WHEN TRAINING GOES WRONG
The sun is shining, trees are coming into leaf and birdsong is providing the soundtrack to every ride. Isn’t cycling pure unadulterated joy? Mostly. But not always. In fact, sometimes it’s a torturous place that can affect everyone. The Hell of the North, South, East and West, to pilfer Paris-Roubaix parlance. Thankfully, whether it’s losing the two-wheeled love or a screamingly sore undercarriage, there are solutions to rekindle your training flame…
PROBLEM #1
“I CAN HARDLY SIT DOWN”
SOLUTION
Saddle sores are the pin pricks of the devil and, despite the evolution of saddles, will afflict many of us over our cycling lifetimes. So deep can the pain dig that the legend Sean Kelly came within a few days of winning the 1987 Vuelta a España before pulling out with excruciating perineum pain.
Saddle sores spread across the spectrum, ranging from small spots to disturbingly large boils. These, as you can imagine, are more painful. The cause? It’s likely to be abrasion caused by chafing. We’ll come onto that shortly. But if you’re sitting - or, more likely given your predicament, standing - reading this and recognise these symptoms, this is what you should do.
“For years, I’ve used a tar-like substance to treat our riders,” says Dag Van Elslande, team doctor at Chris Froome’s team, Israel Start-Up Nation. “It’s a mix of cod liver oil, zinc, skin disinfectant and vitamin E. Also, I use a local anaesthetic; a
