Wholistic Fitness

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Noble Coach Ilg,

My Temple candle may have dimmed for the moment but I’m still walking the path. Here’s a shot from today’s ride up Stunt Road which followed a Green Tara Yoga practice from your TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION book. What a magnificent climb. Hope fair winds are pushing you upward.

head bowed,

hsbg

PS- Note the classic Wholistic Fitness® cyclist’s arms. Ha!

COACH RESPONDS:
Most Noble WF Student BG!
ahhhh, i can smell that gorgeous Pacific coastal mist just by looking at that pic! Stunt Road was my “Go-To” Hill Repeat workout when i lived in LA; LOVE railin’ that descent!

Hey, one thing about ilg-trained cyclists; we don’t have problems with our arm warmers
falling off wimpy ass arms! Yeah baby!

head bowed and keep spinning the Mantra,
coach ilg

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I’m in there somewhere…the nervous moments before the IRON HORSE DOWNTOWN CRITERIUM race in Durango, Colorado last year.

How To Survive Group Road Riding

By Coach Steve Ilg, ryt/cpt/uscf

Well, it’s that time of year again. Even for us MultiSport Athletes, time has arrived to jump into our local Saturday or Sunday Morning Club Training Rides and put the hammer down…err, at least attempt to pick up the hammer!

Riding in a big group of road cyclists is exhilarating. Turn on VERSUS any Sunday afternoon, and you can see all the big European pro races…the pros ride in pacelines that are as organized and rhythmic as a Swiss clock. Each rider follows specific rules of the peleton (aka; the pack…the largest group of riders in a group ride or race). However, if you show up at your local club ride, or century (cycling term for a “100-mile” ride) or a charity ride, things will not be so clean and neatly folded. Flying along at 20+ mph, elbow to elbow, perched atop skinny tires and hovering above very, very hard surfaces intimidates even extreme athletes. So, first, forgive yourself for not getting out there before now. Then, secondly, read this article. Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY: GET OUT THERE AND RIDE!!! It’s soooo utterly exciting to be a part of a flying parade of sweat and spirit!

Riding safely in a group all boils down to bike skills. 99% of the riders in a peleton are safe and capable. However, sooner or later you will find yourself in a peleton alongside a few riders with sketchy skills. Here is how to survive (and thrive) in a whirring crowd of roaring wheels.

BEFORE YOU JUMP IN
Practice these few tricks to stablize your body, your bike, and your mind while riding:

• White Line It. Practice riding while keeping both tires on the painted white line on the right shoulder of the road. Practice eating and drinking and changing into or out of vests or arm warmers while riding in a straight line. Get comfortable riding no-handed.

• Check Your Deodorant. A rider has to learn to glance (not stare!) behind him or herself frequently. This should be done by quickly elevating your elbow, glancing under your armpit and back to the road in front of you. All this happens very fast. Keep your grip strong yet supple on the bars and make your twist from your mid-back, not just the neck. This should be practiced on both sides and the intent is to keep your bike heading straight while looking to the rear.

• Hey Dude, Do You Got Any Grass On You?
A contact sport cycling is not, however trust me; you’re make contact. Let’s hope not with the road too often, but it’s not uncommon to brush and bump elbows and even tires (eeeek! that’ll make your heart skip a beat!) when group riding. If you find yourself in a mass sprint, well, that’s a whole lot of technique and testosterone better left for another article. Let me just say, that it pays to learn how not to freak out when getting bumped as other riders swerve or fall. This is a classic teaching for road bike and mountain bike skills; Get your helmet and a cycling friend. Find a big grassy park or a soccer field. Ride side-by-side at a slow pace. Keeping both hands on your bar, gently touch elbows and back off. Then try rubbing shoulders. With confidence, lean more aggressively on the other rider. Soon, you’ll be like two Bull Rams, throwing down, heat butting and all without falling!

After any group ride or race? You’ll be sooooo happy! Win or lose, fit or fat…you’ll know you’ve conquered a lot of inner dragons and be all the stronger because of it! Post-crit happiness…photo by Ananda

Keeping your breath conscious and maintain a supple yet strong posture is the key. “Whenever we relax, we perform better,” Sensei Kishiyama taught me in martial arts. No better coaching counsel could be truer for road cyclists; Relaxed, alert riding will limit your swerving in a group, even when absorbing contact. Keep your elbows slightly bent, a firm grip on the handlebar, and supple arm and shoulder muscles. Attending yoga classes or getting my yoga dvds will improve this and all bike skills immeasurably!

