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I have been trying to lift more regularly but so far it has really thrown a wrench in the quality of my cycling. I do my best to lift heavy, usually i do:
3x8 squat or split squats
3x10 leg curls or rdl
3x6 leg extensions
3x10 abduction and 3x10 adduction.

I do this once a week the day after my key session. But my legs are dead enough the day after that I really struggle to do my usual 2 hr zone 2 ride. I’d like to try to stick to 1 lift per week but is doing same volume on two days the move? I want to avoid having any lifting soreness before my key session and long ride.

Building up a TT bike and I'm stuck on gearing. I keep going back and forth between the SRAM XPLR 13s group and just going SRAM road. I want to go SRAM for the wireless blips that I can put anywhere, but if I go SRAM I'm definitely going 1x. is using the XPLR group crazy for a TT bike? Are the gear jumps going to be too much? I will say that I've ridden the XPLR group on a road bike and hated the jumps. To the point I replaced it. So I'm guessing that will be even worse on a TT bike.

90% of the riding will be pretty flat. I go months without using the FD on my road bike. That has 50/34t and 10-33t so most of the time I'm just running 50 and 10-33t for all intents and purposes.

So maybe 52t or 54t with a 10-33t in the rear?

I've been thinking about trying to qualify - going in '27 would make for a good event during a France cycling trip, and I could watch road worlds in person a few days after the gravel race.

Question I have for anyone that's raced at UCI Gravel Worlds - is it fun? Worth doing? From what I've seen, no matter how fit I am on race day, I might still just be buried among masses of other age-groupers?

Throwback to 10 years ago and I was the fittest I've ever (and most likely will ever) be. Raced B grade, won some races, averaged 300-400km a week, did an everesting, FTP of 375 and a very lean 85kg. The feeling of being able to just press on and on was unreal. Back then all I wanted was a house of my own, financial security, and happiness in love.

Now I'm a dad, married, mortgage, well paid but stressful job, and the image is very different. 105kg and barely touched my bike for 2 years. I'd get out of the occasional ride with my mates but it was so deeply deflating going 1/4 of the speed up climbs that used to be something that barely registered on RPE. It took a long time to come to terms with the fact I'm so far off my peak and that it is completely okay. Comparing my old self to my current self, in pure isolation of fitness on the bike, nearly led me to selling it all and just throwing in the towel.

I ended up deleting all my old data from Strava/Garmin and choose to treat cycling now like I'm starting again. I've been mainly commuting, maybe 60km a week, and getting out for one "longer" (1.5-2 hours) ride on the weekend before the family wakes up. The great news is that I'm setting distance PBs, power PBs, time on the bike PBs because I'm comparing myself to the last two years, not to 10 years ago. Just the feeling of making progress without the hanging visual of previous metrics has been such a breath of fresh air.

So, to all those out there who are in the depths of kids, career, the relentlessness of life - it's okay to not be the same as you were a long time ago, you can still enjoy cycling for what it is, a bit of fun.

I’m holding off on buying a new gravel race bike while trying to find out whether 32-inch wheels will be allowed in UCI events in 2027.

I’ve seen some reports that the UCI has discussed limiting gravel wheels to 700c, however, I haven’t found a final decision or a published rule with an effective date.

This uncertainty puts amateur racers in a difficult position. Race bike is a significant investment for many of us, and buying one that could soon become ineligible for the events we’re targeting is a real concern.

Meanwhile, Leon Kaiser won the Sea Otter Europe UCI Gravel World Series race on a 32-inch Avona, and brands such as UNpaved, Stinner and Mosaic are offering 32-inch gravel bikes to consumers.

Has anyone found an official UCI statement or regulation confirming their status for 2027?

Also, has anyone actually ordered or received a production 32-inch gravel bike? Which model, what price, and what was the delivery time?

Would appreciate links to original sources or firsthand experience before committing to a new bike.

I’m on a ship for 80+ days. The only decent equipment in a concept rower and a concept bike.

I’m looking for the best workouts you would recommend to increase power and VO2 max.

