This insightful book presents a sociological study of professional cycling, examining developments in the sport since its emergence in the late 19th century. John Connolly thoroughly explores key aspects of professional cycling including the emergence of professionalism, organisational structure, doping, gender, and recent American involvement in the sport.
'I am blown away by the level of detail Phil Cavell brings to his work.' Elinor Barker MBE, multiple world champion and Olympic gold medallist 'Phil is eminently qualified to write the Midlife Cyclist. Well, he is certainly old enough.' Fabian Cancellara, Tour de France rider and two-time Olympic champion 'An amazing accomplishment... a simple-to-understand précis of your midlife as a cyclist – you won't want to put it down.' Phil Liggett, TV cycling commentator 'I'm determined to grow old gracefully in lycra, and Phil Cavell has been helping me to do it successfully for years.' Gary Kemp Renowned cycling biomechanics pioneer, Phil Cavell, explores the growing trend of middle-aged and older cyclists seeking to achieve high-level performance. Using contributions from leading coaches, ex-professionals and pro-team doctors, he produces the ultimate manifesto for mature riders who want to stay healthy, avoid injury – and maximise their achievement levels. Time's arrow traditionally plots an incremental path into declining strength and speed for all of us. But we are different to every other generation of cyclists in human history. An ever-growing number of us are determined to scale the highest peaks of elite physical fitness into middle-age and beyond. Can the emerging medical and scientific research help us achieve the holy triumvirate of speed and health with age? The Midlife Cyclist offers a gold standard road-map for the mature cyclist who aims to train, perform and even race at the highest possible level.
“After training with CINCH for the past three years, I’ve learned the cycling-specific techniques that make me a better rider and racer; healthier and injury-free; and more effective and positive off the bike.” -- Lilburn Shaw, 2018 Masters Road National Champion Cycling on Form reveals the pro approach to cycling training. Riding a bike faster takes more than just fitness. It takes skills that you can master to become a faster, stronger rider. In his new guide, former professional bike racer Tom Danielson shows how to transform your cycling from amateur to professional level with the fitness and time you have now. Danielson reveals how the pros go beyond the modern standards of interval workouts, base-building, and recovery to train the whole athlete, mind and body. Danielson shows how to truly ride and train to the fullest through: Fitness: Self-tests to identify your riding strengths and weaknesses then focus on custom training to address them. Mental focus: The pros know that winning means using your head and your legs. You’ll get pro tips on big-picture goal setting and mid-ride concentration strategies to help you stay focused. Execution: Cycling is hard and executing a great ride when it matters takes practice. Danielson shares on-the-bike skills, efficient and powerful techniques, strategies to stay in the race, ways to finish with the lead group, and how to excel on a ride you’ve never done before. Nutrition: Pro riders put sports nutrition into daily practice. Danielson distills the facts of diet, food as fuel, and fueling to recover. Too many cyclists train by trying to set new Strava PRs, only to get frustrated by the limited gains. There’s a better way. Cycling On Form unlocks a pro method for riding faster and stronger.
Tom Danielson’s Core Advantage offers a simple, highly effective core strength program for cyclists. This comprehensive approach shows the 50 essential core workout exercises that will build strength and endurance in the key core muscles for cycling--no gym membership required. Professional cyclist Tom Danielson used to have a bad back. He shifted in the saddle, never comfortable, often riding in pain. Hearing that core strength could help his back, he started doing crunches, which made matters worse. He turned to personal trainer Allison Westfahl for a new approach. Danielson and Westfahl developed all-new core exercises to build core strength specifically for cycling, curing Danielson’s back problems. Better yet, Danielson found that stronger core muscles boosted his pedaling efficiency and climbing power. Using Danielson’s core exercises, cyclists of all abilities will enjoy faster, pain-free riding. Cyclists will perform simple exercises using their own body weight to build strength in the low back, hips, abs, chest, and shoulders without adding unwanted bulk and without weights, machines, or a gym membership. Each Core Advantage exercise complements the motions of riding a bike so cyclists strengthen the right muscles that stabilize and support the body, improving efficiency and reducing the fatigue that can lead to overuse injuries and pain in the back, neck, and shoulders. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced training plans will help bike racers, century riders, and weekend warriors to build core strength throughout the season. Each plan features warm-up stretches and 15 core exercises grouped into workouts for injury resistance, better posture, improved stability and bike handling, endurance, and power. Westfahl explains the goal for each exercise, which Danielson models in clear photographs. Riding a bike takes more than leg strength. Now Tom Danielson’s Core Advantage lays out the core strengthening routines that enable longer, faster rides.
In his book Pro Cycling on $10 a Day, Phil Gaimon brings the full powers of his wit to tell his story. Plump, grumpy, slumped on the couch, and going nowhere fast at age 16, Phil Gaimon began riding a bicycle with the grand ambition of shedding a few pounds before going off to college. He soon fell into racing and discovered he was a natural, riding his way into a pro contract after just one season despite utter ignorance of a century of cycling etiquette. Presented here as a guide--and a warning--to aspiring racers who dream of joining the professional racing circus, Phil’s adventures in road rash serve as a hilarious and cautionary tale of frustrating team directors and broken promises. Phil’s education in the ways of the peloton, his discouraging negotiations for a better contract, his endless miles crisscrossing America in pursuit of race wins, and his conviction that somewhere just around the corner lies the ticket to the big time fuel this tale of hope and ambition from one of cycling’s best story-tellers. Pro Cycling on $10 a Day chronicles the racer’s daily lot of blood-soaked bandages, sleazy motels, cheap food, and overflowing toilets. But it also celebrates the true beauty of the sport and the worth of the journey, proving in the end that even among the narrow ranks of world-class professional cycling, there will always be room for a hard-working outsider.
