Cycling Long Distances Made Easy! The Secrets To Smashing Long Bike Rides

Long bike rides aren’t everyone’s idea of fun but are you making mistakes that make them harder than they need to be? Whether you’re looking to complete a local sportive, an epic adventure, a multi-day ride, your first 50km, 100km, or first 100 mile bike ride, hopefully, we can impart some knowledge to help you hit that goal and have you champing at the bit for your next on-bike challenge.

https://road.cc/content/feature/how-to-conquer-long-distance-bike-ride-top-tips-306769

We reckon that these long bike ride tips will help you ride further on your bike and still have a smile on your face at the end.

Let us know any of your tips on how to ride long distances in the comments section below…

⚫️ Dragon Ride: https://www.dragonride.co.uk/
⚫️ Bryan Chapman Audax: https://www.pedalution.co.uk/events/bryan-chapman-memorial-600/

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⚫️ In this video

0:00 Introduction
0:56 Don’t ride too hard at the start
1:56 Fuel up
3:05 Give your bike some TLC
3:58 Get comfortable on the bike
4:35 Be prepared
5:38 Find people to ride with
6:35 Training for longer rides
7:20 Skills
7:58 Final thoughts

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Now it’s early in the year but if you’ve got a big ride plan for the summer Now’s the Time to be putting the miles in you know running out of energy on a big ride in the middle of nowhere it’s every cyclist worst nightmare some people call

It the Bonk some people call it hitting the wall I call it familiar but also avoidable so in this video we’re going to go through a bunch of tips to help you get the best out of your big ride this summer so it can smash those miles

Now riding my bike a long way is my idea of fun and my big ride goals for the year are the dragon ride at just over 200k and also the 600k Brian Chapman orox across Wales and back now those will need very different strategies but there are plenty of things that you

Should always consider and whatever your goal whether you’re looking to complete uh a local sportive an epic adventure a multi-day ride your first 50k your first 100K whatever hopefully we can impart some knowledge to help you hit that goal and have you champing at the bit for your next onike

Adventure don’t go off too hard if you get t nothing else from this video just remember that one thing it’s so easy to get carried away at the start of a big ride you know we’ve all done it I’ve done it many times and the last time I

Did the Brian Chapman it meant I didn’t even finish run out of juice long before the end on a big Ride Like the dragon ride you’ve only got so many matches you can burn if you boost up the hill in the Red Zone first off Straight Out The Gate

That’s one gone you’re never getting that back pacing yourself will always mean going a little bit more slow than you think you want to at the start but don’t be tempted to push the pace until you know you can hold it to the Finish

Or at least until a break at a stop or something like that you’ll probably have a good idea of what kind of pace you can maintain from training rides try and remember that and also remember just try and keep it chatty for the first hour if you can’t talk when you’re riding that’s

A really bad sign your body is the engine of your bike apart from when it runs out of fuel you’ll just get laughed at if you bring up the AA cycling burns up bucket loads of energy so on a longer ride you’ll need to make sure you’re

Replacing it as much as you can you can do this with cake this is one of my favorite things about cycling now unless you’re racing you don’t need to be too concerned about exactly what it is you’re eating as long as it’s got carbs in it then you know you’re most of the

Way there it doesn’t even have to be cycling specific I usually try to mix it up a bit unless you’ve got very firm control over your guts then just gel normally isn’t the way to go experiment with different foods and find out what works for you and don’t be tempted to

Gorge yourself on unfamiliar Sports Nutrition products at the feed stops cuz that can end badly if they don’t agree with you I speak from experience carb drinks are an easy way to get some extra energy down you as you hydrate and my personal favorites are bananas and

Homemade energy bars which are just a Le of nuts and seeds and oats baked with some syrup and cake and start eating as soon as as you set out by the time you feel hungry you’ve already started on the bottomless spiral of pain it’s not just your body that will be put under

Strain on a big ride your bike will as well and it’s absolutely rubbish to have to throw in the towel due to some avoidable mechanical when you’re feeling strong so make sure you can change between and get into all your gears smoothly and if they’re electronic then

