Your Guide To Breaking

Your Guide To Breaking

- Jonathan Ancer

As the days left to the Cycle Tour count down, anyone in Lycra will undoubtedly be asked: what time are you going for? It’s an unfair question, because most cyclists don’t like to commit to times – it puts us under undue pressure. We do know that the racing snakes have their sights on a coveted sub-3, the weekend warriors are planning to break a sub-4, while the social riders and Cycle Tour virgins want to cross the line in a respectable time of under five hours.

So we’re going to take you through what you need to do to secure the time you’re going for… no pressure.

Sub - 5

You should have done a few longish rides before you line up on the start line of the Cycle Tour. (But hopefully, not in the week before the event. Unlike at school, ‘cramming’ is only going to make things worse.)

For riders towards the blunt end of the field cruising around the Peninsula – first-timers, social riders, and people in fancy dress riding for charity – it tends to be ‘every man for himself’. But it doesn’t have to be that way. “Chat to the people around you, and encourage them to work together,” suggests Jarred Salzwedel, sports scientist and cycling coach at Science To Sport.

He adds that backmarkers should encourage other riders to keep going – especially when they feel they’re on the limit. “The power of the mind is unbelievable.” Salzwedel says it’s important to try to ride within yourself, and to expect that it’s going to be difficult; because if it’s too easy, you won’t ride the time you’re aiming for.