Cycling Technique, Equipment, and Training
Domain 4: Cycling Technique, Equipment, and Training tests bike fit, handling, equipment choices, and training prescription. You need to connect power, cadence, aerodynamics, and safety to race performance.
Core rules and concepts
- Bike fit should support a sustainable position: saddle height, reach, cleat alignment, and hip angle. An aggressive aero position is useful only if the athlete can hold it and still run.
- Power zones derive from FTP. Cadence is largely self-selected, but athletes should practice low-cadence climbing and high-cadence surges.
- Equipment checks include helmet, wheels, tires, brake pads, skewers, and tire pressure. Tubeless and latex setups require specific pressure guidance.
- Drafting rules matter: non-drafting races require legal spacing; draft-legal races require pack skills and bike handling.
- Training should include endurance rides, sweet-spot work, VO2 intervals, and hill repeats, sequenced across the season.
Worked example
An athlete wants to break 70 minutes for 40 km. Required average speed = 40 ÷ 1.167 = 34.3 km/h. If her power-duration curve shows 34 km/h only at 260 W but her FTP is 230 W, she needs aero gains or a slower goal. The reasoning: time-trial speed depends on power, frontal area, rolling resistance, and pacing-not just fitness.
Traps that cost marks
Copying a professional’s bike position; ignoring tire pressure; overdoing FTP intervals; failing to practice mounts and dismounts; assuming aero equipment fixes a weak engine.
Key points
- Fit must be sustainable for the run.
- FTP anchors cycling power zones.
- 40 km in 70 minutes requires 34.3 km/h.
- Non-drafting requires legal spacing; draft-legal requires pack skills.
- Equipment checks prevent avoidable race-day failures.