A Day In The Life Of The UK’s Fastest Cyclist

If you want to get faster on the bike then is there anything you can learn from one of the fastest riders in the UK? To find out we spent a day in the life of the rider who’s finished 2025 ranked number 1 in the British road race rankings for one of his split sessions…

In this video we also discuss how riders overcome crashes, injuries and setbacks as well as their go to sessions to get fit on the bike quick…

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This is Ed. He’s currently ranked number one in the British cycling road race rankings. But what’s it actually like to ride with one of the fastest riders in the country? Can I keep up? And how do they overcome setbacks in a season of racing? Let’s find out. Now, you might think that if you’re ranked number one in the country, then the season has been all smooth sailing and standing on tops of podiums and popping champagne and things like that. But actually it that wasn’t quite the case. And in Ed’s own words, it’s been a bit of a rocky road. It’s safe to say that the season started well. A podium in his first national road race of the year, followed up by multiple top 10s and then a fourth place at the Rutland Sickle Classic, the UK’s only one-day UCI accredited race. Think of it as Parry Rube but with more mud and pies. Today he’s let us in to one of his training days. So let’s go and see how it all started. So to find out a bit more if there’s anything we can copy off of one of the country’s best, we’re joining Ed for one of his split sessions. Now can you explain what a split session is? Yes. So basically I’ll do a session in the morning and a session afternoon. This morning using my whoosh to do my overunder session. Mhm. outdoors then afterwards zone two. And what is the what is the benefit of that? Is it just to mix it up or? Yeah, it’s split up. It makes it easier. It’s like you have to do five hours at once. You can do I’m doing an hour and a half now. Yeah. 2 hours this afternoon. I know that’s not 5 hours in total, but still. Well, that does actually lead me on to my my list of questions for you because after this I’m obviously going to be as fast as you. So, how many hours do you ride in a week? Currently between 15 and 20. Uh I’d like to say I could do more than that but no about 15 to 20 hours. So with that what percentage would you say is inside and outside? Now I’m sure that’s going to change like throughout the season. Yeah. What sort of is during the summer is it is it purely outside or I try and keep most of it outside in summer. Um mainly cuz the weather is nicer. But anything specific like really specific Mhm. I use the trainer for because you can just get rid of that junk miles but also I’m getting you fed of all the heat adaptations. Yes, I use it in summer for that. We actually have a video on heat adaptations. If you want to watch that, there’s a link up there or there. I think it’s that way. It’s only 200 W. I’m dying. Well, I was going to ask you what your zone 2 power is. So, I usually do zone 2 rides between around 215 and 260 W. Anywhere in that range, I’m pretty happy. And then, cuz I reckon I might be able to stay on your wheel for that bit. What’s your FTP? So, what would you climb at? If I was to give a number to it is around between 370 380. Mhm. Yeah. I I wouldn’t keep up with that. I mean, I can’t remember the last time I tested it. It could be lower, it could be higher. So, who knows? And we’re testing inside or outside mixture. I think if in in the winter inside mainly because most my riding’s inside in the summer I’ll probably try to do outdoors. Yeah. And if there’s if you could recommend one session I know you I guess your coach will set a lot of your training but if there’s one session that’s your go-to you get fit quick session what would it be? This session here. My overunders. Right. So, I’ll do one minute above threshold. So, currently, if you see that, that’s 395 watt. And I’ll do four minutes just below. So, 360 W. Ouch. And repeat that for a block. So, these ones are 3 * 15 minutes. But the fitter you get, the more you extend them. I’m glad I’m joining you for the outside bit and not the inside bit. Ah, you beat me, mate. And I can see here that you’re using my whoosh. Um, do you just think you’re tad for GATA or or is is there another reason? Yeah, I’m I am basically Tad. They do call me TA. Um, so I can import all my workouts and training peaks. Yeah. Into here. So that for example, this overunder session. Okay. So you’ve actually made this session yourself and imported it into my Yeah. imports automatically. Now, if you can’t be bothered to do that, there is lots of pre-planned workouts on my whoosh, but yeah, if you want your pro, then I guess you could do that, too. And then yeah, the other good thing about it is it’s free on the UK scene, none of us make money unless you’re a privateeer. Okay. So for me, myself riding on an amateur team. Yeah. It means I don’t have to pay a monthly subscription. So how long was it before you got back on back training like after a big crash? Yeah. How long would it take? Obviously longer if you break your pelvis or something like that, but yeah. So I I took a full week off, but not because my shoulder because of the road rash. Yeah. They just said you probably shouldn’t sweat and it’s like my hip was quite deep. Yeah. Um so they said try and avoid sweating as much as you can and then you start back but it’s all then you wait and make sure your body’s okay. So you know I felt okay after doing half an hour do 45 minutes build up slowly then. Mhm. So