OKAY: I’M IN THE PELETON…NOW WHAT DO I DO?

Beware Of The Sketchy Rider. There is always at least one in every group. One alert sign is the rider with ‘time trial aerobars’ attached to their handlebars. Triathletes are notorious among roadies for causing crashes in a group. Give them a wide berth until you know they are safe riders. Other beacons of disaster-in-waiting are riders that seem stiff on their bike, riders that wobble, or riders that display herky-jerkey behavior. Avoid like the plague any rider wearing iPods, disk wheels, or who over-brakes. Yikes!

Stay at the Front. Oh yeah, easy to say, right? Yes, it is easy to say yet regardless of how brutally hard it is to stay within the top 15 riders, do it! Most crashes occur in the rear two-thirds of the pack because this is the catch-all area for fatigued, nervous, or unfit riders. Staying up front, regardless of the difficulty of maintaining that position is far safer and actually far less energy-consumptive than riding at the yo-yoing nature of the rear peleton.

Beware Of The Dreaded Back Kick. A frequent cause of group crashes are riders that slow for a second or two, then stand up on their pedals to re-accelerate. This is a SURE WAY to make enemies and gather curse words directed at you from experienced riders around you. Stay off the brakes! Slowing causes the rider behind you to hit their brakes and like a train-wreck, causes riders to swerve and maybe take a spill which can take down an entire peleton. Avoid this by letting a gap open a bit on uphills or ride a several inches to either side of the sketchy rider. When it comes time for YOU to stand up on the pedals to accelerate, pull your bike up and forward as you rise from the saddle. Keep your speed steady, do not JUMP! If you really want to launch a Lance Armstrong attack, then do it from the side of the peleton! When returning to your saddle after standing, nudge your bike forward. Practice some 10″x10″ Seated/Standing Intervals to smooth out and make seamless the artistry of standing/seated transitions.

Be A Weather Watcher. Wind intensity and direction must remain tantamount in your awareness. The wind determines which side of the bike in front you will afford the best draft. Wind from behind is really dangerous because it adds incredible speed (see below). Wind from the right side of the road will make the experienced riders move left to the wheel in front of them for greater shelter. When doing this, be very mindful of overlapping wheels with other riders. Just know that they may need to swerve at any millisecond, possibly taking out your front wheel.

Don’t Gunkle. I recall at one year’s IRON HORSE Road Race in Durango, the race organizers decided to let us Cat.3 racers race with the Pros/Cat. 1/Cat. 2’s. Bad call. Going through the Animas Valley our enormous (200+) peleton had a tailwind…i recall glancing down at my cyclometer which stared back at me with the figure; 43 mph! I was sizzling along, about 4th row, trying to stay near the yellow line (wise place to ride because you can escape crashes sometimes by exiting ‘stage left’!). Some bozo Cat 3 dude who felt obliged to idiotically ride with the Pro’s on the front line and for some insane reason also felt obliged to futz with his cyclometer, lost control and all i recall is seeing the rider in back of him fly straight up in the air. We hit our brakes, hit each other, hit the pavement, and then proceeded to be pounded for several, excruciatingly long seconds by all the riders in back of us. End of my race; bike trashed, and a severe case of road rash. No broken bones which again brings up the importance of yoga; if you go down? Breath! Land on the exhale and stay soft! Do NOT put your hand out to break your fall, the only thing that ends up breaking is your collarbone! Moral of this story? Do NOT FUTZ around with your dashboard or getting food from your jersey pockets or drinking while riding at the front…drift back a few spots in the paceline and then mindfully do what you need to do.

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This article is provided courtesy of steve ilg for DL Subscribers. A Pay-Per-PDF version of this article is available for $3 in the WholisticFitness.com Pro Shop. Steve has been the Training and Fitness Editor of several magazines over the course of three decades and is a New Mexico State Cycling Champion, record holder of the Furnace Creek 508, and a Winner of the Tour de Gila.