Coaching plans

While having high-quality, professional-standard cycling kit can help optimize your performance and comfort, it is not strictly necessary to improve your cycling. The most important thing is that your bike fits you properly and that you have the right gear for the type of riding you’re doing (e.g., road bike for road cycling, mountain bike for off-road riding).

However, certain items can enhance your cycling experience:

• Bike Fit: A well-fitted bike is critical for comfort, performance, and injury prevention.

• Cycling Apparel: Comfortable, breathable clothing and padded shorts can improve your ride by preventing chafing and managing sweat.

• Helmet and Safety Gear: Always wear a helmet for safety. Other gear like gloves, shoes, and sunglasses can add to comfort and protection.

• Power Meter/Heart Rate Monitor (Optional): These devices are more useful for performance tracking and goal setting but are not essential at the beginner level.

Ultimately, professional-grade kit can help fine-tune your performance, but a solid rider with basic equipment can still make significant progress with the right training.

Yes, a coach can absolutely improve your performance. A cycling coach brings expertise, structure, and accountability to your training program, helping you get faster, stronger, and more efficient in a way that’s tailored to your goals. Coaches provide several advantages:

• Expertise: A coach understands the science of training, including how to balance intensity, volume, and recovery for optimal results.

• Personalized Plan: Based on your fitness level, goals, and time commitments, a coach designs a plan tailored to you, ensuring that every ride serves a purpose.

• Feedback and Accountability: Regular check-ins, progress assessments, and data analysis keep you on track and help avoid plateaus.

• Motivation: Coaches can keep you motivated during tough phases, ensure you stay focused on your goals, and help push you through mental barriers.

• Efficiency: By guiding you on proper techniques and pacing, a coach ensures you get the most out of every ride, helping you avoid overtraining or burnout.

With a coach, you’re much more likely to reach your cycling goals faster and with fewer setbacks compared to self-coaching.

Yes, our coaches offer race advice and assistance. This can include a variety of services:

• Race Preparation: Developing a race-specific training plan to ensure you’re physically and mentally prepared for your event.

• Tactics and Strategy: Coaching on how to pace yourself during the race, when to attack, how to handle hills or headwinds, and how to conserve energy for the final push.

• Nutrition: Guidance on race-day fueling strategies, including when and what to eat before, during, and after the race to optimize performance.

• Mental Preparation: Helping you develop the mental toughness and focus needed to perform under race conditions.

• Post-Race Analysis: Reviewing your performance after the race to learn from your strengths and weaknesses and guide your future training.

Whether you’re preparing for a local crit, a gran fondo, or a major event, race-specific advice and assistance can help you perform at your best.

Yes, cycling is an excellent way to improve your fitness. It provides a full-body workout, improving both your cardiovascular system and muscular strength. Here are the key fitness benefits cycling offers:

• Cardiovascular Health: Cycling improves heart health, increases stamina, and helps with fat burning, making it a great aerobic workout.

• Leg Strength: Cycling engages your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and glutes, building muscular strength in the lower body.

• Core Stability: Maintaining proper form while cycling activates the core, contributing to better posture and overall body stability.

• Low-Impact Exercise: Unlike running, cycling is gentler on the joints, making it suitable for people with joint concerns or those recovering from injury.

• Mental Health Benefits: Endorphins released during exercise help reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance mental clarity.

Whether you're cycling for fitness or weight loss, regular riding will significantly improve your overall health and fitness levels.

Yes, you can still improve your performance even with limited time, but the key is training smart rather than long. With a well-structured plan that focuses on efficiency, you can make significant progress in less time. A coach can help you get the most out of your available training hours by:

• Maximizing Intensity: High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), short power intervals, and tempo rides can deliver major benefits in shorter sessions, boosting your endurance and power.

• Focus on Key Workouts: If time is limited, prioritizing specific workouts that directly target your weaknesses or improve your weaknesses can give you the best return on investment.

• Consistency Over Volume: Even if you only have 3–4 days per week, consistent training with a balance of intensity, recovery, and cross-training will lead to improvement.

• Cross-Training: Activities like strength training, flexibility work, or even cross-discipline cycling (e.g., gravel riding) can boost your performance without taking extra time on the bike.

Your coach can help you design a program that works within your available time while still making measurable improvements.

The timeline to see results in cycling can vary depending on factors such as your starting fitness level, training intensity, consistency, and goals. However, you can generally expect to see noticeable improvements within:

• 2–4 Weeks: If you're new to cycling or have just started a structured training program, you might begin noticing improvements in stamina, endurance, and cycling technique. Early changes are often related to adaptation to new movement patterns and conditioning.

• 6–8 Weeks: More substantial improvements will show in endurance, aerobic capacity, and power. You may notice yourself riding longer distances, sustaining higher intensities, and recovering faster.

• 3–6 Months: After a few months of focused training, you’ll likely see significant improvements in performance, such as higher power output (FTP), better pacing, and faster recovery times. If you’re aiming for specific race goals, you may start seeing breakthroughs in speed and race tactics.

• 6+ Months and Beyond: For more advanced goals (e.g., competitive racing or long-distance rides), the improvements can be more gradual but highly specific to your discipline, such as climbing power, sprinting, or time trialing.

In any case, results are often cumulative, so the more time and effort you put into training, the more you’ll see improvement over time. A coach can help you stay focused, prevent plateaus, and ensure your progress is continuous.