Why Ride a Bike in Winter

Like you, we’re enjoying the last moments of happiness on the road before the snow covers it for endless winter months.

Then, as usual, we’ll hit the rollers. Not because it’s our favorite activity (though we don’t mind it at all), but because it’s still the most effective way to maintain what we’ve learned.

The Limits of Cross-Training

Every year, many cyclists switch from biking to running or cross-country skiing, convinced that cardio is cardio.

The science is more nuanced: our motor skills transfer from one sport to another, but our ability to apply them to cycling does not transfer entirely.

To explain this, research in physiology distinguishes between two components of endurance.

The first is cardiovascular: the heart, blood flow, and blood volume. It improves with almost any aerobic activity.

The second is peripheral: the mitochondria, the capillaries, and the oxidative capacity of the specific muscles being used. This aspect remains consistent with the movement being performed.

In other words, spending the winter off the bike preserves your fitness, but allows the specific skills that enable us to maintain and improve our performance on the road to deteriorate.

The researcher Guy Thibault explains this very clearly: the better our fitness and the higher our VO2max, the more important exercise specificity becomes for continued progress.

If we stray too far from our favorite sport, our performance suffers.

He also notes that the time we spend on another activity is time we’re not spending training the neuromuscular components specific to cycling. “And with the same VO2max, someone with better pedaling technique wins hands down.”

A skill that comes with spending time on the bike.

That's where indoor cycling really comes into its own.

Two or three training sessions per week help maintain the adaptations specific to cycling—muscle activation, pedaling efficiency, and endurance of the quadriceps and glutes—in the position we’ll be in come April.

There’s nothing stopping us from mixing things up with skiing or running, which keep us in shape. And besides, if these activities let us go out and play and clear our heads, that’s certainly not a bad thing.

But to keep your cyclist's legs, you have to keep pedaling.

Winter isn't just about waiting for summer—it's about getting ready for it.