Originally Posted by
Enthalpic
He asked for evidence not opinion.
Training programs have to be tailored to the individual and you can't say for sure that it won't help. In fact it's ridiculously easy to find evidence that it helps some people.
Here's some where they add fairly heavy weight training to endurance training with improved results compared to cycling alone. Note this is adding ST to ET, not replacing a portion of ET with ST, which too many people do when incorporating ST.
(Citations removed for brevity)
Velonews had a link to a good review of these types of studies. I've read a few of the studies themselves, which show that there are benefits to both steady-state riding and harder efforts. The take-away: the ET+ST groups did better at a variety of riding intensities than the ET only groups.
1. go heavy (around 85% 1 RM, i.e. sets of 5-6 to failure) or go home. This is after a lighter prep period. But for gains and maintenance, that's where it's at. Something like 10-12 sets for the lower body will work.
2. if you only lift in the off-season, and totally stop during the season, your gains are forfeited by the end of the season. Once a week at reduced volume (but not intensity) and can keep most of what gains you do make for months.