Small details separate a good performance from an average one. Getting these small and easy wins right will improve your performance week in, week out.

Food

Experiment with pre-race meals, in-race nutrition and post race refuelling. Discover what works for you as an individual and execute it every time. Aside from doing the training itself, there is nothing as important as nutrition.

Recon

Learn the course. If you know a course well you are in a better position to plan your tactics and to predict others’. Ride technical sections until you can hit them perfectly and then use this to your advantage. If you can hold your speed round every bend better than anyone else, everyone else will be having to surge to hold your wheel.

Warm up

As a rule of thumb the shorter the event the longer the warm up. In some cases where a hard start is expected a longer warm up may be best. Plan what time you are going to start warming up so that you don’t have to cut it short. Use rollers or a turbo to warm up because this will give you the most control over your power.

Taper

An effective taper for high priority races will deliver you to the start line in peak condition. Tapers alone have been shown to improve performance by 3% in trained athletes.

Openers

Openers the day before a race act in a similar way to a warm up, priming your muscles for the following day’s event. Openers need to be specific to the demands of your event and are best performed on the same bike and course as the event itself. Openers prevent the sluggish feeling that often follows a rest day, meaning you feel fresh and sharp when it matters.

All of these examples involve little to no extra training or money but can make as much difference to your performance as many bigger commitments. Use smaller or practice events to experiment so that you can nail it for big events. You’ve done the hard work in training, don’t waste it by not doing the easy bits.