Are turbo trainers more effective than cycling outdoors?

Just how beneficial is turbo training compared to cycling outdoors? With dark evenings and a limited number of daylight hours, it’s a timely question. Here’s Nik Cook to explain the answer.

From a top-end fitness perspective, generally work that’s FTP [functional threshold power, the average number of watts that a rider can sustain in an hour] and above, the turbo is king.

This is mainly because, especially if you’re using ERG mode (where a smart turbo holds you at a set wattage), you do exactly the efforts that the session demands of you – no junctions, pot-holes or other road users to distract you.

For strength work on the bike, which basically boils down to big gear/low cadence intervals, you can certainly do these sort of sessions on the turbo and, especially if you live in an area devoid of hills, it’s probably your best best.

However, a big part of strength on the bike is trunk stability, providing a stable pedalling platform and controlling how the bike moves underneath you. On a turbo, you don’t have to do this so, arguably, for those grind-fest sessions, IRL is the way to go.

For endurance fitness, although platforms such as Zwift have definitely made indoor endurance rides more tolerable, just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

Yes, if the weather makes riding outdoors unfeasible or dangerous, jumping on your turbo is definitely better than not doing a ride but, especially in the lead-up to key events, you should be making every effort to get out and ride for real.

‘Fitness’ for an event is not just about fitness, it also encompasses how well you handle your bike, how effectively you can fuel your effort on the fly and whether you can adapt to changing weather and road conditions.

If you spend all of your time bolted to a turbo and chasing avatars, these key aspects of ‘fitness for triathlon’ are going to be woefully lacking.

Image credit: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Nik Cook Freelance bike writer

About

Nikalas Cook is a writer, author, coach and athlete based in the Peak District. He specialises in health, fitness, endurance and adventure sports. Having studied a postgraduate degree in Health and Exercise Science, he worked for eight years as a top personal trainer in London. He was the editor of Totally Active magazine and writes for numerous specialist magazines and websites including 220 Triathlon, Outdoors Magic, Trail Running and Trek and Mountain. He has also edited the British Cycling member’s website, the Insight Zone. He’s written for national newspapers and magazines including The Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Mail, GQ, Men’s Fitness and Red Magazine. But he’s probably most proud of being Derbyshire Life’s beer correspondent. Nik has written two books (Marathon Training: Get to the Start Line Strong and Injury-free; Peak District Trail Running: 22 off-Road Routes for Trail & Fell Runners) and his third, entitled The Road Cycling Performance Manual, was published by Bloomsbury in June 2018. He has also worked with Nigel Mitchell on his book, Fuelling the Cycling Revolution, and with Martin Evans and Phil Burt on their book, Strength and Conditioning for Cyclists. He’s completed numerous cycling challenges including the Trans-Wales MTB stage race, the Fred Whitton, the Raid Pyrenees and both the Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders sportives. Competitively, he likes to combine his cycling with running and has previously won gold in his age-group at the ITU World Long Course Duathlon Championships at Powerman Zofingen.