I felt like I'd won the lockdown lottery when I dusted off the untouched turbo trainer I'd been given for free three years previously. It had been sitting unloved in the shed for ages, but 4 weeks ago I decided to dig it out and get stuck in.

It seemed like turbos had become the hottest commodity since toilet paper during quarantine, and I felt pretty lucky to have one. The only problem was I didn't really know what I was doing. As a somewhat beginner cyclist (I've been cycling on and off for a few years, but never consistently), spending time on the bike has always been more valuable than having the latest technology. I figured the best way to start was just mounting my bike on the trainer and getting going. 

I'm now an expert at taking my rear wheel on and off, as well as understanding the importance of regularly cleaning your bike (chain grease is a nightmare to get off your clothes!) My turbo is what is not very kindly known as ‘dumb’, which means it isn’t a smart trainer that changes the resistance automatically. It has five resistance settings, plus of course my bike’s gears, so it took some getting used to. I started by spending 20-30 minutes at a time getting used to being on the turbo and how the resistance settings worked with my gears. Wow, that was boring!

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Welcome to Part Two of our Mallorca trip debrief. For those that don't know (or clearly aren't on Instagram) we recently spent a week in Mallorca, riding up and flying down hills. For a full run down of the members and roles of Team Dirty Wknd Estrella Viva Velo Pro Cycling (or DWEVVPC for short), as well as a thorough debrief of days one to four of our trip, please - Click Here.

In all honesty - days one to four were the warm up! The prologue in, the correct cycling parlance. Sure, the team took on a few massive hills without really breaking a sweat, but the likes of the Col de Femenia weren't going to trouble hardened climbers like Veronica and Rachael - they literally eat #hillsforbreakfast! DS Dyll Davies was going to have to find some much tougher climbs for his mountain goats.

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Hello and welcome to my new regular blogging spot. My name is Jo Goodall, I work as a Management Consultant in the City by day but like to spend the majority of my time training for and taking part in endurance/adventure challenges. I am also training to be a Personal Trainer so I hope to bring some of that new found knowledge to you via this blog.

Previous challenges of mine have included a trip to Borneo for a tri-expedition through the rainforest; running The London Marathon; cycling around Lake Geneva in a day; and most recently completing Deloitte Ride Across Britain 2016 – cycling 969 miles in 9 days from Lands’ End to John O’Groats. I must also mention that I am a fairly new cyclist – I only bought a bike 6 months before completing RAB!

So in honour of the upcoming challenge, I thought I would give you my 5 top tips for Deloitte Ride Across Britain 2017:

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Bike luggage has noticeably evolved in the last few years. We’ve moved from heavy pannier racks to inline seat packs, frame bags and handlebar bags, then all the way back to pannier racks except this time excruciatingly expensive and made from carbon fibre. Through all of that, the humble backpack has persisted. It’s hard to beat for practicality on short trips, commutes or shopping trips.

Craft Cadence are a relatively young manufacturer who sent the club one of their new backpacks to test out. It’s targeted at commuters and - given that I’ve commuted and run most of my errands by bike with a backpack for more years than I like to think about - it’s over to me to give some impressions.

It’s traditional to add a disclaimer that no money changed hands for this review but they did send it to me for free, so make up your own mind about the extent to which that compromises my opinion.

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Functional Threshold Power (FTP) has become a much used term in cycling, bandied about at club rides and in cycling cafes, but what does it actually mean? And do you need to know what your FTP is? The answer is yes - if you are able to measure your FTP you absolutely should!

Traditionally it has always been hard to measure, unless you have a power metre on your bike or a smart turbo trainer at home, so we've teamed up with Digme Fitness to allow you to use their high tech bikes to test your FTP.

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