Successful passing of the route by all participants is provided by: a properly designed route, the distribution of the daily mileage for the duration of the hike, the pre-hike physical, psychological and theoretical preparation of the participants.
Tactically correctly planned cycling trip increases the likelihood of the successful passage of the route by all participants. The first day of the movement try to plan without heavy loads, you need time to adapt the body to the daily physical exertion, change of diet, time zone, altitude … as they say, give time to the body to “move in a hike”.
Tactics is the ability to use the technical and tactical methods available in the stock of knowledge in time and correctly. The more life experience, experience of participation and leadership in cycling trips, the greater the number of such tricks the cycling athlete and the group as a whole possesses.
A technique is a set of actions of an individual participant or the whole group aimed at overcoming obstacles.
Obstacles encountered during a bicycle tour can be divided into the following conditional groups:
Let’s start with the tactics of passing the entire bicycle tour. To do this, you need to know:
Climatic conditions of the geographical area of the hike. In the desert go or early spring or, preferably, in the fall for a comfortable temperature, but not in the summer heat under +50.
In the mountains, you choose the time from the descent of snow from the mountain passes and to a stable snow cover;
the wind rose at the times of the year (I think that no one would want to go the whole hike overcoming a sustained strong headwind),
the way of approach to the initial point of the route, planning during the campaign – adaptation sections in the beginning and in the middle of the route.
Areas of maximum loads and heights.
For route planning in the mountains we are building a preliminary high-altitude route schedule, the direction of the route (prevailing wind direction, different steepness of mountain ridges), planning backup and emergency route options, the number and location of “abandonment” (“abandonment” – sending in advance a parcel with food or equipment in a settlement in the middle of the route), the optimal number of participants in the group, technical preparation of the bike and use of special equipment (for driving in the desert, in the mountains, through the taiga, in summer or in winter). In terms of equipment we can talk about additional reservoirs for water in the desert hike – usually two 10-liter oxygen cushions – and bicycle backpacks equipped with straps to be carried on the shoulders, on particularly steep sections of mountainous terrain).
One-day obstacles To overcome them the following tactical methods are used: It is a correct daily routine (in a hot desert ride from 7 to 11 am, then lunch with a rest in the shade until 4-5 pm and a few more riding hours until dusk.
Overcoming of local obstacles mainly depends on technical equipment of a bicycle and physical preparation of the participant, his experience of riding in different weather conditions on roads with a various covering.
The way of life of the group is also of great importance in cycling tours of initial difficulty categories. First, at dawn, the duty officers wake up and start preparing breakfast. After boiling water in the kettle, before adding the main products, all the other participants are awakened. While the porridge is boiling, everyone washes and prepares for breakfast. If there were breakages the day before, the mechanic gets up together with the on-duty men and starts to repair the equipment. Common meal and gathering of the camp, personal and public things, equipment.
A very big influence on the day’s mileage has the condition of the road to be overcome and the weather conditions. Rubbly, field-gravel unpaved roads make it difficult to move. Crimean descents and ascents slightly reduce the day’s passage, but the intensity of the cyclist’s body increases, increases appetite, the bellhop gives out cookies, candy, dried fruits … The worse the coverage, the less the group can ride kilometers per day. In difficult mountain biking tours advancing on steep mountain trails, scree, glaciers the group can pass only 8-15 km per day.
Properly planned route is successfully overcome by all the participants regardless of the physical, psychological and technical preparation of each participant. Biking is a team sport, but individual training is of great importance for the successful passage of the route by the whole group.
