In order to achieve good results, it is often not enough to improve your physique or e.g. increase your absorption of oxygen.

The complete cycle rider. It is a sentence you hear again and again from experts, when they speak of the quality you generally ought to strive for as a cycle rider.

You should assess how you make use of your strengths and reduce the risk of failure in your phase of preparation for a new season on the bike. You do this best by making a list of your strengths and weaknesses.

Let me challenge you with this example:

If you e.g. are good at mountain cycling you should assess if this strength is an ability you are happy with and if you can use this ability to your advantage, when training or in a competitive situation. Most would probably answer yes to pursuing this.

1. Work out a list of your strengths and weaknesses.
2. The list should contain both strengths and weaknesses concerning cycling, but also in other situations, which you either are good at or not so good at in your life, when you are away from the bike.

You should take the following 6 key areas into consideration before you begin to plan how to improve cycling performance.