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By John Marsh

What do you do if you’ve been cycling for more than 90 years and are looking for a way to celebrate your 100th birthday?

If you’re Frenchman Robert Marchand, you travel to Switzerland and set a new hour record in the 100-and-over class – the first-ever UCI-sanctioned record in the class!

Marchand last week rode 24.25 km (15.1 miles) in 60 minutes at the International Cycling Union (UCI) velodrome in Aigle, Switzerland, cheered on by supporters.

“I’m not playing at being a champion,” Marchand said. “I just wanted to do something for my 100th birthday.”

One of those great Jens Voigt sayings goes something like: “Jens Voigt doesn’t bother trying to set the hour record, because he knows he can do it in less time.” Well, maybe. But here’s betting Jens won’t even be able to break this record.

Click to read the full UCI article on Marchand’s feat. See more great quotes from Marchand in Overheard, below.

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Further Evidence of the Benefits of Intervals

A recent New York Times article provided yet more evidence of the benefits of interval training, but with a twist.

Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, recently tested two groups – one made up of sedentary but otherwise healthy middle-aged men and women; the other composed of middle-aged and older men and women with cardiovascular disease – using a program of modified high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

The training consisted of a series of 10 one-minute on, one-minute off intervals of pedaling a stationary bike at about 90% of the volunteers’ maximum heart rate. The daily sessions lasted a total of only 20 minutes, but after several weeks both groups showed “significant improvement in their health and fitness,” according to the article. The cardiac patients, especially, benefited from improved functioning of their blood vessels and heart.

Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster who has supervised this and other high-intensity studies, urges regular exercisers (like RBR readers) to continue their regimens of regular 30-minute or longer training periods. “If you have time, then by all means, keep it up,” he said. “There’s an impressive body of science showing” that such workouts “are very effective at improving health and fitness.”

However, if you’re pressed for time but still want to get the benefits of even just 20 minutes in the saddle, then this modified HIIT program might be an option.

Click to read the complete article.

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Bike Wheel Animation Comes Alive

It’s a fair bet to guess that almost all of us put something in our spokes as kids to make some noise as we rode (baseball cards, playing cards and a clothes-pin were all it took).

RBR reader William Rosenfeld sent us a link to a cool art form that kicks spoke art into the visual realm. Artist Katy Beveridge designed cut-out patterns attached to bike spokes that create the illusion of movement when filmed at 25 frames per second.

Click to see the video of this art in motion and read the Atlantic article about the artist and her creation.

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Comic Strip Jokes About Running Over Cyclists

In last week’s issue, I mentioned a comic that a friend sent me and noted that cycling is “a topic not often seen in the funny pages….” Well, RBR reader Jess Nierenberg emailed me to say that another comic strip was riffing on cycling last week, too, the syndicated strip Pearls Before Swine, by Stephan Pastis.

Only the typical stale jokes about our spandex and supposed “superiority” (where do they get this stuff?) veered into nastiness when one character opined: “And that’s why I try to run them over.” This is a world-wide syndicated “comic” strip!

I don’t care how inconvenienced any given driver – including, apparently, a certain comic strip artist – has ever been by having to share the road with cyclists, nothing – nothing – justifies threatening violence and bodily injury to cyclists. Even if you’re doing it in the guise of a comic strip. The intent is exactly the same, as evidenced by the moronic “attaboys” and general agreement in the comments that follow the online version of the comic.

If you’re as torqued as I was when I saw this, here’s a link to the Contact Us form on the gocomics website. I’m all for free speech, but advocating violence is just stupid. And I believe we cyclists need to speak out against it, in whatever form it presents itself.

-- J.M.

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Overheard

--- “Contador’s absence from the start of the next Tour doesn’t change our plans at all, even if the race will undoubtedly be more difficult to control. I’ve heard that [Cadel] Evans thinks the Tour would be more difficult to win without Alberto at the start.”

 “I talked with Andy for a long time after the Contador verdict and he doesn’t consider himself as the true winner of the 2010 Tour.

“Working with a rider of Andy’s quality motivates me; it literally gives me a boost. I didn’t have a leader like that at my disposal last year, even if I’m still convinced that without his crash [Andreas] Klöden could have been in contention for a podium place in 2011.

 “The Classics? We clearly hope Andy will be there as best he can, but the only true objective of his season is the Tour. And that will be the case for his older brother, too, even if I’ve read that certain people already see Fränk as leader at the Giro.”

