r/Velo

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I am a rower (and do a ton of zwift-ing for overuse injury prevention) and am going to be racing in 95+ degree fahrenheit and humid conditions in about 4 weeks. I've been doing somewhat primitive heat training (layering up and just going off of feel @~45% ftp) but would like to actually measure my core temp so I can get to and stay in the 38.5-39.5 degree celsius range for getting peak adaptations.

$300 is a lot for the CORE strap, but this thermometer from Home Depot looks like it would fit fairly comfortably several inches up my posterior, and get a more accurate core temp (as it is literally inside my core, and unaffected by food + drink).

Do any of you have experience with putting this/a thermometer up there and how does it compare to other methods for tracking core temp during heat training?

I started cycling in Summer 2021 as a 25-year old. I had cycled to school all my life (15km a day in high school) but nothing more, and I had no past experience with any endurance sports. I did some 2-3h rides once or twice a week and had fun. I wanted to get better at it and decided to buy a smart trainer in October, as I live in Finland and don't really enjoy cold weather riding. First ramp test I did, I got an FTP of 245W at around 85kg. I thought it would be super cool if some day I could get to 300W.

In 2022, I rode a total of 230 hours. I started with a Zwift plan, then switched to Trainerroad as I realised I prefer watching movies to watching a virtual avatar ride. Ramp test progress was pretty swift – I got an FTP of 290W by February 2022, 302W by April, and a whopping 320W in August (which in hindsight was not my FTP at all). I started doing some local group rides as well. I wasn't too focused on riding yet, and the plans I did weren't all that great, but I remember feeling really motivated when the numbers went up and I could keep up better with the fast groups.

Winter 2022/23, I continued with TR and even signed up to their mid volume plans. I didn't do any formal FTP testing this winter but I think 310-320 was about right. I did my first vo2max work prior to starting racing the local cat2/3 races. I wasn't competitive but finished top15 in all races I did; in one hilly criterium style race, I did 349W normalized for 57min (still at 85kg). I started listening to Empirical Cycling podcast and adopted some of the things they talked about into my training, such as longer sweetspot intervals and all-out vo2max work. As my motivation and drive to get even better grew, I contacted EC one day and started training under Rory's coaching. When we started, I did their FTP/TTE test and managed 40min at 329W, as well as 5min at 425W.

I clicked with Rory's style of coaching right away – I seemed to really thrive with increasing TTE at sweetspot, doing easier endurance riding etc. I started doing a vo2max block after that but it got interrupted with the birth of our first child in October 2023. Life was a bit hectic for some time after that, but I still managed to train ok and got a ~10W FTP bump to 340W-ish before Christmas. Training progressed well through spring and I managed to ride 1h at 350W in March. Even though my power had developed well, my race tactics weren't there yet and I seemed stuck in the same 10-15th place; I think the biggest problem was that due to the kid, I couldn't really race much, so my racecraft wasn't all that great. The rest of the summer I trained pretty easy, but still managed to somehow gain 10W more FTP, as I tested 360W for 40min in August 2024, as well as 470W for 5min. In hindsight, those were probably just very very good days, as I couldn't quite repeat those kind of efforts afterwards in training.

In early 2025 I switched to Marinus Petersen's coaching (Kilowatt Coaching on instagram). I had an amazing time under Rory, and the progress had been great, but I wanted some help on the nutrition side of things where Marinus could really help me. I wasn't fat, but 85kg at 190cm didn't help me at races. In spring 2025 I lost around 3-4kg fat and managed to gain around 10W at threshold (at my best I did 2x20min at 379W with an FTP of about 370). Races finally went better and I even managed to win a cat2 race from a solo breakaway. The training we did was a bit different from the EC style – some harder endurance riding, even harder vo2max blocks, as well as gym work and some running – but not radically. I think some of the training we did was a bit much for me with work stress, the toddler etc, and by Autumn I was a bit burnt out. A two-week offseason break really helped me there, though, and by November I was well on my way to good fitness again.

This spring has gone well apart from lots of small illnesses the kid has brought home from the kindergarten. Weight has gone down to around 79kg, which I feel is pretty good for me (not too low BF%, but still low enough weight so that I am competitive uphill). No dedicated vo2max block this time due to life stress (our second child is due soon), but even without it my fitness is at its all time high now – a couple weeks ago I did 3x21min over-unders at an average power of 381W, 379W, 379W, and yesterday I averaged 403W for 20min, so FTP is probably around 380W. I haven't done any testing recently, but I suppose my 5min is close to 500W as well from previous experience. I switched to the cat1 (highest category here) for this season and don't feel like my fitness is holding me back, but I still need a lot more racing experience to be truly competitive.

What would I highlight from my experience so far? I'd say consistency is the key. I don't mean blindly sticking to any plan, but just getting those hours in seems to be the most crucial part for me. My yearly hours progression has been like this: 2022 230h, 2023 440h, 2024 560h, 2025 640h. Not crazy high hours, but enough to progress. Training load has similarly not been that high – my all time highest CTL is 91, and right now I am peaking for this year at 84. I don't think I can increase my hours or training load from this at the moment with a kid (soon two) and a full time job, but I hope that when the kids are older it will be easier – or then I just need to negotiate a part-time situation at work if I want to focus more on the bike, haha. I am luckily still pretty young at 29, so my vo2max isn't falling off a cliff anytime soon.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my journey so far. I hope it was useful to someone here :)

I'm wondering how much faster a TT bike is on average, compared to a (modern) road bike?

Assuming 35km/h for 50km (300vertical meters) with a (non-aero) road bike, how much faster could the same person probably be on a TT? Is 37-38km/h realistic?