Don’t really do much in the day so I can do multiple sessions a day if needed.

At the moment I’m going zone 2 heart rate most days, there’s also a comp to get the fastest 5k. Currently I’m leading at 9:30

Hi all. I’m a journalist writing a piece on why people replace their bikes. I used to race, and I’m still on a 2021 TCR, so I’ve been going back and forth on this question myself.

I figured this sub would have good answers, since a lot of you put serious hours on your bikes. When you replaced your last one, what actually made you do it? Did something wear out, or did it stop being compatible with newer parts? Did you want disc brakes or electronic shifting? Or did you just want a new bike? And what happened to the old one?

If you want to do the survey, it takes about 3 minutes, and you can find it here. Nothing gets quoted unless you say ok, and you can stay anonymous.

Also happy to just read your stories in the comments. Thanks!

Does anyone have experience of this combination?

I know enduro 3 can import watts and cadence from third party power pedals.

But can enduro 3 import another IAV cycling dynamics metrics from assioma pedals such as power phase, torque efectivness, etc.? Official favero list of devices containes only Garmin Edge cyclocomputers. Watches no.

How do you all store your bikes in an apartment?
I wanted to check if my glazed balcony is suited for storage, but apparently the humidity is quite high, and temperatures vary greatly during the day, so there is a high chance of condensation damaging my equipment (I guess?). I've got two carbon frame bikes with AXS drivetrains (I'm taking the batteries out before putting my bikes outside) and an aluminium one.
Has anyone successfully adapted a glazed balcony for bikes? During the winter, temperatures might drop to -5°C / -10°C occasionally.

Does anyone else struggle to train indoors? I can have a nice Z2 or structured workout outside, with little variance from the goals and feel fine based on the given effort.

If I try and do the same thing on my indoor trainer I can’t manage even half the time or distance before my legs are on fire and my HR is into zone 5.

I have a wheel on kickr snap - is this because if the trainer, or does indoor riding just suck?

Hey folks,

I am going to be in a caloric deficit over fall/early winter. From experience, stressful job/young kid I know I can't tolerate much more than 1 hard ride per week (I have other competing fitness goals as well).

With 1 hard ride per week, what kind of workout would you opt for, and how would you progress it over time? I'm hesitating between SS which would be easier to recover from vs keeping more intensity (supra-threshold for example) to maintain or even slightly increase FTP during this period.

For context, I have a ~300FTP at 94kg, been training semi-seriously for about 2 years.

Thanks!

I just found out that I've broken my foot (or 30.5 cm as I'm in the UK) which has put a bit of a dampener on my cyclocross season. There's a chance that I might get back riding for Christmas but in the meantime I'd like to not lose too much fitness. I'm speaking to the orthopod on Tuesday when I can find a more definite timeline for returning to training but I'm eager to hear what sort of things have people done in the same situation. Is one legged Zwifting a possibility? Has anyone successfully attached cleats to an immobilisation boot?

For those who are not aware, we are having haze now here in Singapore due to the burning in Borneo.

Here are the stats:

https://aqicn.org/city/singapore/south/

https://www.haze.gov.sg/

I have been consistently training most of the year with 280-320km bar some exceptions like multiple bad weather days in a row or getting sick.

I would like to ask the community especially those who have been affected by such a thing before, how do you keep up the training without a drop in fitness if you aren't able to ride indoors due to the lack of equipment and/or not wanting to (boredom and hate indoor rides)

Secondly is there such a thing as adaptation? Ive heard of heat training, cold training, altitude training, fasted training, climb training etc. but is there such a thing as haze training? So far I've done less than half my usual volume this week. I feel fine ,but I am really afraid of the drop in fitness even if it's 1 percent, and that it will only drop further if it goes into week 2 and so on

EDIT: what about riding at an reduced intensity or duration? The live readings as of this edit at 2155 show that it's elevated but not yet dangerous

With the first real snow of the season heading in tomorrow, I am reminded that it's time to up my fan game for indoors this winter. I've got a Vornado from Costco that I've used for years. I picked up a second fan last winter but man does it under perform. I'd like to add another decent fan for two up front and the under performer focused on my back. Remote would be okay but not mandatory. Needs to move some decent air but also not super noisy. I need to watch my stories on youtube.

