This is the third article in a series about Zwift, please read the first article and second article if you are unsure of what you need to use the service and/or need help logging in.

Zwift’s workout mode is my favorite part of the entire service!  It has helped me keep my motivation, focus, and tenacity to complete the next interval more than anything else I have tried.  Plus, it looks awesome, gives feedback on the spot, and is continually being improved.  This post will guide those interested in creating their own workouts as well as provide some direction to those using workout mode for their first time.

Creating a Custom Workout

Step 1: Login to the service

 

Step 2: Find/Pair your devices

Step 3: Click on “select workout” as the ride type from the start screen

Step 3a: Click the “custom workouts” via the “select your workout screen

Step 3b: Create your workout

Performing a Workout on Zwift

Steps 1 and 2: same as above
Step 3: Select your workout and RIDE!

Okay, get to it!  Spring is right around the corner.

Stay tuned for more articles about all things Zwift related!  Also, please let me know if you have any questions about the service, or if there is anything you would like me to cover.

Happy Zwifting!

For more information on GC Coaching and how we can help you improve your fitness, please visit www.gaffneycyclingcoaching.com

This is the second article in a series about Zwift, please read the first article if you are unsure of what you need to use the service.

Ok, you took the plunge and bought an ANT+ dongle (giggity) and signed up for a Zwift membership, good on ya!  What the heck happens next though?  I am glad you asked…

Step 1: Open the program and log in

You will need to create a username and password the very first time logging in to the service as well as input some other objective measures like your weight.  Please don’t be a digital doper, input your CORRECT weight!  Thereafter, Zwift will remember you and all you need to do is click the “Log In” button to access the service.

Step 2: Search for your devices

This step is crucial to allow Zwift to work properly.  Before you do anything, make sure the ANT+ dongle is plugged into your computer and working.  You know it will be working because the ANT+ graphic will illuminate and radiate circles from it.  After this, click “search” under any of the above options to seek out your available devices.

Step 2a: Find and pair your devices

Once Zwift finds your devices, the graphic will change from grey to blue as well as list the serial number of your device under.  Once you have all of your available devices paired up, hit the “ok” button.

Step 3: Select your route/rider/workout

You can select a few options here including what type of route you prefer…

So, flat, hilly, figure 8, follow riders around you, or, if you are the daring type, a surprise route (oh, how exciting!).

If none of these options do it for you, you can search for your friends on the drop down list and ride with them, or select one of the many workouts available on Zwift.  After you are pleased with your selections, click the “ride” button.

Step 4: Ride your bike

Woah mama!  Welcome to Zwift.  Let’s spend a bit covering the main screen here…

To the left, to the left…On the top left corner you will see your watts, cadence (RPM), and heart rate (BPM).  Below that you will see the virtual leaderboards as well as your PRs for each segment.  These will update based on where you are on course.

On the top in the middle of the screen you have your speed (MPH), distance, elevation gain, and elapsed time.  Below that you will find a straight horizontal orange line with a number on the left, in our case 14, and a gift on the right.  This line represents your progress until the next level, the number on the left is your current in game level, and the gift represents the next game unlock (bike, jersey, wheels, etc.)

Onto the right hand side of the screen.  On the top right corner you have the current gradient of the climb/descent.  Below that is the course elevation profile with the KOM, Sprint, and Finish points represented by polka dots, green, and orange respectively.  Finally, below that you have the riders around you, aka, those who will soon feel your WRATH!

Stay tuned for more articles about all things Zwift related!  Also, please let me know if you have any questions about the service, or if there is anything you would like me to cover.

Happy Zwifting!

For more information on GC Coaching and how we can help you improve your fitness, please visit www.gaffneycyclingcoaching.com

Zwift has become my absolute favorite training tool recently and has helped to keep me motivated to swing my leg over the top tube for yet another ride in the sweat box more than anything else I have tried.  Zwift accomplishes this via its in-game social platform, its achievement/unlock ladder, its graphics, and its superior workout feature.  You do need to possess some things to be able to use the service to it’s full capabilities however, and it can be a little overwhelming and confusing at times getting everything going.  Fear not though! This article will serve to enlighten the Zwift wannabes in their path to trainer righteousness.

What do you need to use the service?

