What makes a cyclist

First, there's no way to tell whether young cyclists have good riding genes until they show those genes by growing up. Sure, you can look at their parents and see what kind of cyclists they are and what kind of body types they have, but if you look at the parents of a lot of professional cyclists, you'll wonder whether genes have anything to do with being great on a bike!

Second, good cycling genes aren't enough. I've seen many cyclists over the years who had tremendous natural physical ability, yet lacked the motivation to maximize the ability that those genes provided.

These riders invariably never lived up to expectations and many I have spoken with regretted not having had the work ethic to match their physical capabilities. Conversely, if you have kids who are incredibly motivated and well supported, but lack world-class genes, they may not win a Grand Tour or an Olympic medal, but that doesn't mean that they can't have a successful and rewarding experience as a cyclist. Not only that, but it's likely that these less naturally gifted riders will learn important life lessons that will help them to be successful later in some other area of life.

Ultimately, as I see it, you can't control genes, so there's little point in even talking about them. More Cycling Articles. Look for this banner for recommended activities. Cancel Yes. Join Active or Sign In. All rights reserved. These are all people riding their bikes to get around the city quickly and pleasantly as a matter of convenience and a way of life.

Something perhaps we can all aspire to. We work with grassroots pressure groups such as Sustrans, London Cycling Campaign and BikeIsBest and together we aim to improve the public perspective on cycling as an accessible and preferable form of transport for everyone.

Does your bike need some TLC? Have your bike ready for your next adventure! Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. What makes a cyclist? Taking the step above casual. Becoming a weekend warrior in London: where to start? Benefits of cycling in the inner-city. And always, always keep your bike clean : A dirty chain slows you down, and mud and other gunk in your cables will cause poor shifting performance.

Be Proactive Listen to top pros—or observe them casually—after races, especially races that didn't go their way. Sure, they may get a little down after a bad race, but after taking a couple hours for a pity party, the cyclists who recover from setbacks the best are the ones who rationally reflect on the race or the ride, and make changes to improve their riding. That might mean changing gear like switching tire pressure in cyclocross , practicing a forgotten skill like riding rock drops for mountain bikers or putting more time into high intensity efforts for a road racer.

You can learn how to recover from setbacks from Bicycling 's own editor in chief, Bill Strickland at the free Unleash Your Greatness Summit. While interval training is important we'll get into that next , don't forget the value of endurance. Your best bet is to spend a significant amount of time growing your aerobic base —your ability to ride hours at a time.

Use the early season and the tail end of the off-season to focus on these endurance rides so you're ready for high intensity training as your season starts. Get in the Right Zone All of us know the importance of training at specific intervals —from fast-paced sprint efforts to ultra-easy recovery spins—but the riders doing intervals right are the ones getting faster.

Doing intervals right means actually doing each timed interval at the prescribed effort: actually hitting your threshold when you're doing threshold intervals, and putting everything out there for a sprint. Davis says the biggest mistake he sees people making in intervals is going 'kind of hard' all the time, and never actually hit the proper heart rates or wattages.