Some reasons to stay away from the road in winter

Cyclocross, gravel, or mountain biking can be perfect allies for the road cyclist during the winter months, helping them improve some of the weak points that those who only ride on asphalt usually have. Discover what off-road pedaling can bring you.

Be a better road cyclist by riding on trails

The preseason months give the road cyclist who trains exclusively on asphalt all year round a perfect time to develop other skills that can be very useful when they return to their activity.

Beyond the winter gym work that is usually intensified during these months, practicing cycling off-road, whether on a mountain bike, gravel, or competing in a cyclocross race can bring us interesting adaptations that will make us better road cyclists. Starting, obviously, with technique.

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Pedaling off the asphalt requires more precise bike handling, we learn how shifting our weight forward, backward, or sideways influences the behavior of the bike and the grip of the tyres, we have to use our arms and legs to absorb the irregularities of the terrain or learn to dose the brakes with much greater precision. Skills that we can then use, not only on descents but also when moving within a peloton.

Furthermore, cycling on trails is much more dynamic, which also forces us to use the upper part of our body, allowing us to balance our musculature much more, which in the long run will be beneficial for maintaining aggressive positions on the road bike.

The lack of traction that we often find on our trail rides is also a great advantage in terms of optimizing our pedaling. We learn to apply force to the pedals evenly, without sudden movements, as if we were a kind of human traction control, which, when we return to the road, results in a greater use of each pedal stroke and therefore of the watts that we find so hard to apply.

Our reaction capacity is another of the skills that we can improve when we leave the asphalt. On trails, you have to constantly improvise, choosing the side of the trail where the bike has less resistance to rolling, where there are fewer stones. If we get into technical areas, a great mental speed is essential to, in just a few milliseconds, choose the correct line or react to an unexpected obstacle, either by pulling the handlebars to jump it, crossing the wheel to avoid it, or with any other technical resource.

Applied to the road, a faster reaction time will help us have resources to save a pile-up or be able to jump that pothole that we suddenly find on a descent, as well as being able to choose the best place on the road when it's time to pedal at full speed through complicated areas like city crossings with their roundabouts, islands, slippery paint areas, etc.

Cycling off the asphalt can also make us more aware of the need to make a good adjustment of the equipment. On the road, few people worry about their tyre pressures beyond adjusting them to a fixed figure before leaving. Nothing about deciding the pressure based on the route to be taken or the weather conditions. However, when we pedal on a gravel, mountain bike, or cyclocross bike, pressures become essential if we want to have optimal grip, having to adapt them to the conditions of the terrain, whether there are stones or not, etc. A learning experience that we can then benefit from on our road bike, learning the advantages of using lower pressures, or reducing it when the asphalt is wet to gain a little grip.

And speaking of wet asphalt, we cannot ignore other advantages of choosing these other bikes over the road bike during these winter months. We're talking about dealing better with weather conditions and that is, going out with wet asphalt always poses a fairly high risk of falling. On trails, this risk is not better, but falling on a muddy trail often only has consequences for our pride as we end up looking like a mess.

Also, riding on trails on windy and cold days will make us suffer less. Mainly because the speed at which we move is lower and therefore we suffer less from the reduction in thermal sensation that occurs with speed. For the same reason, the wind will also affect us less.

Finally, we cannot forget one last factor, important during these months: riding a bike on trails is a lot of fun and it's a joy to be able to get lost in the mountains, isolated from everything without looking at watts, averages, for the simple pleasure of pedaling and being able to enjoy situations that we usually do not face, such as a winding trail where we face curves as if it were a video game. What are you waiting for to try it?