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In this issue:

April Specials

10 Steps to Bike Maintenance at Home

Upcoming Events

Product Feature – First Endurance EFS Sports Drink

Fusion Cycles Clothing at Cost

Training Nutrition Tips – Carbohydrate Intake

 

April Specials

FREE front and rear bike lights with any bike purchase. Value $58
Pre Race Tune Up $35. Save $24


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10 Steps to Bike Maintenance at Home

Based on cycling 2-3 times per week, this maintenance checklist will prolong the life of your bike parts.

  1. Clean chain every week – wipe down with soft cloth & regrease.
  2. Degrease chain every month.
  3. Clean bottom bracket every 4 months if dry weather. If regularly riding in rain, clean bottom bracket every month.
  4. Clean brake pads and wheel rim surface once a week.
  5. Tune gears and check and regrease gear cables every 4 months.
  6. If you have been cycling in the wet, wash frame and running parts, dry with soft cloth and relubricate chain.
  7. Check side walls of tyres regularly for damage and wear and tear. Replace tyres if deep cuts or flat spots as these will mean more flat tyres.
  8. Ensure you have a puncture repair kit on your bike at all times
    • tyre levers
    • pump or CO2 canister
    • spare tube
  9. Home Maintenance equipment
    • foot pump $70
    • wet lubricant $12
    • dry lubricant $12
    • chain degreaser $24
  10. Bike shop service recommended every 6 months – see Silver Service on Fusion Cycles website for details. click here


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Upcoming Events

April

Sun 27 April Sunshine Series MTB Final Round, Mt Cotton click here for details

 

May

Sat Sun May 10-11 MTB Weekend Warrior Festival, Canungra click here for details

Sat 10 May Byron Bay Olympic Distance Triathlon, Byron Bay click here for details

Sun 18 May Ipswich Criterion Road Race, Carole Park click here for details

Sun 18 May MTB XC State Championships, Gatton click here for details

Sun 25 May Avanti Classic 80km Handicap Road Race, Lowood click here for details

 

June

Sun 1 June MTB Incline Boonah Marathon, Boonah click here for details

Sun 8 June Portfolio Partners Brisbane to Noosa 100 mile bike ride click here for details

 

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Product Feature – First Endurance EFS Sports Drink

First Endurance offers safe and legal sports nutrition products that are developed to help endurance athletes optimize performance.

 

EFS (Electrolyte Fuel System) is unlike any other endurance drink mix available. EFS combines the latest clinical research and nutritional technology with input from some of the best endurance athletes in the world. The result: a great-tasting energy drink that provides ALL the ingredients you need to maximize endurance during exercise. For example, each serving of EFS provides all five electrolytes (over 1,000mg/serving) in the levels endurance athletes need to stay hydrated, prevent cramping and maximize endurance. 25 Servings per bottle. Price: $29.95 Available at Fusion Cycles.

 

EFS drinks and bars are designed to provide you with the fuel you need to maximize performance during short and long exercise bouts. Drink 1-2 servings of EFS drink per hour of exercise. As exercise time increases, you should also incorporate EFS bars for additional calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat.

 

First Endurance has a range of drinks, gels, vitamins and bars for training, racing and recovery. Checkout the First Endurance website click here. All products are available at Fusion Cycles.

 

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Fusion Cycles Clothing at Cost

After selling out of our first order in under 8 weeks, we have just received our 2nd run of Fusion Cycles jerseys and knicks/bibs. These kits are sold at cost price $90 per item so drop in and grab a set.


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Training Nutrition Tips – Carbohydrate Intake

After the last newsletter I hope everyone is looking at their overall energy intake to improve performance on the bike.

 

In this issue we will look at carbohydrate intake during training and racing.

 

Carbohydrate is a fascinating nutrient and has a large impact on sporting performance but there is a lot of conflicting information floating around about carbohydrate and how much you need during training. To determine your carbohydrate requirements for an individual exercise session you need to ask yourself a few important questions.

 

1) How long will the session be for?

If the session is longer than 90 minutes it is important to take carbohydrate out on the bike with you. The muscles have a set store of carbohydrate called muscle glycogen. Muscle glycogen is finite and can be depleted. When this store runs out you “Hit the Wall” or “Bonk”. This is your body saying I have no more carbohydrate left in the muscles so I have to drop back my intensity.

 

2) What intensity is the session you are doing?

If you are doing an efforts session or a high intensity session then you will use your stores up faster and carbohydrate from food or fluids can be beneficial in maintaining your effort. Most cyclist would not think of taking carbohydrate out with them if they were doing a session of 8 x 5min efforts, but it may be beneficial in maintaining intensity in the last few repetitions of the session. This goes for racing as well. Most people doing a criterion of 45min plus 3 laps may not think that carbohydrate intake during a race would have a benefit, but a small amount around 20min in, may improve your ability to perform in the sprint at the end of the race. In very general terms it takes around 15-30min for a gel or sports drink to be absorbed and the body to be able to utilise the carbohydrate. So if it is a short race, get the carb in earlier rather than later. It is generally recommended that a person exercising at high intensity should consume around 30-60g/hr or ~1g of carbohydrate per kg per hour. This figure is based on absorption of carbohydrate during exercise and the bodies ability to utilise that carbohydrate being absorbed.

 

3) What form of Carbohydrate should you use?

Recently scientists have started to look at manipulating the type of carbohydrate in sports drinks and gels to see if they can increase the rate at which carbohydrate is absorbed. They have found that by including other types of carbohydrate mainly “Fructose” and “Maltodextrins” along with “Glucose” they can increase the rate of absorption and hence the body’s ability to burn carbohydrate to a higher level. Taking the potential rate of carbohydrate oxidation (burning of fuel) to around ~1.5g per min equating to around 90g of carbohydrate per hour. Products like lollies, soft drink, cordial, most gels and sports drinks contain only glucose. Products that integrate this research are starting to appear on the shelf and cyclists should be looking for products that use this latest research to maximise performance.

 

So before heading out onto the bike next time ask yourself these few simple questions and you will ensure you have enough high octane fuel to train at the red line.

 

PS If you have any questions you would like answered, send them in and I will follow them up and report back in the next issue.

 

Eat up the Road.

 

Greg Shaw, Australian Institute of Sport, Sports Dietitian

 

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Have Fun
Fusion Cycles Team

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