should look like after completing the workout

The only respite is the one minute recoveries that show mountain downhill footage and then you are straight back into the suffering with the other World Class riders! This has to be one of the better DVD’s for an indoor cycling workout, it has very clear instructions on what to do and has prompts on screen and countdown so that  you know exactly what you are doing. The alt-rock/electronic music also motivates you to perform to your best.

If you are doing the intervals to the best of your ability, then you will notice them getting progressively harder the more you do. Your breathing will also become ragged and uncontrollable, and those short recoveries is just enough to get it the lactic acid out of your legs and resume control of your breathing!

For those riders who incorporate power into their training, you will see that your ability to sustain the wattage in the latter stages of your workout increasingly difficult. It is common to see a decline in the power while your heart rate continues to shoot through the roof. If you don’t feel completely shattered at the end, please do another five to ten intervals! I give this DVD my recommendation.

Visit http://www.thesufferfest.com/ for more information on how to download their videos.

I like to use Training Peaks for keeping track of my workouts and uploading the power files. If you have got an online training diary, I would recommend checking out what Training Peaks have to offer. It is free for the basic level but if you want to upload your data, you need to pay a small monthly subscription fee. There is a free full-version trial that you can try out before deciding if you like it or not.

Warming up on the Rollers for the Deaflympics 32km ITT

One notable winner that emerged from the cobblestones, was Cadel Evans (ex-MTB World Champion) who put his mountain biking skills to good use to finish in the front group. Lance Armstrong was unlucky to have punctured at a critical time and lost some minutes on the front group – however he still remains within contention in his bid to achieve an unprecedented 8th Tour win at the age of 38yrs.  There were also many crashes on the cobblestones – one major one was Frank Schleck who was unfortunate to have broken a collarbone and is out of the race.

Not only the Pro-Tour riders find riding on rough roads difficult, but most riders at the amateur level also find it challenging and I thought it would be pertinent to include a few tips about riding on such roads. I have raced in several rough road races including the Tunis-Roubaix in Texas, the Leesville Gap Road Race in Northern California and some sections of the Tour of Luzon in the Philippines.

Seven Top Tips:

• Stay fluid on the bike and constantly scan ahead for best line, but if you are in the middle of the peloton this could be difficult to do; so the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to try and get as close to the front of the peloton as you can. After riding on the rough road for a few minutes, the peloton will naturally become spread out and therefore easier to ride your own lines.
• Try to ride in a bigger gear to keep momentum and for your stability on the bike – you don’t want to bounce around on rough surfaces with a high cadence. The faster you can ride on the surface, the more smoother it will become.
• Choose a good set of tires that will withstand severe punishment – see my Tunis-Roubaix report for my account of tire failure in the roughest of roads. Currently I am using Duro tires, which have so far withstood the punishment of tough racing at the Tour of Luzon, the Friendship Tour of Thailand and numerous rough roads in China and Taiwan. I will be writing a full-review of the Duro Tires that will be published on this website.
• Go mountain biking as part of your cross-training program and the skills you gain from riding over tricky terrain should translate well to riding over Roubaix style roads.
• Depending on the type of road, you will want to vary your riding path. For instance, in the recent Inner Mongolia MTB Adventure, it consisted of many rough tracks and road that required some focused riding skills. One good line was to ride on the groove where it is the smoothest right next to the grass. As for riding on cobblestones, sometimes the most cut up is on the sides which means you have to ride in the centre to ride most effectively.
• Make sure you have good bottle cages - quite often I see riders losing their bottles once the road turns rough, I have experienced it myself on numerous occasions! Ensuring you have fluids on hand after the rough stuff, means that you can finish strongly rather than dehydrating.
• Use a strong set of low profile rims – it was noted at the Tour de France that many of the pro riders were using low profile rims to handle the rough sections.

Living here in China, I constantly have to deal with a mixture of roads: from the super smooth dream roads for cyclists to the other end of the scale where roads are littered with pot-holes and large gravel pieces. You just never know what you will get on a long exploring training ride.

If you have any tips pertaining to rough road riding, please let me know.

