The Struggle” is the perfect name for the location of this year’s National Hill-Climb Championship. It’s where the best hill climbers from all corners of the country (and also Tom from myWindsock) will gather this Sunday for the final national title race of 2023 in any cycling discipline (we think). This iconic event unfolds along … Continue reading “National Hill Climb Championships 2023”

Marginal gains in the context of cycling refer to the practice of making small, incremental improvements in various aspects of a cyclist’s performance and equipment to gain a competitive advantage. This concept became particularly popular in professional cycling thanks to Team Sky (now Ineos Grenadiers) and their former performance director, Sir Dave Brailsford. The idea … Continue reading “Are marginal gains still a thing?”

We take a detailed look at the weather forecast for Kona 2023! The Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, represent a pinnacle in the world of ultra endurance sports, marked by distinct challenges related to wind, aerodynamics, heat, and weather. Kona is no ordinary Ironman and conquering the conditions is as big a part of … Continue reading “The women’s Ironman World Championships in Kona”

It’s hill climb season and that means our inboxes are full of pacing questions. Most of these questions come from pacing climbs with varying gradients. Everyone knows how to pace a climb that’s a steady gradient – just figure out roughly how hard to go then go that hard. With variations in gradient however, things … Continue reading “Pacing a climb with varying gradients”

Recently, myWindsock went to a wind tunnel and found out some very interesting things. If you log into myWindsock and open up a forecast, you’ll see a number which is labelled as ‘cda’ – this is your coefficient of drag multiplied by your frontal area. myWindsock, generally speaking, does a pretty good job of estimating … Continue reading “myWind…Tunnel?”

In 2023 the National Hill Climb championships are being held on “The Struggle” – an iconic British climb.  This blog isn’t a preview of the national champs, but more of a lesson in how you might want to pace the effort. For our purposes today, we will assume a 70kg rider with the ability to … Continue reading “The Struggle – Segment Analysis”

Cycling and triathlon are both demand driven sports. This means that an athlete’s performance is down to being able to meet the demands of the day. Sometimes, figuring out exactly what these demands are can be difficult. If you want to execute a ride, be that a ten mile TT or an Ironman bike leg, … Continue reading “A demand driven approach to success”

Sepp Kuss is currently in red going into the TT on stage 10 of La Vuelta. It’s a bit strange, no one expected him to be in the race lead but – if he can get through tomorrow, he has the class in the mountains to win GC. Remco is 2:22 down on the American … Continue reading “Vuelta TT preview – is GC Kuss real?”

Working out whether or not crosswinds will produce echelons is a key part of any cycling enthusiast’s arsenal of skills. It allows you to answer the vital question – should I bother watching this or just catch up on GCN? myWindsock, as per, has the answer! That said, it’s the sort of thing that is … Continue reading “Will there be crosswinds?”