3 Tour de France-Inspired Techniques: Go Faster On The Flats

Recreational riding and racing require a full complement of techniques. On the flats, these race-proven skills allow you to keep up—or even outpace the peloton.

Fine-tune your cadence: 

Accelerate and shift to a harder gear, to the point where you’ll struggle to maintain the pace for much more than a minute.  Drop down one to two gears without losing speed.  Now you’re churning out meters and miles like a pro, focusing on steady RPMs instead of pedal mashing.  Stay seated and keep riding, ready to shift and push to pass.

Be cognizant of the crosswinds:

Gusting or steady, crosswinds threaten pace, power and balance.  While tempting, avoid leaning too heavily sideways to counterbalance against high winds. Also, scrunching your body up to reduce wind resistance reduces lung capacity and makes pedaling even harder.  Better to slow slightly and increase gravity’s stabilizing factor, as going faster increases your vulnerability.

Eyes on the road: 

Group riding on flats spurs complacency as close-to-the-wheel position lets you blissfully save up to 30% of your energy.  Instead, employ peripheral vision to maintain spacing between bikes as you look down the road for obvious obstacles.  Be prepared to swing away from the group if someone ahead shows signs of erratic pace, poor bike handling or obliviousness to road conditions.

Whether the finish line is in Paris or your garage, there’s no better time to increase your speed on the flats.