How To

Eight ways to get faster on the bike

Everybody wants to be able to ride faster. Here are eight things to think about if you want to be a better cyclist

Do you have that need for speed?

Want to improve your speed on the bike? Read on!
No matter what, when you're riding on your own it's far more efficient to try and get out of the way of the air than attempt to overpower it
Having an expert design your training plan can take some of the guesswork out of training, and also help to ensure you recover properly and don't overtrain
Intervals might hurt, but they'll bring big gains (Pic: Media24)
Training with power might still be reasonably expensive, but it's by far the best metric for measuring your effort
Unless you're going fast enough to justify this position, then you can still pedal!
Going out with stronger riders will force you out of your comfort zone (Pic: Polka Dot Cycling)
Are you a masher or a spinner?
"Ride lots" was Eddy Merckx's opinion on how to become a better cyclist. It might not be that simple but hours in the saddle definitely make a difference

Do you have that need for speed?

Faster. It’s a word that, for almost as long as cycling has existed, has captivated and obsessed the minds of bike riders everywhere.

If you’ve read Michael Hutchinson’s excellent book, Faster: The obsession, science and luck behind the world’s fastest cyclists, you’ll know that some athletes take their pursuit of speed to borderline crazy levels, always looking for that extra edge to knock a few seconds off their time.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) most of us are nowhere near the level where we have to look for marginal gains. That search for detail is left to those who have maximised their God-given potential, not the rest of us who need to focus on the first 97 per cent of a performance ceiling which sits rather lower.

But still, no matter your level of natural ability, everyone can find ways to get faster on a bike. Here are a few tips to improve your average speed on a ride, ranging from expensive to free, and from time consuming to simple…