It's not (just) about the bike. Ride your bike long enough and with an optimal bike fit you're likely to get injured. It's not what cyclists want to hear, but it's the hard truth. Cycling is a rapidly growing sport, and as numbers increase, so do the amount of injuries. What do you do if you get injured? Rest? Continue to ride? These questions need answering – to avoid confusion, further complications and more harmful injuries, resulting in substantial time off the bike. We want more riders out on the road, enjoying their cycling, pain free. This book takes you through the most common cycling injuries, lets you know what exactly they are, why you get them and what you can do to do get rid of them and get you back on the bike pain free. * Foreword by Sir Bradley Wiggins and featuring interviews with pro-cyclists including Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre, Dan Martin, Tyler Farrar and Andrew Talansky.
Hunter Allen and Andy Coggan, PhD have completely revised the book that made power meters understandable for amateur and professional cyclists and triathletes. Power meters have become essential tools for competitive cyclists and triathletes. No training tool can unlock as much speed and endurance as a power meter--for those who understand how to interpret their data. A power meter displays and records exactly how much energy a cyclist expends, which lends unprecedented insight into that rider's abilities and fitness. With the proper baseline data, a cyclist can use a power meter to determine race strategy, pacing, and tactics. Training and Racing with a Power Meter makes it possible to exploit the incredible usefulness of the power meter by explaining how to profile strengths and weaknesses, measure fitness and fatigue, optimize workouts, time race readiness, and race using power. This new edition: Enables athletes to predict future performance and time peak form Introduces fatigue profiling, a new testing method to pinpoint weaknesses Includes two training plans to raise functional threshold power and time peaks for race day Offers 75 power-based workouts tuned for specific training goals This updated edition also includes new case studies, a full chapter on triathlon training and racing, and improved 2-color charts and tables throughout. Training and Racing with a Power Meter, will continue to be the definitive guide to the most important training tool ever developed for endurance sports.
“No matter what or how you ride, read this book and remind yourself just how enjoyable cycling can and should be.”—Eben Weiss, author of The Enlightened Cyclist Just Ride is a revelation. Forget the ultralight, uncomfortable bikes, flashy jerseys, clunky shoes that clip onto tiny pedals, the grinding out of endless miles. Instead, ride like you did when you were a kid—just get on your bike and discover the pure joy of riding it. A reformed racer who’s commuted by bike every day since 1980, whose writings and opinions appear in major bicycling and outdoor magazines, and whose company, Rivendell Bicycle Works, makes bikes for riders ready to opt out of a culture overrun by racing, Grant Petersen shares a lifetime of unexpected facts, controversial opinions, expert techniques, and his own maverick philosophy. In 87 short, two-to-three page chapters, it covers: Riding: Count Days, Not Miles; Corner Like Jackie Robinson; Steer with Your Hips, Shift with Your Legs Suiting Up: The Shoes Ruse; Ponchos—the Ultimate Unracer’s Garment Safety: #1 Rule—Be Seen; Helmets Aren’t All They’re Cracked Up to Be Health and Fitness: Why Riding Is Lousy All-Around Exercise; Saddles Don’t Cause Impotence; Drink When You’re Thirsty—Not Before Also includes chapters on Accessories, Upkeep, and Technicalities, and a final chapter titled “Velosophy” that includes the essential, memorable thought: Your Bike Is a Toy—Have Fun with It. Winner Silver Medal 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards
This book looks historically at the harm that has been inflicted in the practice of sport and at some of the issues, debates and controversies that have arisen as a result. Written by experts in history, sociology, sport journalism and public health, the book considers sport and injury in relation to matters of social class; gender; ethnicity and race; sexuality; political ideology and national identity; health and wellbeing; childhood; animal rights; and popular culture. These matters are, in turn, variously related to a range of sports, including ancient, pre- and early industrial sports; American football; boxing; wrestling and other combat sports; mountaineering; horseracing; cycling; motor racing; rugby football; cricket; association football; baseball; basketball; Crossfit; ice hockey; Olympic sports; Mixed Martial Arts; and sport in an imagined dystopian future.
The world's authority on cycling provides a comprehensive guide to the sport for cyclists of all levels The sport of cycling has experienced an exciting boom in popularity fueled by Lance Armstrong's success and recent comeback, the popularity of triathlons, rising gas prices, and the need to find a sport that lets people have some fun while they get fit. No one knows more about this boom than the pros at Bicycling magazine. For nearly 50 years, Bicycling has brought its readers the most up-to-date advice on everything from training and gear to nutrition and stories of cycling's greatest stars. Now, for the first time, Bicycling gathers its best advice in The Big Book of Bicycling, a must-have book that cyclists of all levels can refer to again and again for answers to all of their cycling questions. Senior editor Emily Furia and her colleagues have gathered the latest, most useful information on getting started, buying gear, maintaining both road and mountain bikes, training for speed, racing techniques, understanding the rules of the road, and much more. This evergreen book is an invaluable resource for any cyclist who wants to ride their best.
