Cycligent Virtual Racing has been called the toughest video game in the world. But to the 40 riders who raced the CVR World Cup in Los Angeles recently - going head to head in 4 categories to win a share of the season's $100,000 in cash and prizes - it was a lot more.   While the course inside Zwift's training platform was imaginary, the effort and emotions of riders and fans was very real.

Toolbox: The team pursuit is one of the marquee events at the Track Cycling World Championships, where optimal drafting technique and positions can make the difference between winning medal glory, or becoming footnotes in the cycling history books. Behind the enormous power and graceful beauty of the event lies an interesting question: how do we optimize the rider order?

Over the many years of coaching athletes of all levels, I’ve often tried to identify what makes certain riders successful and others not. Of course, the definition of success ultimately has to be defined by the athletes themselves. What may be defined as a success by one athlete may be a complete failure by another…

We are two weeks into the 2017 Vuelta a España and the 40,2 km time trial later today (Tuesday), September the 5th. While the non-contenders will generally be treating it as a semi-rest day and take it as easily as it is ever possible in pro cycling, the GC battle will be massive here. But are there fundamental differences in pacing strategy between elite riders and lower category riders?

With the 2017 Vuelta a España starting on Saturday for the pros and that now is the season for big summer rides for the rest of us. How does one fuel these big efforts, and how good are we at maintaining energy balance throughout multiple days of hard riding?

One of my favorite yet most frustrating things about racing is how hard it is to win. There are so few sports that rank with cycling as far as all the things that must align to capture that elusive victory. It is crucial that when cyclists start to race, they learn how to win races.

“Analytics” is the buzzword in many sports today, involved new ways of analyzing player effectiveness and team performance in dynamic team sports like baseball, football, and hockey. While power analysis now dominates training ideas in cycling, can we use analytics in cycling and especially in sprinting?

A season review is a vital learning tool for athletes who want to consistently improve their performance. Why? When you know and can access the strengths and weaknesses of your annual racing performance and the training that supported it, you can use the knowledge gained from them to improve your plan for next year.

Face it: cross hurts! Not only does it require strong mental and physical toughness, it also requires a rider to be able to implement both skills and tactics while going full gas. This means we need some highly specific training with lots of time spent focused in the high intensity range.