From Peloton to Road Bike
Sarah was headed from Denver to Europe for a multi-week vacation with her family. A mom, professional, and Peloton fiend, Sarah knew she had to build some good workouts into her trip. With their first stop in Lake Como, Sarah sought out best things to do in town and Bike It Bellagio was a first hit. This gave her an idea… Why not have my first road bike ride in Italy? She scheduled a road bike rental and custom guide, and I squealed with delight to learn her story. See… I’ve had the idea for a longtime that we have to get more Pelotoners on road bikes. I was certain Sarah and I would have a great day.
Sarah showed up with her Peloton shoes; she’s used to clipping in. We got her setup on the bike and she rode around our parking lot. She managed the clips as well or better than any first timer we’ve ever seen. It usually takes some time, and can even mean a few falls, but for Sarah she was clipping in and out without a problem. Then we realized, she’d never shifted gears before and would need to learn this skill. This ended up being much more than Sarah anticipated and she made an amazing decision; she asked me to switch her back to flats. She felt confident in her ability to clip in and out if it were the only new thing, but given that she’d also need to put a lot of thought into shifting and into navigating with cars, she opted for sneakers and flats so that she could remove one element from this new experience.
We did a lesson on shifting gears and we focused mainly on shifting the right hand to start. She was ready to begin the adventure and we had a few options for the routes we might take. We headed for the ferry and floated together over to Cadenabbia where we headed north and decided that we would take on the North Face. As one of the flatter rides locally it would give Sarah a chance to show off her Peloton fitness from 30, 60, 90 and 120minute classes!!! And, we would get to work our way into the left hand gear system since the hills are mainly rollers.
Sarah was fast! We rode 21-28km/hour for the first 40k. She was bold! There are cars on the North Face route and she didn’t flinch. She just stayed right with me and she told me “Well if you’re doing it, then why shouldn’t I? I’m with you.” Her bravery stands out for someone new to car traffic. She was appreciative, noticing the beautiful sites around us; mountains, lake, tiered wine hills, beautiful clock towers, and antique architecture. She was FUN!
At lunch we downloaded further on how the transition was going. Sarah was having zero problem physically and in fact found that the biking feels easier than the Peloton because the resistance of the rolling roads we were taking on was less because we were keeping the gear systems at a higher RPM. In Peloton she climbs at higher resistance and lower RPMs which feels like much more work. She also loved the downhill where you just get to glide and don’t have to put in the hard work. She said she felt like she could go all day long with the pacing and effort output on the road bike. That’s exactly the point! We try to keep 70-100 rotations per minute (RPM) so that we can go for a very long time. Sarah’s observations were spot on and taught me so much about what the transition would look like.
We had an awesome lunch and continued on for the final third of our ride. Here we would face our biggest climb and would need to use the small ring in the front which meant adding in the left hand shifters. It was a little trickier than the right, but we figured it out together and made our way right back to the ferry, averaging over 25km/h for the final 20km. ROCK ON Sarah! You are strong, you are brave, and you are ready for your own Road bike. I hope we see you back here on Lake Como. Next time we have some big mountains that will feel a bit more like your Peloton resistance climbing, and I know you’ll be fit enough to take it all on.
Allez Allez