1. A bicycle, duh.
2. A trainer – You can either use a traditional trainer or smart trainer.  I personally use a traditional trainer with a power meter and have not had any issues.  Some people I have spoken to like the capabilities of the smart trainer as it will automatically increase or decrease resistance if you are going up or down a hill, as well as decrease resistance once you get into another rider’s slipstream.  I guess I am more old-school in this arena though and would rather find the right gear and keep the power down instead of worrying about changing my gears to keep the correct wattage output.
3. A computer with working interwebs – The newer the better and the graphics card makes a big difference.  On my computer at work Zwift looks like garbage, but on my Mac it looks awesome.  Plus, if you can hook it up to a nice big screen it makes the experience far more immersive.
4. The Zwift program – This can be download at Zwift.com
5. An ANT+ dongle – That word always makes me laugh immaturely, but yes you need

   to have a dongle for your computer so Zwift and your equipment can communicate with one another.  Zwift can also use Bluetooth, but be warned it is still in Beta and is prone to dropouts.  You can purchase dongles at many places, but always support your local bike shop whenever possible!

6. Cash money – Zwift offers a 14 day free trial and a longer trial to premium Strava users.  Thereafter, it costs $10/month and can be cancelled/resumed at any time.
7. An objective measurement device  – This can be a speed sensor, power meter, or smart trainer.  Zwift uses these to establish your speed and power output as well as numerous other parameters.

That’s about all you need to get started using the service.  However if you are more into the social aspect and less into the hurt of Zwift, you may want to pick yourself up a wireless keyboard (with waterproof cover) to allow you to respond to other riders, and/or a headset with microphone to be able to speak to other riders in your virtual group ride or race.

Stay tuned for more articles about all things Zwift related!  Also, please let me know if you have any questions about the service, or if there is anything you would like me to cover.

Happy Zwifting!

Further Zwift Articles:

First Time Logging In

How to use the Workout Mode

Questions?  Get in Touch!

Neck and mid-back pain is another common complaint I get from cyclists of all ability levels.  I have noticed most of the athletes I coach experience neck and mid-back pain at the beginning of their first build phase, as their volume increases, or when we transition off of the trainers and back outdoors.  This is due to the amount of increased time spent with our heads looking down the road.  If our neck muscles are accustomed to riding for 1-2 hours and we increase our ride volume to 3-4 hours, you can bet those muscles will be sore and tired post-ride.  This is amplified if you spend the majority of the time riding in an aerodynamic position as the neck extension angle increases.

You can see from the above images what I am talking about; the cyclist on the left is assuming a traditional riding posture with relatively little neck extension compared to the cyclist on the right who really has to crank his head up to see ahead of him.  ALWAYS WEAR YOUR HELMET!!!

How to stretch

• Ideal best time to stretch statically is POST WORKOUT.
• Stretches should be held for 30 seconds minimum.  Physiologically, it takes your muscle fibers ~30 seconds to relax enough to make static stretching beneficial and allow the muscle fibers to lengthen.
• Stretches should be performed in a comfortable range of motion, so no crying because it hurts so much, but you also want to feel like you are doing something too.
• Alternate each side with each consecutive stretch, so as 1 side is resting, the other side is being stretched.
• Perform the stretches 2-3 times each.
• Stretch out 2-3 times daily if you are really having an issue with your neck/mid-back.  For maintenance, or if your neck/mid-back only hurts after an intense or long event/race, once a day is okay.

Pictures of my favorite stretches to help with neck and mid-back pain

Thoracic/Cervical Spine Mobility

Middle Back Stretch

Pectoral/Anterior Deltoid Stretch

Latissimus Dorsi Stretch

Upper Trapezius Stretch

Levator Scapulae Stretch

For more information on GC Coaching and how we can help you improve your fitness, please visit www.gaffneycyclingcoaching.com

THIS IS THE THIRD ARTICLE IN A SERIES REGARDING THE INTRICACIES OF BICYCLE ROAD RACING…MORE TO COME!

Last week, I spoke about the best ways to conserve your energy during a race to ensure you have the strength to drop the hammer when the time comes.  This week, I want to discuss the best ways to drop said hammer, make your competitors wish they just stayed home, and hopefully get yourself onto the top step of the podium!  Before we get to the good stuff though, let’s talk a little about matches…

What is a “Match”?

