Self Improvement

Surviving the AIS women’s selection camp

The AIS women’s road cycling selection camp has attracted plenty of attention in recent years for being brutally tough and unforgiving, due largely to the fact it’s based on military special forces boot camps. Tess Fabry went along to this year’s camp, held over the past nine days, and filed this report.

How to clean your bike

Omega Pharma-QuickStep mechanic Kenny Latomme shows you how he cleans the OPQS Specialized bicycles after races.

Watch the UCI World Road Championships with us!

There’s nothing worse than sitting home alone watching the biggest race of the year. For those of you here in Melbourne on Sunday, September 29, why not come and watch it with us?

What’s involved in organising a bike race

Have you ever been riding along a nice stretch of road with your mates and thought “this would be perfect for a race”? You wouldn’t be alone. But as Ross Hamilton writes, when it comes to turning an idea into an official race, there’s a lot more involved than you might think.

High-fat, low-carb diets: how to try one for yourself

In the first part of this two-part series, Joe McQuillan and Alan McCubbin introduced us to high-fat, low-carbohydrate (HFLC) diets and compared two athletes who were about to start a HFLC diet. In the second and final part in this series our authors show how the two athletes responded to their diets and show you […]

Climbing vs time-trialling: same effort, different power output

My 80-something kilograms put me at the heavier end of the spectrum when it comes to cyclists. Guys like me have always been associated with sprinting or time-trialling, but personally I’ve always been able to put out my best power on the climbs rather than on a flat time-trial. Why would there be a difference?

How to corner

Cornering fast feels great and improving how you corner will have benefits whatever cycling you do. Whether you ride sportives, race on the road, or commute to work, learning how to take corners like a pro will help you to ride safely and quickly. Daniel Lloyd and Simon Richardson, both ex-professionals, share their pro-tips on […]

High-fat, low-carb diets: good for you and your cycling?

For decades the use of carbohydrate in a cyclist’s diet has been a given. We know from research findings that carbohydrate is necessary for improving both high intensity and endurance performance. But recently this theory has been challenged by a number of endurance athletes and researchers. In this first part of a two-part series, Joe […]

How to identify and avoid over-training

When you’re training up for a big race or ride it’s hard to imagine there’s such a thing as too much training. But make no mistake: over-training is a very real danger and can be worse for your performance than under-training. So how do we define over-training? How can you tell if you’ve over-trained? And […]

How to attack and create a breakaway

There’s basically two ways to win a bike race - by attacking and winning from a small bunch (or solo), or in a sprint finish. Only a select few of us will mix it up in the bunch sprints, so the rest of us need to learn the art of attacking to create a breakaway […]