obviously in cycling there is there is going to be setbacks. It’s a sport where whether you’re your level, whether in my level, whether you’re someone else’s level, every level, there will be setbacks. Whether that is uh you you’re busy with work and you haven’t trained for several months, you might have months off the bike, you might have a crash and have a few weeks off the bike. Anything can literally happen. What is your advice to getting back to fitness as quick as possible? I think the main thing is you take your time. I really do think because if you rush it, you’re going to do something wrong. Yeah. So, don’t get me wrong, I was there and I was panicking at the time. I was leading the overall rankings and that’s what in my head I was like, I want to stay number one. Of course you do. Yeah. But my teammates with the closest rivals, I guess, in that and I was there like, “Oh gosh, they’re going to catch me.” Um, but then you just have phone calls with a few people that you know truly support you and they will help you and just say, you know, you can have two weeks off the bike for illness and after a week of training, you’re almost back to normal. Yeah. So, in my head, I was like, that’s basically what I’m doing. I have a couple weeks of just reset until I’m okay to just sit on the bike and pedal. Yeah. And then it’s go time from there. And then you just build up endurance. Don’t touch the top end until you feel fit enough. Yeah. I guess the key thing is don’t go and do your biggest week as your first week back. Yeah. Because otherwise unsustainable. You’re then going to it might seem like you’re catching up for lost time, but actually you’re just setting yourself further back. Yeah. Exactly. You know, if you go out and do you’ve still got time off work or if you don’t work, you know, you have time, you have just all the time in the world and it’s nice weather. you don’t go into 30 hours because you know the next week you’re probably going to be in bed for the week with some seriously sore legs. So yeah, I think you are completely right there. It’s all about gradual building yourself back up. Mhm. So nice. Well, I will leave you to your session. Um it does look rather hellish. Yeah. Make sure you make sure you hit all those numbers and that you’re nice and tired for when we go out and do the the second part of your session. I can’t wait, Jamie. I can’t wait. Enjoy. Thank you. Well, we’re kitted up ready for part two of your training day. Um well, part two for you, part part one for me. Um what does what does it entail? Yeah, so obviously you’ve done the hard part earlier on this morning and now it’s purely just endurance riding. So, it’s mainly zone two, you know, nice endurance pace. However, I might chuck in a few digs just to make you hurt a little bit. Oh, brilliant. Well, I guess I’ll see if I can uh can keep up. I’m sure you’ll be okay. Oh man, thank god that’s over. I think you did. All right, Jamie. Not too bad. I am quite unfit. I think you’ve been fitter. Put it that way. Yeah. Yeah. I do actually have a new found respect for the work that goes into it. Like anyone riding at your level, riding n A’s in this country, riding n B’s in this country has put in a serious amount of time and effort and I’d have to sacrifice things that I I don’t want to sacrifice. Yeah, of course I do. I Yeah, that’s I do think just to be at even a nap B level uh I say even a nappy level, that’s a really high level of cycling. People do sacrifice a lot. They live quite a a boring life, should we say? Regimented. There you go. That’s a nice nice way of putting it. And I think then you think about the wheel tour and these riders who are even better and it’s just mindboggling. Yeah. Well, maybe I do need to get back on it cuz uh I’ve definitely been faster and uh it is winter coming up though, but I guess I could do some do some more indoor training. I mean to be fair Jamie, a few years ago used to be considerably faster and you are missed a peak for January anyway. So yes, I I did used to be famous for that. But so maybe I’ll borrow your session from earlier. You’d have to send me a few more. That’s fine. And uh yeah, I’ll do some more indoor training cuz I think that is the biggest thing that has affected my fitness and I think affected your fitness as well is the structure. Yeah, 100%. And I find that indoor training on programs such as my whoosh is a brilliant way of getting that structure. I think it’s even better as well for somebody like yourself who works full-time. It’s when you’ve not got time to spend 4 hours midweek riding a bike and sometimes you if you’re working weekends as well, you don’t even have the weekends anymore. You have maybe an hour and a half in the evening. You can get so much done. That session I did today, hour 35. You can even you can shorten that a little bit. I did a little bit of a warm up at start extended. You can cut that out completely and that can be an hour hour and a quarter. So, how many hours am I going to have to do to get fast? I think you can get away with seven. Seven. Seven. Okay. Structured. There’s a challenge. Seven hours of structured training every week. Not seven hours over a month. We’ll give it a go. If you want to try out Ed’s session, then uh we’ll pop a link to it down in the description below and then you can import it into my wish. Or if you can’t be bothered with any of that, then you can use one of their pre-made sessions that are already on the program. If you like this content, then please give it a like. Subscribe to the channel for lots more bike stuff, and we’ll see you next