The "SECRETS" Why Fabian is So Fast.
When you watch Fabian, notice how low he can get, how tight his core is contracted, how solid his upper body is connected to his hips and how long he can stay in the drops and not lose power. There is a reason for this and YOU CAN BENEFIT, especially as an Everyday Cyclist...
An article by Josh Liberles from 2009 about the "Secrets of Fabian"...
Many of us - myself included - fall prey to the age-old training advice popularized by Italian campionissimo Fausto Coppi when asked about his regimen. "Ride the bike, ride the bike, ride the bike," he quipped.
Modern training has come a long way. No one has done more in modern times to push the training science and technology envelopes than Lance Armstrong and his support team. At the bottom of a recent article on Lance's progress at the Tour Down Under, coach Chris Carmichael makes this telling statement about their immediate goals:
...We're also going to go back to the wind tunnel in Los Angeles for another round of aerodynamic testing. His fitness and flexibility have improved since November, so we're going back to the tunnel to see if there are any small adjustments we can make in order to achieve additional aerodynamic gains.
Of course, every athlete is constantly seeking to improve fitness. But increased flexibility, too, is an important goal for riders looking to minimize wind drag and increase their pace. This is particularly true in a time trial, where a rider doesn't benefit from any draft and must fight through the air alone. A look at the evolution of road frames, which are adopting more and more of the aerodynamic features of their solo-endeavor cousins, and the number of deep rims in Pro Tour races show that this has an impact in mass-start events as well. At some point, most rider will be on the front and in the wind - especially if they want to win!
How does Lance go about getting lower and converting more of his power to speed? As we've discussed before, it's a core strength and flexibility program. Sound familiar!?
An deeper and really cool look into bike-fitting an entire Pro Tour team and the importance of being able to hold an aerodynamic position came from CyclingNews.com's coverage of SaxoBank's session with fit-guru Andy Pruitt of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. The team, the new incarnation of the legendary Team CSC, features riders ranging from Fabian Cancellara, whom Pruitt refers to as "a study in strenght and flexibility" to Frank Schleck, a great climber who's unable to touch his toes.
Although they're both superstar riders, there's a reason why Cancellara is the reigning world champion time trialist and pulled out the win in today's Tour of California prologue!
Using Specialized's Body Geometry analysis tools, Pruitt determined that Cancellara's impressive flexibility would enable him to drop even lower without losing any power - which means going even faster. Bad news for the competition! From Cycling News:
Whether you're a racer or not, if you're seeking speed, these two articles are worth a gander (linked here: Carmichael, CyclingNews).
And what exactly does all of this mean for us mere mortal riders and Everyday Cyclists?
Cyclo-CLUB is the largest resource of core training, flexibility, and speed workouts in the world for the Everyday Cyclist and we have three ways to begin to boost your cycling core strength & flexbility today and everyday--for less!
1. Tap into our breakthrough Cyclo-TRAINING ON DEMAND (Over 50 core training, flexibility, and speed workouts you can stream anytime you want online included as a member of the Cyclo-CLUB. Start with Cyclo-CORE On the Go if you'e new.)
2. DOWNLOAD YOUR WORKOUTS! For many of you wanting to download CLUB workouts, we recommend either a) Premium Cyclo-CLUB Membership (over $2800 in downloads) or b) a la carte workout downloads. That way as a member you can try the workouts online first (included) and only download the workouts you want.
3. WANT DVD? Today, get 50%OFF the Cyclo-CORE Mega Deal Training Combo on DVD! Our most popular cycling training and nutrition system in hard copy format--no matter why you ride!
Buy Programs (DVD)
