Virtual Realities
Cycling Plus UK|February 2024
Turbo training addicts reveal their hard-won tips, gathered over countless indoor sessions, for thriving throughout the winter
John Whitney
Virtual Realities

01 Chain reaction 

While little gets eroded on smart bikes such as the Wattbike or Tacx Bike, it's a different story with the bike rigged up to your turbo. Even if it's kept indoors all winter, it doesn't mean it's maintenance-free. "I recently took my turbo bike into a workshop and in the words of the mechanic, my chain was 'drier than a camel's scrotum'," says Kate Allan, winner of the RTTC National 50-mile and 10-mile time trials in 2022. "You still need to oil your chain or it's going to get very dry. You can get a sweat capture that sits over the top tube and stops chain erosion, too." 

02 Weapons of distraction

For Andrea Parish, time triallist and current Chair of CTT, the national governing body for time trialling in Britain, a turbo session requires all manner of distraction to take her mind off the fact she's feverishly pedalling nowhere in a humid nook of her house. Online platforms such as Zwift and Discord, which allow her to talk in real time to fellow gamers, is that distraction. A mass, messy organised Zwift ride, she says, is the way to sharpen your focus, as you try to maintain your power output and hold your place in the virtual peloton. "If you're trying to control where you're at in the group, not let people past you and to stay with others, it's all the distraction you'll need." Kate Allan has a similar outlook. "Training indoors, by its very nature, isn't exciting, so make it as interactive as possible. Go onto Zwift, do a group ride, a race, pick a challenge and work towards it."

03 The sound of music

This story is from the February 2024 edition of Cycling Plus UK.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the February 2024 edition of Cycling Plus UK.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM CYCLING PLUS UKView All
GANARY A COALMINE
Cycling Plus UK

GANARY A COALMINE

The James Brown tune 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' comes on the radio, filling the coach, and does nothing for my pre-event nerves as I sit surrounded by serious-looking, wiry, tanned men in Lycra. It's 6.30am, pitch black outside and I'm feeling very out of my depth as a relative newcomer to the world of clipless pedals and hurting for fun. Last night's stress dream involved being very unprepared to get married and being handed my great-grandmother-in-law-to-be's hideous silver dress with lace trim to wear minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I'll let you psychoanalyse that one.

time-read
8 mins  |
March 2025
BORDER PATROL
Cycling Plus UK

BORDER PATROL

British travel writer Tim Wild heads on a pilgrimage to Arizona's gravel Mecca, and isn't disappointed

time-read
7 mins  |
March 2025
COLD SNAPS
Cycling Plus UK

COLD SNAPS

Chris Lanaway dons the deepest winter thermals for the Abloc Winter Challenge in southern Sweden

time-read
4 mins  |
March 2025
Master Age-group racing
Cycling Plus UK

Master Age-group racing

Tips to keep you on the race course as you get older

time-read
4 mins  |
March 2025
Guava Spot Force AXS
Cycling Plus UK

Guava Spot Force AXS

£4,950 Big-value, Barcelona-born bike that hits the spot for gravel riding

time-read
1 min  |
March 2025
Seasonal disorder
Cycling Plus UK

Seasonal disorder

Pinpointing the start of the cycling season is no easy task, writes Ned

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2025
Ride all winter
Cycling Plus UK

Ride all winter

10 scientifically proven ways to bolster your immunity

time-read
8 mins  |
March 2025
Joined-up thinking
Cycling Plus UK

Joined-up thinking

Connecting more rail stations to the NCN is long overdue

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2025
Castelli Gabba
Cycling Plus UK

Castelli Gabba

Castelli’s breathable, close-fitting yet waterproof and windproof jacket marked a watershed in cycle clothing

time-read
2 mins  |
March 2025
Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
Cycling Plus UK

Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...

The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.

time-read
8 mins  |
October 2024