What are people using for $100 or less? Not looking to pay a premium for something cycling specific. Johnathan from TR said he's got 3 Lasko fans running. Not sure which model though.

Edit: Went with the Vacmaster. Thanks for the input!

I’m in Belgium, buying a first proper road bike for my son (15, 1m79 / 5'10", 89cm / 35" inseam). He’s joining a club, riding socially now, racing U17 next season. Road is the priority.

Main question is gearing. Belgian U17 uses a maximum development of 7.68m — that’s metres travelled per crank revolution, roughly equivalent to a 7.9m/26ft rollout limit in the US system, so similar idea, slightly different measurement.

One of the two bikes has SRAM Rival AXS 2x12. With a 48T ring he’d need a 14T smallest cog; with 46T, a 13T. AXS cassettes start at 10T on an XDR freehub.

• Does an off-the-shelf junior cassette exist for XDR?
• Or is it custom (Miche) / a swap to an HG freehub body?
• Anyone here run AXS with legal junior gearing? How did you solve it?

The two bikes:

Cube Attain C:62 Race — new, €1,699 (~$1,850) — carbon frame, Shimano 105 12sp mechanical, 50/34, 11-34, Newmen C.38 carbon wheels tubeless-ready, 8.9kg, full warranty.

Specialized Allez Sprint — used, €1,999 (~$2,175) — alloy, ~1,000km, Rival AXS 2x12, Quarq power meter, DT Swiss wheels, S-Works cockpit. Shop mechanic’s own bike, invoice included.

Leaning Cube: cheaper, carbon, new, better wheels. The Quarq is tempting but electronic shifting on a teenager’s first race bike seems expensive to break, and alloy wasn’t what I set out to buy.

Happy to be told I’m wrong on either. Thanks.

I usually do a lot of indoor training and carry most of my structured training indoors. I enjoy it and find it very effective to get those sessions in. However, I think I am very used to ERG mode, and I am not really able to get out proper training sessions outdoors, specially in those long and constant efforts such as holding Z2- Z3 power. I mainly view my outdoor rides as base-building and social rides because I am not really able to hold high target power numbers consistently, although I feel I could go way harder outdoors than indoors.

Do you have any tips on how to hold steady power outdoors?

I want to do VO2 repeats outside but I live in an area with rolling hills so it's tough to find sustained climbs. I found an isolated ~1 mile stretch with about 200ft of climbing which is a good match for my crappy power at the moment

Also just looking for general roads w/lower speed limits (seems like industrial/corporate parks are a safe bet). The 45-55 MPH country roads are fools gold, prob the worst places to ride besides "stroads". I have checked RideWithGPS, Strava and some other local stuff but Im trying to see how I can find my own routes. I might write a script using Google Maps data for traffic etc.

Seems like the goal of heat training is to increase your hematocrit/hemoglobin levels. If you push those numbers high enough, well into the 50's range, how do you not get busted for "doping"?? How can they tell the difference if it was done using natural methods versus some form of blood doping etc??

keep seeing mixed comments on this. i am trying to from 95kg to 80-85kg. additionally am taking this winter to get in shape before the Crit scene starts up in March here in the Northeast. My FTP is about 2.75

obviously i know if you lose weight W/KG are going up but is it a smart thing to also try and increase pure watts as well?

38 year old novice, I've been noodling around on my road bike for the last 5 months lots of tempo, some sprint work, no real direction but I bought a power meter to measure progress. Currently at around 1400 watts for 1 second and 900 watts for 30 seconds. I haven't tested my FTP properly but Claude thinks it's around 280 watts, so not great. How many more watts could I add with a coach and training programme (including weight training - I currently don't do any legs)? I enjoy sprinting more than I do longer rides so I'm also interested in velodrome but my understanding is those boys are pumping out around 2000 watts - is that achievable in 12 to 18 months of structured training or should I stick to road?