Derby Mercury

Riding can be a great excuse to get away from the kids and the other half, but it's also a great way of spending some quality time with your nearest and dearest. Here we look at the best ways to get children onto two wheels and riding safely and confidently.

The family way

Children love cycling. It’s time spent with you, talking together, discovering things and enjoying fresh air and exercise. They pick up on your enthusiasm. And as they get older, a bicycle is their independence. Family cycling isn’t only about introducing your children to two wheels, though – often it’s a time when a non-cycling partner starts riding again.

If one of you is an experienced cyclist, buy your other half a reasonable bike – one of a quality you’d consider for yourself, even if it’s different from the kind of bike you’d choose. And keep it running as sweetly as one of your own, giving it a spin around the block periodically to check.

Let your partner set the pace and the mileage, and level the playing field by fitting the trailer, childseat or luggage to your bike. And stay away from busy roads, which are intimidating and prevent conversation.

Younger children won’t need much entertaining, but they’ll want to stretch their legs, so aim for somewhere with a bit of grass or a play area. If you live in the UK, Sustrans have a database of cyclepaths at www. sustrans.org.uk. Keep mileages low and take plenty of snacks and drinks.

Pre school

Up until the age of four or five, small children are non-pedalling passengers. Fortunately they’re fairly portable – with the right equipment.

Helmet fit: This is the most important criteria for a helmet, so rather than looking for a specific model, visit your local bike shop and choose one that sits snugly on your nipper’s noggin. It should be EN 1078 European Standard approved.

Ventilation isn’t very important – passengers don’t generate much heat. Make sure it’s worn properly, with the forehead protected. Avoid over-tight straps or nipping your child’s neck with the clasp by sliding a finger behind the chin-strap when you’re fastening it.

Child trailers: If you can afford it, get a trailer. Advantages over a seat include: much greater capacity (two children, plus room for nappies, groceries, toys…), better bike handling, and protection from weather (sun, rain, wind) and insects.

The age range is wider than with a seat – from about eight weeks up to six years. The recommended minimum age for most is nine months (the sitting up stage), but you can secure an infant’s car seat in some trailers using luggage straps.

Trailers are safer than seats, they’re more visible and wider, which encourages drivers to give you room. If you should fall, the trailer should remain upright, and even if not, the children are protected by a roll-cage. Also, they may look bulky but most trailers fold flat.

The drag of a trailer is noticeable on even the slightest hill, so the bike needs a low bottom gear. Good brakes are essential for descending, but shouldn’t be used suddenly or the trailer may disconcertingly shunt the towing bike. Brands to look out for include Croozer and Adventure (available from Madison in the UK). All the top ones have a range of accessories and many convert into stroller/joggers. 

Child seats: These are cheaper than trailers and require less leg and lung power. They’re great for outings in better weather. Most suit children from nine months to three or four years; a weight limit of 18-20kg is usual.

After fitting the seat, accustom yourself to the bike’s compromised handling by taking a trial run with a big sack of spuds. And practise getting your leg over the top-tube without swinging it over the saddle – or you’ll kick your passenger in the head!

Front seats affect the handling less than rear seats, but force you to ride bow-legged – okay for a mile or two, irritating beyond. When fitting, ensure the base of the seat back is above or in front of the rear axle. Weight further back can ruin handling. You get better control with wide bars – flat or riser.

Whatever seat you choose, get two attachment systems so you can swap the seat between bikes. Check out the Hamax Kiss – its one-point mounting system means you don’t need a bike rack. The WeeRide Co-Pilot Limo available from Madison comes with a rack. 

Summer wear: Avoid sunburn by liberally applying Factor 30 and/or choosing light clothing with arm and leg coverage. The back of the neck is very vulnerable for children slumped in childseats. Dress your child with an extra layer of clothing because he or she won’t get as hot as you.

Winter wear: Children can and do get very cold when cycling in winter, even in trailers. Wrap them up really well. Ski-style salopettes make great over-trousers, and a balaclava under the helmet (remove some padding) will prevent painfully cold ears. Wellingtons are useful even in trailers, which may collect water in the footwell.

Kickstand: It can be difficult to get a child into or out of a child seat or trailer by yourself and a strong kickstand, such as the Pletscher twin leg, can help. But never leave a child unattended in a childseat, even with a kickstand.

Safety: It’s vital that nothing – wayward clothing, feet, fingers – can end up in a wheel. All trailers have side panels to prevent this, and most seats have foot straps and side panels. Dangling laces, scarves or mittens-on-strings can still be a risk. Make sure, too, that you periodically check all your family cycling equipment for loose screws, bolts, and so on.

Ready to ride

By the time they start school, most children are capable of riding a bike of their own, but not far and not on busy roads. There are other ways to get them pedalling, though.

Trailer bikes: A trailer bike, which is half a bike plus a towing arm, is the cheapest solution. Prices start at about £100. Most suit children from four to nine years. The upper limit is weight: your trailer bike passenger shouldn’t exceed half your bodyweight. Check out the Adventure Echo Six (available from Madison) or the Ultimate Hardware Hitch Hiker. Both fold for storage.

When riding with a trailer bike, fit a crudguard to the ‘down-tube’ of the trailer bike, up near the handlebars – your passenger’s face is in the line of spray from your back wheel. Also, use mudguards on the towing bike and get two racks or hitches so you can swap the trailer bike between towing bikes. If riding at night, you must fit a rear light and reflector to the trailer bike as it will obscure those of the towing bike.

Because your child is under your direct control, you can ride anywhere. Busy roads aren’t any more dangerous, although conversation is impossible, so quieter lanes are better, while offroad singletrack, bridleways and forest tracks are all possible.

On longer rides you need to check the trailer biker’s morale and energy levels regularly, and if necessary boost both with stops and snacks. Adults can feel themselves getting tired; children can conk out in moments and suddenly be upset and tearful – or fast asleep! 

On their own

Children as young as six can ride a dozen miles, and by the age of 10 or 11 most are keen to use their own bikes. Independent cycling offers a sense of freedom and achievement. The snag can be finding a suitable bike.

The right bike: Most children’s bikes are under-specced and overweight – 15kg is typical, which can be half the rider’s bodyweight. Your child will get more enjoyment out of cycling – and more miles – with a lighter bike. Aim for 13kg or less for 20 and 24in wheel bikes, especially if they’re likely to go off-road.

Don’t be tempted to buy a bike your child will ‘grow into’. An over-large bike will be awkward to ride. As a rule of thumb, 14 or 16in-wheel bikes suit ages four to six, 20in ages five to 10, and 24in ages eight to 12. A long seatpost and a steerer with plenty of spacer washers – or a quill stem – will maximise growing room. Children often prefer a seat height that’s lower than optimum, and must be able to stand over the bike and dab a foot when seated. Also, smaller hands need to be able to reach the brakes.

The number of gears is a badge of status among children, but too many gears causes mechanical complications. One gear is best for starter bikes, a three-speed hub for second bikes, and a 7-speed or 8-speed derailleur for pre-teens. Most children’s bikes have Gripshift, which doesn’t need much hand-strength to use.

Children’s bike specialist Islabikes offer a range of road and mountain bikes with light aluminium frames, simple gearing and easy to reach brakes. Luath road bikes start at £399.99 for the 24in wheel model, Beinn mountain bikes from £299.99. Ridgeback’s £229.99 MX24 (Destiny for girls) and £209.99 MX20 (or Harmony) are also great starter bikes.

Riding off-road: Such areas are ideal for children to develop bike handling skills. Lack of traffic means you can talk more easily, and the riding can be technically interesting. Sooner or later your child will fall off, but offroad falls at this age are rarely serious because there’s no traffic or street furniture to hit, and speeds are generally low. (It’s worth carrying some plasters…)

A helmet is an obvious precaution, and cycling mitts can help prevent scuffed hands. Long trousers such as tracksuit bottoms and shirts with sleeves are better than bare arms and legs. They offer protection from minor grazes, scratches and nettle stings. Boots or sturdy trainers are better than sandals or plimsoles for the same reason.

As always, plan the ride so you’re going places that will interest the children – a café stop here, a good place for trying to do jumps there, whatever interests them. Don’t overestimate your speed when planning the route. If they’re on their own bikes, you may be averaging only 5mph or so off-road. Above all, relax! If nobody’s enjoying it, you’re doing it wrong.

Want more beginner tips? Then make sure you pick up On Your Bike! Your Complete Beginner’s Guide to Cycling. 

Before you hit the road, here are the essential basic riding skills that everyone should know and practice.

You never forget how to ride a bike, right? That’s essentially true, but coaches who teach cycling to adults say there are a few things that they do forget – or never learned.

We’re talking about things like getting the saddle height right, setting off, braking and using the gears. Plus there’s one mechanical skill that’s so useful everyone should know how to do it: getting your front wheel off and on so you can carry your bike by car.

Set your saddle right

Getting your saddle height right is vital. Just as you wouldn’t be very comfortable walking around in a pair of jeans with the legs four inches too long, so you won’t be comfortable on a bike if the saddle is too high or too low.

If your saddle is a lot too high, you’ll know about it very quickly – you  won’t be able to reach the pedals! Adjust it as shown below. If it’s just a little too high, you will still be able to reach the pedals but your hips will rock from side to side as you pedal. That will quickly make you sore and uncomfortable. A useful rule of thumb is therefore to make sure your saddle is not so high that this happens.

If your saddle’s too low, you lose muscular efficiency and so you’ll get tired more quickly. For some people, the sharper bend in the knee from a low saddle height can cause injury.

To move your saddle up and down (picture below) you’ll need an Allen key. They’re usually 5mm, though some bikes use 4mm or 6mm Allen key bolts for this. Unscrew the bolt by turning it anti-clockwise, then lift or lower the saddle as necessary. Make sure the saddle is straight as well as at the right height, then tighten the bolt firmly so that the saddle won’t rotate if you try and twist it. That should leave it tight enough that it won’t sink under you.

There’s no single way of setting your Goldilocks height – just right – for your saddle. For racing and other serious riding it’s often suggested that you start with a saddle to pedal distance of 1.09 X your inside leg, as this has been found to be efficient for some riders. But it’s too high for many people, so we suggest a knee angle of 25 to 35 degrees with the pedal at the bottom of the stroke.

You can always tilt the bike bit to reach the ground comfortably.

Going flat-footed: the reason many riders lower their saddles too much is because it lets them sit across the bike with a foot flat on the floor, which feels safe.

Saddle height right: your saddle should be high enough that your knee makes a 25-35 degree angle when your foot is at the bottom of the pedal stroke.

Saddle too low: you’ll be less efficient in this position and in the long-term you risk knee injury. And, let’s be honest, you look like a bit of a numpty.

You can still reach the ground from the right saddle height, you just have to stretch a bit.

Getting started

A vital skill that beginners often struggle to master is simply pushing off at the beginning of a ride. The trick is not to teeter on the saddle, but to straddle the bike and lift yourself on to the saddle as you set off.

It’s useful to know which is your lead foot, because this is the best one to start pedalling. Imagine yourself sliding across a polished floor in your socks. Which foot do you lead with? That’s your lead foot. Here's the sequence:

1 Start with your lead foot on the pedal, straddling the bike (picture below). Squeeze the brake levers gently to hold the brakes on lightly and steady the bike. A look over your shoulder is always a good idea, even on a car-free path.

2 Release the brakes and push down with your lead foot. As you start moving, push off the ground with your other foot and lift yourself up away from the bike frame. Keep a firm grip on the bars, pointing the bike forward.

3 Place your other foot on the pedal and start pedalling, moving your bum back toward the saddle as the bike starts moving.  A couple of pedal strokes while out of the saddle will help get you up to speed quickly.

4 Carry on pedalling, and gently lower yourself on to the saddle. Keep looking forward, rather than down at the bars or the road, as this will keep you steady.

5 Sit yourself comfortably and away you go. Keep a light grip on the bars and your head up, and keep looking down the road or track.

Braking

The trick to learning to stop quickly is to use the brakes together, then learn to use the front brake – your most powerful brake – to maximum advantage. Many riders fear that using the front brake will put them over the handlebar, but you can reduce your stopping distance by almost 50 per cent if you use the front brake rather than the rear on its own.

On bikes assembled to UK standard the rear brake is controlled by the left lever. Use this brake alone and you’ll stop, but not as quickly as you could. The best strategy for beginners is to pull the rear brake lever first and then bring in the more powerful front brake gradually.

As you pull the front brake lever, brace yourself against the handlebar. The fastest braking comes when the front brake is almost lifting the rear wheel off the ground. This takes practice so spend some time in a safe, traffic-free environment seeing just how quickly you can stop.

Using the gears

We see many beginners toiling up hills because they don’t know how to use their gears. It’s not obvious what all those sprockets and the buttons on the handlebars do, so don’t be afraid to ask your bike shop for a demonstration.

On a bike with derailleur gears, the front derailleur provides large jumps in gears, and you fine-tune with the rear derailleur. It’s very like a truck or four-wheel-drive off-roader with high range and low range gearboxes.

The right-hand shifters control the rear derailleur, and the left-hand shifters control the front derailleur.

Hub gears usually have just one control, on the right  hand side of the bar, to move through the whole range.

As with braking, find yourself a safe, traffic-free environment and practise shifting up and down the gears to get a feel for what they do. For starters, try putting the front derailleur in the smallest of two, or middle of three chainrings, then shift up and down the rear sprockets.

You’ll notice that the difference between one sprocket and another is not great, but because there are eight, nine, or ten of them this gives quite a wide range.

Then, shift into the largest chainring by pushing the larger button on the left-hand shifter and again shift up and down the rear sprockets with the right hand control. All the gears are harder to pedal in the larger chainring, which means you’ll go faster for a given pedalling speed. Use these gears for downhills and fast flat sections.

If you have a triple chainring, use the left-hand control to move the chain down two steps to the smallest chainring. The gears here are very easy; they’re great for climbing hills.

Another common beginner problem is to pedal very slowly in a high gear. You’ll be more comfortable and able to ride for longer if you pedal more quickly in an easier gear. It may not feel that you’re doing much work, but that’s the idea: each pedal stroke involves less effort so you can keep going for many more of them.

Picture below: a middle gear. With the chain on the middle ring of a triple or small ring of a double, you have medium-sized gears suitable for medium-speed riding on the flat and up and down moderate hills.

Picture below: a high gear. With the chain on the larger chainring and a small rear sprocket you’ll travel a long way for each turn of the pedals, enabling you to go faster. Perfect for descending or just getting a move on.

Picture below: a low gear. With the chain on the smallest chainring and larger sprockets you can climb hills slowly but with less effort. Specialist touring bikes, intended for heavily laden expeditions, have low gears of less than 1:1.

Skill building exercises

Once you’ve mastered the absolute basics of operating the machine, then it’s time to work on steering and handling accuracy. This is mostly all about practice, but here are a couple of useful exercises that you can do with just a couple of sets of inexpensive nine-inch-high football training cones from a sports shop.

Kids love these exercises. We had trouble stopping young Alex here from zooming between the cones. As your or your youngster’s skills develop, moving the cones closer together makes this more challenging, as does varying the route to force wider arcs.

Slalom: Arrange a line of cones two to three yards apart and slalom among them. Young riders love this game because they can have fun whizzing through the gaps, or deliberately trying to knock the cones over. If your youngster thinks that’s a better game than going between the cones, challenge him to knock them over with his or her pedals rather than the wheel. It’s easy to ride straight through a cone; a bit harder to just clip it.

Gap-storming: Arrange two lines of cones in a V formation so they make up pairs of increasingly close spacing. Try and ride between them without hitting the last pair. As your confidence increases, move the final pair closer and closer together. When the final cones are more than about 18 inches apart this is relatively easy, because you can just ride through. As they get closer, you have to start thinking about pedal position too. This is useful in the real world where barriers intended to keep motorbikes off bike paths are often narrow and tall – and don’t fall over if you clip them!

We do not recommend the use of a training cone as a protective device.

Removing your front wheel

It’s not a riding skill, but being able to get the front wheel off your bike is very useful because it makes it possible to load the bike into a car to get further afield and perform field repairs like fixing a puncture.

There isn’t room here to deal with all the possibilities, so we’ve tackled a very common situation, a bike with V-brakes.

If you are lucky enough to  have disc brakes you can ignore all the steps involving the brakes – the brake disc just drops out from the brake when you undo the quick release.

Road bikes with calliper  brakes usually have a lever on the brake to increase the pad spacing so the wheel can be pulled out between them.

1 (Picture below) You may need to create some slack in the brake cable. Undo the lockring on the barrel adjuster and screw it all the way into the lever body.

2 Slide the bellows-shaped cover off the steel tube (called a noodle) at the top of the brake so you can see where the noodle fits into the brake arm.

3 Squeeze the brake arms together so that the noodle comes free from its anchor point in the brake arm.

4 Here’s a top view so you can see how the end of the noodle should be pulled back until the cable can slide up through the slot.

5 The brake fully open. The pads are now spaced widely enough that the wheel will pass through them easily.

6 Undo the quick-release lever on the wheel hub by pushing it out from the wheel. It’s not a spanner handle so don’t try to unscrew it by turning it.

7 The quick-release in fully open position. The heel should now be loose in the fork, but the lips on the ends of the fork legs stop it from just dropping out.

8 To allow the wheel to clear the fork lips, unscrew the nut on the opposite end of the quick release enough that the wheel can come out.

9 Lift the bike off the wheel and you’re ready to stow your bike, fix a flat or do whatever else needs doing.

10 To refit the wheel, start with the quick release open, tighten the nut so touches the fork, then unscrew a couple turns. Close the lever. It should need considerable effort.

11 To close the brake, squeeze the arms together and push the noodle into place. Replace the bellows and, if necessary, take up the cable slack at the lever.

Want more beginner tips? Then make sure you pick up On Your Bike! Your Complete Beginner’s Guide to Cycling http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/beginners-guide-to-cycling/

Puzzled by bike materials? Worried about getting wet? Daunted by traffic? Here are the answers to some of the most common questions asked by new cyclists...

Isn’t it dangerous?

It might surprise you to hear that cycling’s not especially dangerous. What about all those stories of cyclists getting killed that you see on the news? Thing is, news is about rare events. Cyclist deaths are rare, so they make the news. The far higher number of pedestrian and motor vehicle deaths don’t.

Cycling is statistically safe. “Per year, there are 10 to 15 fatalities due to people falling off bikes with no other vehicle involved,” says safety expert and co-author of Health on the Move, Malcolm Wardlaw. ‘Around 200 under-65s each year die in falls while walking. I don’t remember the last time I read a newspaper report of a pedestrian killed falling down steps, yet far rarer cases of cyclists killed in falls get a lot of media coverage – together with whether the cyclist was wearing a helmet or not.”

Even when you throw motor vehicles into the mix, cycling remains stubbornly safe. It’s a little more risky than driving in the UK, taken as an average, but not much. The vast number of very safe motorway miles covered by British drivers skews the stats in the car’s favour too. And it’s not like UK cycle commuters are constantly running the gauntlet compared with their counterparts in the Netherlands. “Minority status generates fear,” says Wardlaw.

John Franklin, cycling skills expert and author of Cyclecraft, agrees that the perception of cycling risk doesn’t match the reality. “There’s nothing in life that’s risk free,” he says. “It’s about the management of risk, not simply the fear of risk. As a cycle commuter, managing risk means being assertive, and behaving like traffic so that others will treat you as traffic.”

Don’t you get punctures?

Just like getting soaked, a puncture is a rare event that’s nevertheless very annoying. The best prevention is to use puncture-resistant tyres. These have layers under the tread that prevent bits of glass and the like from getting through to the inner tube. The best puncture-proof tyres, such as the highly-rated Schwalbe Marathon Plus practically eliminate punctures.

You can also protect yourself by simply looking where you’re going. Ride round patches of broken glass, not through them, and avoid sharp-edged potholes that can cause a puncture by pinching the tube between tyre and rim. Fair-weather riders will find they get hardly any punctures anyway.

Dry rubber is fairly tough stuff. It takes water on the road to act like a cutting lubricant and help a shard of glass get through the tyre. It’s not that punctures are more inconvenient and annoying when it’s raining, they’re also more likely!

Learning how to fix a 'flat' is an essential skill for all cyclists

How do all these gears work? And why are there so many?

Bikes have gears for the same reason cars do: to let the engine work at a comfortable and efficient speed. But a car’s engine works well at a wide range of speeds, while your bike’s human engine is best in a fairly narrow band of pedalling rates. Bikes therefore need a wide range of gears to cope with hills, and they need to be fairly close to each other.

Most bikes use external gear mechanisms, known as ‘derailleurs’, to move the chain around different sized toothed wheels, called ‘sprockets’ on the wheel and ‘chainwheels’ at the pedal end. The smaller the chainwheel or the larger the rear sprocket, the lower and easier the gear.

In theory, you can flip between sprockets and chainrings to move to the next easiest or hardest gear, but in practice, most people stay in one chainring till they run out of gears, then shift to make life easier or harder.

A less common type of gear system hides the mechanism inside the rear hub. Unsurprisingly called ‘hub gears’ these are eminently practical and tidy, but don’t have quite the wide range of ratios provided by derailleurs.

Many beginning riders find the gears the most daunting feature of their bikes. Get yourself to a flat, quiet place like a car park or bike path and shift up and down through the gears until you're completely confident with how they work and what they do.

What are the different types of brake all about?

You’ve got to be able to stop quickly and in control. Quickly is no problem. The brakes on modern bikes are powerful enough that your ability to brake is limited by the laws of physics; brake too hard and you’ll go over the bars. What you want is fine control over how hard you brake, and consistency is wet and dry conditions.

Brakes either act on the rim of the wheel or a special braking disc near the hub. Rim brakes are simple, but affected by water and damage to the rim, which disk brakes are more complex, but more consistent.

Drop-handlebar road bikes almost always have lightweight rim brakes, because bike for racing are designed to be as light as possible, while mountain bikes use disks for their better overall stopping power.

A typical rim brake, as found on most road bikes

A disc brake, designed to offer the more powerful stopping needed by off-road riders

Why do some bikes have drop bars and some flat?

Drop handlebars were developed for road racing, and work brilliantly if you want to get into a position on the bike that lets you cover a lot of ground quickly. In fact they offer at least three hand positions, so you can move around if you get tired of one stance. But many riders like the more upright position of a flat handlebar, especially for more leisurely riding – where you can sit up and admire the view – or in traffic.

Wider flat bars give better control on rough surfaces, which is why they're the universal choice of mountain bikers, but for riding on the road it’s worth trying both. Drop bars may look less comfortable, but for sportier riding the position can be more comfortable. After all, Tour de France cyclists spend five or six hours a day on drop-bar bikes. They couldn’t do that if the position were inherently uncomfortable, could they?

How high should my saddle be?

Many beginners want to be able to put a foot flat on the ground while sitting in the saddle. The problem is that puts your saddle too low for comfortable, efficient pedalling. With your saddle too low, you’ll get tired quicker. You should have your saddle high enough that your knee is at a 25- to 35-degree angle when your foot is at the bottom of the pedal’s rotation.

You can use a device called a goniometer to measure this, or eyeball it – it will look like the knee is not quite fully straight. On most bikes you’ll still be able to reach the ground from the saddle in this position; you may have to shuffle sideways a little.

What are clipless pedals?

Pedals come in three varieties: flat, clip-and-strap and clipless. Flat pedals are found on many bikes and are the simplest type. They have a flat area on either side where you place your feet. High-tech versions come with squared-off steel studs screwed into the body that help soft-soled shoes grip them.

Clip-and-strap pedals have a metal or plastic cage that wraps round the front of your foot to hold it in the right place on the pedal, combined with a leather or plastic strap to keep it in place. They’re now fairly uncommon, but were once the dominant way riders kept their feet on the pedals.

Clipless pedals have almost entirely replaced clip-and-strap pedals for serious cycling. They comprise a cleat on the shoe that fastens into a pedal that has a mechanism rather like a ski binding. Clipless pedals for mountain biking have small cleats that sit in a recess in the sole so the rider can still walk in the shoes. Road clipless systems have larger, external cleats and are inconvenient to walk in. Many recreational and commuter cyclists therefore use mountain bike shoes and pedals even though they never go off road.

In general, clipless pedals are used by performance-orientated riders who like the feeling of being connected to the bike and the greater pedalling efficiency of the stiff-soled cycling shoes that accompany them. Flats are favoured by riders who want to be able to ride in regular shoes, or who don’t want to risk being mechanically attached to the bike.

Clipless pedals are popular among road cyclists and mountain bikers for the secure attachment to the pedals they provide

Do I need suspension?

Only if you plan to ride off-road. Good suspension is a boon for proper mountain biking, but if your ambitions don’t involve zooming down Welsh hillsides, you’ll probably be fine with an unsuspended bike. Even if you are planning on heading off-road, many of the suspension forks found on mountain bikes under £500 are quite poor quality; a bike with a rigid fork and higher quality components will often be a better deal.

That saddle looks uncomfortable...

Bike saddles need to be fairly narrow so you can pedal easily. As a result, they undeniably take some getting used to. It’s a bit like getting used to a new pair of shoes; they might pinch in a couple of spots at first, but as long as they’re fairly good quality, you'll adapt.

The trick to getting used to a bike saddle is to build up gradually. Go for a ride one day, take a couple days off, then go for another ride. Take another day off, then ride again. Build up both frequency and distance gradually and if at all possible, wear padded bike shorts with no underwear (wash them after every ride).

Very wide and thickly padded saddles are counter-productive. Wide saddles get in the way of comfortable pedalling and thick padding tends to bunch and pinch.

Will I get fit?

In short, yes. Experts recommend at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise (such as riding a bike hard enough that you get a little out of breath) at least three times per week to maintain basic fitness and health. How much fitter you get than that will depend on how much cycling you do. It’s surprisingly easy to build your fitness up gradually and realise that you’re suddenly capable of riding for miles and miles.

If you’ve been very sedentary and are perhaps a bit overweight, then it’s sensible to check with your doctor before you start riding. Assuming you get the okay – as you almost certainly will – then start with short, flat rides and build up gradually. And if you need inspiration, take a look at the amazing Gary Brennan, who's lost over 20 stone through cycling.

However, fitness is quite specific to activity. Being fit for riding a bike won’t help you run a marathon (and vice versa) but it’ll probably stop you getting out of breath running for a bus.

If I get fit, won’t my legs get huge?

Some female riders worry about this, but it’s very unlikely. Look at top British cyclist Victoria Pendleton. Even though she’s one of the fastest female riders in the world, Pendleton’s shapely legs have made her a favourite of Sunday supplements and men’s mags.

Cycling is far more likely to build lean, toned leg muscles than huge bulging thighs because most of the time the effort you put out is far less than the bulk-building efforts of bodybuilders. So, ladies, you needn’t worry.

British track star Victoria Pendleton proves that you don’t have to be muscly to be Olympic-standard quick on a bike

Won’t I get wet if I live in the UK?

Probably not. The Met Office says there was no significant rain in 2010 at commuting times for 95 percent of mornings and evenings in most major UK cities. If that doesn’t gel with your idea that we live in a rather soggy country, that’s because rain tends to leave things wet for a while. Barry Gromett of the Met Office points out that for many riders it may even be better than this. “October to November is one of the wetter times of the year and many people may elect to forego the bike during the winter months,” he says.

This article was originally published in On Your Bike: Your Complete Beginner's Guide to Cycling, available at all good newsagents. You can also order it online by following this link.

The signature ‘cyclist’s tan’ may help you recognise fellow roadies, but long days cycling in the sun can have a more serious impact. A recent study from Cancer Research UK found the amount of men dying from skin cancer has doubled in the last three decades, suggesting that we fail to treat our skin with the respect it deserves when it comes to sun damage.

British Skin Foundation dermatologist and keen cyclist Dr Ian Coulson says cyclists are particularly at risk from sun damage. “Cyclists face cumulative sun damage from chronic exposure,” he says, “causing a higher prevalence of cancerous melanoma and premature ageing.”

Research backs this up. A study of six cyclists in 2000 found that during an eight-stage cycling event the level of exposure to harmful solar rays – ultraviolet (UV) radiation – was more than 30 times over the international recommended limits.

Apply yourself

Bevis Mann of the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) advises that we apply sunscreen before a ride and re-apply every other hour, as up to 80 per cent of sunscreen will come off through sweating.

Martyn Frank, soigneur for pro cycling team Rapha Condor Sharp (RCS), says the RCS team get through sunscreen faster than any other product. “It only takes one missed application to risk later skin health issues,” says Frank. “Routine is the key to not making a mistake; all pro riders have a routine and all of them include sunscreen.”

Use a sunscreen with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) higher than you think you need, as sunscreen is tested with 2mg on every square centimetre of skin, which is far more than most people apply. “We advise using at least SPF 30, or SPF 50 if you have fair skin,” says Mann.

On application, don’t forget areas such as the neck, ears, tops of knees, and bald patches, which are vulnerable through helmet ventilation. You can even burn through clothing, so apply to your whole body and wear clothing with UV protection.

But for a darker skintone, is protection necessary? “Skin types are categorised into six types, from phototype one – fair skin that burns very easily and doesn’t tan – to phototype six, which is darker skin that won’t burn easily,” says Mann. “The processing of melanin, the skin’s pigment molecule that absorbs a proportion of UV radiation, is the key difference between the types. In darker skin, processing needs less UV damage to initiate tanning, leaving you less susceptible to sunburn and skin cancer. How much less isn’t easy to quantify and therefore we would still recommend applying SPF 30 or higher. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Be vigilant

Early detection of melanoma has a 95 per cent survival rate so checking moles is essential. The Sun Awareness Campaign advises looking for asymmetry of the mole, blurring of the edges, colour change and an increase in size, as most melanomas are over 6mm in diameter. If in doubt contact your GP straight away.

Coulson also recommends seeking advice if any rough, scaly patches appear on light, exposed sites like the cheeks, nose, tops of ears or hands that last for more than three months, as they may be precancers. Fair skinned cyclists are particularly prone, he says. For more information see: www.cancerresearchuk.org, www.bad.org.uk and www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk

Sunny Jim

Record-breaking round-the-world cyclist James Bowthorpe managed to beat the burn – here are his tips

• Wear a helmet with a peak to protect your ears, nose and lips.
•  Apply a once-a-day suncream on your face – more than once a day.
•  Wear sunglasses with UV protection, even if they aren’t proper cycling ones – your eyes can burn too.
•  Cover thighs and the backs of your hands liberally with suncream as they’re constantly exposed to UV rays.
•  Wear long sleeves if you’re cycling for extended periods and look for clothes with a high UV rating.

30 June 2008 was a momentous day in cycling history. That was the day the ‘Silly Commuting Racing’ thread on the BikeRadar forum was started. And nearly 1,300 pages later, it’s still going strong. Why? Because Silly Commuting Racing (SCR) makes every day a race day, every commute a challenge, and every other rider a potential competitor.

Catching up with some SCR regulars at the Morpeth Arms in Pimlico on one of their irregular Friday evening meets, it’s clear that there’s camaraderie as well as competitiveness. And, as they point out, we’ve probably all played the game ourselves. “This puts a name to that silly voice in the back of your head,” says Mark, aka ‘Clever Pun’. “You’re on a high, someone tries to overtake you and it’s ‘no, no, no!’”

During its early days the SCR’s rules were formalised, with a strict scoring system taking into account the type of cyclist you’re overtaking – or ‘scalping’ as forum parlance has it. The cycling food chain has scooters at the top of the 14 bikes listed; ‘roadies with shaved legs – like girls’ are second, with ‘proper rapid singlespeed (real men, messengers, tarty shiny fixies)’ third; electric bikes are at the bottom.

It may sound like a complicated system, but forum user ‘Fury21’ simplified it very early on: “If you get confused on the road, think of it this way – if you drop anyone who looks faster than you: +1. If you get dropped by anyone that looks slower than you: -1. Couldn’t be simpler!”

But they’re a responsible lot, and there’s no jumping red lights for the SCR rouleurs. “It’s all about doing it safely,” says ‘Clever Pun’. “There’s no point causing danger. On my 15-mile commute if I jumped every red light I might get to work five minutes earlier. And it gives us a bad name.” All the rules of the road have to be obeyed at all times, even if – as one forum user recounts – a policeman on a bike tries to beckon you through a red light.

Many of those who came to SCR found it by accident. Self-described commuter racing newbie ‘Sketchley’ got involved on his return from the World Cup in France; finding himself out of shape, he went to BikeRadar looking for bike-buying advice. Olivia, aka ‘Lost_in_Thought’, asked a question about fixed-gear bikes – she was met with a chorus of “girls don’t ride fixed-gear bikes, are you sure you’re a girl?” – but after that she caught the SCR bug. She’s aware that it’s still a predominantly male pastime. “I do try to recruit other women to commuter racing, but it is quite a blokey thing... and boys don’t like being overtaken by girls!”

We expected tales of car-related carnage, but the SCR regulars were sanguine in their assessment of other road users. Apart from ‘IT Boffin’, who’d had three run-ins with taxis in the previous week, there was a pleasingly low incident count, with the most serious injury the result of a fall on the train home after a post-Friday pub session. Do watch out when it rains, though, says ‘IT Boffin’: “When it’s dark and raining everybody switches off their brains.”

SCR membership can lean towards the obsessive. Last year’s commuter racer of the year, ‘Clever Pun’ Mark, clocked up over 8,000 miles – and there are tales of riders stretching their usual 10-mile commute to 70 miles. Mark even got a little trophy for his efforts, which he achieved on a Brompton, a road bike, a fixie and even a Boris bike!

But the main thing is the racing, and especially collecting scalps of riders higher up the cycling food chain. ‘Wrath Rob’ is typical: “I have my flat-barred mountain bike [number 8 on the cycling food chain] – I like being able to scalp on that thing. I’m never caught by anything!” But we’ll leave the last word to Mark: “If someone goes past you and it looks like they’re not trying, you go ‘Aaarrggghhhh!’ If you can beat someone on a hill it’s a lot more fun. Inside you’re saying ‘Please let this hill end’.”

For more about the world of Silly Commuter Racing, go to www.itsnotarace.org. This site has links to the BikeRadar thread, SCR Facebook page and Twitter. Itsnotarace also has a Food Chain Calculator, so you can work out your own cycling food number, or CFN.

The food chain: where do you come in the system?

1. Scooters
2. Roadies with shaved legs*
3. Proper rapid singlespeeds (real men, messengers, tarty shiny fixies)*
4. Roadies with hairy legs*
5. Faux singlespeeds (fakengers, dirty/functional bikes, silly eggbeater gears)*
6. Touring bikes (mudguards)*
7. Fast hybrids*
8. MTBs on skinnies*
9. MTBs on knobblies
10. Bromptons/collapsing bikes
11. MTB full-sus on knobblies
12. Shoppers
13. Shoppers with wicker baskets
14. Electric bikes

*Pedal Adjustment:

Flats: +1. Toe Clips: 0. Clipless/SPDs: -1

The Rules: Silly Commuter Racing By Numbers

1. No dangerous manoeuvres. Don’t be a danger to others or yourself. Falling off causes pain to you and others around you, and you lose yer points!
2. Don’t ride like a c*ck, we’re all just trying to get somewhere!
3. No passing at lights/ junction/crossings. All passing on open roads only.
4. Filtering in traffic is null and void (you know if you’ve dropped someone fairly, and haven’t turned off afterwards)
5. Pavement passes – either you or the target is void
6. Show no pain – unless your face is just like that

The new look Cycling Plus is available now, and this month’s issue features a free 36 page commuting guide full of features like this. To subscribe to the magazine, visit www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/cycling/cycling-plus-magazine-subscription

“You must be brave!” Cycle to work and someone will say that, or at least imply it, because cycling on today’s roads is ever so dangerous. Except, actually, it isn’t.

Per mile, more people get killed walking than cycling according to the UK's National Travel Survey and you’re more likely to suffer an injury requiring medical care while gardening than on your bike. Cycling is statistically safe. “Per year, there are 10-15 fatalities due to people falling off bikes with no other vehicle involved,” says safety expert and co-author of Health on the Move, Malcolm Wardlaw.

‘Around 200 under-65s each year die in falls while walking. I don’t remember the last time I read a newspaper report of a pedestrian killed falling down steps, yet far rarer cases of cyclists killed in falls get a lot of media coverage – together with whether the cyclist was wearing a helmet or not.”

Even when you throw motor vehicles into the mix, cycling remains stubbornly safe. It’s a little more risky than driving in the UK, taken as an average, but not much. And it’s not like UK cycle commuters are constantly running the gauntlet compared with their counterparts in the Netherlands. Malcolm Wardlaw says: “The difference in risk between UK cyclists and Dutch cyclists is less than the difference between French drivers and UK drivers. French drivers face higher long-term risks than British cyclists.”

So why are UK cyclists and would be cyclists so paranoid about safety? “Minority status generates fear,” he says. John Franklin, cycling skills expert and author of Cyclecraft, agrees that the perception of cycling risk doesn’t match the reality. “There’s nothing in life that’s risk free,” he says. “It’s about the management of risk, not simply the fear of risk.” As a cycle commuter, managing risk means being assertive, and behaving like traffic so that others will treat you as traffic.

“Cyclists need to learn how to influence others on the road,” says Franklin. “That’s largely determined by how and where you ride on the road. What you try to do is ride in a way that deters other people from starting to put you at risk. If you’re coming up to a side road where quite a lot of traffic turns left and there’s someone driving harshly behind you, there’s a good chance he’ll try to overtake and cut across you to turn left. So you ride in a way and place that if he does do that, he's forced to make a much wider movement to give you more space. And it makes the manoeuvre more difficult for him, so he’s less likely to do it.

“Good positioning is key. Position yourself as a driver with the rest of the traffic, not hugging the kerb. The ‘primary position’ is in the centre of the moving traffic lane. You’re obliging others to acknowledge you as another user of the road and not someone they can ignore. You’re causing them to think." Franklin recommends taking a skills training course. "When people take cycle training, fear is addressed in a rational way," he says. "It’s like removing chains from them.”

8 tips for safer cycling

1 Learn the skills

Cycling training today isn’t aimed solely at kids. National Standards training is a three-tier programme covering everything from basic bike control to complicated urban journeys. To find out more or locate an instructor, see www.ctc.org.uk/cycletraining. The bible for safe, skilled cycling is John Franklin’s Cyclecraft (£13, www.tso.co.uk).

2 Get out of the gutter

You should always be at least 50cm from the kerb, and sometimes further. Positioning yourself in the middle of the lane is called ‘the primary position’ or ‘taking the lane’. It makes you more visible and forces cars to overtake properly or wait until it is safe to do so.

3 Eyeball drivers

Eye contact with a driver lets you know they have seen you. Look purposefully right at them. Have they clocked you? Good. There’ll be no “sorry, mate, I didn’t see you” moment. It’s useful for almost any manoeuvre, whether you’re turning right or approaching a junction.

4 Signal like you mean it

Signalling broadcasts your intentions to other road users. You’re not asking their permission; you are telling them unambiguously where you’re going. Check over your shoulder early so you can change position smoothly and predictably. If there’s following traffic, eyeball the lead driver, signal clearly and begin your manoeuvre.

5 Magic roundabouts

Highway Code rule 62 says “you may feel safer keeping to the left”. Rubbish, you won’t. You’re less visible to traffic on or entering the roundabout. Take your lane as you approach. Take it on the roundabout too, even if you’re going left. Check, signal, then peel off the roundabout at your exit.

6 Traffic light tactics

Don’t jump red lights. It infuriates drivers and you may get T-boned by someone accelerating for an amber. Wait, behind the advance stop line if there is one, and not in the gutter. Take your lane. That way nothing can squeeze dangerously past or left hook you.

7 Filter tips

Overtaking on the right is best for visibility. Only filter up the inside if the traffic is stationary – watch for doors opening and pedestrians crossing – or moving at walking pace. Never go up the inside of a long vehicle: you could die. Once you’re past, get back in your lane.

8 Safer slip roads

Where the slip road joins your road: cross carefully over to the slip road at the hatch markings before the slip road joins the main road, stopping if necessary, then follow the slip road onto the main road. At an exit slip road: take the slip road until you can carefully rejoin the main road at the hatch markings.

What else can be done?

While good cycling technique is a vital part of staying safe on the roads, it isn't the only answer. We asked three cycling advocates what they felt should be done to improve cyclist safety.

Phillip Darnton, former chairman of Cycling England

"Most people, when asked why they don't cycle, will say, 'it’s too dangerous'. The perception or the fear of danger on the road is the major deterrent to getting more people cycling. There's no one measure which can overcome this and CE has consistently explained that behavior change requires a whole range of interventions.

"It needs proper cycle training like Bikeability; it needs secure cycle parking both at home and at the end of the journey; it needs more consideration by motorists giving space to cyclists as vulnerable road users. It would also benefit considerably from a default speed of 20mph in urban areas – speed and volume of traffic are the biggest single deterrent to people taking up cycling, particularly women."

Jorren Knibbe, barrister and blogger, UK Cycle Rules

"For me there’s absolutely no question about this – cycling will only be safe enough when it's a normal mode of transport for everybody, and it'll only ever get there with a comprehensive network of fully segregated cycle lanes. When I lived in Germany I had no hesitation at all in cycling, didn’t even think of wearing a helmet, and I remember being outraged that the segregated cycle path I took to university cast me out onto the road at a junction for about 20 metres before starting up again. We need to create that kind of atmosphere – an expectation of excellent, continuous, segregated facilities and the safety they provide. I don’t believe a proper cycling revolution can happen in this country without that kind of investment."

Andreas Kambanis, blogger, London Cyclist

"We need to step things up when it comes to cycle training. This needs to be far more widespread and freely available. It drastically alters your riding style  on busy roads – for example, taking a primary position and not riding on the inside of lorries. I truly believe this would help to lower the number of cyclist deaths and injuries. Other than that I believe more effort needs to be put into creating on-road segregated cycling infrastructure.

"The [London] cycle superhighways, for example, could easily be segregated along much of the route. Finally, training also needs to be stepped up when teaching new drivers. This way the next generation of drivers on our roads will be more aware of cyclists. This could be phased into the driving test and potentially require a new motorist to spend part of their lesson on a bike to get a different perspective of the road and how you do feel vulnerable."

The new look Cycling Plus is available now, and this month’s issue features a free 36 page commuting guide full of features like this. To subscribe to the magazine, visit www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/cycling/cycling-plus-magazine-subscription.

Longer life, improved health, more energy, lower costs and extra fun… It’s official – cycling makes you a better person in many ways. Here are just a few reasons, along with some compelling stats, to cycle to work

1 Feel happier

Apart from the increased self-esteem and confidence that getting fitter and leaner will give you, simply spending more time outside will cheer you up. This is thanks to the ability of sunlight to boost your levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin.

So if you want to beat the depressing effect of sitting in an artificially lit office, you should get outside to expose yourself to more daylight. The recommended office lighting is only about 300lux, whereas the strength of the sun measures over 1000lux even on overcast days. Full daylight (not directly in the sun) is 10,000-25,000lux. So go on, get out there!

The other major benefit of getting more daylight in your life is that you’ll sleep better and longer. Stanford University School of Medicine researchers asked sedentary insomnia sufferers to cycle for 20-30 minutes every other day. The result? The amount of time the insomniacs took to fall asleep was reduced by half, and the time they spent asleep increased by almost an hour a night.

“Exercising outside exposes you to daylight,” explains Professor Jim Horne from Loughborough University’s Sleep Research Centre. “This helps get your circadian rhythm back in sync and rids your body of cortisol, the stress hormone that can prevent deep, regenerative sleep.”

2 Live longer

"Our research found that those who exercise regularly are at significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, all types of cancer, high blood pressure and obesity,” says Dr Lynn Cherkas of King’s College London.

The research compared over 2400 identical twins and found that those who did the equivalent of three 45-minute rides every week were ‘biologically younger’ by nine years, even after discounting other influences such as body mass index (BMI) and smoking.

According to the British Heart Foundation, around 10,000 fatal heart attacks could be avoided each year if people kept themselves fitter. Studies from Purdue University in the US have shown that regular cycling – even as little as 20 miles a week – can cut your risk of heart disease by up to 50 percent.

Cycling can even protect you from the big C, according to Harley Street gastroenterologist Dr Ana Raimundo. “Physical activity helps decrease the time it takes food to move through the large intestine, limiting the amount of water absorbed back into your body and leaving you with softer stools, which are easier to pass,” she says.

Doing aerobic exercise such as cycling also accelerates your breathing and heart rate, which helps to stimulate the contraction of intestinal muscles and keep you more regular. “As well as preventing you from feeling bloated this helps protect against bowel cancer,” explains Dr Raimundo.

3 Travel cheaper

According to the RAC, the yearly cost of car ownership in the UK is about £5,869, the lion’s share of which is down to fuel. Today, petrol costs roughly £1.29 per litre and diesel £1.34 per litre, with both figures rising to record highs, says the AA. So should we be letting the buses and trains take the strain? If only.

Public transport costs have gone skyward too and the solution hundreds of thousands are turning to for daily travel, just as in the ’70s, is the bicycle. With cycling, the only inflationary factors are the rising cost of food and the payouts for your bike and kit. But you have to eat anyway, and the cost and depreciation on a new bike is at worst measured in hundreds of pounds, compared to the thousands lost on a car.

Transport for London estimates that the number of cycling journeys in the capital is up 117 percent since 2000. But this is just a drop in the ocean when you consider there are about 7 million people in the UK who make work-based journeys of under five miles by car or bus every day. Cycling England – the soon to be defunct Department for Transport quango tasked with promoting cycling – reckons they could each save upwards of £500 a year if they rode instead.

We could even make headway to reducing the national debt by cycling. Modelling for Cycling England shows that upping cycling levels by 20 percent in the 10 years up to 2015 could save £107 million in reducing premature deaths, £52m in NHS costs and £87m in fewer sick days.

4 Get leaner

Sports psychologists have found that the body’s metabolic rate – the efficiency with which it burns calories and fat – is not only raised during a ride but for several hours after. “Even after cycling for 30 minutes you could be burning a higher amount of total calories for a few hours after you stop,” says Mark Simpson of Loughborough University.

And as you get fitter the benefits are more profound. One recent study showed that cyclists who incorporated fast intervals into their training burned three-and-a-half times more body fat than those who cycled constantly but at a slower pace.

Loads of people who want to lose weight think going out for a jog is the best way to start. But while running does burn fat well, it’s not kind to your body if you’re a little larger than you’d like to be. Think about it: two to three times your weight crashes through your body when your foot strikes the ground. If you weigh 16 stone, that’s a lot of force!

Instead, start on a bike – most of your weight is taken by the saddle so your skeleton and joints don’t take a battering. One of the most attractive advantages of cycling for fitness is that you can combine it with commuting, getting to work earlier and fresher after an invigorating ride. You’ll also be becoming fitter by the day without really trying, and feeling and looking younger. According to the National Forum for Coronary Heart Disease Foundation in the US, regular cyclists enjoy a fitness level equal to that of a person 10 years younger.

5 Save the planet

It takes around five percent of the materials and energy used to make a car to manufacture a bike, and cycling produces zero pollution. Bikes are efficient machines too – you travel around three times as fast as walking for the same amount of energy and, taking into account the ‘fuel’ that you put in your ‘engine’, you can do the equivalent of 2,924 miles to the gallon. You have your weight ratio to thank for that: you’re about six times heavier than your bike but a car is roughly 20 times heavier than you.

With nearly a quarter of the UK’s CO2 emissions now coming from road transport, it’s no surprise that leaving your car at home is going to help pollution both locally and globally. Transport is on its way to overtaking industry as the major contributor to CO2 emissions in the UK. Vehicles give out about 70 per cent of air pollution in UK towns and cities, and 22 percent of the UK’s total CO2 emissions. Going by bike contributes nothing, and either walking or cycling much more for local journeys would reduce our dependence on oil.