A match is something cyclists, coaches, race announcers, and other hipsters have been using to describe when a cyclist puts in a hard effort and digs deep.  Match burning can happen quickly (jumping out of a peloton in an attempt to form a break, sprinting for the finish) or over longer periods of time (climbing for >20 minutes at threshold), but whenever you

burn a match you will be doing “harm” to yourself and you will need a recovery period afterwards.  I put harm in quotations above because even though you may be gassing yourself, you need to take some risks to improve your overall chances of winning a race.  If this means sacrificing some of your sprinting power at the end of a race to form a break or stay in contact with the peloton up a climb, so be it!

Best ways to burn matches based on rider type

The best times to burn a match/es during a race is extremely subjective and race scenario dependent, but with a little knowledge of your strengths, power to weight ratio, and wind direction you can give yourself the upper hand!

Skinny Dude/ette

If you are a lightweight rider with a high power to weight ratio, your ideal time to burn a match is whenever the road goes up, and the steeper and longer it is the better!  Your matches will be more of the long-stick variety in the sense that they will not burn very hot, but they will burn for a LONG time.  Use this to your advantage and put the other riders that are heavier, or just not in shape, on the ropes and hopefully drop them.  The last thing you want to do is keep the effort level on a climb easy and drag those pesky sprinters to the line with you.

Always COMMIT yourself whenever you are burning a match and keep the pressure on for as long as you can!

Heavy Dude/ette

If you are a heavier rider, you have the advantage when the road stays flat, is rolling, or even downhill.  Your best time to burn a match is when you can quite literally throw your weight and higher overall power around.  These rider type matches tend to have an extremely hot flame, but do not burn for a long time.  With this in mind, be sure you are COMMITTED, no matter what happens, to your decision to attack the peloton.  Even if you see people behind you and you aren’t getting a gap, you can bet you are shredding the skinny climbers out the back and improving your chances of winning!  Keep the pressure ON!

Best ways to burn matches based on race scenarios

Climbing

Mountains or other generally hilly races obviously suit the climbing specialists.  Match burning in the mountains is not very exciting to the casual viewer, but can be awesome to watch if you know what to look for.  Team Sky competes in the mountains better than everybody and have developed an efficient and effective way to utilize their team to drop every other rider except for the GC contenders.  This video showcases this tactic perfectly.  Forward to the 20 minute mark when Team Sky takes over the pace making and watch what happens to everyone else, then as the last domestique peels off, watch Froomey make a monster attack and burn his “Match” when it matters most.  Now, we all don’t have teams working for us, but you get the idea here: if you’re a climber attack on the mountains!

Exiting Corners

This is one few people think of, especially during a flat race.  If you are feeling good, sprint to the front of the field so you are the first one to enter the turn.  Then, take the corner normally, but slower (while being safe!) than you would normally.  Upon exiting the corner, DIG DEEP and explode to try and create a gap between the riders behind you.  Doing this will cause an even greater accordion effect in the back of the pack as they enter the corner which will allow you to gain even more of a gap.  A little bit of a dirty technique, but racing is racing, right?

Descending

As discussed last week descending can be a great opportunity to conserve energy, but also a chance to separate yourself from the peloton.  If you are on the heavier side, posses good technical skills, and have ice in the veins, try and attack on a decent descent (see what I did there?) to get a gap.  Similar to the taking a corner first technique, descents tend to cause riders to string out in one long line, become more cautious, and elicit an accordion effect.  You can exploit this by being the first one to the turns, taking the corners aggressively, maintaining a low and aero body position, and DIGGING into your match book!  As always though, don’t be a fool and put yourself or others in danger doing this.  You need to get to the actual finish line to win the race.

Crosswinds

Utilizing the cross winds to gain an advantage can best be seen in Belgium during the Classics season.  The winds in this part of the world are notorious for ripping a peloton to shreds and causing echelons to form…

When these echelons form, all it takes is one rider to lose a little bit of a wheel and an entire field can be left behind.  For this reason, when you see echelons starting to form, or you did your research like a good cyclist and know where the cross winds on the course will be (hint hint), get your butt out of the main field and up to the front of the race.  Then DIG back into the match book and attack AWAY from the wind to try and get a gap on the field.  Remember too, keep as aero as possible!

