Even though professional cyclist Jaco Venter is finding indoor training during the lockdown period much harder than tackling the open roads, he says there are some unexpected benefits.
Jaco Venter, who won this year’s Tour of Good Hope, says there are some unexpected benefits to training indoors. Photo: Henk Neuhoff
The Tour of Good Hope winner says you can focus a lot more on your stroke and your power balance.
“I think this is a good time to focus on that,” said the 33-year-old Team First Move rider.
His routine includes “making sure you ride 50/50 balance and also doing the back part of the stroke, which is important”.
“I’m also doing some one-legged efforts, just low power but focusing on the stroke – and that’s about the only efforts I’m doing at the moment.”
Venter, who used to ride for Team Dimension Data internationally, said he never really needed to ride the trainer that much in the past as he was mostly in summer all year round. He therefore found it much more challenging to do so now.
“During the European off-season I was in SA and had good weather and when I went to Europe we could always train and we were racing a lot.”
Currently Venter, who is exercising in his lounge at his home in Somerset West, is focusing more on core and strength exercises.
“It is difficult putting in massive rides on a trainer at the moment without knowing the next goals.
“I’m not too stressed about my fitness at the moment as I don’t see races in the near future and I had a good period up until lockdown, without any problems. So I was going to take off after Cape Epic anyway.”
For Venter, indoor training is about keeping healthy and not picking up too much weight during this period.
“As we don’t have a choice but to ride on the trainers I think it’s important to get on the bike as much as you can, even if its just a short ride to keep your body active.
“Otherwise it almost feels like your body goes to sleep and you feel bad most of the time.
“I do think it is possible to reach your goals on an indoor trainer. It just depends on what your goals are.”
Venter has also been coaching himself this year, using all the experience he has gained from coaches he has worked with.
“In the end we know our bodies better than anyone else does.
“I had a plan, but I went a lot more on feelings than just sticking to a programme like in the past and I think it worked out very well.”
Regarding advice for fellow cyclists using an indoor trainer, he said don’t stress too much about training and intervals.
“I think it’s more about staying healthy and keeping active. There are no races coming up anyway, so you’ll have time to work on your goals. Just enjoy riding your bike.”
