How To Ride Faster

Over the 30+ combined years that we’ve either been professional track cyclists or worked with cyclists, one of the most common questions we get asked is:

“What do I need to be doing to ride faster?”

Tell me what to do! 

• Is it just doing more weights in the gym? 
• Should I be doing certain exercises? 
• Do I need to change my food intake? 
• Is there any advice that you can give me? 

Of course we say YES, to everything – all of the above. 

Unfortunately, there's no one thing.

Becoming a better cyclist, and faster cyclist, is an all round approach.

Becoming a better track cyclist involves more than just pedalling faster and turning up to training.

It involves (and in no specific order, a combination of the following… and we’re only naming a few):

1. Having the right MINDSET when you get out of bed in the morning. Our Olympic Mindset Coach, Georgia Ridler has 16 Videos about Mindset.
2. Having a STRUCTURED training program that is right for you (and you only).
3. JUGGLING COMMITMENTS at home and ‘balancing the scales’ of life i.e. making sure your training life isn’t affecting your home life and, importantly, VISA VERSA! 
4. Ensuring that you have functional STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING sessions and EXERCISES that enable you to improve you strength, power and speed on the bike! 
5. Eating the RIGHT FOODS to ensure you a) recover b) maintain good composition c) improve your performance in both training and competition environments.
6. Having a good TEAM of people around you (of course, we can help with this through the Track Cycling Academy!)
7. Ensuring you remain INJURY-FREE, and work within the scope of your personal abilities (flexibility, maintenance of pre-existing injuries and/or medical conditions etc.) Our Olympic Mindset Coach, Mark Stokes has 16 Videos about how to get stronger and remain injury-free.  
8. Ensuring your TRACK BIKE is SET UP well for you – this will ensure you won’t attain injuries, and gain more in aerodynamics and direct functional power lines.
9. Ensuring your ROAD BIKE is SET UP well for you – i.e. as above.
10. Ensuring your track bike (and road bike) actually are in GOOD FUNCTIONAL WORKING ORDER  – your chain is clean and well lubricated, your head-stem isn’t overly tight, your chain rings and cogs aren’t bent etc.
11. Completing the RIGHT training exercises at the RIGHT times of the season… starting gym 2 weeks prior to a major event is not going to give you the best outcome!  (Hint: Periodised Programming – and we’ll get to that more in a later blog). 
12. Ensuring the GEAR COMBINATIONS you are using are right for you, and are set correctly in and around training and competition cycles (we wrote a blog about What Gear Do I Use?)
13. Turning up on the line READY – well prepared, well tapered and switched on!  
14. TACTICS, implementation, execution – say no more! 

There is no magic one secret that we can give you to ensure you pedal quickly in circles and achieve your one major goal, instead you need to look holistically at your overall plan.

You can read more about each of the different areas you need to work on here.

Make a list of what you are doing, what you aren’t doing and start planning! 

Here's our 'Goal Tracking Sheet' which will help. Click here for the PRINT version.  Click here for the EDITABLE version.

Coaches (and take it from us) absolutely love to work with athlete’s that have an organised list of what they feel they are achieving, and what they need to work on.

This allows for a great start to your coach-athlete working relationship and will be the first step in ensuring you’re able to knock some serious goals on the head! 

If you start to look holistically at your overall approach to the sport, you’ll be able to prioritize key areas that you need to work on, and implement them into your season’s plan. 

You’ll also be able to see more clearly the path for your own success, and how important that individual path is in achieving what you may feel are insurmountable goals. 

Can you say that you are achieving all of the 14 points above?

Leave us a comment below - WHAT ARE YOU NOT ACHIEVING on that list that may need addressing?

What do you want more information on? 

Let us know, we're here to help!