Training

You rode long, or maybe you rode hard. You glide back into the parking lot and then you swing your leg over the saddle to dismount your bike. And it hurts. You feel a familiar twinge in your low back, an aching in your hips. You peruse your buddy's Strava and notice something odd… he's been secretly doing Pilates on his non-bike days. Now you're wondering if you should do Pilates, too.

When I took my very first FTP test on an indoor trainer, I had no idea what to expect. I just knew it was going to start easy and get *very, very hard fast*. So I chugged some water, blasted my favorite playlist, pointed a high-powered fan straight at my face, and pedaled until my legs turned to jelly. My reward? A whopping 78 watts.

Good fitness doesn't automatically produce good bike handling. A rider can hold strong power indoors yet still feel nervous on descents, drift while looking behind or tense up when a corner tightens. Outdoor cycling asks you to balance, scan, brake, steer and react as the road changes around you. These eight practical drills will help you ride with more control and confidence, so you can focus on the road ahead.

Gravel biking is riding on a mix of paved roads and unpaved surfaces such as forest tracks, towpaths and compacted gravel roads, offering more variety and adventure than a typical road ride. If you're wondering how to start gravel biking, the good news is that you may already have a bike capable of getting you started without spending a fortune on specialist equipment.

By understanding and optimizing your power-to-weight ratio, you can enhance your cycling performance, tackle challenging terrains with confidence, and achieve your personal best on the bike. Whether you're a competitive racer or a dedicated enthusiast, focusing on this key metric will unlock new levels of efficiency and speed.

Cycling is a highly repetitive activity that is excellent at improving cardiovascular-respiratory fitness and lower-body muscular endurance. But if the only exercise you do is cycling, your overall muscular strength, mobility, and bone density can be suboptimal. It's also a sport with a high occurrence of overuse injuries.

A cyclocross training plan is a structured programme that develops the endurance, repeated high-intensity efforts, technical bike handling, strength and recovery needed to race cyclocross well. Unlike a standard road cycling plan, it prepares you to accelerate out of corners, tackle obstacles, ride under fatigue and make good decisions when everything feels slightly chaotic.

Whether you're watching the Tour de France, tackling your first climb or scrolling through Strava, you've probably come across terms like Category 1 or Hors Catégorie (HC). Cycling climbs are graded from Category 4, the easiest, to HC, the hardest. Understanding those categories helps you judge how demanding a climb is and why some mountains play such an important role in professional racing.

If the first few minutes of every ride feel stiff, heavy or uncomfortable, you're not alone. Most beginners assume it's because they're not fit enough, but that's rarely the real reason. More often than not, it's simply because they've asked their body to go from sitting still to riding a bike without giving it any time to wake up. The good news is that warming up doesn't need to be complicated.