How Can I Keep Up With Other Cyclists? | Ask GCN Anything Cycling

- Coming up on this week's Ask GCN Anything,
we are once again answering your cycling-related
questions including whether or not you should
use a base layer when it's hot outside,
whether the pros should have a different part of Strava,
and also whether the pros use Synchro Shift.
However, the first question we're going to answer
comes in from Indulonman, asking:
"Any tips for 60 kg a rider to keep up with riders
that are 20 kg+ heavier on the flat?
When they push really hard, I'm totally toasted
and get dropped. I am superior on the hills,
but unfortunately, there aren't many near me."
Well, the problem that you are
having, as you probably know, is that your good
power-to-weight ratio, which sees you flying
up the climbs, doesn't come into play so much
when you are on flat roads. There, the thing that
prevents you from going faster is mainly wind resistance
with a small amount of rolling resistance.
So the heavier riders who've got a higher
absolute power are able to go faster.
So the obvious thing then is to try to increase your
absolute power, which would also see you climbing faster
as well. However, that is very much easier said than done.
So instead, you should probably spend more time
looking at your technique, because the force distribution
through your pedal stroke on flat roads is quite different
to what you will see on the climb, so it is worth spending
a lot of time on flat roads practicing that.
Now it sounds like you've got plenty near you, that
shouldn't be a problem. The second thing to do is make
sure you are very comfortable in riding quite close to
the rider in front of you, in order to save as much
energy as possible, and also bear in mind where
the wind is coming from. So if it's coming from the
right hand side, for example, sit close to the rider
but also to the left of the rider in front of you
to maximise the benefits of slipstreaming.
Now this next video from Si and Matt goes into some
details about how to get faster on flat roads
so if you want some more tips, take a look at this.
- Cause wind resistance is the biggest force holding
you back, and the faster you go the greater its effect.
Now you could throw some money at it, as we all know
buying aero equipment can have a dramatic effect.
But you can also do it a bit cheaper too.
- Our next question comes in from Toby Jarvis on Twitter.
"#TorqueBack do the pros use Shimano Synchro Shift?
If so, or not: Why?" Well, to the best of my knowledge,
no the pros don't use Synchro Shift. That said,
it is quite a new invention really on the road,
something Shimano have brought over from their
top level mountain bike group set.
However, I think that even once they have tried it
and tested it, they're probably prefer to stay
with their normal gears which they shift manually.
And I'll give you an example and a reason behind this:
So if you're in a race like Amstel Gold,
which is littered full of short, steep climbs,
the pros will often try to leave it in the big
ring, and in fact cross-chain. So big ring on
the front, and quite a big cog on the cassette
at the back. Now this is not something we just
always recommended, but the reason that they
do that, is cause they don't want that very slight
pause over the top of the climb for changing from the
small ring up into the big ring.
Because if you are on your limit into the red
and you're only just about able to hold
the wheel in front of you, that very short pause
can allow the wheel to sail away just a few metres,
and you might never see that group again.
Now Si has had a look at the evolution of Di2
over the years, so if you don't know what
Synchro Shifting is he explains this
amongst other things in this next video.
- Then there's also a semi automatic shifting
function called Synchro Shift. So when you switch
it on, it effectively means that you don't have
to think about your front derailleur.
Your Di2 controls it for you, shifting
from your little ring to your big ring
and back again as it sees fit.
- Right. It is time for the rapid fire round
and we'll begin that with Guido Willem De Vries.
"How important is the top screw between your
cleat and your shoe? I lost mine about a week
ago and I can't feel any difference.
It is dangerous? And should I bother getting a
new set of cleats for just 1 screw?"
Uh, well, yes I would suggest that that screw is
reasonably important, even if you can get away
with one missing-as you have found out-for a few days.
But you might well get to the point where your shoe
ends up getting stuck in the pedal
which could be very dangerous indeed.
What you could try is heading to your local bike shop
to see if they've got any spares lying about
in terms of the screw that you need for you cleat.
What I would also suggest is that the next time
you renew your cleats, you throw away the plastic
parts of the old ones but you keep the bolts, etc
as spares in case this happens again.
The next one from Oconuco says:
"#AskGCN Do I really need a base layer on the
summer in Colorado? Which are the best
for the dry mountain climate of where I live?"
I will answer the first part of your question:
No you definitely don't have to use a base layer
when it's hot, and in fact I don't personally
use one when it's over about 25º, that's one
ride a year here in the UK. It does tend,
I think in my mind, to keep an extra bit of heat in
because it's an extra layer, and in terms of whether
the pros use base layers all the time or not,
I think this tweet coming up on the screen now
should answer your question. This is from the
American Chad Haga who said at the Dauphine
he did the whole Giro without using the base layer
