Olya Chudakova: co-rides, a bike track and a strong lover without intervals

Guest

Useful from the issue

1. A good bike changes the fun

   Olya considers the purchase of a highway bike to be the beginning of her hobby: she did not enjoy riding a city bike and did not ride much. Even the budget carbon gave a sharp jump in speed and in the desire to ride.

2. Skating without a plan does not increase power

   According to her, up to 70% of cycling hours are "empty": they give endurance and skills, but not power. To catch up with those who train according to the program, you need structured work or a coach.

3. Bike track teaches you to ride in a group

   A beginner on the track learns to keep the wheel, steady speed and pass shifts. In winter, it also helps to get involved in the road season faster.

4. Don't react to every attack

   In the women's group with the elite, Olya looks at the strongest: if they don't leave, she stays too. It is better to go around the crush with elbows, and not sit on her wheel.

5. Coferide for beginners — these are the rules

   The route is about 30 km, conversational pace, two presenters, traffic rules and an agreement with a coffee shop about a place for bicycles. So a beginner can safely come, get acquainted and learn how to ride in a group.

6. Long stages cut off participants

   The Pskov — Novgorod tour has two days of 180 km each, and Olya believes that it was because of them that there were few participants. For the tour, you either need to take trained people, or look for a route with short stages and overnight stays.

7. On the descent, the trajectory is important

   The main thing on the descent, according to Olya's experience, is not hairpins, but smooth turns: choose a trajectory, slightly shift the center of gravity and go through them without unnecessary braking.

From the sofa to the Canyon

Olya started riding consciously in 2014 on a city bike, but there was no pleasure — less than 500 km was gained during the season. The turning point happened when, before traveling to the Alps, she ordered the most budget carbon Canyon: she received it in August, right before the trip, and immediately realized why everyone was driving faster.

She had almost no sports base: she didn't go to athletics for long as a child, and when she joined the alpine club in 2015, she couldn't run a mile and a half without stopping. Since then, the rolls have grown to five thousand per season, and in 2023 — to fourteen thousand kilometers, its most active season.

In parallel, Olya is engaged in mountaineering: she has the first sports category, hiking in the Caucasus and the 5A category route. But in recent years, the bicycle has been displacing the mountains in the summer, and now she goes to the rocks more for fun.

A co-rider among strong amateurs

Olya estimates the 2023 season as follows: she didn't add power, but she did add skills, because she skated a lot with top fans of St. Petersburg. She does not do intervals and does not train on the machine, but she almost always stays on the wheel even when the group performs interval work. Once on such a stretch, the average was about 50 km/ h — she found out about it only at home, in Strava.

Olga sees the gap with those who train systematically honestly: it is those who work according to the program who go around her at the races. She does not expect to catch up with the master of sports Daria Pravilova in a year or two, but with the rest of the amateurs, she believes, experience decides a lot - to understand where to cheat and who to hold on to. The plans are to finally start working with a trainer and change the bike to something more serious.

Sputnik's coffee shops

Olya divides coffee rides into three types: urban, "healthy person" — with an average of 30, but without plowing, and sports, where there are intervals on each ascent. Most of all, she likes sports, but the Sputnik coffee rides that she did with Tanya were conceived as an entrance for beginners: to come, get acquainted, learn how to ride in a group.

The format is simple: a route of about 30 km around the city, a conversational pace in pairs, two presenters hold a group, all according to traffic rules. They agreed with coffee shops about discounts and letting people with bicycles in. The season was closed early: there were a lot of people, you can't put everyone with bicycles in the coffee shop anymore, and you don't want to sit on the veranda in the cold. Previously, such races in the city were closed because of the unruly public, but now, according to Olya, the highway riders have a taste and culture.

Tour from Pskov to Veliky Novgorod

After traveling along the Volga, Olya and her friend drove the Pskov — Pechory — Izborsk — Pushkin Mountains — Porkhov — Veliky Novgorod route. She was surprised by the asphalt: she was afraid of "lunar craters", as in the Yaroslavl region, but found good and empty roads, sometimes better than the Primorsky highway.

The idea was turned into a tour together with Sputnik: an escort car, a photographer, the end of August. The announcement came out in three weeks, and there were five participants. The main conclusion of Oli is that stages 70, 120 and twice 180 km each require trained people, and it is impossible to break up long days, because there is nowhere to spend the night on the road.

Gravel, "Reverse" and mountains

On the "Reverse" in 2021, Olya was preparing on someone else's, barely alive cyclocross bike and rolled several hundred kilometers of soil. She started briskly, went into a breakaway, but on the ascents the big star 28 did not help out, they caught up with her, and as a result she became the fourth — a good result for the first time against girls with a lot of gravel experience.

She didn't get used to her gravel path: the gravel route takes half a day, and on the highway the classic 70 km takes two hours. But the descents are easy: in Sochi she got into the top ten on the downhill, and friends are surprised at how fearless she is. Olya says there is no fear — it is important to choose the right trajectory and go through everything that is not a hairpin without brakes.

Bike track and fall on the Gran fondo

Olya came to the track for skills for the highway: she learned to fold better into an aerodynamic landing. Three classes a week, in her experience, do not add power, and falling on the canvas even on a flat area leaves burns. But the track helped to get involved in the season faster: in April, she immediately withstood 140 km in a fast group, although 70 was hard before. According to her, the track is especially useful for beginners — they teach them how to keep the wheel, steady speed and take shifts, there are one-time classes and season tickets.

At the grand fondo on the ZSD, Olya got into a blockage and broke a fork. She considers it a disadvantage that amateurs are put in the same group as the elite: inexperienced girls do not understand tactical games, react to every attack and ride in a crush. Her rule is to know who to hold on to, and not to react to an attack if the strongest remain in place.

Women's pokatushki

The first women's weaving, where Olya got into in 2019, was disappointing: the column was led by a man, the group was barely crawling, many had no tools. In the lockdown, she was inspired by posts about the shortage of female cycling communities and, together with a friend, began organizing women's rides. Now she participates in Cycle Girls, where everyone comes and the group needs to be watched especially carefully.

Ilya adds that as an organizer he sees an acute shortage of girls in amateur races, and promises that the next few issues of the podcast will be with guests. Olya explains why such projects are important: through dating it is easier to find out even how to get on the same bike track — there is almost no information in the public domain.

Timestamps

1. 00:12How it all started
2. 03:40Sports background and mountaineering
3. 07:02How was the 2023 season
4. 09:55The pros are still far away
5. 12:11Coferides
6. 16:05Tour from Pskov to Novgorod
7. 21:13Non-road adventures: "Reverse"
8. 26:32Descents in the mountains
9. 29:14Amateur clubs
10. 34:45Bike Track
11. 40:05Gran Fondo and the Fall
12. 43:46Lockdown and women's rides
13. 49:21The podcast is calling the girls

Mentioned in this episode

Sputnik · Cycle Girls · Canyon · Reverse · Gran Fondo · Sochi-Torpedo · Strava · Time trial · Tour de Selishchi