Strong Chinese racer

(Disclaimer: the tips presented are by no means limited to only Chinese riders, but applicable to other countries. It is also not an exhaustive list – so if you have any tips yourself, please post in the comments below)

• Treat local races as training races – preparation for your more important races. This means, you can experiment with different tactics and see which works best for you.
• Race positively at all times. If you find yourself in a early breakaway and you want it to succeed, then work together with the other riders and don’t give up too soon.
• Develop smooth pace-line riding skills – it will improve the quality of the race experience if you are rolling through to the front, do 10 seconds or 1min on the front and then pull off into the wind side gradually to allow the rider in second position to roll through. Once you finish your turn on the front, flick your elbow to signal to the rider behind that is it now his turn – do not stop pedaling and you should slowly drift back to the rear of the pace-line and get back in. The rider in second position should not speed up but keep a constant pace and keep the flow going.  As soon as one rider misses the turn on front, it upsets the rhythm and it takes someone else to take initiative to get started again. Paceline skills are very important to master and becomes essential to the difference between a break winning or losing.


Simon Cui (Specialized) leading Cui Yinhao (China Trek Racing)

• If a rider attacks and gets away, rather than pulling the whole bunch back to that rider it would be best to try and get a gap of your own and bridge across and form a breakaway. It is not good form to make the bridge and sit on the rider.  This will almost certainly destroy the breakaways hope as momentum would be lost.  It is good to carry on your momentum from the bridging effort and continue to ride past the rider that made the initial attack.  That rider is then likely to jump onto your wheel and then work with you after about 10-20 seconds recovery in your draft.  Do not slow down immediately because you think he is sitting on you, but rather wait a bit longer to decide if that rider is going to work with you.
• Even if the going is tough and you are well into the “red-zone” you should still roll through in the pace-line, it is permissible to pull over to the side immediately after pulling through as long as the overall momentum is not lost. This is a good tactic to use if you are tiring and still want to contribute to the break. But, if your legs are dead and you definitely can’t pull through without risk of getting dropped, it is best to stay at the very back out of other riders way - just leave a gap in front of you so that other riders can slot into.
• The peloton as a whole can move considerably faster than any break due to the large body of riders, provided they work together in an organized fashion akin to a flock of birds. If people are rolling through every few seconds and you have at least 10-20 riders co-operating, the break will be brought back in no time.  However, if the break has too large of a gap, and it’s gotten to close to the end of the race, this tactic won’t work.  I’ve seen many breaks chased down at the last moment for a group finale; it just takes enough committed people to keep the peleton traveling at a consistently high speed to do it.

Riding is a game of skill and luck. A well coordinated team can dominate what happens during a race and dictate who will take the win.  The great thing about cycling, is there is a myriad of racing tactics that can be deployed and create a race with exciting dynamics: both for spectators and riders alike.

Watch out for Chinese riders in the future, they will become a force to be reckoned with!

Jen and I were both up at 6am and out the doors at 6.45 to ride along the river path for 10 kms to meet the group at 7am. We managed to get there 15mins late, but fortunately the group were waiting for others to turn up. There were several girls present and some quite new to cycling! Since Jen is all decked out in her Hansaton-Champion System cycling gear, she looks a pro and people thought she’d be pretty quick! She informed them that she just has the looks but likes to ride slow.

Since I was riding with my wife, I had to make sure she would be ok and happy during the ride. I asked her what she thought if I should ride on ahead with the faster guys and let her ride with the girls. She did not like the sound of that, so I duly stayed on her wheel and ensured things would go smoothly.  She told me that if I was not with her the whole time, she would not have been able to make it through the ride. It was her longest ride to-date, totaling 52kms including hills and rolling terrain. One of the biggest enjoyments of the ride was actually getting to Wulai and being able to relax at Helen’s Mobile Coffee drinking good coffee, eating waffles and cheese cake, while savoring the splendid views of the river and bush clad mountains.

• Pushing your partner/wife up the hill if she is tiring
• Buy coffee or have scheduled coffee stops
• Making sure she is comfortable
• Making conversation about topics other than cycling or advice about training

1. When out riding with your partner and she complains that she is tired, don’t bring up your amount of training that you have already done that week to justify that you should be more tired. Bottom-line: when she says she is tired, it is best not to tell her she shouldn’t be!
2. Do encourage your partner/wife to go riding with you on a frequent basis
3. Wearing matching uniforms can help your partner/wife feel like she belongs next to you on a bike OR feel more like a pro even with beginning riding skills
4. WIVES: Since cycling is a big part of his life, do make an effort to go riding with him once in a while and enjoy time together on bikes 

More photos are posted below for your enjoyment. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next blog article which will be about a recent race I competed in here in Taiwan.

