Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff

I have no idea what a weight lifter does. A bike racer does quite a bit of "riding a lot", particularly when in the off season. Intervals are an integral part of training as well, but a newbie racer will find limited use of these (basically the only ones which are important to the newbie are intervals at threshold) until he has the aerobic base under him to support the interval training. Jumping from recreational cycling into heavy interval training is begging for injury and burnout.