-- Johann Bruyneel, RadioShack-Nissan team manager, on working with his new star, Andy Schleck, who he says does not consider himself a Tour de France champion even though he has been awarded the 2010 victory after Contador was stripped of it for his doping conviction. Bruyneel confirmed that the 2012 race season, for both Schleck brothers, boils down to the Tour. Everything else is just training and preparation for a July peak in France.

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--- “We won three stages, Richie [Porte] took the overall, Edvald [Boasson Hagen] claimed the white [points] jersey and I was third on GC, so it was a brilliant week for us all. We knew training this winter had gone really well, but until you actually put it into practice in the first race of the season you are never quite sure where you are at. The goal was to try and get Richie as high up as possible in Portugal, but we were just going from day to day with no big expectations really.

“It obviously went better than we'd all anticipated, and it was great to start the season off that way; not only individually but as a team, too -- I think the way we rode together made us the dominant force.”

-- Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins, reflecting on a wildly successful start to his season at the Volta ao Algarve, where he won the individual time trial on the final day and helped lock up the GC victory for teammate Porte. Sky’s other early season successes include two stage wins by new member Mark Cavendish at the Tour of Qatar.

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--- “For the last five years I have decided not to go for rides of more than 100km. There is no point going overboard. I want to keep cycling for some time yet.

“I’ve never abused anything. I don’t smoke, I never drank much. The only thing I did in excess was work. I retired at 89 years old.

“But basically, I am like everybody. I am lucky that I haven’t had any major health problems. My advice to anyone, young or old, is to keep moving. I do ‘physical culture’ every day. It works out my whole body and keeps me supple. Some people when they reach 80 years old, start playing cards and they stay immobile. Not me. I’ve never been able to keep still.”

-- 100-year-old Frenchman Robert Marchand, who celebrated his centenary by setting a new official UCI hour record in the 100+ category, on his secrets to a long life, and his ongoing cycling career. Unbelievable! (See the story above.)

Comment

Answer at http://www.roadbikerider.com/question-of-week , where you can also find an archive of previous poll results.

Highlights of your responses to last week’s Question:  Have You Considered Shorter Crankarms? (See this week’s Tech Talk)

-- 26% said “Absolutely not. I have ridden this length crankarm forever and had no issues.”

-- 26% said “No. Even if I wanted to, I cannot justify the cost of new crankarms on a whim.”

-- 23% said “Maybe. I have read both pros and cons, and the jury is still out for me.”

Comment

Question:  While watching pro races on TV, I noticed that many riders move forward to the tip of the saddle during intense efforts such as time trials. If this forward position is better for producing power, why don't professionals use a steeper seat angle than the typical 72-74 degrees? -- Greg P.

Coach Fred Matheny Replies:  Good question! Moving forward on the saddle is great for short, all-out efforts. It's called being "on the rivet" because in the old days everyone used leather saddles that had a big brass rivet on the tip.

Unfortunately, you can't stay there long while cranking hard. When you see riders on the nose of the saddle, they're usually going extremely hard up a short hill or into a windy section. They'll soon have to move back and reduce intensity, or they'll blow.

A forward position isn't so good for climbing, either. You need to have the center of your knee directly above the pedal axle or slightly behind for maximum leverage and power at lower cadences.

As a result, road bikes have seat angles around 73 degrees so you can climb as well as go hard on the flats.

Bikes designed especially for time trials and triathlons do have steeper seat angles (75-78 degrees). But this doesn't have much to do with a forward position per se. Instead, it's used because these riders want their upper bodies low for aerodynamics. The steep seat angle lets them pedal in this position without their quads hitting their chests.

Comment

Coach Fred Matheny has decades of experience as a competitive racer and cycling coach. He is the author of 13 RBR eBooks and eArticles.

Recently, we had an interesting exchange with an RBR Premium Member named Westly from Melbourne, Australia, who asked about getting custom wheels for riding Paris-Roubaix. I didn't even know amateur roadies could ride such a famous event, so Westly taught me about that, and I gave him some wheel tips. Here’s our conversation:

Westly's first email to John Marsh read, "I'm considering a custom wheelset because I’ve registered for the Paris-Roubaix Gran Fondo, which as you know covers some pretty rough ground, including stretches of pavé.”

Tip: I’m not sure photos can do justice to how bad a riding surface pavé is, but here are a few so you can see the potential for wheel carnage.

