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5 / 9 / 2010 |
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Do you have any good cycling or fitness related tips that would benefit others?
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LIFE LESSONS FROM CYCLING by Andrew Pike
http://andrewpikecoaching.com/ |
On the fifteenth stage from Bagnères de Bigorre to Luz Ardiden, Lance Armstrong, the great five times champion of the Tour de France, was ascending a tough climb with the leading group of riders including his arch rival, Jan Ullrich.
He had seen his overall lead in the tour being eroded away over the past few days and it was now down to around fifteen seconds. As he pedalled past the thousands of spectators, a strap on a spectator's bag looped over his handlebar and he and his bike crashed unceremoniously onto the tar. Spectators scrambled to his assistance, he re-mounted the bicycle and set off in pursuit of the leaders, despite heavy grazing and what must have been a bone-jarring shock to his system. Not a hundred metres later his cleat broke free from the pedal binding, he took another mighty blow to his nether region, almost fell off again, but somehow managed to regain his footing and composure.
Armstrong then pedalled furiously behind a team-mate of his who had stayed behind to assist him and finally caught up with the lead group and, more particularly, Jan Ullrich, his biggest threat on the Tour. As if this huge effort was not enough, Armstrong got out of his saddle and sprinted past the lead group, still on the climb (which was rated beyond category in length, steepness and difficulty). To put this feat in context, the steepest categorised climb is category 1. South Africa does not have a climb which is long and steep enough to be rated as a category one climb.
Despite all efforts by the pursuing group to catch Armstrong, he managed to put almost a full minute between himself and Jan Ullrich which proved to be the difference between them at the finish of the race.
Stories of Armstrong's courage in adversity, particularly in overcoming the testicular cancer which doctors say ought to have killed him, are legend. The story related above serves to confirm what we already know from the rest of Lance Armstrong's life story: |
Life Lesson 1: When you're lying bleeding on the ground, you always have two choices: either continue to lie, bleed and fell sorry for yourself, or pick yourself up, put the knock behind you and be the best you can be.
I am an avid cyclist. I love the sport for many reasons: the unquestionable good that it does for my physical wellbeing; the ability to see the countryside at sensible speeds; the thrill of being able to fly down a hill at eighty kilometres per hour; the camaraderie of fellow cyclists; and, above all, the life lessons that translate from cycling.
When I first started cycling, I joined a group of regular cyclists. On virtually every ride in the first month or so, I found myself chasing up the rear with my thighs crying out in protest, incapable of staying with the rest of the pack who were all much stronger riders that I. As the months progressed, the ache in my legs never really diminished and I wondered if my cycling would ever improve.
One day I noticed that I was climbing hills about midway through the group of riders and no longer tail-end Charlie. Later on I moved towards the front of my group.
Today, I am still chasing a handful of the top riders in our club, but I have discovered that I am now close behind them.
My legs still ache, but I have moved ahead from where I started and am now riding like people I could only sit back and admire a year ago.
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| Life Lesson 2: No matter how tough the going seems, if you keep doing your best, you will improve.
During my first couple of months of training rides, I could just about muster an average speed of twenty-five or perhaps twenty-six kilometres per hour when I was riding on my own. Four months after starting, I took part in my first race, the Tour D'urban. I completed the race at an average speed of thirty-three kilometres per hour.
I had learnt that, when you ride in the slip stream of other riders, there is a massive saving of energy. However, in order for everyone to benefit from that energy saving (around thirty percent), all of the riders in the group have to take their turn at leading the group. I did my bit, but when I was tired, I fell back into the group, let someone else lead and rested.
Having now been riding for some eighteen months, my fitness and technique has improved. On my own I can still only manage around twenty-seven or twenty-eight kilometres per hour, but most recently completed the Cape Argus Cycle Tour (my longest race) at an average speed of thirty-six kilometres per hour. |
Life Lesson 3: When you work together as a team, and do your bit, the final outcome is potentially far greater than when you try and do it all on your own.
The other morning I was riding with a small group of strong riders, all generally stronger on their bicycles than me. My legs were aching as I tried to stay with them and they were obviously pushing the pace of this particular training ride.
I found myself falling a bit behind them and eventually I was twenty to thirty metres behind. I know from experience that, once I fall off a group of stronger riders, there is very little possibility of catching up again unless they wait for me. As it happened, a traffic light turned red and I caught up to them quickly.
I heard one of them, Darryl, ask another where I was. I told him that I was right behind him and said: "I am really battling today". Darryl turned back to me and said: "We're all battling". |
Life Lesson 4: No matter how easy other people are making it look, and no matter how hard you are finding your chosen path, you may be a lot closer to your opposition than you think and the latter may be a lot closer to their maximum than you believe.
I was racing in the Cape Argus Cycle Tour earlier this year. My batch of cyclists had caught up with the batch which had started in front of us. As we left Simonstown we must have been a group of sixty riders travelling at least at fifty kilometres per hour. I was sitting comfortably in the middle of the group, enjoying the benefits of all the leaders' slipstream.
I suddenly had a thought that, if anyone fell in the group I would have no way out and would be involved in the fall. As there was a bit of a head wind blowing, I did not really want to lose my position and was comfortable where I was. However, a little voice told me to move to the outside of the group. Within a minute of me starting to move to the outside of the group, the rider who had been directly in front of me touched someone else's wheel and crashed to the ground. I just managed to swerve around this unfortunate cyclist's head to avoid him, but at least another fifteen or twenty cyclists were not so lucky and went down in a huge and spectacular pile-up.
