Road Cycling Academy Podcast

In this episode we are talking with Byron Davies - an elite Australian Track sprinter with the Australian Institute of Sport - who transitioned from road to track four years ago. Bryon deep dives into his training and nutritional transformation and tells us how off bike strength training has had the biggest impact.

In this podcast we talk with Sports Science Masters and PHD graduate from the University of Milan about some of the research he has done and his experience coaching in a professional cycling team to date.

Effects of 16 weeks of pyramidal and polarized training intensity distributions in well-trained endurance runners is the first bit of research we talk and dive into the results looking at the practical implications of applying these training methods in conjunction with one another. There is a bigger picture to this concept that Luca shares with us.

The Day-by-Day Periodization Strategies of a Giro d’Italia Podium Finisher is the second piece of research we talk about where Luca collaborated with his co-authers, to reveal how the worlds best athletes train from day to day.

Mental fatigue impairs time trial performance in sub-elite under 23 cyclists is the final research we talk about and dive into how these results may affect the average day cyclist training with mental fatigue.

In this podcast, we have Professional Cyclist and Road Captain from EF Education First, Simon Clarke. Simon – who has won stages within all 3 grand tours, and wore pink during the Giro in 2015- was recently up in my home town of Noosa, Sunshine Coast, to ride the Noosa Criterium, which is part of the Noosa Triathlon Multi Sports Festival in November. He was also here to promote a cycling tour business he’s created which you’ll hear about during this podcast. I really did enjoy this conversation with Simon, as we covered some interesting topics at a pro-level, which included:

What to pro cyclists do in the off-season

Training with power

What’s it like to be a road captain, including the challenges that come with the role,

& why so many young pro riders don’t make it when they first get to Europe.

In this discussion, I am chatting with the founder and CEO / Product Director of CHAPTER2 https://au.chapter2bikes.com/, an emerging road brand out of New Zealand. Chris Young (CHAPTER2 Head of Marketing) also joins in on this discussion, where we focus on the development of the CHAPTER2 brand and their first-generation aerodynamic frame released mid-2018, called the Rere. Personally, I have been riding the Rere for roughly 4 months now. A lot of content has gone up on my YouTube account, so this discussion not only provides context into the brand and Rere frame development, I also get to ask a number of questions that have come directly from the YouTube audience.

Group rides can be a blast — the camaraderie, the competition, the coffee stop. But when it comes to structured training, do they help or hurt your progress? In this episode, we dig into the pros and cons of using group rides as a training tool. Whether you're chasing PRs, building base fitness, or just trying to stay consistent, we break down when group rides make sense — and when they might be doing more harm than good. Tune in to find out if your weekend smash-fest is actually moving the needle on your fitness.