Why Winter Training Doesn’t Always Make You Faster

You can train all winter, put in the hours, finish all of the sessions, and still get to spring without the improvement that you expected. So, if you're heading into winter or into a proper base period, what's worth keeping, what would I change, and how do you know if it's working before those months are gone?

I started training seriously in the Australian system in the '90s, spent a lot of time being tested through the AIS, and later went on to coach riders from everyday amateurs through to the World Tour. There are a handful of decisions I'd make differently now. One thing I appreciate more now than, say, 5 or 6 years ago is simply training

around other good cyclists. Coming through in Australia, we had a junior bunch full of riders trying to get somewhere, and then we had club rides where you could end up alongside guys like Matthew Hayman or Mick Rogers. There is a lot of learning that just happened in these rides. If you're planning your winter now, that's a

reason to think twice before replacing every group ride with a controlled session on your own. Writing with good cyclists gives you the chance to learn how to move through a bunch or judge a climb and respond when the pace changes. But, I am less willing now to remove a good bunch ride simply

because the power file looks a little messy afterwards. There's also the competition and the company that are difficult to put into a workout description. And in winter, some of that can happen online. You're not going to learn, say, bunch positioning on a trainer, but you can still have a regular group to ride with, people to

learn from, and a bit of company when you'd otherwise just be standing staring at rando strangers in Zwift. The technology also means that we can do the same session together with the efforts set to each rider's level. We lose some things from being out on the road together, but there's still plenty that