One of the hardest aspects of cycling, especially when you are new to the sport or on unfamiliar routes, is finding a pace that you can maintain over the distance. Set off too fast or over-exert yourself on the first hills and you will be too exhausted to sustain your performance (or keep up with the other riders in a group) for the later part of the ride.

On the other hand, take things too easy and you won't be achieving your best results either...

Most of us don't want to spend large amounts of money on a Cycling Power Meter for our bikes, and unless we are training very hard and with particular goals it is more of a luxury than a necessity.

But it is still useful and interesting to know how much power we can generate when we cycle and an understanding of cycling power also makes it clear why we can all increase our speed quite quickly when we start, but it becomes progressively harder to make small improvements as we get faster!

It is often said that cycling doesn't get easier with time - you go faster but still suffer just as much. This is especially true of hills. But every rule has an exception.

When you first start cycling (or take the sport up again after many years) the first few rides can be very demotivating, and many potential cyclists will decide at this stage that cycling isn't for them. So what should you expect when you first come back to cycling

The food we eat before, during and after a cycle ride, especially a ride that is particularly long or arduous, can make a significant different to the result and to the pleasure we get from the ride. I'm not a nutritional expert and the article is based more on my own experiences than expert nutritional knowledge, but if you follow the guidelines below you should be on the right track towards success.

Before starting, and for all rides however long or short, remember the primary rule: eat before you are hungry, drink before you are thisty, and carry plenty of fluids. 'Bonking' from loss of energy will sap all your strength and dehydration is just plain dangerous for your health.

It is generally accepted that interval training is a better way to increase your average cycling speed and effectiveness than always simply just going as hard as you can for as long as you can, but there are two problems with interval training:

- They are very tough!

- They involve careful planning and discipline to avoid making too much effort between the periods of exertion

- they involve going on a special ride just to perform intervals and time doesn't always permit an extra ride in a busy week

So is there an effective alternative?

I guess a lot of us (all of us?) have dreamed about having a personal cycling trainer - preferably a professional cyclist or ex-professional - at least for a week or two, to give us some hints and tips about how to improve our cycling.

I always have a nagging suspicion that my performance would be improved as much by better techniques as by more time training, and that a combination of the two would bring a great level of improvement. Of course I could be wrong, perhaps I already have a 100% perfect professional technique and training program...just I doubt it somehow.

Pedalling circles is a simple sounding technique to ensure that you are making the most of each part of the pedal stroke, rather than just pushing down when your foot is in the 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock positions and ignoring the rest of the pedal stroke.

Simple sounding, less straightforward in practice, but well worth getting used to because an efficient pedalling technique can significantly improve your speed and efficiency, and leave you feeling more in control.

Some people have a natural confidence when cycling downhill, or at least a way of ignoring their natural fears, while others are much more cautious. This nervousness about going downhill is an important weakness to tackle since:

1) if you lose a significant amount of time cycling the descents it is extremely difficult to make it up when going up hills

2) if you arrive at the bottom of the hill at, say, 30 mph instead of 20 mph you have a great advantage for the next stage of the course, whether it is a flat or a hill, so the faster cyclists going down the hill will often be the fastest cyclists going up the hill straight after as well

Training books will all tell you that it is the rest days between cycling that are just important as the training rides themselves. This is because 'your body needs time to recover', they tell you, or 'your muscles develop when they are resting'.

It's one of those things that I have heard very often but always found it slightly hard to believe, unless your daily rides are really very intensive training rides. If, like me, your main priority is just to get out riding as often as possible, is that really making you slower?

A few years ago common thinking was that winter cycling was something to be avoided, especially by riders of road bikes. Many leisure cyclists simply stopped cycling for a few months during winter, while others prefered to continue indoors on a training bike, or perhaps using gym exercises instead.

OK, so this is partly an exercise in stating the obvious - but it's a good place to start! Then you can browse through some of the many other more specific articles on the site for more information about these and many other aspects of road bike cycling...

Tip 1: Spend more time on your bike

Do you look forward to cycling and get out on your bike at every opportunity possible? It's fun reading magazines and chatting in internet forums about techniques and the latest equipment, but not actually very useful at improving your overall ability!

There are two possible approaches to take when cycling ‘training’:

1) See it as a route towards pleasure: forget about ‘proper’ training, ignore planning schedules and interval training, and simply cycle often and regularly in order to gain overall fitness (and enjoy the countryside...)

2) Set specific targets for speed and distance and when these goals are to be achieved, and set-up a specific training schedule that will allow you to meet these goals

'Modern' thinking is that cyclists should take very little break from the sport during the winter, and should focus on getting out on the bike each week if possible. A fine idea, and if you are able to get in a couple of decent length rides each week it will certainly make the new season much easier.

For many of us, however, a combination of shorter days, work commitments and poor weather mean that cycling training opportunities diminish substantially during the winter months. This article is aimed at us...

This subject is related to Cycling cadence. It relates to the benefits of cycling, the benefits of pedalling fast (hence avoiding muscular stress to the knees), but it also relates to an activty that is often practiced in the gym rather than on the open road.

Spinning is an expression that started with cycling ond cyclists. It is the practice of pedalling with a cadence of 80+ turns per minute, preferably 100+ turns per minute, regardless of the terrain - whether you are cycling on a completely flat road or up a steep hill.

Group riding - also known as drafting or paceline cycling - refers to several cyclists riding together, one behind the other.