or arm warmers, and today in France he needed both.
Where has summer gone. So no, he didn't use a base
layer for any of the 23 stages or 23 days of the
Giro Italia. James Moore has written on twitter:
"Hole in a side wall of a tyre, can it be saved
or should I bin it? The thought of binning a
€65 tyre has my wallet crying in the corner."
Oh well I'm very sorry to tell you James,
that in this instance you should probably
upset your wallet and invest in a new tyre.
There are a number of solutions to get you home
if you find a hole in the side wall, maybe an old
wrapper from a gel or an energy bar or maybe a bank note,
or even a patch for an inner tube if you've got one
with you. However, really it's just a get-home solution
and I wouldn't suggest riding on a tyre with a hole
in the side wall any further than that.
Eddy Tjhia says: "#TORQUEBACK how much is the average
pro-rider salary?" I have absolutely no idea
but I will take a guess. The very top end will be
sort of 3 to 4 million Euros, and we're talking about
the likes of Peter Sagan, etc. The very basic rate
as a neo pro, which is first year professional
for world tour riders is in the region of €46,000
to €47,000 these days. So I'd hazard a guess that
the average is probably €150,000 to
€200,000 for a current world tour pro.
Finally, Dan Sawyer wrote in and said:
"Tom Dumoulin wore Sunweb kit on road stages
of the Giro but Dutch National Champions kit for the
time trials. Is this because he's national time trial champ
but not road champ? Even within a Grand Tour, do
time trial champs wear national kit for those stages?
And if so, what happens in the team time trials?"
Well yes, he is the time trial champion of the Netherlands
for the time trial, but not on the road,
hence why he was only using it for the individual
time trial stages. On the hand, Bob Jungels of
Quick-Step is national champion in both disciplines
so he was using that national champion's kit throughout,
unless he was leading one of the general classifications
which he was for the white jersey.
For team time trials, I think the UCI ruling is that
you can't use your world champion's kit
even if you've won the world championships.
I would guess that applies to the national champions too.
The next question comes in on Twitter from Peter Hull:
"Is it okay to wear Lycra when cycle touring northern Italy
and the Dolomites on an electric bike?"
Well yes Peter, that is absolutely fine.
There's nothing wrong with wearing Lycra on an e-bike
and there are always going to be people who get upset
about something in cycling. That might be the fact
that you're on an e-bike in the first place,
other people get upset about the way things look.
Maybe using a pro team kit when you're out riding,
or black socks with white shoes,
or maybe even top tube bags etc. This is something
we've joked about on many videos in the past here
on GCN, but our basic ethos is that riding a bike is good.
Doesn't matter what the bike looks like,
it doesn't matter what you look like.
It's about getting out there, having fun,
exploring the roads that are near to you or far away,
being sociable and most importantly being healthy.
And incidentally, Si and Matt were out in the
Dolomites recently trying to answer the question,
"Are E-bikes fun?" So you might want to
take a look at this next video.
- Now, this bike doesn't pretend-by any stretch
of the imagination-to be a top-end road bike.
But could it be? We could just about find out.
- Alright, let's go there mate.
(upbeat electronic music)
- I can't get rid of him! He's like the Terminator.
- The last question this week comes
in on Facebook from Seth Tan CF:
"I have used 172.5 mm and 175 mm
cranks interchangeably. My saddle height is fixed
with my bike fit. Do I need to adjust the saddle
height accordingly?" Well, my initial reaction to this
would be yes, you should adjust your saddle height
accordingly. I would imagine that when you
had your bike fit done, your saddle height was
worked out when you had your foot at the bottom
of the pedal stroke. And when you go from 172.5 mm
cranks up to 175 mm, your foot is going to be 2.5 mm
lower at the bottom of the pedal stroke.
So my assumption would be that you need to put
your saddle down by 2.5 mm as well, even though
your foot at the top of the pedal stroke is
of course going to be 2.5 mm higher.
If I've got that completely wrong, feel free to let
me know in the comments section down below.
You may well find some advice from some of our
more experienced viewers. My other question
would be though, why are you interchanging
crank lengths so often? Maybe you should
decide on what one is best for you,
and to help you with that decision here is Si
talking about how to choose your crank length.
- You see, cranks are a fundamentally important
contact point on the bike. When we set our saddle
heights, it's generally based around a maximum
led extension. Meaning that all of us could roughly
get the right saddle height no matter what the crank length.
- Right well that is the end of this weeks' Ask GCN Anything
Don't forget that if you've got any questions
you would like to ask us, you can leave them in the
comments section down below of you can use Twitter
or Facebook with the hashtag #TORQUEBACK.
If you are yet to subscribe to the channel, you can
do so by clicking on the globe which you will see
appearing on your screen right now, and here are
a couple more videos which you might have missed
this week. First up, up there, Si talks you through
how to true a disc brake rotor.
And then down here, we show you how
to train for a multi stage event.

How Can I Keep Up With Other Cyclists? | Ask GCN Anything Cycling

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