Both of these are 12 hours a week. One would have one rest day and shorter sessions, and the other three rest days and longer rides. Both would include intervals on 2 of the days. The same training effect? Or is one better than the other? If so, why?

This is a very real time situation as I’m supposed to race next Saturday but have currently been quite sick with an upper respiratory infection that has had me off the bike since middle of last week. I think best case scenario at the moment I would be able to get back on this weekend at the earliest.

While I’m never the most competitive, I do like to stay with the middle of the pack as much as possible. Is it crazy to even consider a (shorter, 30ish mile) gravel race next weekend in the back of these conditions?

Currently using a forerunner watch for my recovery, but hate wearing it on rides and end up missing the ride stress whenever I do opt to not wear it. I currently use the old gen wahoo roam which I love, but would be open to upgrading to a garmin with them all being on sale (ideally a Karoo but that doesn’t fix my issue unless there’s something I’m missing).

For those who do longer races (8+ hours), do you feel the 850 in reduced battery life settings is sufficient? Look at the 840? I’ve thought about 1050 but on a mountain bike mount it looks huge.

I'm looking to get a fastish road focused bike with a goal to do long rides in the northeast of england on very mixed road surface quality and a lot of short and steep climbs with some long climbs but also some long flatish sections, training, sportives and probably (roadbike) TTs.

However I have a somewhat bad back so I suspect a full on aero race bike is out as my current bike (felt breed alloy) I run a flipped stem thats shorter than stock. I do have a bike fit booked so I'm I'm wanting to see whats on the market that I might have missed.

I have a budget of about 5k gbp I'm about 180 cm tall with an about 85cm inseam, my spec wishlist is electronic gears and a carbon frame that would fit at least a 32mm tyre and a two part bar and stem so I can adjust the fit if/as needed. Not too worried about having carbon bars as i've found I do like riding with TT bars.

I'm not adverse to going with a gravel bike and running road tyres although I feel I would prefer a 2x groupset if I go that route and most that are in my price range that I've seen with electronic shifting are 1x only.

Mostly I've been looking at endurance/all road bikes (currently I think something like a cervelo caladonia seems a decent idea) although having tried an orbea orca in size 55 I feel like I could get a not super cludgy fit that works so I'm open to more race biased bikes although that might.

Tl:DR I'm feel I'm looking for a higher stack/less agressive road bike thats still fastish and able to fit 32s

What's everyone's go to tips for making sure they drink enough during a long, hard, hot weather ride?

Having had yet another dehydration bonk, I am once again disappointed in myself for not managing my fluid intake properly.

EDIT thanks for all the replies. Seems that my Garmin has the nag feature, I just need to remember to activate it before my next long ride!

• I might also invest in a custom DRINK! sticker for my stem

Local race omnium (Boulder Omnium / "Superville") has swapped to a true time-based stage race! There's a TT + Crit Saturday morning, and a Road Race Sunday.

I'm very excited, but as a mid pack cat 4 (on the road anyways) I'm fairly pessimistic about my chances.

I think I'm fucked anyways because I'm:

• Not in race shape (CX offseason was Dec-Mar)
• Don't have a TT bike / bars (just aero handlebars)
• Can't race crits well
• Gave never finished the RR with the lead group (it's basically 4-5 min vo2 max efforts for 90 min, just uphills + downhills)

Any tips & tricks / advice for me?

I think the most obvious is "don't get dropped" but that's easier said than done lol. Besides that I'm hoping to find the sweet spot in the crit of "back of the pack" but of the pack that's gonna finish, not the ones who inevitably get popped on the short climb every lap. TT I'm probably megafucked but will try to sphinx it a bit and push hard when it's hard.

I need to swap my crankset. I am currently running stock 172.5mm on my gravel/road bike and 175mm on my XC bike. I am thinking about getting 160mm cranks for both.

I need to swap the crankset on the gravel bike as grx has 48t as max chainring size. It is cheaper to get a different crankset than getting garbaruk custom chainrings.

I want to hear from experience instead of theorizing, how has shorter cranks impacted your racing/training/bike fit? I've heard good thing about going short, but how short is too short?

Unfortunately, my local bike fitters do not offer testing with different crank lengths, thus I can't test it beforehand.

those who've used wheels with the light bicycle pacehub, how is it? did it come with ceramic or steel bearings? Debating between it and dt 350. if it's similar quality I'd rather save the ~$300

Spending 3 weeks based in Le Bourg d’Oisans first three weeks of August. Going with the family, need cycling friends, want to do Marmotte route one day.

Any takers who aren’t axe murderers or arseholes please apply.

If anything let me know if you are there from the 1st - 21st for a ride and a beer.

Training for the Stelvio Santini 2026

I wanted to make the post a few month back but was too lazy, but non the less, here it is.

I will try my third attempt at the long ride.

I feel I am much fitter for climbing than I was in my last attempts, I am around 285-290W FTP, I did a lot of training at near threshold in the last months, tried to stick to a structured plan, than riding outdoors.

For indoor and outdoor I tried fueling like clockwork with gels and electrolytes, to train my body and mind for the gels.

I got my medical exam and the confirmation that I can participate into competitive sports.

My goal/wish until the Stelvio to reach 300W FTP and 75KG, yes I know that over 2000m and after a few hours, there will be not much left of my FTP, but at least I can pace myself :)

For the Stelvio my goal is to finish in the first third for the overall ranking.

What should I improve more, take care of, what is your advice?

PS1: I'm a diesel rider, I like to stay at a constant power for a long time.

PS2: For training/trends I'm using Chatgpt.