Why Do Cyclists Cycle After The Race? Cycling after a race may appear futile; however, cycling postrace serves a purpose. Cycling provides active recovery after such strenuous efforts have concluded.
After racing, pedaling helps muscles break down lactic acid that has built up, helping cyclists gradually transition back into rest mode.
Cool-Down
One of the primary purposes of cyclists continuing pedaling post-race is to engage in an effective cool-down and recovery process. Athletes usually ride at low intensity for three to five minutes after their race to allow their heart rate to gradually return to normal while gently stimulating blood flow and flushing away metabolic waste products like lactate from their muscles.
Slow pedaling will reduce muscle stiffness and soreness after racing, while continuing to pedal at low power levels afterward will prevent heat-related injuries such as dehydration and heat exhaustion. A race produces significant sweat production; cycling with low power levels afterward allows your body to release that sweat more effectively.
Cycling after a race can serve not only to cool down, but also as an active recovery and aerobic fitness boost. Athletes often engage in this form of riding after racing with teammates or friends for additional social and recreational benefit.
Athletes will often turn to cycling as a post-race preparation strategy, whether riding at home on their trainer or taking advantage of bike parks to practice technical skills.
Active Recovery
After an intense training session or race, it can be tempting to simply stop immediately; however, doing so could actually reduce performance due to your body needing time to unwind and relax – it takes at least 15 minutes before it reaches its normal resting pulse rate.
Recovering from high intensity exercise requires your legs and muscles to transition back to a regular heart rate and blood pressure, without cramps or build-up of heat in your system. By continuing to ride at lower power during recovery, cycling at low power helps your body adjust. Furthermore, this active recovery helps avoid cramps while dissipating body heat.
Lactic acid produced in muscle during a race can be one of the main sources of post-race soreness. By cycling for 15 minutes post race, lactic acid can be broken down and flushed away from muscles, aiding recovery processes.
Cycling serves as an effective mental warm-up, helping riders prepare for post-race press conferences and answering tough questions from reporters. Cycling provides riders with a chance to recall some of their greatest moments from each stage while fine-tuning pedaling technique or practicing riding positions before moving onto another one; plus giving them time to experiment with new equipment!
Prevent Cramps
Cramping can be one of the biggest threats facing any endurance cyclist, from seeing both legs rigidly sticking out like training wheels struts in funny photos, to feeling helpless to stop. Cramp is often caused by reduced blood flow to muscles resulting from pinched blood vessels or hot weather circulation issues; to help combat cramp, there are various things you can do such as maintaining good bike position, staying adequately fueled and hydrated during races, taking adequate hydration/salt intake regimens, as well as training specificity strategies.
Post-race riding can be an excellent way to relax muscles and flush away lactic acid build-up. Furthermore, pedaling further ensures an uninterrupted supply of oxygen which flushes away waste products from the body and provides an efficient means of recovering.
Roller training provides the ideal opportunity to enhance your technique and implement small changes that could yield significant improvements during future races. By pedaling on rollers you can practice maintaining an efficient pedal stroke as well as experiment with various pedaling cadences and improve posture on your bike.
Mental Recovery
After participating in a race, riding for five minutes at low effort can help flush away lactic acid and stave off cramps in your legs. Furthermore, blood flowing to your brain helps avoid dizziness or lightheadedness from occurring post-race.
Cycling post-race helps cyclists unwind and relax after racing, which is essential to mental recovery. Furthermore, riding after races allows riders to work on improving their pedaling technique and therefore their overall race performance.
Cycling provides cyclists with an effective means of replenishing glycogen stores and healing damage to muscles after races – the “Golden Hour.” Ideally, eating carbohydrates and protein at this time helps replenish stores, repair damage to muscle fibres, replenish glycogen stores and heal damage faster.
Although many professional cyclists had long been cycling after races for recovery purposes, it really gained momentum when British Team Sky introduced this method in 2010. After seeing how effective it was at improving race performances and maintaining fluency between stages, other teams quickly adopted it – eventually nearly every continental and world tour team regularly use this form of active recovery after each stage. From heading straight back to their bus to simply riding for a few minutes before entering their bus or heading off on another stage altogether.
Now you know Why Do Cyclists Cycle After The Race? Read also: How Much Water Should You Drink When Cycling?