Road Furniture

This can be placed into the “dirty riding” category I suppose, but can be an excellent way to get a gap on the field if done properly and safely.  My favorite example of this is Peter Sagan in the 2014 Tour of Oman when he literally hopped a curb and got a gap on his breakaway companions.  You can also use rough pavement, roundabouts, or traffic medians to achieve a gap by taking the better lines, short way round, or sharper turns.

For more information on GC Coaching and how we can help you improve your fitness, please visit www.gaffneycyclingcoaching.com

Lower back pain is the leading cause of disability in the world, a big reason people miss work, and many athletes I have coached have missed workouts because of it.  The first 2 facts are terrible, but missing workouts too, c’mon!  The majority of back pain in athletic populations, in my experience, is caused by muscles becoming tighter due to fatigue and overuse.  This fatigue can come from many areas ranging from an increase of training workload to a tough race.  Fortunately, for most sufferers of back pain there are a few easy exercises you can do to loosen up the muscles and increase the joint range of motion to help decrease the pain.  There are many conflicting studies regarding when to stretch and how long to hold the stretches for, this is what I have seen work best for me and the athletes/patients I have worked with.

How to stretch

• Ideal best time to stretch is POST WORKOUT.  The reason for this is because stretching a muscle statically will decrease its ability to contract which will result in a decreased amount of power produced.  We train too hard trying to increase our power and strength to reduce it right before our event!
  • Instead, try a dynamic stretching routine pre-workout if you feel tight.  Performing dynamic stretches will improve your range of motion, and you won’t lose any contractile force of the muscle, a win-win.
• Stretches should be held for 30 seconds minimum.  Physiologically, it takes your muscle fibers ~30 seconds to relax enough to make static stretching beneficial and allow the muscle fibers to lengthen.
• Stretches should be performed in a comfortable range of motion, so no crying because it hurts so much, but you also want to feel like you are doing something too.
• Alternate each leg with each consecutive stretch, so as 1 side is resting, the other side is being stretched.
• Perform the stretches 2-3 times each.
• Stretch out 2-3 times daily if you are really having an issue with your back.  For maintenance, or if your back only hurts after an intense event/race, once a day is okay.

Lumbar/Thoracic/Cervical Spine Mobility

From a quadruped position bring your head forward, round your back, and bring your hips forward.

From a quadruped position bring your head and hips towards the ceiling and arch your back.

Lumbar Spine Mobility

From your stomach, press up onto your hands (or elbows if you’re very tight) and arch your back. Relax your glutes.

Hamstrings

Piriformis

Place your foot on your opposite knee, reach for your thigh, and pull towards your chest until a deep stretch is felt in the buttocks.  Sometimes this causes knee pain, if so only perform the stretch below  

Pull your leg up and then across your body until a deep stretch is felt in the buttocks.  Try and keep your shoulders flat and try not to rotate your lower back too much.  

Glutes

Latissimus Dorsi

Sit your buttocks back and reach your arms forwards.  You will feel a stretch along your outer torso and towards your arms or back depending on how tight you are.  

Foam rolling, or self-myofascial release, can be beneficial as it increases joint ROM without decreasing muscle performance and reduces perceived pain after an intense bout of exercise (source).  Be warned though, it DOES NOT usually feel good during.

Imagine the scales of justice for a moment, on one side of the scale you have training and on the other side you have foam rolling, massage, stretching, resting, etc.  If you do too much of one area, your scale will become unbalanced which will lead to injury or poor performances athletically.  So, if you are one of those athletes who just trains themselves into the same hole every year and the same old injuries keep creeping up, learn from your previous mistakes and start doing some foam rolling!

What is Fascia?

Fascia can be described as a casing surrounding each muscle that helps to give the muscle greater structure and separates individual muscles and organs.  Fascia was described to me in school as a “sausage casing”, but it actually makes total sense and is a great way to think of it.  Fascia is extremely fibrous and dense and can become bunched up in certain areas forming a trigger point.  These trigger points are the areas that can be very painful when foam rolling, but need to be released to enable the muscle to function properly.  Trigger points are caused by muscles being overused, traumatic events, or general training.  Since cyclists use their glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves when they pedal their bike, you can bet there will be many trigger points in these muscles!

