How Many Bikes Do I Need?

Er, one. I have yet to meet the person who can ride more than that simultaneously. Save your money and keep your wife onside and buy yourself some new wheels for your solo steed.

How much should I spend buying a bike?

Cheeky. I know what you want me to say, but don’t fall into this trap. Your budget should be however much you/your tax demand/refund/your wife apportions you.

I need to get the top spec/latest/lightest, right?

Wrong. Look at the bike that won the 1932 Tour De France. Now look at the bike that won last year’s Tour De France. Big difference? Not really: similar geometry, similar bike shape, different materials, gearing and weight (now do the same with the Formula 1 winning car from 1952 and present day).

There’s only so much you can do to change a bike. Market forces dictate that manufacturers need to keep bringing out new collections, upgrades and new models year after year, but the reality is that unless there’s something revolutionary to announce, do you really think the 2015 model is going to be 45 seconds slower up the same hill?

It will, however, be considerably cheaper so save your money and treat yourself to the best upgrade you can offer yourself: new wheels.

I ride a 2014 Dolan Tuono and Strava confirms that I am faster on every climb, every descent and every flat compared to the guy next to me who’s on a fully-specced Pinarello F8 Dogma.

What gear do you ride?

I ride a 2014 Dolan Tuono SL purchased at the time with Shimano 105 Groupset and Mavic Aksium wheels.

I have since upgraded the wheels to Dura Ace C24 and Shimano Dura-Ace Crankset and second hand Dura Ace brakes

The chain is standard and the casette is an 11-32 Ultegra for reasons listed below.

The cycling community tells me that lighter is faster so I need to get the lightest of everything and become a Weight Weenie, right?

Wrong.

[Weight Weenie: an individual who becomes obsessed by the exact gram weight of every component on his/her steed down to the bar tape.]

We all have the Weight Weenie make an appearance in our lives, not least because the cycling industry demands it, and we can’t begrudge them this: they’re a business and have significant R&D budgets which have got us from the 1932 Tour De France metallic winner to today’s carbon fibre rocket.

Carbon wheels are indeed light. They are also diabolical in the wet. And fragile.

I ride on real roads with real potholes, real raised ironwork and in real rain. I have limited space in my apartment which doesn’t allow for an abundance of spares so I have one set of wheels on the bike and a second set.

Should I get the carbon fibre bottle cage? Should I get Di2? Should I get carbon fibre handlebars? Should I get a carbon fibre seat post? Should I get carbon fibre soled shoes?

Difference in price between Ultegra and Dura Ace rear cassette: around US$150

Difference in weight between Ultegra and Dura Ace rear cassette: 46g

What weighs 46g in the real world? A golf ball.

If the equivalent of carrying a golf ball in my pocket is what makes the difference between success and failure then frankly I shouldn’t be riding a bike.

Di2: it’s electric, which means you can’t fix it if it goes wrong. That’s all I’ll say.

Tubulars: you will get a puncture and you don’t have a support car

Clinchers: way forward

Disc brakes: I can definitely see the advantages, especially when Everesting and if you ride in hilly country. Does the weight limit negate the reliability-in-wet advantage? Not in my book.

My advice: put your effort into getting stronger. Legs and Lungs Cupcake, legs and lungs.

What single upgrade will make me faster?

Wheels. Not even the lightest set – light typically means less robust, ergo potentially a false (and dangerous) economy – so go for the most robust and best spinners.

My Dolan came with Mavic Aksiums which after a horrendous speed wobble descending at 65km/h I immediately replaced with a pair of sturdier Fulcrum 5.5s from my old bike (they had already been smashed around, had had a spill and still they kept on going) and then I treated myself to a set of Dura Ace C24 clinchers – carbon with alloy braking surface.

They are life-changers. My Strava times dropped significantly from ride 1 – they were way faster up the hills, I was rolling around 3km/h faster when freewheeling on the flat and the responsiveness when bridging a gap was a mammoth leap up.

As I write this, they’ve been on the bike for nearly 2.5 years, have done over 13,000 very hilly km, including 3 Everestings. They’ve had a spill, have been out in 50 degree heat, -3 degree cold, pre- and post-typhoon rain and have taken some punchy knocks on the atrocious roads of Hong Kong.

And to date they’ve never been trued.

Are there lighter, stiffer, faster wheels out there? Of course there are. Can I afford them? Most of them: no.

Waddya mean “Legs and Lungs”?

Exactly that.

Question: what gets you from sea level to the summit?

1. A 900g carbon frame with an 1100g carbon fibre wheelset
2. your legs and lungs

Exactly.

So focus on them instead.

Is diet important?

Diet is very important. Correction: it is crucially important, as we all know from our first ride back after a 2 week summer holiday of indulgence or from any ride in early January.

Fact: It is school-fee-cheaper to lose 3kg off your gut than to shave a mere 800g off your bike weight.

It’s also a hell of a lot harder, so discipline yourself and consider this a part of your training schedule.

You can take two routes: the gradual and the jarring.

The Gradual: maintain your current diet but immediately cut down portion size and stop eating seconds and start swapping in healthy snacks for any processed food you may be chomping on.

The Jarring: go all out from Day 1. Work out a meal schedule, buy what you need, refurb the contents of your fridge, control portion size, cut out alcohol and smash it from Day One.

I was forced to take The Jarring route in 2015 after I was diagnosed as celiac so had to cut out gluten from my diet with immediate effect.