“As riders go, I'm not so heavy at 145 pounds (66 kg), so I thought I could get away with Sapim spokes on 24-/28-hole rims. I like the idea of using the slightly wider rims of 24mm as in the Australian-made Velocity Helios, and using a standard 23mm tire, a similar set-up to the HED Ardennes wheels.

“However, what hubs should I use? I had remembered John Marsh's article and am considering the DT Swiss hubs he used.

With your, and Jim Langley's insight, am I going to be okay doing this dream ride on wheels like I've described?"

John forwarded Westly's email to me and I wrote back, “Sorry for my ignorance, but where is this Gran Fondo, Westly, and when you say “pavé,” do you mean real pavé as in the real Paris-Roubaix, and as in kilometers of bone-jarring, wheel-crunching cobbles?

“Also, are you a hard, racer-type mega-watt rider, or are you out there for giggles and grins? And, how do your wheels generally hold up? Please let me know and I’ll think about it a bit and give you my recommendation.”

Westly came back with, “Yes it is the same Paris-Roubaix that the pros ride, only the GF is one week before and is for all comers with a streak of madness.”

Tip: Westly gave us this link to the company he’s using to ride the event.

“About me, I am a 68-year-old roadie still trying to get the best out of myself and enjoying what the bike and fitness have to offer. For wheels, I have a pair of 4-year-old Easton Orion IIs which I interchange with a pair of 560 Shimano wheels and so far so good. I have hit potholes and ridden a little on unpaved surfaces without problems.

“At my age and weight I am not a powerful rider as you can imagine but ride hard on occasions and do a fair bit of mountain/alpine riding. I can do a local benchmark 6.4K (about 4-mile) climb in 20 minutes. I leave it to you to make the judgment on which type I am, giggle-and-grin or hard-core. I suspect neither, but somewhere in the middle. [Jim and John agree: 20 minutes for a 4-mile climb is pretty hard-core in our book.]

“Thanks for your interest and attention to detail. Westly."

And here's what I recommended in the way of wheels:

"Wow, that sounds like an epic ride, Westly. I’m jealous – I think. Everything I know about Paris-Roubaix, which only comes from what I’ve read and seen on television (having never been there or ridden the pavé), and read in interviews with team mechanics, says that you want to be on bombproof wheels.

“For that, I would go with Shimano hubs (since it sounds like you’re on a Shimano drivetrain), which could be anything from 105 to Dura-Ace (depending on how much you want to spend), 14-gauge straight (not double-butted) DT-Swiss spokes, 32 spokes front and rear in a cross-3 pattern front and rear, and beefy rims in the 425- to 450-gram range, like those by Mavic. It’s fine to go with the modern wider rims companies now offer.”

Tip: Clincher rims used to be about 19 to 21mm wide, but today many makers are offering 22mm or wider rims, which spreads the effective tire footprint and provides a softer, more comfortable ride.

“Equally important: I would recommend 28mm wide tires and a tire pressure of around 100 psi – you might even do some test rides on 90 to 95 psi to see if that feels even better. At your light weight, you can go pretty low.

“Then, these wheels need to be built by someone who can build them right. The key skill is being able to balance the tension and ensure the spokes are tight enough and will stay that way through the beating the cobbles will give them.

“The beauty of having 32 spokes is that if you manage to hit something hard enough to break a spoke, you will usually be able to keep right on riding and just put up with a little wobble -- or stop and true the wheel first if needed. That’s not so easy when you have fewer spokes. But it would be unusual to break 14-gauge DT-Swiss spokes short of a pile-up and a pedal going into a wheel. Knock on wood.”

Tip: If you want to save a little weight you can go with double-butted spokes, but in my experience, straight-gauge spokes make a tougher wheel due to the additional material in each spoke. However, straight-gauge spokes don’t stretch as much, so the wheel-builder has to know enough to get them tight, really tight.

“The 28mm-wide tires I mentioned are fatter than the more common 23 or 25mm widths, and this provides flotation for the rims and wheels and an additional cushion for impacts from the cobbles to safeguard the wheels and you. They should actually make it easier to ride faster over the cobbles, too, and more speed means a smoother ride. Hopefully, your frame clearances allow these wider tires.

You can certainly buy Gucci hubs and rims if you want, but they won’t get you any performance gains on a ride like this and you might even bash your wheels and damage your investment. I would see these wheels more as workhorses than thoroughbreds anyway.

Hope this is helpful and that you have a fantastic ride. I would really enjoy hearing about it.”