The Rules:

1. Find an area where you have some room to breathe, won’t be in the way, and are comfortable moving around in.
2. Use a yoga mat or other forgiving surface underneath your body.
3. Pick a foam roller density that gives you enough pressure, but doesn’t cause your eyes to water from the pain.  Usually the darker the roller the more dense it is.
4. Start from the top and work your way down.  So, upper back -> lower back -> hips, etc.
5. Spend a few minutes rolling each individual muscle group and always start with less time initially.  Once you have some practice rolling, you can spend more time on the muscles that are more of a problem for you and less time on the muscles that aren’t as tight for greater efficiency.
6. When you find those pesky trigger points, work each one individually for 20-30 seconds and move on.  You can either hold direct pressure, or perform quick back and forth and/or rocking over them to release them.
7. Smile at how good you feel and how loose those muscles are afterwards!

Thoracic/Cervical Spine Mobility

Piriformis/Glutes

Hamstrings

Quadriceps

Iliotibial Band

Calves

THIS IS THE SECOND ARTICLE IN A SERIES REGARDING THE INTRICACIES OF BICYCLE ROAD RACING…MORE TO COME!

All of the disciplines of cyclesport involve tactics of varying depth, but road racing takes the cake.  There are 2 major pieces involved in racing; spending energy and conserving energy.  This article will discuss best ways to conserve energy.  Tactically speaking, conserving energy is more important than spending it as there is a finite amount of energy you can spend before blowing up.  I like to think of it as a credit card with a strict limit; you can spend energy to a point, but eventually you will reach your limit and need to pay some of it back (recover) by decreasing the intensity of your effort.  Fortunately, there are many ways for you to conserve energy during a race to have more of it available for the final few kilometers, or to establish that winning break away and power it to the line.

Drafting

Drafting is by far and away the number 1 way for you to conserve energy during a race.  Unbelievably, in a peloton (group of cyclists), riders can save up to 40% (1) of their energy by riding behind others or to the side opposite where the wind is coming from.  This means that if the rider pulling the pack is laying down 400 watts, the riders behind him only need to put out ~240 watts to keep up.  The further down the line you are, the greater the energy conserved, so if you find yourself coming to the front of a peloton or paceline in a race, slow up a little bit so you stay in the slipstream and make the other riders work.  This will conserve your energy, but definitely wont make you any friends in the peloton.  Plus, you will be labeled a “Wheel-sucker”, but hey if winning races means I need to suck wheels more, so be it!

Descending

Screaming down the backside of a mountain climb can be both an elating and terrifying experience.  It can also be an excellent opportunity to put some serious distance between yourself and the peloton with the best part being you don’t even need to pedal most of the time!  Descending is all about becoming as aero as possible while being able to control your bike in a safe manner.  Performing a reconnaissance of the race course before your big day to practice the descents can really help!  Doing this will shed light on road surface conditions and what areas to avoid, plus you will gain confidence in taking turns more aggressively while at the same time decreasing your chances of over-cooking one and ending up in a ditch.

The above image has the most popular descending positions ranging from safest but least aero (top left corner), a good middle ground between safety and aero (bottom left corner), and the most aero but also most dangerous descending position (right side).  The position you choose should reflect your skills as a rider and also the terrain/road you are plummeting down.

If you want to be on the edge of your seat, check out this video of Peter Sagan putting on an absolute clinic in the Tour de Suisse.  Watch how easy he makes it look and compare that to how hard the others have to work just to keep up with him!  He is surely conserving a lot more energy than the others.

Utilizing a Team

Teams are crucial to win races and especially stage races.  General classification (GC) riders usually won’t feel any wind on their face until the closing kilometers of a race and are kept in the safest position possible to avoid any mishaps.  Remember, a rider in a group can conserve up to 40% of their energy by drafting.  The more energy a rider conserves, the better chances they have of delivering a winning sprint, or attack up the final climb.  This is why you will see the domestiques of a team dropping back to the team car to secure bottles and energy, pulling their leader back up to a break away, giving their wheels or sometimes entire bike to their leader in the event of a flat tire, and basically anything else you can imagine to save the team leaders legs.  The team is sacrificing their chances of winning to improve their leaders chances!

So, if you want to have the best chances of winning a race, CONSERVE YOUR ENERGY!  Don’t race based off of emotions and attack up the first climb, pull back the first breakaway, or try and solo off the front holding 300 watts when you have not been able to hold 280 watts for more than 10 minutes!  Race objectively and utilize tactics to improve your chances of seeing your adoring fans from the top step of the podium.  Also remember, you are racing and not making friends out there.  Don’t feel bad missing a pull or staying in the peloton for as long as possible; do whatever it takes to improve your chances!