I saw this out of the corner of my eye, but knew that if I looked at the mayhem I was also likely to become a casualty. |
Life Lesson 5: Always listen to your intuition |
Life Lesson 6: No matter how comfortable you are, always ensure that you have at least one and preferably two escape routes (in case the one is blocked). |
Life Lesson 7: Be prepared to sacrifice some comfort in exchange for your safety. |
Life Lesson 8: When the opposition crashes, don't look and don't gloat: it could happen to you as well.
A couple of months ago I was on a Club ride with a large group of fellow cyclists. As we came to the top of a sharp and long descent, I noticed a tandem in our group start to pick up speed and momentum. Every cyclist knows that tandems go much faster downhill than single bicycles because of the additional weight.
I was a little distance behind the tandem which in turn was a long way ahead of all of the other cyclists. As it started to pick up speed I made a decision to try and stay behind it in its slipstream down the hill. With a major effort I managed to sprint ahead of the rest of the group and move into the slipstream of the tandem with my legs aching and panting from the exertion of the sprint.
We flew down that hill together with me pedalling furiously to stay in the slipstream of the tandem. That was the first time that I ever saw my speedometer touch ninety kilometres per hour. At the bottom of the hill the rest of the group was several hundred metres behind us. |
Life Lesson 9: If you see an opportunity and are willing to put in some effort, the results can be exciting, exhilarating and spectacular.
The next lesson relates to the story which I told earlier about Lance Armstrong. In the Tour de France two years ago (2001), Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich were again battling it out for supremacy. Armstrong had a lead over Ullrich but was certainly not impregnable.
In the mountains, Ullrich experienced a puncture on one particular stage. Armstrong continued riding, but immediately slowed his pace. This gave Ullrich an opportunity to have his wheel changed and rejoin the group. Armstrong's slowing of his pace was a sportsman-like gesture to ensure that he and Ullrich would compete on equal terms. Armstrong went on to win that particular Tour.
When Armstrong fell in the incident described earlier (on the fifteenth stage of the 2003 Tour), Ullrich, remembering the incident in the 2001 Tour, slowed his pace to enable Armstrong to rejoin the group. Many commentators argue that this act of sportsmanship and pay-back by Ullrich cost him the 2003 Tour de France. I suspect that they are right. For Armstrong, however, his hand of friendship two years earlier paid back a mighty dividend. For Ullrich, even if it cost him the 2003 race, his act of sportsmanship earned him the enormous respect of millions of people around the world. |
Life Lesson 10: Show empathy, mercy and play fair with your opposition: you have everything to gain.
Also in the 2003 Tour de France, on the 9th stage from Bourg d'Oisans to Gap, Armstrong was closely following the then second placed Joseba Beloki down a steep mountain pass on a hot summer's day. They were part of a leading chase group who were pursuing the stage leader, Alexandre Vinokourov.
As Beloki came through a bend at break-neck speed, his rear wheel hit some molten tar caused by the heat of the French summer sunshine. Beloki lost control and crashed onto the tarmac in front of Armstrong.
Armstrong had nowhere to go other than off the edge of the road. Completely composed, probably travelling at around sixty kilometres per hour, Armstrong veered to his left off the road and went cross country, cutting off the hairpin bend on which they had been riding, dismounted to carry his bike over a ditch and finally managed to rejoin the chasing group, most of whom had avoided the pile up with Beloki. Armstrong was not penalised by the organisers because he was said to have gained no advantage by taking the shortcut cross-country and also because it was unavoidable. |
Life Lesson 11: In times of crisis, get creative.
A few weeks ago I was riding hard with a group of other cyclists. I was on the left-hand side of the road next to the kerb. I had cyclists to the right of me and what I thought was a newly tarred and smooth road ahead of me. Contrary to my own general principle, I had no escape route left or right, but was reasonably comfortable because there was no-one in front of me.
Coming down a slope at some speed I suddenly came upon a pothole directly in my path. Having hit a pothole in a race earlier this year with some unpleasant consequences, I had since taught myself to "bunnyhop" on the bicycle i.e. lift both wheels off the ground simultaneously.
I timed my "bunny hop" and easily cleared the pothole, none the worse for the experience. |
Life Lesson 12: Teach yourself some tricks and be ready to use them any time. You never know when you might need them.
My final lesson to share is illustrated in a ride that I took recently in the Drakensberg mountains, near Champagne Castle. I set off on my bicycle one evening from the resort where I was staying and immediately cruised down a steep hill with ease and grace.
The road flattened and then started to climb. I felt my legs start to ache, climbed out of my saddle and gradually climbed to the top of the climb. At the top, the road flattened for a bit and then I rolled rapidly down the next descent. This pattern continued for a few kilometres until I saw a hill in front of me which was steeper than any I had previously climbed (ever!).
Slowly I started the ascent and was soon out of my saddle. The road grew steeper, my legs started to ache and my breathing grew quick and short in the thin mountain air. As the bike slowed, my pulse was racing and I saw the speedometer registering 5 km/h, almost a dead stall. Half way up I heard my mind kick in, saying things like: "You'll never make it; this is too steep for you; you're not strong enough; you should just turn around and go back; you're not strong enough!" This was persuasive talk, but another background voice was saying: "If you give up now, how easy will it be next time, and the time after that? You can do this! Just hang in! It's only pain, nothing more."
And hang in I did. As I crested the hill twenty minutes later, I felt like Rocky in the movie where he runs up the stairs in the triumph of conquering his mind. The joy of the achievement was enormous, the moment special.
My 90 km/h descent was a joyous affair of gay abandon, celebrating the effort and not giving up. |
Life Lesson 13: Life is sometimes up, sometimes down and sometimes just right, but it is all about slaying the dragons in adversity, celebrating the triumphs for which we need to work hard and enjoying it when we can just cruise. |
Life Lesson 14: Never, never give up, no matter what your mind tells you. If it's possible, just do it. |
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| Andrew Pike |
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