Putting on the Sunscreen

Let's face it, somehow bike racers have a skewed vision of vanity. When was the last time a cyclist showed you his "great" tan lines? If you know many bike racers, it probably hasn't been long at all. But we all know that too much sun isn't good for you.

To help keep all the time in the sun in perspective, there's a great sunscreen info graphic on InformationIsBeautiful.net that has a very good description of sunscreen—what is protects against, how much to use, how long its protection lasts—and the types and dangers of skin cancer. It's definitely worth taking a look so you know what type of sunscreen to buy, how much to use, when to put it on, and what you're trying to avoid by using it ... least of which are those tan lines you worked so hard to get.

Speed, Leg Speed, and "Spinning Out"

Cyclists sometimes refer to “spinning out” in a sprint or down a hill, meaning they feel they reached the maximum speed they could in the gears they have. The implication is that with a bigger gear they could have gone faster in the same scenario. However, fitness and skill development (or lack thereof) are the limiting factors long before gear selection.

Leg speed is a skill that juniors are forced to develop due to junior gears (Huugh! Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. That happens when I think about junior gears.) Track riders also develop this skill due to riding a fixed gear. And it’s a skill that all riders should work to develop through high cadence workouts. Accelerating out of turns, jumping, attacking, and sprinting will all improve if a rider is simply comfortable using higher leg speed (100–150).

At the end of the day, your top speed is limited by power—800 watts in a 53 x 12 is the same speed as 800 watts in a 53 x 14. But developing leg speed so your muscles will perform well at high RPMs can help you put all of your available force into the pedals, ultimately producing more power.

Power aside, let’s just look at the myth of spinning out. Not many riders are hitting 40 mph in a sprint. Never the less, it’s possible to reach that speed in nearly any set of gears whether you throw on a monster 55 chainring or you’re limited to junior gears (roughly a 48x13). As you can see in the chart below (click to enlarge/zoom), the absurdly large 55 x 11 requires a cadence of just over 100 to do 40 mph. Juniors can keep pace with a cadence of about 138.

On the track, pursuit riders use a cadence of about 120, kilo riders are around 140, and track sprinters are over 150. This isn’t the cadence you want to hold for an hour, but for accelerating out of corners, sprinting, or descents of a few minutes, the stock 53 x 12 on most bikes is more than enough. If you can’t hold 140 RPMs for the duration of a sprint, or 120 for at least 10 minutes, it’s time to add some high cadence drills to your workouts so you’re capable of it and become more comfortable maintaining this tempo.

So next time you hear a rider say he’d “spun out,” what he really just said is, “I can’t go that fast,” or “I’m lacking leg speed.” The chart doesn’t lie, and any rider should be able to put out 140 RPMs for a 10-15 second effort. Few riders have the power to turn the pedals at 140 RPMs in their biggest gear, but if you did you’d hit nearly 48 mph on a 53 x 12 and just over 40 on junior gears. Those are speeds that can win a lot of races.

The Law of the Land

You’ve probably had it happen before: you’re enjoying a nice ride when a car drives by with a passenger yelling at you about getting off the road—or something less friendly. It’s annoying and interrupts a pleasant ride, but at least it wasn’t this disastrous situation.

Whether it is to avoid getting a ticket, defending your rights, or simply staying in the good graces of drivers, it is a good idea to know the actual laws about cycling on the highways and byways. These laws vary in every state—even different cities—so it is important to know what the local ordinances say and learn the new ones when you move or train in a new region.

In Michigan, the League of Michigan Bicyclists provides helpful information, including their What Every Michigan Bicyclist Must Know guide, which provides a nice introduction to basic Michigan traffic laws. But nothing beats going straight to the source. It is now relatively easy to find the traffic code for each state online.

From the Michigan Vehicle Code, Act 300 of 1949, Section 257.657: Operation of Bicycles, Motorcycles and Toy Vehicles: “Each person riding a bicycle … upon a roadway has all of the rights and is subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle….” Keep that in mind, and you’ll get the sense of your rights and duties as a cyclist.

But there are some important details to consider. The portion of the Michigan Vehicle Code noted above includes 14 documents, many of which are only a sentence or two long, and are worth reading. Highlights include:

• Duty of parent or guardian
• Rights and duties of persons riding bicycle
• Operation of bicycle upon highway or street
• Riding more than 2 abreast
• Others parts of the section that may be of interest: Carrying package, bundle, or article; Parking bicycle; Riding on a sidewalk

If you are interested more broadly in the topic of cyclists and the law, VeloNews’ column Legally Speaking—written by two-time Olympian and 1990 National Champion Bob Mionske, now an attorney focusing on bicycling—is a great resource to learn about issues involving cyclists and the law. His book, Bicycling & The Law, is another excellent resource.

While it is good to know your rights and responsibilities as a cyclist, it is also good to keep in mind that staying safe should be your main goal. And in order to do that, “Obey all stop signs and signals; motorists get upset when cyclists ignore traffic laws” (League of Michigan Bicyclists’ What Every Michigan Bicyclist Must Know). An upset motorist is never safe for a cyclist, whether it is you today or your friend tomorrow.

Rating climbs and defining percent grade

If you watch Le Tour at this time of the year (and who doesn't?), then you've heard about various categories of climbs, particularly on the mountain stages. But what does each category mean? Well, it depends on who you ask. Generally, the climb's category is determined by considering the length and steepness, plus its position on the route. Velonews' Tour de France 101 provides the general guidelines used at Le Tour for rating cycling climbs:

• "The easiest is a Category 4, which is typically less than 2km long and about 5 percent grade, or up to 5km at a 2-3 percent grade.
• A Category 3 can be as short as one mile with a very steep grade, perhaps 10 percent; or as long as six miles with a grade less than 5 percent.
• A Category 2 can be as short as 5km at 8 percent, or as long as 15km at 4 percent
• A Category 1, once the highest category, can be anything from 8km at 8 percent to 20km at 5 percent.
• An hors catégorie (“above category”) rating is given to exceptionally tough climbs. This could either be a Category 1 whose summit is also the finish of the stage, or one that is more than 10km long with an average grade of at least 7.5 percent, or up to 25km miles long at 6 percent or steeper."

As you can see, these definitions are subjective. The origin of these categories is a bit of a mystery, but I heard a story that long ago (early part of last century) the categories arose from the gear required to get up the hill in a car. The early cars didn't have much power, so steep climbs required shifting down to 2nd or 1st gear, some even required going in reverse (the smallest gear ratio in cars). The climb's category then corresponded to the gear required to get the car up it. That's how the fable goes, anyway.

Regardless of lore, categorization of climbs does not adhere to a strict formula, so a category 1 in France does not necessarily equal a category 1 in the US. Roads in the US tend to be newer and try to maintain lower grades, so you rarely see the grade and length of climbs here that you can find in Europe.

Speaking of grades, ever wondered exactly how they calculate those 7% climbs in Le Tour? From VeloNews' live stage 10 coverage [link now bad] of the 2008 Tour de France comes a very simple definition of a climb's percentage:

"If a road rises 10 meters over a 100 meter length, it is a 10% slope. That means that a 100% slope would equal a 45 angle, rising exactly what it travels. Most interstate highways in the U.S. are built with the goal of not exceeding a 5-percent
slope. There are plenty of exceptions, of course, but that was the original goal."

If you need more details about the measurement of climbs, stop by everybody's favorite reference, Wikipedia.


[Links in this post updated 7/12/11]