Further Reading:

BICYCLE ROAD RACING 101: TYPES OF RACES AND RIDER DISCIPLINES/ROLES

WHAT IS AERO?

For more information on GC Coaching and how we can help you improve your fitness, please visit www.gaffneycyclingcoaching.com

References

https://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/aerodynamics2.html

Cycling road racing is a category of competitive cycle sport that most have seen before on television, at the local cycling festival, or regional road race and historically dates back to the late 1800’s with it being a part of the Olympics since 1896.  Road racing is usually the “gateway drug”, for lack of a better term, to other aspects of cycle sport racing and is where the author first got bit by the cycling bug.  This article series will serve to educate the newer competitive rider or cycling fan to better understand the complexity, tactics, and culture of road bike racing.

First though, let us start from the top and work our way down…

Major Sub-Categories of Road Bicycle Racing

• One day races –  These are sometimes called “The Classics” with the most famous races being Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Milan-San Remo, La Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and Giro di Lombardia.  These races are typically brutal and feature extreme length, winds, cobblestone sectors, gravel/dirt roads, and belgian frites ;-).  Riders like Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellera excel at this discipline.
• Stage Races – These feature the “Grand Tours” which are the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a Espana as well as the lesser known (to the general population), but equally exciting elite stage races which include the Tour Down Under, Paris-Nice, Criterium du Dauphine, and the Tour de Suisse.  Stage races, especially the Grand Tours, are considered to be the pinnacle of road bicycle racing and feature the best climbers, sprinters, and time trial specialists in the business with Chris Froome being the most prestiguous stage racer as of yet.  Watts per kilogram is king here!

• Time Trials – These include both individual (ITT) and team time trials (TTT).

ITTs tend to be where the best of the best duke it out during stage races and is called the “race of truth” because it is literally just you, your bike, and the road versus your competition.  If you enjoy pain, then ITTs are for you!  Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, and Rohan Dennis are the big dogs in this discipline with Aerodynamics and watts/CdA reigning supreme.

TTTs are really cool to watch, but terrifying to participate in!  Imagine riding at 25+ mph, in a position you don’t spend much time in, wearing uncomfortable gear and a heavier helmet, riding as close as possible to the wheel in front of you, all while having NO BRAKES in easy reach.  Some of the most spectacular cycling crashes I have seen have been while watching TTTs.

• Other – These events can be thought of as single day races or multi-stage events, but have become an event in their own right as the popularity of them has grown and they require very specific training to accomplish or excel at.  These include Criteriums, ultraendurance racing (RAAM), and hill climbing events to name a few.

Types of Riders in Road Races and Their Roles

• Sprinter – These riders specialize in, you guessed it, sprinting out of a peloton for stage wins and could have an entire team providing a “lead out train” to deliver them to the line with only 500 meters to go before unleashing their impressive power.  Mark Cavendish, Andre Greipel, and Marcel Kittel make up the premium selection of this pedigree.
• Climber – Think of a bag of bones with quads attached for these riders ;-).  Extremely lean, but very high power to weight ratio that enables them to put massive time gains into their rivals while at the same time expending far less energy.  As previously stated, these tend to be prolific Grand Tour winners with Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana, and Alberto Contador making up the elite of this class.
• Domestique – The working class of the professional ranks.  These are the riders who work for their team leader and are tasked with sheltering them from the wind, dropping back to the team car to get bottles and food, switching their wheels or even bikes in an emergency with them, and most importantly protecting their leader from crashing by keeping them towards the front of the peloton.  Recently a new term has been coined, “Super Domestique“, and is reserved for the riders who may be able to win the race or Grand Tour themselves, but instead work for the team leader to ensure they place highly.  Richie Porte, Chris Froome, and Ivan Basso have been recipients of this title for helping their team leader secure victory.
• Puncheur – This rider performs best over rolling terrain that involves short, but very steep climbs (Mur de Huy).  Athletes like Peter Sagan, Philippe Gilbert, and Simon Gerrans have made their names winning these types of races.
• All-rounder – This is where the big bucks are made and entire teams, sometimes entire seasons, are built around providing for this rider.  The big names of the sport reside here: Chris Froome (per usual), Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, etc.

Make this your year to try something new!  Get in touch with us to start your season off right.