We may all get to hear about it because John asked Westly if he would consider filing a dispatch or two about his experience riding Paris-Roubaix. With luck, Westly will do that and we’ll have something to look forward to this spring!

Comment

Jim Langley has been a pro mechanic and cycling writer for 38 years. At RBR he's the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop and moderator of the technical forums on the Premium Site . Check his "cycling aficionado" website at http://www.jimlangley.net , his Q&A blog and updates at Twitter. Jim's streak of consecutive cycling days has reached 6,618.

My most memorable attempt to catch a group that had dropped me happened in a race near Boulder, Colorado. The state's infamous spring wind was howling, and echelons formed on the unsheltered prairie roads. Soon the front group was down to 15 riders.

As we came to a narrow, bumpy section of road, the rider in front of me caught his wheel in a pavement crack and went down. This forced me off the road, and when I got going again I was 300 yards in arrears with no one to help me get back.

The finish was less than 10 miles away. I put my head down and went as hard as possible to catch the group. It was agonizing. I was bug-eyed from the effort. The gap shrank but so slowly I despaired. Then the road turned slightly so what had been a quartering headwind blew from my flank, and slowly the group started to come back.

When I got within 30 yards I gave it one final hard effort and latched on to the last rider. Just as I sat up a bit and tried to catch my breath, he blew sky high and let a gap open. Oh no! I had to sprint around him and get onto the guy who was now last in line. No sooner had I made it than he blew, too, and another gap opened.

This happened with 4 consecutive riders. When I finally got back to the dwindled group to stay, the finish was less than a mile away and I was so exhausted I could barely pedal, much less sprint. Needless to say, I didn’t get on the podium that day.

Sooner or later you’re going to have to play catch-up.

No matter what put you in arrears, let's see how to get back to the friendly draft of the group using as little energy as possible. We’ll start this topic this week and finish it in Part 2 next week.

Of course, prevention is the best policy. You won’t need to chase if you don't get left behind. Here are 3 common situations where even strong riders can get dropped:

Adding or removing clothes.  If you need to stop to alter your wardrobe, you're doomed to chasing. So learn to take off a vest, jacket or arm warmers while riding. Practice in an empty parking lot until you can ride no-hands, shed clothes and tuck them in your jersey pocket smoothly. And practice putting everything back on again. When riding with others, always wait till you're at the back before you do any of this. Then you won't endanger anyone if you swerve.

Hanging around too long at rest stops.  Don’t linger at aid stations. Keep one eye on the group to see how fast they are re-assembling. Fill your bottles first and then stash food in your pockets so you can eat on the bike, not at the stop, if the train departs. Choose the porta-potty with the shortest line. Don’t chat and get distracted. There’ll be plenty of time to trade war stories when the ride is over.

Inattention.  On the bike, pay attention so that you don’t let gaps open and burn energy closing them. You could get dropped, not because you’re too weak to hang, but because of a lack of concentration. This is especially true in strong crosswinds where a gap of only 10 or 15 feet can be unbridgeable.

In Part 2 next week, we’ll discuss closing gaps of less and more than 50 yards, along with other bridging tips.

If you’re looking for off-season workouts, check out our 16 off-season eBooks, eArticles and DVDs in our Seasonal Training section of the RBR eBookstore.

Comment

Adapted from Coach Fred's Solutions to 150 Road Cycling Challenges, a helpful eBook especially for cycling newcomers. Coach Fred Matheny has decades of experience as a competitive racer and cycling coach. He is the author of 13 RBR eBooks and eArticles.

Are you a neophiliac? That’s a buzzword for someone who’s constantly looking for new experiences.

This novelty-seeking, a personality trait usually associated with trouble, is now seen as “a crucial predictor of well-being,” according to The New York Times. Combine novelty-seeking with attributes like persistence and the ability to see beyond yourself, and the result is “the kind of creativity that benefits society as a whole,” a psychiatrist told the Times. 

How do you know if you’re a neophilliac or merely a neophile or neophobe? You take an Adventurous Quiz, of course. Trouble is, this exam is full of questions about clearance sales, investment opportunities, your office décor and other things that have nothing to do with the real world, a.k.a. cycling.

