Here we are, well into the thick of the racing season. Your initial freshness may have worn a bit thin and you may find yourself wondering, why you are not getting any better. After all, you are riding as hard as you can, aren't you? Perhaps you might try something different: how about riding as easy as you can?

There are probably as many ways to waste energy on the bike as there are body parts. For everything, that wiggles, there is a right and wrong way to use it. Some parts need to be tighter, some more relaxed. Some need to get into the act, while others must remain uninvolved. Ideally, efficient riding is a combination of technical concepts and physical habits.

To ride your best requires learning basic techniques for pedaling, cornering, braking and the like. But it also needs constant monitoring of how your body is working while you ride, in order to avoid developing sloppy habits or non-productive movements. Often, it is not more strength you need but a  change in technique or position. In sprinting or climbing, for instance, a tiny change in fore-and-aft positioning can release your power. If you watch the gazelles and rabbits in the pack effortlessly power away, while you hang off the bars like King Kong or stomp the pedals like this year's Zin harvest, it is time to get some help. Ask a coach or a rider, whom you admire to watch you sprint or climb. Get yourself videotaped and compare yourself to the pros. And when you go out to train, start by climbing or sprinting easily, in slow motion.

Experiment with finding the balance point, the position of strength, that lets the bike float under you. Dance with bike, directing it with subtle weight changes and mere flicks of the hands. When you get that feeling, make sure you keep it as you increase your effort and speed.

Another place, where many riders give up power is in their pedalling. Especially, if you have heard a lot about "ankling", or if you consciously flex your ankles, it is all too easy to let your timing get sloppy. As you become tired, ankles can start flexing the wrong way round: the down force on the pedal pushes the heel down at the bottom and then the fatigued calf muscles let the foot trail at the top, requiring the knees to describe a larger circle relative to the crank.

Again, get someone to double - check you, or watch a videotape to be sure you are not wasting motion thrashing your feet around. At higher cadences – the ones at which you should be doing most of your riding - it is more efficient to keep your ankles at close to same angle. The calf muscle actually contributes little to the pedal stroke, as the calf is just a connecting rod between the levers of foot and thigh.

It is easy to waste energy above the waist too. Propel the bike with your legs, not your shoulders and head. Keep everything "above the table" as quiet as possible. Steer the bike with weight shifts on the seat, using your centre of gravity instead of your arms. Check yourself now and then for white knuckles and locked elbows. When in doubt about your state of relaxation, see if you can still GRIN! If you can, you are OK.

Another big, so to speak, repository of useless tension is your belly. In order to breathe your best, lower your heart rate and blood pressure and raise your efficiency, let your belly hang like that of an old horse standing in a field. "Uncage" your lungs and do not worry about the fashion photographers lurking along the course. Here are two really nifty belly tricks: when you want to accelerate, bear down with your belly muscles.

Do not tighten or pull in, but just push down, hard, into the seat. This solidifies your entire torso and directs all your power into the pedals; it is like turning on the turbo when it is done correctly. Secondly: after  a hard interval or sprint, when you are recovering, force yourself to inhale and exhale slowly several times to a count of ten. Use all your lungs capacity and exhale through your mouth forcefully. You will find, that yourheart rate will drop much more quickly, when you use this technique.

So, learn to ride with a minimum of effort and to stay relaxed. You will be dealing with stresses of racing If you are working on developing a firm foundation of calmness and strength, you will ride better and have more fun doing it. Competitive cycling is a very tough sport; there is no point in making it any harder than it is already and there are no awards for suffering.

Otakar Dolezel