Hey fellow TR users, quick question, I’ve been cycling on and off for a few years now and TrainerRoad is great for getting me fit! Does its job perfectly, even better now with Adaptive Training, but I’m struggling with how to level up skills wise.
I’m not a Mountain Biker (yet) but I do like to ride road and gravel and I think I could definitely benefit from getting better at riding in groups (especially at speed), cornering, descending, etc.
While I don’t need a cycling coach to feed me workouts or the like because of TrainerRoad, I’ve considered maybe paying for a few sessions with a coach to work on bike skills. Is this a reasonably good idea? Is this even a thing outside of Mountain Biking? Any thoughts on other ways to get more skilled when it comes to bike handling? Since most of my riding is indoors, this is an area I feel I could use a lot of work in.
If you can find a good coach, I think it is a great idea. Like other aspects here, you can do it yourself with some research and practice, but the help of a knowledgeable coach can get you to a better place in a shorter time in many cases.
Their external perspective can be hugely helpful to identify good/bad habits to enforce/break. I know of a couple people who have leveraged this type of coaching and seen quick progress. Well worth it IMO.
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Maybe now’s the time!
Mountain biking teaches you pretty quickly what it feels like to lose traction and how to take corrective action. I don’t think you’re going to get that from any road-specific skills coaching, assuming it even exists.
Are there any clubs you could join? Many clubs have coaching rides/sessions, and even if not, when you’re riding in a group with experienced riders, you will get a lot of coaching advice (especially if you do anything wrong…).
I would also look if your national organisation has any coaching sessions you could join.
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Couple of outside the box ideas: Rollers are always a worthy investment in my opinion. I really like my Elite Quick Motion, and do the majority of my high intensity TR workouts on them. That and gravel racing I feel have helped my handling a lot. Also, if you have access to a dirt bike and a motocross course, that can be eye opening.
If most of your riding is indoors, I think you should just get to some group rides and get outside yourself before you throw money at it. Riding with others is probably all you need (ie follow the lines of the ‘good’ riders).
Definitely. I’m a skills coach and do a lot of adult coaching (MTB, road, CX and gravel). If you’re in Britain take a look at the Find a coach on the BC website.
I believe that there are some crit organizations that do clinics on how to handle the dynamics of group riding in racing.
I think this is a bit of an untapped area. Too many people learn shitty habits, usually from shitty people. Not the fault of the learner.
I’ve been having a hard time finding a club within reasonable distance (when you factor in traffic hell) of where I live. I seem to be in a bit of a dead zone. This was definitely an idea of mine as well, just get into groups as much as possible.
Last year I did advanced skills sessions on road bike cornering, climbing, sprinting. They were so good I did them twice in fact! I couldn’t believe how much I learned even after 10yrs of group riding and plenty of races
They were group sessions run by a former national Crit champion (now coach) by the local cycling association. Money well spent and I have just done my first ever Crit race as a result of the increased confidence cornering 
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