Winners at WorldTour level are truly exceptional, but what makes them so? Chris Sidwells investigates what sets apart the best cyclists from the merely excellent onesSIENA, ITALY - MARCH 06: Mathieu Van Der Poel of Netherlands and Team Alpecin-Fenix, Julian Alaphilippe of France and Team Deceuninck - Quick-Step & Egan Arley Bernal Gomez of Colombia and Team INEOS Grenadiers during the Eroica - 15th Strade Bianche 2021, Men's Elite a 184km race from Siena to Siena - Piazza del Campo / Breakaway / #StradeBianche / on March 06, 2021 in Siena, Italy. (Photo by Luc Claessen/Getty Images)Three hundred and eighty-nine watts for four hours and 45 minutes, rising to an average 439 watts over the final 60km. And he had...
The ‘comfortably hard’ zone may seem just right to keep fitness ticking over through these uncertain times – but it must not become your default, as Brendan Housler explains “I need a plan this year, otherwise I’m just going to end up riding around doing random workouts,” said my mate Chris as we caught our breath at the side of the road. It was a crisp day earlier this winter, and we had just completed one of those spontaneous sprints, the kind with no […]
They may have scuppered our racing and holiday plans but lockdowns have proved to be an unprecedented boon for our fitness – as Ian Green finds outOne year ago, as it became clear that the arrival of Covid-19 meant an imminent national lockdown, most of us were more concerned about our health than our fitness. Being cyclists, though, we intuited that our pedalling habit would help keep us well – and thankfully the government agreed, making provision for daily exercise. Nonetheless, it […]
Marcel Kittel during the 2016 Tour de France (Picture: Corbis via Getty Images/ Tim De Waele)Marcel Kittel retired from professional cycling as not only one of the best sprinters of his generation, but one of the most successful in the history of the Tour de France.
