rubik wrote:
GreenPlease wrote:
rubik wrote:
How is riding rollers a mandatory skill? Riding rollers makes you good at riding rollers.
Trackstand is pretty pointless, too, save for maybe a specific track event.
As Doughtie mentioned above me, riding rollers translates well into general bike handling skills (if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball!) and track standing translates well into low speed handling.
...so maybe not “mandatory” but helpful. I did try to list things in a hierarchical order.
What are you dodging on rollers, exactly?
The notion that rollers help "smooth out pedal strokes" and "improve handling" is archaic silliness rooted in 1970s cycling lore.
If you like riding rollers and trackstanding, by all means do it and enjoy. But don't pretend like it's necessary component for riding well, aggressively, or successfully. Because it's most assuredly not. .
Riding rollers teach you to ride straight without swerving side to side all.over the place. Riding rollers teach you how to not swerve when you grab your water bottle, eat, etc.
Riding rollers teaches you to pay attention 100% of the time. In all 3 cases, if you don't do that on rollers, you end up shooting across the room, on your ass, or some combo therof.
All three things are SORELY lacking in the average triathlete. I always laugh when I read people talking about how they are scared to ride outside because of cars. Me, I'm scared to ride in closed courses because they are plugged with triathletes who can't ride straight on a flat, straight, road since all they do is train locked in place on a smart trainer.
Adde d benefit: Rollers also teach you smoother pedal stroke, which helps everybody from beginner to advanced.