January 2006: Jan Ullrich travels to Mallorca. With his T-Mobile team. Training. Georg Totschnig also travels to Mallorca. With his team Gerolsteiner. Training. And you? Are you sitting at home, dreaming of the next training camp, not training and feeling guilty? If the roads outside are impassable, that's no reason to leave your bike in the corner. The better solution is to get on the rollers and tackle your bike-specific weaknesses straight away. Because cadence and cadence technique can only be trained as well as on a roller trainer on a cycling track - but who has one on their doorstep?
"Once cyclists get the courage to ride on the rollers, they usually stubbornly rewind for an hour or two and then wonder why the session was so boring," says doctor and former top triathlete Dr Rainer Müller-Hörner. "Effective roller training must be structured differently. It is particularly suitable for technique training and strength building. In a training session designed to improve technique, you have to concentrate on yourself and the bike. This makes the training much more demanding and therefore more varied." One example is the cadence pyramid. Here you start with a cadence of around 100 revolutions per minute after the run-in. The number of revolutions per minute is increased with each interval. Once you have reached the highest possible frequency that can be ridden cleanly, you slowly reduce it step by step until you have reached the base of the pyramid again. Most cyclists neglect frequency training, technique and motor skills exercises as well as strength endurance training in winter because they can hardly be carried out on the road. Every red light, every pedestrian crossing the road thwarts the attempt to maintain a targeted cadence of 120 revolutions per minute. These external influences do not exist on the roller - a decisive advantage. And not the only one. The specific technical exercises, such as riding with one leg to train the round kick, can also be trained better on the indoor roller than on the road.
Of course, winter training for cyclists should not only take place on the roller. For quiet, longer rides in the basic endurance range, a road bike is suitable for open roads or, if the terrain is suitable, a cross bike, with which you can switch to forest paths sheltered from the wind. The best way to train your coordination and feel for the bike is off-road on a cross bike or mountain bike. However, additional training on the roller once or twice a week can not only be fun but, if the training session is structured sensibly, can also take cyclists a long way forward.
The best tips for training on the roller Roller training de luxe:
1. VENTILATE WELL
When training on the roller, there is no airstream - it gets very warm very quickly and the air in the room is soon used up. So tilt the window to let in enough fresh air without a draught.
2. DRINK A LOT
After just a short time on the roller, sweat starts to pour out. To compensate for the loss of fluids, you should drink plenty early on (rule of thumb: around 250 millilitres every 15 minutes). Fruit juice spritzers (mixed in a 1:3 ratio) or isotonic sports drinks can replace lost minerals.
3. AVOID NOISE
Although the running surfaces of modern castors are now made of noise-absorbing materials, riding a castor is a noisy affair. Place an insulating mat under the castor and wheel. This will dampen the noise level - your neighbours will thank you.
4. PROTECT WHEEL
Sweat can not only bother you, it can also cause problems for your bike. The salts contained in sweat attack the surfaces and the frame can corrode - especially on the top tube, stem and fork. Some roller manufacturers offer so-called sweat catchers, triangular cloths made of functional fibre that are stretched from the seat post to the handlebars. However, you should at least have a towel to hand with which you can regularly wipe off sweat before it drips.
Boredom on the roller is not an option: With these three training programmes from TOUR doctor Dr Rainer Müller-Hörner, you can effectively train different areas of focus
