This is cool! Professional cyclist Alex Howes taught a class at the Peloton Cycle studio in Manhattan. This article explains how Alex taught what was only his second Indoor Cycling class. My guess is that he doesn't have a IC cert – not that it matters.[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
He's a World Tour rider for Team Garmin Sharp, which means he races in the big international tours in Europe. This year, he placed third in the professional national road race championships in the US, and won a stage of the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado. In 2014 he finished the Tour de France, and last year, he completed the Vuelta a España.
Wednesday, he became a temporary spin[sic] instructor at the Peloton Cycle studio in Manhattan. It was his first time teaching a class and only his second time on a spin[sic] bike. You can usually find him doing six-hour training rides in Boulder, Colorado or his European base in Spain. He liked it though.
The author's description for the image above jumped out at me; We did a lot of standing work with high cadence, which is like running on a bike.
Is it just me, or were you also surprised that a Professional Cyclist would include high cadence out of the saddle work as part of a class he lead? I really wish I had known about this class because I was in NYC at the time. So even though I wasn't there, I am willing to formulate a hypothesis about why Alex chose to include this in his class: The stability of an indoor cycle creates a unique opportunity to train in a way that he felt would help everyone in his class – including himself. No one had told him that standing (a lot) with a high cadence (which by default can only be with light resistance) is wrong/contraindicated/inefficient/dangerous/etc… IMO Alex added these drills because they felt natural to him 🙂
Here's a short video showing his form.
This post got a strong reaction over on Facebook > It defies explanation how anyone could find fault with a Professional Cyclist guest teaching a cycling class… but they do. Incredible :([/wlm_private]
FreeMotion introduced a new belt drive option for their S11 series indoor cycles at IHRSA this year. Bill Pryor and I discussed it on Podcast # 204.
Not being there to ride it, I figured that a belt is just a belt, right?
Well no, in this case it isn't. Instead of using a high tension automotive style v-belt, FreeMotion is offering the Gates Carbon Drive as an option. Looking more like a rubber chain, Carbon Drive is becoming very popular on single speeds and tandem bicycles. You can learn more at the Gates Carbon Drive System website.
I've ridden and taught on belt driven Indoor Cycles from; Keiser, Livestrong and LeMond. All of them offer a club owner reduced maintenance costs and Instructors a very quiet class.
But I've always felt something was always a bit off about the feel of these belt driven bikes. Do the people in your class notice or care? Probably not… but what if there was a solution that had all of the advantages of belt drive, without any of the negatives?
In the videos below Doug Crawford (VP of Product Development at Foundation Fitness and designer of the the FreeMotion S11.9) does a very good job explaining the differences between the two systems and shows how they tested and evaluated the Carbon Drive System to ensure would survive in a commercial setting.
In part three Doug shows how they tested it for thousands of hours.
A certified Spin instructor, Hilgartner, 67, first started to work out on stationary bikes because he “couldn't run anymore.”
That led his to take Spinning classes at the Maryland Athletic Club in Timonium, after which he thought he could do better than the instructor.
After leading classes for several years, Hilgartner decided to see if he could turn his love of Spinning into a business.
First, though, he had to see how he could balance his fulltime job on the technology staff at St. Paul's School for Girls with running a cycle studio that boasts a room full of gleaming Keiser MS cycles.
Moreover, his wife, Anne, a guidance counselor at her husband's alma mater, Calvert Hall, had to sign off on the deal before InSync Cycle opened Feb. 20 in Ashland Marketplace, between the Amish Market and Baja Fresh restaurant.
