'On the Wheels of the Wise'

As I prepared for the Etape du Tour (10 July) I was lucky enough to spend a day learning from a two pro riders from the Ribble-Weldtite team, Si Wilson and Matt King.

- By Danny Lloyd

As I prepared for the Etape du Tour (10 July) I was lucky enough to spend a day learning from a two pro riders from the Ribble-Weldtite team, Si Wilson and Matt King. The experience was tailor-made for me by Ribble - many thanks to them and it started at the company's Clitheroe showroom. First VELC up was my chance to pick these two pro riders' brains about how to make a step up in my cycling. Matt and Si were the two perfect riders to answer my questions.

I was a fan of Si already, as I look up to him as an older rider still at the top of his game - he's 42, yet he was just back from Germany where he'd helped pace triathlete Joe Skipper to a 112-mile sector in an incredible three hours 16 minutes [Skipper completed the Ironman triathlon in six hours 47 minutes, finishing second]. In last year's Tour of Britain, Si was the second-oldest rider at 41. I asked him how he has kept up his performance for so long. His main advice was to train according to feel, rather than getting fixated on numbers.