Road Bike Racing - How much fitness do you leave on the pavement?

First of all thanks to all the good wishes after my bad crash 2 weeks ago. Except for one eyeball that is still REALLY bloodshot I'm looking and feeling good! :)

Now, I want to know if my recovery from that is typical or not. It seems to me that I left a lot of "fitness" on the pavement. Is that a typical reaction to a nasty crash?

i took 2.5 weeks off due to a crash, but during my time off i LITERALLY sat all day for two weeks. You do leave a lot of fitness on the pavement and first few weeks will be very frustrating, but you do get back to where you were faster than actually training from scratch to that point. Week 1 or 2 i did a practice crit and got like 20th on it, then 2-3 weeks later i won the same crit twice, and just generally feel much better.

It will suck but, chin up, you're back on the bike :)

Using something like Cycling Peaks Performance Manager you can actually model (and mathematically quantify) your fitness loss when taking 2 weeks completely off the bike. Later this summer I'll be taking 2 weeks off and it will probably take me 3-5 weeks to get back into the form I had before my hiatus.

Your ability to regain fitness probably depends on how your body responds to ramping up the volume & intensity, not taking into consideration any physical or psychological trauma. Look at the downtime as an opportunity to recharge your batteries. The good news is you'll be fresh when you get back on the bike while others might be fried.

Hey Boss,

Glad to hear you're feeling better!

Yeah, you'll lose some fitness. I took a 3 week vacation last April, and came back slower. But I was back up to speed by the end of May.

Come do the NW rides next week. I won't be at them myself as it's a recovery week, but they're usually pretty fun and they're a heck of a lot safer than that other ride. Tuesday's our full tilt boogie night, Thursday's a little more sedate. 6PM depart (sharp), NW chevron.

I took around 2 weeks off the bike with my broken wrist/flu and it took me around 2 weeks to get it back. First group ride I did get dropped by Botto and a fellow team mate that shouldnt normally drop me (at least that early into the ride). After that "shock" week I was back to normal.

The bright side is the time off did me good I think. It gave my muscles a chance to recover.

! :)

Now, I want to know if my recovery from that is typical or not. It seems to me that I left a lot of "fitness" on the pavement. Is that a typical reaction to a nasty crash?


Depending on the severity of the crash, you can leave alot more than fitness on the pavement. Confidence and motivation are casualties too.

I was flying in Spring 2006 until I suffered a nasty crash while sprinting for the town sign at the end of the group hammer ride. I was leading it out and may have won it too had it not been for a faulty chaiin that jammed my rear mech at 30+. I seriously screwed up my knee. I got stiches and had forced time off of about 4 weeks. To make matters worse, 3 weeks after getting back on the bike my Mother passed away and then 3 weeks later, my Mother in Law passed away. I have only now begun to find the same form I had 2 years ago.

Good luck with your recovery. Dont sit around, do something else if you cant ride.

I really haven't been off the bike much since the crash. Within two days I was back out riding. I even rode my bike to the doctor's office to get the stitches out. I was on the bike, but I couldn't do much intensity. My left shoulder, left ribs, neck and right thumb were pretty sore. Still for the first week after the crash I went out and rode about 2/3 of my normal volume, but without any high intensity work.

This past week I tried to put some intensity back in but it just wasn't there. It's like that fitness just vaporized.