The cyclists each take it in turns to lead, than after leading the group for a while the leader drops away and joins the end of the line. This has great benefits because it is much less strenuous cycling close behind another cyclist than it is cycling alone - because of protection from wind and reduced air resistance.

The definition of 'long distance' for you or for me or for someone else will always be completely different.

If you talk to a non-cyclist, 20 miles sounds like a long ride, but for an enthusiastic club member 100 miles might be a long ride.There are cyclists who regularly cycle much greater distances than this (Tour de France stages are often 140 miles or more).

The more years and more miles I put on a bicycle, the more diversity I see and enjoy regarding bicycling. By this I mean there are so many different types of bicycles and bicycling events available to take pleasure from. There will always be your purists who snub their nose at anyone who doesn’t own a campy equipped DeRosa road bike or some other such nonsense.

I’ve ridden with these types, but I’ve never been so anal about one facet of cycling that it precludes me from trying new things or dictates that I snub my nose at a fellow cyclist.

There are two sides to the discussion about losing weight by cycling:

(1) The first concerns people who want to lose weight and take up cycling as a way of achieving that goal, and

(2) The second concerns regular cyclists, who find they are losing weight whether they want to or not!

Looking at the first of these, it is almost impossible to cycle regularly and with a reasonable amount of effort and NOT lose weight! Cycling typically uses 750 calories per hour, so if you cycle for two hours and have a snack when you get home (say 150 calories if you can be reasonably sensible) then you will lose weight.

Cycling up hills (or mountains) is the hardest part of cycling when you are just starting out. Ignoring problems of speed, most new cyclists can manage to go along a flat road for a reasonable distance without any terrible difficulties.

But what happens when a hill turns up? Even a  small  hill can be a big challenge if you don't know what to expect and haven't prepared.

This page offers some general comments on cycling uphill. Please see cycling up hills and mountains for more specific and detailed training advice and techniques.

The people I cycle with are always saying that cycling ability depends more on your state of mind and your positive attitude than on sheer strength. It requires the mental strength to keep pushing yourself when things get tough - usually because the ride is longer, faster or steeper than you are used to.

For a long time I didn't believe them - cycling uphill is a challenge for your legs and breathing however postive you might feel - but it is true to say that if you see your local hills as insurmountable obstacles, that is how they will stay.

When you first start cycling, you will probably read about the speeds and distances travelled by other cyclists, and find that you fall a long way short. Many experienced cyclists will cover 60 miles at 20-25 miles per hour a couple of times a week, enthusiasts much more, and faster.

This knowledge often translates into a desire to push yourself hard, when you can only manage 10 miles at 14 miles per hour!

Note: see separate article for bike sizing (also includes saddle height) which also has a significant impact on your position.

A couple of good reasons to spend some time thinking about the best riding position when you go out for a ride:

- Sitting in an aerodynamic position on your bike is a more efficient and cheaper way to improve your performance than spending thousands of pounds on lighter road bikes each year.

I know that safety issues can sometimes be dry reading. Still it is an important issue of road bicycling, or any type of activity. Obviously good riding policies can help to reduce your exposure to injury or possibly death. I don’t want to be negative here, but severe injury or death is a real possibility even if we don’t want to think about it. First and foremost you must take at least a minimum number of actions to reduce your exposure to risk.

These are the minimum points to consider regarding bicycle safety:

I can talk about this with some authority, because I did this myself in my first year cycling. Four or five times a week, out cycling as far as possible, and always with my eye on the average speed. Several times I would get home so exhausted that I would have to it down for a while, my legs unable to support me.

Every week I had to go further and faster. After about four or five months I had simply done too much. I was becoming ill, catching colds, spraining my wrists, and lost the desire to cycle.

There are dozens of ways to get into good physical condition including aerobics, running and yoga, yet I believe cycling is one of the best and most enjoyable.

If you’ve struggled to get into shape, it is quite obvious you’re not alone. It isn’t so hard to get started, but it is difficult to keep it up. Keeping up the fitness program that you’ve started over the long run is one of the major issues. Excuses seem to pile up, muscles aches, joints hurt, no time today, it isn’t working well with your schedule; then pretty soon you’ve talked yourselves out of it.

Cadence in cycling is the speed at which your legs turn. It is measured in revs per minute / pedal rotations per minute.

Much the easiest way to measure cadence is with an attachment to your bike computer, but it is also easy to calculate as you are cycling along - keeping an eye on the clock of your bike computer, count how many pedal turns you make in 30 seconds (and double it for a one minute result).

There is nothing more guaranteed to spoil your day out cycling than a dog jumping out at you unexpectedly or, perhaps worse, standing snarling in the middle of the road ahead of you. Followed by the heart-stopping ten seconds when you have passed the dog, and don't know if you can outsprint it. This is when your maximum speed of the day will be recorded!

So what can be done to help reduce the problem? Every cyclist has their own method for dealing with a dog, and there are some basic guidelines that will help you stay safe on the road.

Cycling faster and better on your road bike! Most beginner cyclists approach to going faster is to go out quite often and make a lot of effort. Sounds good, and certainly works to a point. But sooner or later you will reach a threshold.

That may be at an average speed of 22kmh or 30 kmh or whatever, but most of us have a natural ceiling that it proves very difficult to get past.

One of the most common questions among new cyclists - and one of the hardest to give a sensible answer to - is the average speed of a cyclist.

There are lots of reasons why average speed can't be used as a reliable measure of comparison, which mostly come down to the following: