While a seemingly simple part of getting ready to compete, the cycle race warm up can often be overlooked or not done effectively to prepare for the race ahead.
Historic Cycle Race Warm Ups
Many times, riding to the race, having a quick ride around the carpark, or up the road before the start is the most common form of cycle race warm up for club events. Even when we look to the pros we see the neutralized section is often all they will do to warm up for an event. In more recent years, pros have warmed up on trainers if there is a hard start to the race or they want to make a hard start to the race!
Cycle Race Warm Ups Today
As just mentioned, today riders can use warm ups tactically, when they want to make things hard in the opening kilometers of the race or if they plan to get into the early breakaway. To do this, they need to have their bodies ready to go when the start gun goes. TTs are the time we most often see pros systematically warming up as they need to be able to go fast from the start.
For club racers or those riding shorter events or races with a fast start, the “good warm up” tactic is the best approach to be sure you can respond to or be the instigator of putting the hurt on early. In fact, since we never know which race will have such a start, it is always best to be prepared with a thorough warm up.
What’s In A Cycle Race Warm Up?
A warm up is simply a way to prepare your body for the race to come. It gets your aerobic system going and provides short efforts to activate the muscles. The aerobic system can take several minutes to get going and without a good warm up the body may need to provide part of this energy anaerobically. This will put you on the back foot and will cause you to require recovery from that effort.
A good cycle race warm up will give time for the aerobic system to warm up. It will also involve short efforts at high intensities to get the top end of the aerobic and also the anaerobic system going. The trick is to prepare the systems with short efforts that will not take away energy for efforts required later in the race! You need to finish the warm up ready to go, but not having reduced your potential race performance! The warm up should also finish as close as possible to the start of the race and it is best to roll around or spin if the start is delayed.
For what to do before a race including nutrition check out our Pre Race Recovery Post
The Cycle Race Warm Up
The best warm up I have seen that takes a rider through these stages is the Team Sky Warm Up below…
Simple Race Warm-Up – 20mins (Team Sky):
1. 5 mins light (L1 or very easy aerobic)
2. 8 mins progressive to L5 (just above FTP)
3. 2 mins easy (L1)
4. 2 mins (L1-2: endurance pace) to include – 3 x 6s accelerations to activate
5. 3 mins easy (L1)
Conclusion
While warm ups are often a little mysterious or not talked about and often forgotten, they are one of the key things to be ready to race on race day. They don’t need to be long or intense, but just take a rider through different levels long enough to get things going. Why not try the warm up above at your next race!
For a more in depth look at what to do before, during and after races see our Recovery Guide for Cycle Racing and Training
