Ciclismo Newsletter

Week beginning May 16th

Yes training will be on this Wednesday 18th ONLY 2016 @ 5.45am sharp !

Hi all,
Ciclismo break – last training session on Wed 18th
Last training session – Wed 18th May
Next training session – Wed 8th June

How to get your cycling to the next level
We all know that feeling – we have come a long way and have a lot more fitness and strength than when we started riding but now we seemed to have reached a plateau. Here are some suggestions if you are looking at getting to the next level :

• Firstly you have to get out of your comfort zone and also you have to try something different as your body adapts to your training load which is why you feel as if you have reached a plateau.
• Try some racing. You can either race crits (short, hard very intense races usually over a technical course) or time trials (pacing yourself against the clock on a usually flattish non technical course) or road racing which is less intense than crit racing and the difficulty will depend on the terrain.
• Incorporate some serious interval training into your regime – and do the sessions properly which means when it calls for a max effort – give it a max effort and then make sure you take the requisite recovery time otherwise you are not doing the interval correctly.
• Change your routine – if you do the same rides every week try a bit of variety and don’t be afraid to change your long ride and substitute it with a short hard race if the opportunity arises. Or vary your long rides over different terrain.
• Introduce some very short but very hard intervals into your training – such as 60 second all out sprint efforts. As soon as you cannot complete a minute at your chosen interval intensity you should stop and warm down.
• Make sure you pay attention to your nutrition once you start upping your intensity or kilometres and make sure you factor in enough recovery.

2016

May/June

Friday 20th May to Friday 3rd June – 2016 Italia tour

September

Date TBC – Dan Fondo 175km

October

Sun 23rd October – Bowral Classic 160km

November

25th to 29th November – Ciclismo Bright Tour

December

Sat 3rd December – L’Etape Australia Jindabyne
Sun 4th December – Ciclismo 2 Up Time Trial champs Calga

Recent racing results
And here’s Pedro’s salute as he won A grade last week at West Head.

Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep) claimed his first ever Grand Tour stage win with a solo attack to Arezzo. Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) followed him home over a minute back with Moreno Moser (Cannondale) rounding out the podium and ensured Italy locked out the top spots. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) led home a group of favourites that included Mikel Landa (Team Sky) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). Race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alepcin) had a tough day and was dropped on the main climb of the Alpe di Poti.

Dumoulin finished more than three minutes back on Brambilla, handing the young Italian the maglia rosa. Brambilla now leads Ilnur Zakrin by 23 seconds.

"I can’t believe what I’ve done," Brambilla said. "Thanks to Matteo Trentin, we did an amazing job all day. It was a hard stage in the final. He pulled until the last climb then it was my turn. I’m really happy – this victory is for my girlfriend Christina, and my little girl who was born 20 days ago. My idea at the beginning of the Giro was this stage, and I did it. I can’t believe I have the pink jersey.”

Despite being less than two minutes down on the general classification, Brambilla made it a
way as part of a 13-man group right at the start of the day. Importantly for the 28-year-old, Matteo Trentin was also part of the breakaway and put in a lot of work on the front to keep the peloton at bay. Brambilla made his move in the main climb of the Alpe di Poti, following an earlier move from Montaguti. The baby-faced climber, who finished third at Strade Bianche earlier this season, quickly caught and passed the AG2R La Mondiale on the dirt roads that covered much of the ascent.
Brambilla’s gap was never too big over Montaguti, hovering at around 30 seconds for most of the run into the finish. At one point on the descent, it looked like Montaguti might be able to close the gap to Brambilla when he had brought it down to just 19 seconds but his hopes faded away once they had reached the flat. Brambilla was able to push out his lead to just over a minute by the time he hit the line in Arezzo.

Cycling News

Quick riding tips

When cleaning your bike you should be checking all the clamps and bolts – so that there are no cracks and the bolts are not overly tightened.