Make sure they’re charged up make sure your chain is lubed uh to avoid any unwanted squeaking check you’ve got some brake pads left check for thorns and glass in your tires pump those tires up and make sure they hold air many big rides will have some kind of bike

Support it might be tools and mechanics at the feed stops or even a neutral service on the course don’t rely on it though take a tool kit with you make sure you know how to fix the things that are most likely to go wrong so loose bolts punctures gears going out of whack

Brakes rubbing that kind of stuff now a long ride can be ruined by discomfort but what if I could tell you that you don’t have to suffer most knee and balm and back pain can be mitigated and I don’t mean by a cocktail of painkillers although I have been there I mean just

By a well-fitting bike now you don’t need to go and spend loads of money on a bike fit although a lot of people would benefit from one just a case of making small changes to your setup seeing what works for you for Comfort on those longer rides now if you haven’t seen it

Already there’s a great bike fitting video on our YouTube channel I’ll link to that in the description below while you’re down there don’t forget to subscribe to Road CC for more great cycling videos like this one from us a lot of the hard work when completing a challenge happens long

Before you ever swing a leg over the bike on the start line there’s lots of other things you can do to make your life easier on the day firstly do some research if your big ride is an organized event how long does it take to get there and how much time will you

Need to get yourself sorted before the start is your route hilly or is it flat where are the hills how steep are they what what gearing will you need to get up them are there feed stations if so where are they and what can you expect

To find there if you don’t ask yourself these questions before the hour of Reckoning then you could find yourself in a very sorry State I know I certainly have also eat well the night before something fairly carb heavy to load up for ride is traditional but whatever

Works for you and have a decent breakfast too obviously don’t go crazy but there’s no point setting off with the tank half empty you’ll also want to look at the weather forecast for the whole day if it’s a long ride dressing appropriately will make your ride a lot

More enjoyable and it’s easy to get caught out did you know that when you’re riding on the road riding behind another Rider can save you about a quarter of your effort now imagine what it’s like if you’re sitting behind a whole bunch of people it’s great more important than

That though you’ll have somebody to talk to you’ll have somebody to share the experience with you have somebody to sit with in the pub afterwards that’s one of the reasons people do a big Ride Like the dragon ride for the sense of camaraderie there’s loads of people you

Can ride with who be going the same speed of you probably you’ve got some mates as well you can go with you can share the driving and the experience with them just remember that on a big ride with hundreds thousands of people maybe it’s super easy to lose your ride

Buddies one Hill they might go off the back then you’ll never see them again it’s a really good idea if you can to share your location on your phone so you can see where everybody is you can catch up with each other and ride together again you probably thought we’d

Forgotten about it but no there’s no getting around the fact that you’ll get out what you put in if you’re like me then you’ll think that you can cram everything into the last few weeks before an event and take it from my long experience it’s very very unlikely that

This will work your target event might seem like a long way off but it’s never too early to start working towards it getting some structure into your training will make all the difference check out our video on how to improve prove on the bike there’s a link in the

Description below one word of advice I do have though is that don’t feel you need to have done the event distance before the day as long as you’ve done up to around 70% on a regular basis it’s pretty likely that with that training they added adrenaline and motivation on

The day will get you over that final hurdle now we all know that bike riding is more than just about pushing the pedals there’s a fair amount of skill involved too and events such as spor EES often have lots of other people with what I shall charitably call various

Competencies to contend with as well as unpredictable conditions and unknown roads with this in mind it’s probably a good idea to brush up those skills now you can find articles on how to properly climb uh descend and Corner over on the road CC website but there’s other things

You can practice too for example getting better at riding on the wheel or drinking and eating whilst riding along or if you’re really confident putting on or taking off a jacket while you’re riding so there you go those are our tips for your next big ride let us know

Your big ride tips and what challenges you’ve got planned in the comments below if any of you are doing the dragon ride in Wales or the Brian Chapman then we’ll see you there if you like this content then please give it a thumbs up subscribe to the channel for lots more

Riding advice and if like me you’re looking to keep fit as the birthdays keep mounting up then why not check out our fit over 50 and 60 videos we’ll see you next time