Eldron

The one that tastes best when you sweat it into your mouth!

Yup. As we get older we get less flexible, more sensitive to foods, get injured more often, break easier, take longer to heal etc. Stretching is my current "must do". If I stretch 3 or more times a week then I feel better on the bike and in general. It's a gospel I teach to my customers as well - if you want that "more aggressive" position you need to be more flexible to be able to hold it for long periods. Earn it :-) Stretching has relieved lower back pain for many, many customers.

My sample size was 1 and 100% of the people sampled agreed. Fact!

Piddy for the win!

I find 50+ customers both the hardest and most rewarding to fit. Once men hit 50 they seem to galvanize all their beliefs. 50plussers argue and debate and check and double check me - they try and school me in bike fitting while I'm fitting them 🙂 Once I'm done and they go ride (mumbling to themselves that I'm stupid) they realise that times have changed and cycling doesn't have to be permanent pain (and you can ride a bike with spacers under the stem and a stem shorter than 140mm). My most satisfying reviews and feedback come from older men that realise they can ride another 30 years without pain/discomfort. Of course this is all tongue in cheek (I am 48) but there certainly is a trend for older men to HTFU and self diagnose. Bike fitting has come a LOOOOONG way in the last 5 years and is far more scientific, consistent and reliable than it used to be.

Go and see 2 professionals. A physio/chiro and a bike fitter. Don't start randomly adding shims, angled inserts etc without knowing what the problems are - it is a recipe for disaster!

The "open door" policy takes some getting used to as an expatter! We once went away for the weekend and when we got back our front door was wide open - as a saffer I immediately went into "we've been robbed" mode but nah - the lock didn't engage when we left so our front door flapped around for 3 days while we had fun in Sweden. The bike theft mentality is a strange one - Denmark really is a societal country where "the community" comes first so bike theft makes no sense. We blame it on the foreigners of course 😉 The police here don't give a rat's arse about bike theft so maybe you're right on that point.

Here in Cooenhagen laws are respected, crime is non existent...until it comes to bicycles then it's a free for all. Electric bikes (especially cargo ebikes) are the most stolen.

Nay worries. I'm pretty much a fan of anything that will improve cycling performance. I just find it odd that people have to choose/be right/support their own choice. Intervals are better than no intervals (that doesn't make coaching/TR useless), a semi personalised program like TR is better than random intervals (or a Zwift FTP booster) but that doesn't render coaches useless, a (good) flesh and blood coach is best - highly personalised with good communication and the ability to make changes at will (but a coach doesn't mean that random intervals and TR programs are useless to people without coaches). Story of human beings I guess.

I do love a good hubdebate: You discover basic interval training so coaches are a waste of money. You're pro coaching - then you must be a coach. Obviously. Coaching is only for rich people. Basically you've tried Chocolate Ice Cream and swear blind it's better than Vanilla. You've never tired Vanilla Ice Cream but that doesn't matter.

As always - the exception does not mean the rule is wrong. The vast majority of pros use coaches.

A more general comment - don't use the same tyre front and back. Always use a grippier tyre on the front - that way the rear "warns" you a bit when you're hitting the traction limit (instead of the front going first and you lying in a ditch with a face full of mud/dust wandering what the hell happened). If you do have 1 tyre that you love above all other then use a wider version on the front.

Fair enough but no need to undermine coaching in general and describe them as glorified hand holders when you have no experience/knowledge of what they do.

Sure but without having tried both you can't really compare can you? I've done both and a physical coach has outperformed a machine coach everytime. If you're just looking for a performance boost then sure almost any online program will help but if you want to perform at national,/euro/world level and want to peak for specific events then a physical coach is the best option.

A (good) coach is waaaay better that a cut'n'paste program. They can prepare you for specific events - ensure you don't over train, take specifics into account etc. Interval training is better than no interval training but a coach will definitely do more for you than random interval training. It certainly did for me. Both running and cycling.

Van Aert dominant for 3 out of 3. Piddy getting better. Bring on the return of MVDP. Between him and an improving Piddy we should have a decent race soon instead of follow my leader/Van Aert....

Coaches are great - best and most efficient way to achieve your goals. That said - they're kinda optional until club/provincial level - after that they're not negotiable. Horses for courses and all that.

She has the right father to be a top notch cyclist! Amazing young talent!

That is the same formula as Pi*D I figure if you're going to go to the trouble of measuring the actual diameter of the wheel then geek out properly and do the roll out test and get exactly the right answer....

It's even more accurate to make a mark on the tyre, jump on the bike, roll one revolution then measure the distance. The PiD formula doesn't account for varying tyre size and the various shapes those varying tyres make when on different width rims.

A few hundred meters is nothing. You never start and stop your computer at exactly the same place and if you do it takes varying time to pick up satellites and start tracking. Also - GPS tech breadcrumbs - it isn't live so when you take corners etc it may take a sample at different points or even skip a short, tight corner completely if you have your sample rate set to 15 or 20 seconds. I'm sure the fundies on here will know a few other reasons why GPS is not perfect...

Don't worry - Bojo will write it on a bus for Christmas then everything will be solved 🙂

The bigger question is WTF is going on in the UK? Armed bike robberies, home invasions, a clown for a PM, atrocious covid response, brexit - perhaps the fall of the British empire is closer than we think!!!

We all feel like we are his pal after reading this thread... Ride in Peace!

Ah well - it was fun while it lasted.