Jen is enjoying a nutritious USANA Oatmeal-raisin bar that provided sustainable energy to complete the 52km ride

Jen and I posing at mid-point of the Wulai ride

Riding through some nice scenery on the way to Wulai

Riding through the Wulai Market Street that was not too busy since it was still very early

While out climbing at Yangming Mountain, I kept noticing various riders whose climbing skills could do with some coaching including educating them the importance of a professional bike fit. I have come up with a list of tips for beginner climbers or those who have been climbing for a while but wonder why they never improve:

• Bike fit: The importance of this cannot be understated. I kept noticing people’s hips rocking side-to-side or wearing knee pads (they have a chronic knee problem). Taiwanese apparently have collected bad habits from scooter riding and many insist on having their saddle height low enough so they can plant both feet firmly on the ground.
• Pedaling style: I saw alot of people mashing their pedals with extremely low cadences, some were doing 20RPM and using their upper bodies to propel the bike forward. It is important to cultivate a fluid pedaling technique. Start with the proper bike fit, and then practise high cadences on the flat – 95-105 RPM. When climbing long hills, you need to find a cadence that you can comfortably hold without blowing. I tend to find that I average 65-75rpm on climbs, sometimes dropping down to 45-50 RPM on the steep sections. Focus on high cadence and smooth pedaling will ensure you climb efficiently (this works well on the 5-6% steady climbs).
• Relax your upper body – try to keep it motionless when seated and keep all the power coming from the glutes/legs.
• Alternate your position. Mix your climbing with some out-of-saddle climbing with the seated, this will help rest different muscle groups.
• Point your heels down-wards and keep your knees closer to the top tube of your frame, this will give you more power to climb as the glutes are more fully engaged.
• Take the pain – this is often the difference when racing a climb, it is the person who can tolerate greater pain to surge ahead or just to hold on with the group whether in training or racing. Climbing for the most part is mental – training your mind to think positively about climbing will go along way to climbing success. This tip is good for those who are competitive.
• Pacing - Don’t go too hard at the beginning. I saw quite a few people attack the slopes and then steadily lose power and I would past and drop them forever. It is important to go out at a steady that you can maintain for the whole climb duration, reserving surges for the steep inclines and when the end is in sight.
• This list is by no means exhaustive and there are plenty of books and internet resources devoted to the art of climbing.

If you want to see tangible climbing improvements, I would advise finding a climb that takes roughly 10minutes to complete and has a nice gradient of about 2-4%. Use this climb once a month, where you perform an all-out time-trial on it. Make sure you are well warmed up and mentally ready to put out a big effort. You can use your time as a measure for your improvements. You can also use the same climb to do several intervals during hill specific training. The aim is to complete each interval within 10-20seconds of each other. This will build consistency and a greater tolerance for lactate build up in your legs. The recovery in-between each interval should only be 2-5mins. When doing the interval repeats, its important to find that “sweet spot” where you are very close to your threshold. The goal is to complete all the intervals with similar times, heart-rates or power.

Elizabeth Quinn (Feb 2008)

How the body converts food to fuel relies upon several different energy pathways. Having a basic understanding of these systems can help athletes train and eat efficiently for improved sports performance.

Sports nutrition is built upon an understanding of how nutrients such as carbohydrate, fat, and protein contribute to the fuel supply needed by the body to perform exercise. These nutrients get converted to energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate or ATP. It is from the energy released by the breakdown of ATP that allows muscle cells to contract. However, each nutrient has unique properties that determine how it gets converted to ATP.

Carbohydrate is the main nutrient that fuels exercise of a moderate to high intensity, while fat can fuel low intensity exercise for long periods of time. Proteins are generally used to maintain and repair body tissues, and are not normally used to power muscle activity.

Energy Pathways
Because the body can not easily store ATP (and what is stored gets used up within a few seconds), it is necessary to continually create ATP during exercise. In general, the two major ways the body converts nutrients to energy are:

* Aerobic metabolism (with oxygen)
* Anaerobic metabolism (without oxygen)

These two pathways can be further divided. Most often it’s a combination of energy systems that supply the fuel needed for exercise, with the intensity and duration of the exercise determining which method gets used when.

