You're a force to be reckoned with on the bike, with short, explosive power and the ability to make key moves on climbs, crosswinds, and rough terrain. When it comes to the finish line, you're the one to beat.
It’s your unique approach that will bring you success in your performance, training, and events without focusing on the wrong things.
Measure your progress with
- Power - pMax (the maximal power that can be generated for a very short period of time over at least a full pedal revolution with both legs)
- Capacity - W’ (25-30 kJ) and/ or VLamax (0.6+)
But with any rider type, there are key strengths and weaknesses to be aware of…
Strengths
- Strong endurance, powerful, strong at producing power both in and out of the saddle, prefers non-steady riding, explosive ability, can do both short explosive efforts and is a good sprinter, good on short, explosive climbs, and strong in super-short time trials.
- Your large anaerobic capacity and sizable max power represent your "more fast-twitch" muscle fibre typology. Spending time working on big accelerations to find your strength in the 5-second to 2-minute power range is your key to your cycling success. And don’t neglect off-bike strength work; it’s a critical component of your speed.
- Your athletic build and high muscular definition help your very high overall strength and power and means you gain muscle easily.
Potential Weaknesses
- Your athletic build and high muscular definition help your very high overall strength but you are sensitive to weight gain.
- It has been shown that athletes with more fast-twitch fibers have greater fatigue during a sprint-interval session than athletes with more slow twitch fibers and when muscle fibre typology was factored in, athletes with a higher estimated proportion of fast-twitch fibres risk overreaching as a response to volume.
- Long steady-state efforts around threshold will tire you unnecessarily. So minimise sweet spot and stick to lower intensities when doing endurance rides.
- Your body needs high glycogen availability to promote use of the glycolytic energy system during training, and thereby train the body to metabolise carbohydrates more effectively. Keep your glycogen stores topped up by consuming a relatively high daily intake of carbohydrates that is still within the recommended daily energy availability (kcal/kg FFM). This will ensure you are providing your body with adequate energy for all physiological functions.
Practical applications
- ⬇️ Decrease total training volume (hours or TSS per week)
- ⬆️ Increase recovery duration in between intense training sessions
- ⬆️ Increase recovery duration between intense exercises within training sessions
Training session best-suited for your type:
Neuromuscular: Long Sprints
Warm Up: 25 minutes building to 60-70% CP, including a 1 minutes effort @ 95-105% CP.
Main Set: 6 x 20 seconds at a maximal sprint (for most people, this will be between 170-215% CP), standing on the pedals and building up cadence as sprint goes on. Take 7 minutes of active recovery between each sprint.
Remaining time @ 60-75% CP to cool down.
PURPOSE: Trains the body to recruit more muscle fibers, which increases the speed and strength of muscle contractions and the length of time muscles can stay contracted. This session also helps improve your anaerobic capacity by giving you access to more glycogen and phosphocreatine stores. Some evidence suggests that sprint training can help improve aerobic capacity, possibly by making the mitochondria work better.
You can read more about the science supporting the use of sprint training here:
Note that 30-second sprints have been shown not to impact well-trained riders. (Winfield, 2019)
Ideal races / events:
Endurance events on rolling terrain, events with rough terrain or difficult weather conditions like rain, wind, cold, and mud, gravel races, short time trials, criteriums, and shorter road races.
How you can events better / win races:
You would most likely want to be able to hide and conserve energy and wait until getting an opportunity to sprint to the line.
Check out your toolkit below
Podcast 1
Podcast 2
What do you think? Does this rider type match you and your events? What type of rider do you want to be? What type of events do you want to ride? Find out more about rider types by clicking here: RIDER TYPE RESULTS