If all commutes in England under five miles were completed by bike instead of car they would save a collective 44,000 tonnes of CO2 every week, the equivalent of heating 17,000 houses. Given that the average speed of rush hour traffic in London is 7mph and a reasonable average cycling speed is 13mph, that makes commuting by bike almost twice as fast as taking the car. Oh, and 10 bikes can be parked in one car space.

Some inspiring numbers to get you on your bike

You don't need us to tell you that getting on your bike is a good idea, you can do the maths for yourself. With the physical, financial and environmental benefits, you'll soon find out cycling really does add up! The following figures relate to cycling in the UK:

• 20 times less dangerous than not cycling
• 97% chance of not getting rained on
• Twice as fast as a car in traffic
• 4 miles is the average cycle commute
• £382 a year to boost the economy for every new cyclist
• At current rates, 60% of the population will be obese by 2050
• A bike takes 6.2 tonnes less carbon than a car to make
• 10 bikes can be parked in the space it takes to park one car
• A Zone 3 Oyster card commute in London costs £5.80 a day
• Cycling in London has increased by 91% since 2003
• A middle-aged cyclist is typically as fit as someone 10 years younger
• 16 mile commute = 800 calories. That's 4 bags of crisps or 12 fig rolls or 6 bananas or 6 cans of coke
• 60% of car trips are shorter than 5 miles

Don’t waste time looking for your cycling socks when you could be out riding – follow Rapha Condor Sharp rider Ben Greenwood’s tips on getting from bed to shed at speed.

1 Rise and shine

As soon as your alarm goes off, get up. Once your feet hit the floor, that’s it, no turning back. The best trick is to put your alarm too far away for you to reach it from the bed. That way you either have to get up or listen to an annoying noise until you do. And don’t give yourself too short a time to get ready. Being awake 10 minutes earlier won’t change the way you feel in the slightest but it might prevent you being 10 minutes late for a ride.

2 Get your kit on

Make sure all the clothes you need are ready before you go to bed. Given that the UK climate can be somewhat unpredictable, have a few options laid out. That way, if it’s raining you won’t spend ages looking through your drawers for your waterproof cape or wet weather gloves. The best plan is to look out of the window as soon as you get up and then put your kit on immediately. Once that’s done you’re committed to going and backing out isn’t an option.

3 Stoke up

If you’re going to eat breakfast, have everything set out the night before. And if you want milk or bread then don’t wait until the morning to find that you’ve run out, because going to the shop will take too long and the thought of not eating might put you off training. If you like toast, pop bread in the toaster as soon as you’re in the kitchen. Likewise, put the kettle on straight away. Waiting means wasted minutes. Caffeine will help you wake up but a glass of water will also make you feel more alive.

4 Plan ahead

Put your energy drink powder in the bottles the night before, but it’s best to wait until you’re just about to leave for a ride to add the water, so that they taste fresh. Everything else can be prepared in advance so place all the food, including your bars and gels, in your helmet. That way you won’t be able to forget them. Put your shoes and helmet near the front door; you’ll know exactly where to find them. And remember to put any emergency extras with them too.

5 Think bike

Your bike should be washed and prepared the day before; you won’t have time come the morning. And make sure you check your tyres before you go to sleep. There’s nothing worse than being halfway out the door and finding you have a puncture. The ideal scenario is for the bike to be gleaming and oiled, with a set of fully inflated tyres, so all that you have to do is get on it and start pedalling.

Bike shops aren’t normally open early in the morning so this isn’t a good time to deal with any mechanical issues. And don’t even think about making position changes to your bike at this late stage. Rushed measurements can often result in discomfort or, even worse, injury.

6 Buddy up

Arranging to meet someone to go riding with, ideally a cyclist who’s always on time and will give you some grief if you aren’t, is an efficient way of staying motivated in the early hours. If you don’t have a time schedule to keep to, looking at Twitter or watching some breakfast TV suddenly becomes an option. It’s all going to be there when you get back, so just ignore any time-wasting activities. The simple rule is, if something won’t help you get out on the road, leave it until later

You know that getting eight hours sleep a night is good for you. But factor in a working day, a bit of training or riding, an hour or two travelling, an hour eating and changing, dashing around as the kids’ taxi service, and a couple of hours of just being and – well, you do the maths. Struggling to make it add up?

The obvious way to cram more into your day is to snip off bits of the night. Earlier mornings, pushing lights-out til later, and bingo, you’re squashing everything in. But this might not be quite the ‘brilliant’ solution you think it is.

Your mind is racing so you’re tossing and turning half the night. Your legs feel like lead. You’re drinking double espressos to get through the afternoon. And that big fat sugary doughnut looks like the best breakfast on earth. That’ll be the fatigue setting in...

The latest research shows getting enough sleep is essential for optimum performance – and that sleep deprivation plays with your mind as well as your body. So here’s why hitting the hay is so important for hitting your race targets – and what you can do to make sure you get enough vitamin Zzz.

Your nightly MOT

“Regular, good-quality sleep is essential for your body’s physical repair process, but also for your mental health and agility,” says Dr Guy Meadows,  sleep and sports scientist, and cross-Channel swimmer.

Scientists divide sleep into five stages: “The deep sleep of stages three and four is when your body releases human growth hormone (HGH) to repair muscles and bones,” says Meadows. “Stage five is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It’s when you dream, when you lay down memories and boost cognitive performance, enhancing skills and techniques you’ve learned during training.”

The latest research from Trent University in Ontario, Canada, showed complex learning tasks such as getting the hang of a new song on Guitar Hero become easier if you sleep well – so the same goes for learning swim technique or mastering fast transitions.

Good sleep, good performance

The boffins who make it their business to find out what boosts athletic performance have revealed that good quantities of sleep increase sprint time, energy levels and shooting accuracy in basketball players; and improve athletic vigour and alertness for footballers.

A study using Stanford University men’s and women’s swimming teams also revealed that athletes who extended their sleep to 10 hours per day for six to seven weeks swam a 15-metre sprint 0.51 seconds faster, reacted 0.15 seconds quicker off the blocks, improved turn time by 0.10 seconds and increased kick strokes by five kicks, as well as setting personal bests.

Bad sleep? You guessed it...

Just as filling up your Z-tank helps you reach optimum performance levels, skimping on sleep can put unwanted obstacles in the path to your next personal best. “There are basic things your body needs to function properly – temperature regulation, energy recovery, and heart function are all affected by sleep as well as things like concentration and focus.”

Studies have shown various detrimental effects of chronic sleep deprivation – from reducing the performance of the heart, to increasing blood pressure, anxiety and depression, and interference with blood sugar metabolism. “Lack of sleep over several weeks results in persistent fatigue and ultimately overtraining syndrome,” says endurance coach and sports scientist Scott Murray (email: triathlon.coach@btopenworld.com).

One night only

But what about short-term sleep loss – the pre-race jitters, the teething baby or work stress worries that keep you up all night before a key training session? (“I’ve even seen athletes hydrate so well during the day that they’re up at night peeing,” says Murray.)

One night’s disrupted sleep negatively affects motivation and increases anxiety, the number of lapses in concentration and delays in reaction time,” says Murray. “Two nights of broken sleep does have an effect on anxiety and anaerobic performance. And three nights of severely restricted sleep may not affect your gross motor functions (such as muscle strength, lung power and endurance running on a treadmill), but it'll reduce your exercise duration and motivation levels.”

A University of Colorado team recently discovered the metabolic cost of an adult missing one night of sleep is the equivalent of walking slightly less than two miles – the findings showed eight hours of sleep saved roughly 135 calories over eight hours of wakefulness. And research from the Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands showed that healthy subjects can become insulin-resistant after a shortened night of sleep (four hours in this case). Insulin resistance is the precursor state to diabetes, affecting your body’s ability to manage sugar, and therefore your energy levels.

