Cycling buddy leaves me for dead - grrr!

[Globalti]

I've been mountain biking since 1988 but in 2009 I swopped over the the road and started getting properly fit. I was lucky to meet another Dad at my son's school who cycles so we started going out riding together. He and I are both 56, he is of a similar build but a little shorter, with Mediterranean blood so inclined to put on weight and normally he weighs a couple of kgs more than me. He is quite disciplined in that he exercises his arms and shoulders daily and uses a rowing machine regularly. He has been a road cyclist for all his life, he used to cycle commute in London so he has good residual strength and fitness.

Now some would say that it shouldn't matter but my grouse is that, no matter how hard I try I can very seldom beat him on the bike. Usually I'm faster in March when he's been over-eating and drinking and I've just come back from a business trip to South Africa where I ride in the Cape Argus, a 68 mile race around the Cape. But by April he's got fit and for the rest of the year he's probably 5% faster on the flat and stronger up hills than me, no matter how hard I try. There's no bad feeling over it but I would love to be able to give him an equal race when we go out for those summer evening training thrashes around the lanes where we give it all we can for an hour. I sit on his wheel, have a rest, pass him, give it all I can for a minute then he just accelerates smoothly past and drops me unless I sprint to get back on his wheel.

I feel that even if I trained seriously he would always have the edge. Would this be thanks to his much longer history of road riding or must I just accept that some people are naturally faster than others of similar age and fitness?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Tough call, and part of the reason I cycle with a buddy on a fixie - he might be twenty years younger than me but I have gears to ease the pain!

It could just be his body type, my brother in ran his first London marathon when he was a reasonably heavy smoker, it just turned out he had the perfect body type! Makes me sick

 

[MontyVeda]

maybe you should ditch the bikes and start arm wrestling instead?

 

[Crackle]

Have you tried adjusting his brakes so they rub slightly. Naturally, do it when he's not looking.

 

[black'n'yellow]

I feel that even if I trained seriously he would always have the edge.

I bet he wouldn't - honestly, you would be amazed what you can achieve with a bit of hard work.

 

[lulubel]

He is quite disciplined in that he exercises his arms and shoulders daily and uses a rowing machine regularly.

This could have something to do with it. My OH has gained a lot of upper body strength (and gained a little bit of muscle) over the last few months, and she's a noticeably stronger climber now.

 

[Enigma2008]

You're trying too hard when on the front so that when he comes by a bit quicker than you (which he shouldn't) you are knackered and he isn't, you are then playing catch up for the rest of the ride.
Take it easier on the front, and well before you're blowing hard let him know when YOU want him to come by and keep your pace up so that you are able to fall in behind him without making any extra effort, it's called 'through and off' and should be a continuous movement rather than spending a load of time on the front then hanging on... on the back.

 

[black'n'yellow]

bit difficult to do 'thru n off' with a paceline consisting of just two people..

 

[potsy]

Get yourself another cycling buddy

 

[Hacienda71]

Get yourself another cycling buddy

You volunteering Potsy?

 

[HLaB]

I feel that even if I trained seriously he would always have the edge. Would this be thanks to his much longer history of road riding or must I just accept that some people are naturally faster than others of similar age and fitness?

Not necessarily, I've only been serious cycling since around 2002 and I can beat folk the same age as me who have cycling all their life but other folk are far better than me. It depends what you put in, a good base helps but more recent history is more important.

 

[lordloveaduck]

 

[400bhp]

Sport, and cycling fitness isn't an exact science, in that it's almost impossible to say "If I do x, then I will get y out of it".

Firstly, x: Broken down at the first order by (amongst other things) weight, nutrition, hours in the saddle, etc.

Even if 2 people did exactly the same input, the output would be different.

 

[GrasB]

Erm, well, if that isn't true then the only thing stopping us all being Olympic-level athletes is lack of training!

No, most of us aren't physically talented enough to push the limits of our body like that. Most people could get to a reasonably high national level with training alone but once you get into true international competition you start to need more than just determination & motivation, you need to be gifted in your spot to push the envelope. If you're not gifted, when you train hard enough you'll be in a state of constant injury & recovery, if you train so you don't injure your self all the time you'll never push your self hard enough. In this case however, yeah training will work

I don't understand why everything to do with cycling always has to be some kind of competition.

If you have to ask...

 

[ColinJ]

No, most of us aren't physically talented enough to push the limits of our body like that. Most people could get to a reasonably high national level with training alone but once you get into true international competition you start to need more than just determination & motivation, you need to be gifted in your spot to push the envelope. If you're not gifted, when you train hard enough you'll be in a state of constant injury & recovery, if you train so you don't injure your self all the time you'll never push your self hard enough. In this case however, yeah training will work

My dad was a boxer as a teenager and he got through to the GB final in his age/weight category. (It was a close bout which he lost on points. He always reckoned that it was because he'd had a hard fight in his semi-final whereas his rival had got through on a bye due to an injured opponent). WWII and marriage put an end to his fledgling boxing career, but who knows - maybe he 'could have been a contender'!



It was only years later that he found out how hard he had pushed his body. He broke his wrist at work and after it was x-rayed, his doctor asked about his broken fingers and thumb - why was there no reference to them on his medical record? It turned out that he'd broken them battering his boxing opponents but his trainer just used to reset them and tape them up for him. He hadn't actually realised that they'd been broken.