Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Outdoors

How to improve your cycling speed and ride like the wind

Tips to help make you faster on your bicycle

By
Person riding a bike fast
Pexels / Pixabay

If there’s one thing that cyclists of all levels want to improve upon, it’s speed. Whether you want to keep up with a faster group ride, be able to pack more miles into the day, or simply want to cover more ground every time you go out, then it’s time to consider how to improve cycling speed. With a few adjustments to your riding style and stance, as well as by adding in some training sessions from time to time, you can pedal faster in no time.

Ride aerodynamically

Person riding aerodynamically
Pexels / Pixabay

One of the easiest — and most immediate — ways to improve your cycling speed is to ride aerodynamically. To do this, you can start by pulling your arms in closer to your body. Make sure they are not fully extended and that your elbows are not poking out. So, bend your arms and pull the elbows in toward your sides. This will cut down on the amount of wind resistance you are fighting against.

Recommended Videos

To really become more aerodynamic while riding, you should use the drop bars if your bike has drop handlebars. By using the drop bars, your body will be forced to bend over and farther down, making your upper body smaller in addition to closing your limbs in. This will minimize wind resistance even more so you can move more quickly down the road.

Related

Use interval training

legs cycling fast
Pixabay

The best thing any cyclist can do to improve their speed is to incorporate quality training time. That certainly includes interval training. To get faster, try adding two to three interval training rides into your week. These training sessions should be sprint blocks that gradually add on time. Spend 5 minutes sprinting for 30 seconds, followed by 15 seconds of rest. Once that block is over, ride at a steady, easy pace to recover for 3 minutes. Continue building up by 15-second intervals until you are sprinting for up to 2 to 5 minutes at a time with half the amount of time to recover.

When you are not interval training, pay attention to your cadence on casual rides. Try to hold a slightly faster cadence, adding just five RPMs each time, for the whole ride until you can comfortably hold your desired pace. Besides intervals, this will help you build endurance so you can hold a higher speed for longer periods of time. Weight training is also helpful for building muscle so you can train better and ride harder.

Ride in a group

A group of cyclists riding together
James Thomas / Unsplash

Riding in a group can also be very helpful for improving speed. When you join a group of people, they can encourage you to keep up and ride stronger for the duration of the ride just by being together. The jovial energy between cyclists enjoying the road can push everyone to pedal faster without anyone even noticing.

If you have access to cycling groups that are set based on speeds, then you might want to start riding with the next fastest group up. By joining a group that rides slightly faster, it can push you to ride faster to keep up. Be sure to check if the group is on a no-drop ride, though. Otherwise, you might end up riding alone. If it is a drop ride, that can be helpful, too. You can ride with the group to the best of your ability and if you are dropped, then you can always recover and ride alone. There’s always another ride that will allow you to try again and push harder.

More tips

The main tips are above, but here are several more things you do to improve your time.

  • Increase your mileage: Gradually extend the distance of your rides to improve overall cardiovascular health and stamina.
  • Reduce rolling resistance: Ensure your tires are properly inflated and in good condition. If you’re looking for serious speed gains, consider lightweight components for your bike.
  • Pace yourself: Learn to pace your effort effectively to avoid burning out early in your ride. There are various pacing strategies you can explore.
  • Proper nutrition: Fuel your rides with carbohydrates and electrolytes to maintain energy levels, especially on longer distances.
  • Hydration: Stay hydrated throughout your ride to avoid performance dips.
  • Bike maintenance: Regularly maintain your bike to ensure smooth operation and minimize energy loss due to friction.

Incorporating a couple — or even several — of these tips will ensure that you are on the way to becoming a faster cyclist.

Editors’ Recommendations

Molly Harris
Molly Harris
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Molly Harris is a freelance journalist, cyclist and outdoor enthusiast. Her work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, Lonely…
How to turn your backyard into a wildlife-friendly sanctuary
Tips to create a serene backyard
Backyard wildlife sanctuary bird feeder

For most of us, relaxing in the backyard only requires a couple of lounge chairs, a grill, and your best cooler full of lawnmower beers. However, abundant wildlife can add a whole new experience of fulfillment and practicality to your outdoor space. Whether you live in a fifth-story apartment with a fire escape "balcony" or on a 10-acre ranch, these tips can help level up your backyard, deck, or patio into a wildlife sanctuary.
Tips to create your own wildlife-friendly oasis

