Cycling on the roads in South Africa.

[Bateleur1]

You wil love Nelspruit!!  Best place to ride one's bike in the world.....

 

Nope ... second best place ... the best would be the western cape

 

Back to the hijacked thread.  I am pretty sure I know Reinhardt R (if it is who I think it is, then he is a spinning instructor as well) and yes he cycles pretty well.  Would love to know how he would perform if he could put in some more road work.  Pretty sure he would do better.  But as sammajoor said, each to his own.

[Steve GT]

A few days in the Roodekrans / Krugersdorp area' date=' then off to Nelspruit. Hopefully get into the panarama tour and then some more cycling in that area.[/quote']

 

You wil love Nelspruit!!  Best place to ride one's bike in the world.....

 

Yep, Looking looking forward to it a great deal.  Would it be wise to cycle along the R40 to Barberton by oneself?

[Bateleur1]

Steve GT, normally the R40 would not be a problem but as far as I know that piece of road is under construction (SERIOUS CONSTRUCTION) so I would not venture there with all the big construction vehicles going down there.  I would suggest that you go down the N4 to a nature reserve called Boulders (I think).  That should make for some awesome cycling (and ALOT of climbing).

[nochain]

Yes Bateleur that would be the Reinardt you know and yes he is one of the best riders in he's age cat.

 

Would love to hear what someone like bikemax has to say on this one?To me it would make sence that it does not realy make a differance,main factor must be at what level you train and the duration at that level.Your hart and lungs don't know the differance??

 

To me where the change comes in is that I prefer to be on my own bike.Setup is key,and you can not dupplicate that on a spin bike.

But riding on the road also waste a lot of time,on an indoor trainer you will get a much higher TSS for a hour than on the road.No stop start and no down hills.

I do most of my riding on the road,simply because I don't mind riding in traffic and it is much more fun than sitting on a trainer 

[Steve GT]

Thanks Bateleur1. I will keep that in mind.

[BikeMax]

 

Yes Bateleur that would be the Reinardt you know and yes he is one of the best riders in he's age cat.

 

Would love to hear what someone like bikemax has to say on this one?To me it would make sence that it does not realy make a differance' date='main factor must be at what level you train and the duration at that level.Your hart and lungs don't know the differance??

 

To me where the change comes in is that I prefer to be on my own bike.Setup is key,and you can not dupplicate that on a spin bike.

But riding on the road also waste a lot of time,on an indoor trainer you will get a much higher TSS for a hour than on the road.No stop start and no down hills.

I do most of my riding on the road,simply because I don't mind riding in traffic and it is much more fun than sitting on a trainer 

[/quote']

 

As I do not read Afrikaans, I am not sure exactly what the OP said, but it seems to have led to an indoor Vs outdoor debate.

 

Spinning in a group format is not the most efficient way to spend time indoors as it tends to be lower in intensity and not necessarily structured towards improving cycling performance (as opposed to general fitness)

 

That having been said, indoor training, if done correctly, is always going to be more efficient than riding outdoors. As NC says, it is easier to spend more time in the correct zone and one tends to freewheel less.

 

The only caveat is that cycling is very specific as a sport and so riding outdoors is necessary to get used to the varying terrain and the muscle recruitment required by racing/competing on the road.

 

I would advocate a mixture of both in an ideal world.