So here’s a special quiz, just for us:

1. When you come to a stop sign, you:

A) Stop, put a foot down, then proceed when it’s safe

B) Feather your brakes, check for traffic, then sprint

C) Stop signs are strictly for cars

2. My next bike will be:

A) Steel, just like my previous 3

B) Carbon, from a reputable manufacturer

C) Able to withstand a 50-mph crash, unlike the last one

3. My favorite cycling event is:

A) Criterium with lots of turns, preferably run in the rain

B) Out-and-back time trial on a quiet country road

C) Riding an indoor trainer surrounded by pillows in case you tip over

4. If I could make my living from cycling, I would be:

A) A sales rep for a reputable manufacturer

B) The owner of the coolest bike shop in town

C) A pro-team doctor with a great EPO connection

5. You notice a cute stranger on the group ride. You say:

A) nothing

B) “Have you done this ride before?”

C) “That must be a mirror in your Lycra shorts, ’cause I can see myself there”

Comment

If you enjoy reading Scott Martin, the eBook Spin Again contains 181 of his witty, sometimes wacky, and occasionally heart-felt observations on road cycling.

Question:  My 10-year-old son says he wants to join daddy on the tandem for his first century. He has done 20 miles before and still wants to play on the playground and go swimming. I wish I had his energy. What kind of training can I expect out of him, and is it hard on or bad for a youngster to be training for such a ride. He also had me show him the correct way to lift free weights. Should a 10-year-old be working out like this? – J. Cassill

Dr. Dennis Devito Responds:  I wish I had his energy as well and admire his early start as a cyclist. I think a 20-mile ride by itself is impressive. Naturally, a 100-mile ride as a soloist would be too much for a pre-adolescent rider; however, I have heard and read about children aged 7-12 years doing longer rides on a tandem.

Still, I would urge caution about stepping up from 20 miles to 100 in one shot. It’s hard for an adult to understand the extent of the possible tedium and boredom for a 10-year-old on the back of a tandem for what may be a 7- or 8-hour ride.

The biggest challenge is probably figuring out a way to keep your young stoker happy and interested over long distances. Perhaps a DVD player attached to the handlebars would work. Seriously, attaching the route GPS or cycle computer to his handlebar gives him something to do. Some people recommend assigning the stoker other chores like identifying landmarks and calling out the vital turns in order to prevent boredom. (That may or may not be too advanced for a 10-year-old.)

Even if you’re able to set him up with something to help maintain his interest level during the ride, it’s probably a good idea to build up to a full century by starting with something shorter -- at most, a metric century (100 km, or 62 miles).

Finally, I would assume that you’re able to get the proper fitting for your son on the tandem so that all the typical areas of a bike fit are dialed in specifically for his young size. Not doing so could be harmful to his developing body; specifically, one would be concerned about an overuse injury at the knee or hip.

Weight Training Requires Proper Expectations

With regard to strength training, there is some useful scientific data to support the concept of weight training in pre-adolescent males, given the proper expectations. A pre-adolescent male, without the benefit of testosterone, is not going to build muscle size or bulk through a weight program; therefore, many trainers don’t recommend aggressive lifting until age 14.

However, young athletes can improve strength with weights through a mechanism of muscle recruitment. Repetitive strained motions, as in lifting weights, stimulate the nerve-muscle system to coordinate and recruit more muscle fibers over time to perform -- the result is increased strength.

It is important that someone this young starts using a light weight with high repetitions (15-20 reps) to allow his tendon-bone interface to get used to the strain, and this is accomplished over 6-8 weeks, no more often than 3 days a week (twice per week is adequate). Then, the general rule after that is to lift no heavier a weight than can be put through a cycle of 10-12 reps.

Power lifting, per se, should be avoided since it is more likely to cause injury than to build strength. Proper technique is imperative, especially if the amount of weight is increased, and expectations should be appropriate for age. Of course, intervals of rest are equally important, especially if some bike riding is factored into the training schedule.

Staying within these guidelines, along with a healthy diet, should help with the accomplishment of this extraordinary project, while protecting this young cyclist’s musculoskeletal system. Perhaps a shorter trial ride on the tandem, as suggested, will let you know the feasibility of this adventure and would even leave a little time for a swim in the pool or a romp in the park at the end of the day.

Comment

Dennis P. Devito, M.D., is an orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Orthopedics of Atlanta and is an avid road cyclist. His practice is focused on children and young athletes, especially those with spinal conditions. A cyclist from a running background, he spent 15 years intensely competing as an amateur triathlete and was a multi-time member of the USA World Long Course Triathlon Team.

Health Matters  runs regularly in RBR Newsletter. Send us your Health Matters questions by visiting the Newsletters page on our website, and clicking on Health Matters in the right-hand column.