As a result I went from 85kg to 78kg in 3 weeks. My Strava times for the same hills (proper 20-minuter 11% beasts) either side of the diagnosis offer the perfect evidence that weight loss dramatically improves your climbing times as we can safely presume that my fitness remained consistent in this 6 week window.

In addition to being celiac, I am allergic to lactose which focuses my mind on what I allow in my body, even when blind drunk on a Friday night.

Most gluten-free products on the market are so loaded with sugar and other shite that I rapidly made the decision to avoid them as much as possible, choosing instead a Free From Gluten diet more in tune with a paleo diet, as I figured that were I to transition to purpose-made GF foods, I’d be at best diabetic and at worst cancerous within a few months.

My diet can best be described as “what humans are supposed to eat punctuated with multiple episodes and periods of self-righteous-dietary-AWOL-ness”.

The former part of the above refers to lots of fruit and veg, pulses, meat and fish, all with no sauce (sauces typically contain gluten in the form of flour, soy, thickeners, etc), while the latter refers to my ability to quaff a bag of marshmallows or tub of Booja Booja ice cream before dinner.

Breakfast:

GF oats with GF muesli and GF granola with rice/almond milk. I did coconut milk for a while but found it too sweet with the cereals.

GF toast and honey

Lunch:

Daal (lentils) and rice

Home-made meatballs and quinoa

Dinner:

Salmon steak and rice (white, brown or wild) or quinoa

Roast chicken and roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots with rice (as above), broccoli, cauliflower, corn on the cob

Click here for more examples and 2 weeks of recipes.

Supplements:

Due to my dietary restrictions, most supplements and pills are off-limits but I do take 1 x multi-vitamin tablet, 1 x probiotic, 1 x calcium pill and 2 x vitamin B12 drops each day, principally to top up what I can’t get in terms of calcium and B12 from dairy.

I take nothing (either supplement/shakes, etc) pre or post ride and 98% of my rides are done purely on water and an empty stomach or if it’s a longer one (over 3 hours) a banana and one in the jersey (deliberate technique to make my body work more efficiently and use what it has first, rather than rely on pre-ride fuel).

Daily water intake:

It’s high. I drink a lot of water and I pee a lot. Apart from coffee, water is all I drink.

No sodas?

I’ll have an occasional Coke when I’m on a tough ride in the heat and can feel blood sugar lagging or when I’m fiendishly hungover, that’s all.

No energy drinks?

Nope. As above, but I go for Coke over Red Bull, but may have a vodka Red Bull if out and onnit.

As a rule of thumb I’ll drink one Coke/Red Bull every 2 months or so and water the rest of the time.

No squash, no juices?

Nope, neither.

So you only drink water?

Yes. Lots. About 2 – 4 litres per day on average, and if I’m in a coffee period then coffee too.

Alcohol:

Beer has gluten in it which means I can’t drink it so I drink wine instead and on occasion rum.

Do I  get drunk? Hell yeah. But I’ll go 3 weeks without drinking a drop then smash a bottle of wine at dinner on my own.

Caffeine:

I go in phases. I can go a month without a single coffee or tea and then I will do a period of double espresso every breakfast followed by a single mid-morning. I don’t drink coffee after lunch as it keeps me awake at night, unless I have a client or social dinner and I’m tired in which case I will have a single espresso around 4pm which will kick in and keep me perky through the dinner.

I drink black tea maybe twice a year but not out of choice, only when there’s no espresso.

How much should I sleep?

As we all know with our kids, sleep is very important, but this tends to get forgotten/conveniently ignored when we become adults. I’m an early riser and definitely a morning person but I’m also someone who needs their sleep and I try to get at least 7 hours per night and ideally 8 or if I can squeeze in 9 then I know that the next day is going to be just awesome.

The Reverse Lie In:

Master this one, it’s a life-saver. Try to be asleep by 9.30pm and the following day will be the most productive breeze possible.

Training

I like cycling and so I cycle. Realistically about 2 to 3 times per week for 1 to 2 hours each time, rarely more.

Period.

The only other exercise I do is lie on the lounge floor on a yoga mat and use my foam roller and elastic pilates band on my legs.

80% of my riding is done solo – a) I never know when I’ll go out (weather, work and family dependent) b) I live away from most of my cycling buddies.

Given the less predictable nature of my cycling schedule, I’m not so good at Recovery Rides and prefer instead to capitalise on the precious time I do get on the bike by heading rapidly into Zone 5.

Click here to view my complete pre-Everesting training programme

Click here for a hill-specific training programme

What should I do in addition to riding? 

Pilates/Stretch

Every day. 5 mins when you’re rushed and when you get out the shower in the morning:

• Legs, quads, glutes, adductors and core
• Quick neck and back

Do 20 press-ups per day to keep balance.

Click here for a 5 minute programme – PLUS PICS

Click here for a 15 minute programme

Click here for a full 30 minute programme.

Anything else?

Yes. The foam roller.

Love it or hate it, I love it and it works for me. 10 mins twice a week will make a difference, and if you’ve had a crazy week at work and have neither ridden nor stretched all week and find yourself on Friday evening laying out your it for the promised ride Saturday morning, it’s a great way to deceive your muscles that they have exercised.

Hams, calves, side hip, glutes, quads, back and shoulders

To avoid squashing your balls, perch on the edge thusly:

PLUS PIC

Mail me if you have any questions.

Happy riding.