ATP-CP Anaerobic Energy Pathway
The ATP-CP energy pathway (sometimes called the phosphate system) supplies about 10 seconds worth of energy and is used for short bursts of exercise such as a 100 meter sprint. This pathway doesn’t require any oxygen to create ATP. It first uses up any ATP stored in the muscle (about 2-3 seconds worth) and then it uses creatine phosphate (CP) to resynthesize ATP until the CP runs out (another 6-8 seconds). After the ATP and CP are used the body will move on to either aerobic or anaerobic metabolism (glycolysis) to continue to create ATP to fuel exercise.

Anaerobic Metabolism – Glycolysis
The anaerobic energy pathway, or glycolysis, creates ATP exclusively from carbohydrates, with lactic acid being a by-product. Anaerobic glycolysis provides energy by the (partial) breakdown of glucose without the need for oxygen. Anaerobic metabolism produces energy for short, high-intensity bursts of activity lasting no more than several minutes before the lactic acid build-up reaches a threshold known as the lactate threshold and muscle pain, burning and fatigue make it difficult to maintain such intensity.

Aerobic Metabolism
Aerobic metabolism fuels most of the energy needed for long duration activity. It uses oxygen to convert nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and protein) to ATP. This system is a bit slower than the anaerobic systems because it relies on the circulatory system to transport oxygen to the working muscles before it creates ATP. Aerobic metabolism is used primarily during endurance exercise, which is generally less intense and can continue for long periods of time.

During exercise an athlete will move through these metabolic pathways. As exercise begins, ATP is produced via anaerobic metabolism. With an increase in breathing and heart rate, there is more oxygen available and aerobic metabolism begins and continues until the lactate threshold is reached. If this level is surpassed, the body can not deliver oxygen quickly enough to generate ATP and anaerobic metabolism kicks in again. Since this system is short-lived and lactic acid levels rise, the intensity can not be sustained and the athlete will need to decrease intensity to remove lactic acid build-up.

Fueling the Energy Systems
Nutrients get converted to ATP based upon the intensity and duration of activity, with carbohydrate as the main nutrient fueling exercise of a moderate to high intensity, and fat providing energy during exercise that occurs at a lower intensity. Fat is a great fuel for endurance events, but it is simply not adequate for high intensity exercise such as sprints or intervals. If exercising at a low intensity (or below 50 percent of max heart rate), you have enough stored fat to fuel activity for hours or even days as long as there is sufficient oxygen to allow fat metabolism to occur.

As exercise intensity increases, carbohydrate metabolism takes over. It is more efficient than fat metabolism, but has limited energy stores. This stored carbohydrate (glycogen) can fuel about 2 hours of moderate to high level exercise. After that, glycogen depletion occurs (stored carbohydrates are used up) and if that fuel isn’t replaced athletes may hit the wall or “bonk.” An athlete can continue moderate to high intensity exercise for longer simply replenishing carbohydrate stores during exercise. This is why it is critical to eat easily digestible carbohydrates during moderate exercise that lasts more than a few hours. If you don’t take in enough carbohydrates, you will be forced to reduce your intensity and tap back into fat metabolism to fuel activity.

As exercise intensity increases, carbohydrate metabolism efficiency drops off dramatically and anaerobic metabolism takes over. This is because your body can not take in and distribute oxygen quickly enough to use either fat or carbohydrate metabolism easily. In fact, carbohydrates can produce nearly 20 times more energy (in the form of ATP) per gram when metabolized in the presence of adequate oxygen than when generated in the oxygen-starved, anaerobic environment that occurs during intense efforts (sprinting).

With appropriate training these energy systems adapt and become more efficient and allow greater exercise duration at higher intensity.

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Rhodiola Extract (Rhodiola Rosea, Root) 200 mg
White, Black, and Green Tea Extract Blend containing 80 mg Caffeine (Camellia Sinensis Hunt, Leaves) 700 mg
Citric Acid 450 mg
Malic Acid 150 mg
Korean Ginseng Extract (Panax Ginseng, Root) 100 mg

Other Ingredients: Crystalline Fructose, Honey Powder, Natural Flavors, Stevia.

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