One great mystery remains in this cycling world. I’ve been a cyclist for over thirty years and I still can’t buy a clue. Remember those rides where very early on, as you roll out of a parking lot, or just away from your house, you notice you have good legs. You need verification and after a proper warm up the feeling is still there, to quote Ryder Hesjedal, “the legs are mint”. And by saying good legs I mean untouchable, inexhaustible, Le Blaireau legs. Legs you can use with extreme prejudice on your friends and enemies all day long. I can count on one hand the number of times that has happened in thirty years. Don’t tell your friends, it’s like having four aces in your hand, keep your mouth shut and let it all play out. On your next group ride, regard everyone’s faces as you let them ride through. Does anyone have good legs? Look for the rider who is quietly sitting in the paceline with a confident telling smirk on his or her face. George Hincapie recalled it as if pedaling with no chain. It’s some magic elusive mojo.
As a cyclists your legs are your tools, your currency. Professional cyclists talk about their legs as if they were not their own. They have legs hung up in a garage, many sets, most of them bad, some OK and only one pair that are good. Unfortunately which set gets installed on any given day is a mystery to everyone. Science has not solved this one or if they have they are sitting on it, maybe Contador has solved it. The more you ride the better your chances are of having good legs. But the amount of recovery riding, rest and diet all go into a formula so complex it has yet to be solved. I used to pay a lot of attention to my abstemious Saturday nights, hoping that the proper dinner and no drinking would bring on a good Sunday ride. Of course my friends were actually drinking beers, having fun and still riding fine the next day. I guess Anquetil had it right, steak tartare washed down with beers works just fine.
When professionals are riding that wave of good form (think Philip Gilbert, the 2011 version) do they have killer legs every day or can they just always summon the strength to crush? I think having good form means all your physical systems are honed up to the highest possible efficiency. Having good legs is more mysterious. It’s an unexpected event, the result of still unknown forces in the body. What happens on the morning of the Worlds Road Race when you get the message from the engine room that you have the good legs installed, what then? It must be every cyclists dream to have those magical good legs on such a day. It must feed into a confidence loop, thinking you have great legs removes the usual doubts, gives one the confidence to try things one might not otherwise dare. I’m bridging up to the front and then I’m going to ride away. I’ve got good legs.
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The affiliated force of the Man with the Hammer known as Injury has taken my legs away. They're around somewhere and much work is required to find them. As elusive as Good Legs are, it will take a great deal of work. And I'm not loving the work. Not yet. But I'm doing the work even if I hate it. If love and hate are opposite ends of the same emotional vector then perhaps I'm loving it without feeling the benefit. The feeling of love comes when the legs and the body respond to the work in a positive manner. Now they just protest. They fight me. They come 'round they will and true love of the work will return once more even if Good Legs continue to elude.
Great piece Gianni! This is my first full year as what I would refer to as a committed cyclist... i have always been a runner, cyclist, weight lifter, martial artist, but this year I have committed to cycling and some racing goals and thus far have ridden about 200k more than I did in all of 2011 according to my Rule #74 violating Strava account. One thing I have learned is that my race legs are more in my head than anything. Put in the kilometers, go to the pain cave a lot, and the confidence just sort of comes out in a race or group ride. Riding at heart rates where, last year, I would have expected to have heard someone yelling "Clear!" and hitting me with the paddles seems almost effortless- cycling nirvana! It doesn't happen all the time, but when I know I have been training right and putting in the work the confidence just brings me to another level- it's what keeps me going back to the Cave again and again.
Nice one, Gianni!
What an AWESOME photo of Fast Phil's guns!
I had good legs on Saturday. Hadn't ridden much due to gettin' hitched. Then got roped into a 4 hr 120 km ride, with part of it a fast as group ride. I felt strong so just kept on going & going. Love having those days of good legs when you're sure you are going to get spit out the back and then finish at the front of the pack.
Is this why the Canadian dollar is so strong compared with the US at the moment?
But great piece and thanks for the reminder. Tomorrow AM, I load up the car and start making my way to Vermont (via a ride with Duende in Ottawa). Will be sure to pack the good legs (such as one can work out which is which...).
Obviously I picked up the wrong legs on the door when I left a party some years ago and haven't been able to find my own ones since.
I am lacking the time and opportunity to ride much, being in the middle os a cross-province move and all, but last week, all alone, had some good legs. Of course.
nice write-up Gianni. It is funny, the self-resolve to "do all the right things" leading into a big ride day and still be issued ones same phyiological limitaitons. Because that +1% still doesn't add up to this:(ted king strava segment climbing in italy)
San Pellegrino in Alpe
7.5mi
3,558ft
7.9mi/h
-
1155
-
00:56:20
for the majority of us anyhow. I say blame the parents.
Still cultivating the legs with the lungs.
nice one. I hope we see Gilbert running his 2011 game in the TDF this year...
Incidentally I had pretty bad legs yesterday on a ride w ~1700m climbing. Then I got home and saw this, and wept:
http://app.strava.com/rides/11611893
@SuperA
"The feeling of love comes when the legs and the body respond to the work in a positive manner. Now they just protest. They fight me"
I hear ya brother, the continual deposits into the pain bank with zero percent interest it's no good but it's what we do. Us cyclists better enjoy the training even if it is barely enjoyable or the whole game is over and it's time to start dragging a set of golf clubs around.
Before I moved I would start every Spring with almost zero fitness. Those first rides, weak as a kitten, wrapped in layers of lycra, depressing, maddening but it always felt better to be finally out riding than not.