Just do it

The good news? “When an event or crucial training session is on the horizon, adrenaline kicks in, and it helps us perform,” says Meadows. “And the way we view our sleepless night is also key – buying into the idea that we will perform badly starts a downward spiral of doubt that affects performance, whereas chalking it down to experience, and believing in the hours and weeks of previous training helps you to perform.”

In a study showing that one night of sleep deprivation decreased endurance performance only slightly, Dr Sam Oliver, from the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences at Bangor University in Wales, concluded that: “Altered perception of effort may account for decreased endurance performance after a night without sleep.” Get your mind in gear, and your body will follow.

No need for hang-ups

“One night of decent sleep helps you recuperate incredibly quickly after a sleepless night,” says Murray. “The key thing is not to start stressing about a less than decent night, or you add another pressure into the mix.” A US study from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research also showed that if you’ve been getting good sleep for just a week, you’ll handle a disturbed night or two much better, as protective benefits from the previous week keep you going.

Research has also shown that genetics may play a part in how much sleep you need in order to function well, so don’t get tied up thinking that eight hours is the essential figure, and get anxious if you’re not hitting that. “Everyone is individual,” says Meadows. “There’s no point trying to force yourself to sleep for nine hours if you can manage really well on seven.”

Listen to your body

It seems that out of the lab, and in the real world, lack of sleep becomes an issue if it happens over an extended period of time, rather than as a single night blip. “If your mind and body are both tired then you must listen,” says Catriona Morrison. “Dropping a training session, modifying your plans, getting an early night, having a long lie-in or taking a nap during the day will help to refresh you.

“If you push yourself when you're tired, you're at risk of overtraining, long-term fatigue and psychological staleness. Dropping a session and starting the next day fresh will mean the next day’s session is of far better quality. Don’t develop a guilt complex. If you need rest, take it.”

How to join the sound asleep club

If sleep eludes you long-term, here are the expert solutions to try:

Cover the basics

• A dark room, at a cool temperature, with a decent mattress, and not a lot of noise
• A bedtime routine that includes unwinding before sleep

Evening training

“Exercising hard three hours before bedtime can lead to a disturbed sleep, but a moderate session can help sleep,” says Scott Murray. “You know your own body, so consider the training level.”

Food and drink

• Wait three hours after food before sleep
• Research shows large, and high-fat meals late in the evening affect sleep quality
• Avoid caffeine (from tea, coffee, cola and chocolate) from the afternoon onwards
• Foods rich in tryptophan, combined with healthy carbs, can help sleep, as your body uses it to create sleep-inducing serotonin and melatonin, and the carbs deliver it to the brain. Tryptophan-rich foods include pulses, turkey, eggs, sunflower seeds, miso, unsweetened soy milk and dairy products.

Light therapy

Energy lights can improve mood and energy levels after just 20 minutes. Try a Philips Energy Light (£149, shop.philips.co.uk) or Lumie Brightspark (£115, lumie.com).

Power naps

“You don’t actually have to fall asleep to get benefits from a daily power nap,” says Dr Meadows. Close your eyes, be still, take time out and it will restore you. Even 10 minutes in the toilet at work can help, or on the train or tube journey home. Make it 15-20 minutes if you can, but no longer than 30 or you might feel fuzzy-headed.

Meditation

“Our research using Kriya yoga meditation has shown teaching deep relaxation techniques during the daytime can help improve sleep,” says Dr Ramadevi Gourineni, director of the insomnia programme at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Evanston, Illinois, US.

Mindfulness

“An ancient tradition of meditation, mindfulness means focusing on the present moment fully, rather than worrying about what’s happened in the past or being anxious about what might happen in the future,” says Meadows, who treats chronic insomnia using Mindful Sleep Therapy.

“If you’re lying awake worrying about being awake, try focusing on your senses – the feel of the pillow against your cheek, the sound of your breathing. When annoying or stressful thoughts come into your head, tell them now is not the time, and come back to your senses,” he says.

Stress-busting chemicals

Japanese scientists have proven that a chemical in lemon and lavender essential oils – called linalool – alters blood chemistry to reduce stress. Put a couple of drops on a tissue, fold it into your pocket, and inhale when you feel stressed.

Time management

“Think of sleep in 90-minute cycles, not hours (so four cycles is six hours, five cycles is seven-and-a-half hours). The shorter four-cycle routine is commonly used to free up time and control sleep without losing quality,” says Nick Hales, sport sleep and recovery coach. “In 24 hours we have two natural sleep periods, nocturnal and mid-afternoon. So you can adopt a shorter period at night and combine that with an afternoon 20- or 40-minute nap or total downtime period.”

The sleeping pills question

If your health is suffering due to sleep problems, see your GP to discuss your individual case,” says Dr Pixie McKenna from Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies. “Doctors are very cautious about prescribing sleeping pills, but drugs called Zolpidem and Zaleplon don’t carry the same hangover side-effects or addiction dangers as Bonzodiazepines (such as Diazepam and Temazepam).

"You can use these for two to five days for a transient bout of insomnia, and not more than four weeks for short-term insomnia. Melatonin pills – the hormone that regulates the sleep pattern – can regulate short-term insomnia, but are only available on prescription in the UK to over-55s. Ask your doctor to recommend an over-the-counter brand.”

This article originally appeared in Triathlon Plus magazine

Reaching your target weight is one of the best ways to get more from training. Henry Furniss, personal trainer and co-founder of Wyndymilla Bespoke Cycling, uses diet and nutrition alongside his limited exercise time to keep in peak physical condition. We spoke to him for his top tips for losing weight and getting lean.

1 Do the maths

“Most people have a clearly defined weight at which they can perform without compromise,” says Furniss. Eliminate guesswork: find a health professional who can measure body fat using callipers. “The right target can then be set, accounting for lean gains as well as fat loss.”

2 Prepare well

“Plan the date you’re going to start your new regime,” says Furniss. “Give yourself at least a week to psych up and think through the logistics of the changes you’ll make.”

3 Eat well

“Don’t think of your quest as a diet,” Furniss continues. “The right foods will usually have higher nutrient values but a lower calorie density.” It’s simply a case of eating the right types of food, such as fruit, vegetables, lean meats and fish.

4 Structure meals

“Many people eat very little for breakfast or just skip it completely,” says Furniss. “We’d be a much leaner nation if breakfast was king and the evening meal light. As much as 40 per cent of your calorie intake should be consumed in the morning.” Avoid starchy foods like bread, rice and pasta in the evening.

5 Drink more

“Stay hydrated. This is key if your body is going to react with greatest effect to all your efforts,” says Furniss. He suggests drinking herbal liquids to stave off hunger as your body adjusts to smaller evening meals: “Teas like peppermint or ginger top up your hydration and also aid digestion.”

6 Be realistic

Set out the right training targets. “Less is more, especially for us busy folk,” says Furniss. “Go for three solid sessions rather than aiming for five and feeling bad if you miss one. I maintain my elite licence on three hours of training a week, give or take.”

7 Self-motivate

“Get goal driven,” says Furniss. “It’s a cliché, but consistency is key.” Whatever your aim is, put it in a diary. It'll give you the drive you need to avoid the muffins.

8 Add wisely

“Don’t shy away from supplementation,” says Furniss. Getting what you need from a natural balanced diet can be hard with a job, family and training. Essential fats and recovery drinks can boost weight loss and keep immune responses up.

9 Hit the sack

“Overtraining is normally just a case of under resting,” Furniss explains. “Without enough sleep our ability to remain disciplined and focused is severely compromised. Seven to nine hours is ideal.”

10 Get support

“Social pressures can put strain on your health kick,” says Furniss. “The last thing you need is breakfast-skipping vultures circling you with pizzas and beer late at night. Get them on board.”  

Looking good

Let's be honest, as well as improving our power-to-weight ratio and cycling performance, losing weight and toning up has the added benefit of making us easier on the eye. Henry Furniss gives us his body fat percentage guide to looking good naked…

18% or more: With your clothes on, you look overweight.

16-18%: You look like you hold no excess weight when fully clothed.

15%: Starting to look good naked.

13%: You won’t be compromising performance due to excess body fat.

10%: Somebody’s resembling the Michelangelo statue…

5-8%: Ripped to bits; the optimal level at which all top level, in-form male endurance athletes perform.