Feed the birds
One of the best methods to bolster the wildlife population in your backyard is to feed the birds. Setting up even one bird feeder with a broad-use seed that wins over a variety of species is a good start. If you have the room, multiple feeders (including hummingbird feeders) with a range of seeds and feed are even better. Large bags of seeds are inexpensive and readily available at most pet shops and farm supply stores.
Keep the birds clean, too
Birdbaths might remind you of Nana’s house. They are, however, an essential part of building a wildlife-friendly backyard sanctuary. Birds love and need natural spots for drinking and bathing. Adding a handful of pebbles or rocks to the bottom also infuses the water with essential minerals and encourages butterflies to gather as well. Be sure to hose out the bath every few days to stave off mold and bacteria buildup.
Don’t love your lawn to death
Keeping your lawn properly maintained is important, but over-manicuring and adding too many fertilizers can discourage wildlife. Mowing and trimming your grass like a golf course might keep your neighbors happy. For wildlife, however, variety plays a huge role. Tidying up the grass near the center provides a place for birds and small mammals like foxes and badgers to forage. Consider leaving the edges longer to give invertebrates a place to shelter and hide. Replacing hard-to-maintain greenery with native trees, shrubs, and flowers is a great way to provide natural variety to your backyard. It also minimizes maintenance and attracts more wildlife.
Let the trees be
It’s tempting to want to tidy up your yard of dead or dying trees. If they’re not posing a danger, however, consider letting them be. All trees -- even dead ones -- can serve as new nesting places for birds. Tree hollows also provide safe spaces for ground animals to burrow, hide, and escape from predators.
Put out the bat signal
Thanks mostly to horror movies, bats have suffered a serious social stigma. In reality, they’re mostly harmless to humans. What’s more, they’re excellent natural exterminators. Working mainly at night, they can rid your backyard of massive amounts of insects, especially mosquitoes and agricultural pests. Small wooden bat houses are cheap, easy to install, and readily available on Amazon.
Welcome new toad tenants
Like bats, toads also make great garden tenants. They prey on insects, snails, and slugs -- up to 10,000 in a single season. Relying on toads to maintain your backyard pest population minimizes the need for artificial pesticides and other nasty chemicals. Attract more toads by installing toad houses -- basically any small, damp, enclosed space. These can be as simple as a rock pile covered with fallen leaves. An old, chipped planter or clay pot works great too. Flip it over, prop it up on a stone or brick, and leave it in an out-of-the-way area of your backyard. Just be sure any chips are wide enough for your new toad residents to use as a door.
Build a pond
For most of us, building a private pond is a luxury. If you have space and ability, however, a pond can be a great asset to your backyard ecosystem. It provides diversity and helps balance the variety and types of species likely to gather in your outdoor space.
Corral your cats
Cats can wreak havoc on your backyard sanctuary. Most house cats are adept hunters, which means they’re likely to scare off or eat birds, frogs, and small mammals. If at all possible, keep your house cats inside. It’s better for your backyard and better for your feline’s overall health, too.
More tips

Read more
3 problems on your mountain bike that may be easier to fix than you think
3 easy mountain bike fixes
A picture of a mountain bike near an alpine river during fall

A few years ago, while I was riding my mountain bike, something was loose on the back of my bike. As I pedaled down the trail, it seemed as if there was quite a bit more movement than the normal motion of my full-suspension mountain bike.

I got out the tool I carry on every ride—trailside mountain bike repairs will eventually happen—and got to checking and tightening different bolts. Despite giving my mountain bike what I thought was a thorough once-over, the feeling of extra movement persisted, coming close to turning into a rattle.

Read more
Camper van vs Class B RV: How to choose which to buy for your outdoor adventures
Class B RV vs Camper Van - who ya got?
Man building a campfire in front of a Winnebago Ekko Springer camper van.

If you would love to go on road trips and experience the best national parks, there is no better way to do it and still feel comfortable like you’re at home than camping in an RV. Let’s be honest: You will enjoy sleeping on a cozy bed in an RV with an air conditioner more than in a moist and chilly tent. It’s also easier to prepare your meals in an RV because of the refrigerator, and you don’t have to worry about packing and unpacking your camping bags every night or morning. 

However, the big RVs can be a headache if you're driving through low-hanging bridges or tight spaces. They’re also more expensive to fuel and maintain compared to smaller-size vehicles. Alternatively, you could choose a Class B RV or a camper van if prefer an RV that strikes a balance between rural camping and big-city adventure. But the question is — what’s the difference between a Class B RV and a camper van? And which one should you buy?
A Class B motorhome is built with all the camping amenities

Read more