Corect flat/spinning technique

I am 59 and only been in a local club for a year. There are several other guys my age or older. Most of us are in the "lower 1/3rd" of the riders and I have never heard an issue with new older members joining.

Perhaps there is a local time trial group where you can take part and see how well you do. Next chat to some of the guys in the road race club and see how well they do in time trials. Then do a few races with the race club for some different action, think most clubs would let you join in for a few rides before you had to join. Road racing is a lot more than brute force and seeing as you have had some race experience that side of it might come easier to you than it has to me.

At a recent 16km time trial I placed 58th out of 87 riders. This is everyone from 17-18 years up to 75, male and female. I am struggling to get up to the same level in graded scratch races due to poorly developed tactics. Just give me a few more years🙂

Go for it.

davef

ltmark said:

I am relatively new (back to it after retiremen) to road riding. I have been training pretty hard over the last 3 months with my new bike and I am already signed up for two upcoming centuries... Here's my question/observation.

On flats, or slight uphills, I can spin for a long time and have kinda been stuck on a certain rear cog that seemed to be the right one; in other words, one that keeps me just below my LT. I have also read many of the threads about average speeds on flats, etc. by members and your speeds were quite a bit faster than me! Now, at almost 60 years old, I wasn't surprised, however, the other day, I decided to go one rear cog smaller and after a very short increase in leg power, I felt that I was using the same force as before, just below LT, but now I was going 2 MPH faster.

Having made this wondrous observation, I put that beauty one cog smaller still, and again, after a brief increase, I felt the same, but was now going 23 MPH. Have I just discovered that which all of you have known forever? And, believing that I probably couldn't keep this pace for quite as long as before (when I was in the larger cog) do I just go up one cog at a time until I can go 15 or 20 miles with it and then go up one more? I've always wondered why you younger folks were always flying by me with a lower cadence, when I thought I was suppose to train with a faster cadence.

If you're in a club and some old dude asked to ride, what speed/distance would you expect them to be able to achieve?

There's a pretty large club that meets and starts their ride real close to me, but until I have an idea of what speed/distance I should be capable of, I haven't felt comfortable asking if I can join in!

Sure, everyone likes the big ring, but believe you'll find the smaller cog at 23 mph will drive up your HR and eat up your legs in a few miles. Suggest you try it on your next ride and see what happens.

I go with a range of cadence from around 75-100, depending on the power output needed and how tired my legs are. To me, controlling the force required on the pedals is the important side of the equation.

Also suggest you go out and ride with the local club. If it's a large club, I'll bet they have a choice of weekend rides with different average speeds and distance. Pick an easy one to start. Bet you'll like riding with a group. Good luck.