In cycling, as in life, there are no short cuts to being your best. 

Everything requires work. If you want to win a race, you need to train hard. If you want to smash singletrack trails, you need to practise. If you want to climb faster than anyone else, you need to train your body (and mind) to conquer the hills. 

In short, if you want to be a better cyclist, you need to put in the effort. 

That said, the good news is we’ve made it slightly easier for you. We’ve spoken to some of South Africa’s top cyclists, so you can use their tips and tricks to improve your cycling ability.

There’s no substitute for hard work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from the hard work of others!

Photo: Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP via Getty Images

Climb Like Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio

With a successful career locally and internationally, six-time South African National Road Race Champion Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio has been a flag-bearer for South African cycling for over a decade. Based in Spain, Moolman-Pasio has raced the Giro d’Italia Women (second in 2018 and 2021), Tour de France Femmes (6th in 2023), Strade Bianche Women and many other iconic international events. Along the way, she’s learnt a thing or two about tackling big climbs.

Climbing really boils down to your power-to-weight ratio

“Climbing really boils down to your power-to-weight ratio,” says Moolman-Pasio. “That doesn’t mean you must be as light as possible; rather, you need to find the balance between where your power is high and your weight is at that sweet spot. This can take some time, so it’s something you need to work on.” 

Moolman-Pasio doesn’t like the idea of a quick fix to improve your climbing (that is, losing a lot of weight), but she does believe in interval work – specifically, working on your brute power through torque training. “This type of training – riding a heavy gear at low cadence – is a game-changer. In the build phase of your training, you’d include intervals of between four and 10 minutes, riding at a low cadence. By doing this, you’re building your aerobic capacity, which allows you to sit at your threshold for longer on the climb.”

Another benefit of torque training is that it improves your technique. “When you’re doing torque work, you’re using all your muscle groups as you focus on pushing and pulling the pedals. This is excellent training for your technique, as you’re forced to concentrate on how you’re riding.” 

Ash’s Top Tip

“During a race, pacing on a climb is very important,” says Moolman-Pasio. “Chapman’s Peak on the Cycle Tour is a good example of where this can go wrong! Sometimes the group you’re in can start surging, but you need to have discipline here, to stick with your pacing strategy. When I’m racing, I know what I can maintain; and if people go mad on the climbs, I rather stick to my pace and strategy.”

Sprint Like Nolan Hoffman 

With his knack for an explosive finish, Nolan Hoffman was a dominant force on the South African road race scene for over a decade, starting way back with his win at the Pick n Pay OFM Classic in 2007. Of all his victories that came down to a sprint finish, though, he remembers the 2015 Cape Town Cycle Tour most fondly. 

“That was the year Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw were in Cape Town, racing for Etixx – Quick-Step,” says Hoffman. “Everyone just assumed they’d rock up and ride away with it. But thanks to HB Kruger, I was able to get into the right position and sprint for the win. Without HB as my lead-out man, I wouldn’t have won that race.” 

The trick is to wait, wait, wait, and then put all your energy into one massive effort

Hoffman says if you ever find yourself within range of winning a race with a sprint, the most crucial tactic is to stay within range of the lead bunch. “You want to stay close to the front, and not too far back where you have to work constantly – you lose energy jostling for position all the time. The trick is to wait, wait, wait, and then put all your energy into one massive effort. With sprinting, it’s the last 15 to 20 seconds of riding that wins you the race.”

Amateur cyclists and the general cycling public are unlikely to get into a sprint finish, but Hoffman still believes all cyclists can learn something from sprinters. 

“Sprinting is a good skill to have,” says Hoffman. “Ultimately, the craft of sprinting helps you with positioning in a race. If you’re positioned well in the bunch, you’re going to shave time off your race because you can stay with a faster group. Sticking in a group is where you can improve your time; positioning is crucial in any bike race.”

Nolan’s Top Tip

“Stay close to the front of the group, but not at the front. This allows you to see things others miss. You get towed, you miss crashes, you don’t have to chase back all the time – you become ‘bunch smart’. If you’re serious about racing, this can make or break your day.” 

Image: The Cedar Race

Endure Like Kevin Benkenstein

Almost every cyclist who’s taken part in an endurance event, be it a 100-miler or a three-day stage race, has a story about where they had to dig deeper than they ever thought possible to overcome the odds. 

Two-time Munga winner and ultra-endurance cyclist Kevin ‘Benky’ Benkenstein is no different. Last year, during the 1 300km Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco, Benkenstein was battling – just two hours into the race. 

“My diet had not been ideal before the race – two days of hotel food, I think,” says Benkenstein. “I felt flat, bloated and had no energy. On the very first climb I was walking already. After 130km I was sitting in 20th place, and feeling grim.” 

Benkenstein lurched onwards to the first checkpoint, and was able to get some food; more importantly, he was able to take stock and reassess his situation. “I knew if I could get going again, I could just eat into the course bit by bit. I managed to ride myself back into some decent shape, and eventually finished in fourth place.” 

For Benkenstein, the key to enduring is finding joy in what he does. This helped him get through the darker moments of the 2023 Rhino Run, a 2 700km self-supported race from Plettenberg Bay to Windhoek in Namibia. “I phoned my wife and told her, ‘This is stupid. It’s over 40 degrees, I could be home with you and the kids; what am I doing out here?’ She just said to me, ‘That’s where you want to be. That’s what you enjoy’. Her words helped me to re-centre, recalibrate and keep going.” 

If you’re doing something you really enjoy, that’s all the motivation you need.

To keep going and going and going, then, Benkenstein says you should ensure that what you’re doing excites you. “If you’re doing something you really enjoy, that’s all the motivation you need. I love challenging myself; it gives me mental freedom to be in that moment, conquering a very specific task.” 

Benky’s Top Tip

On a more practical level, Benkenstein says the ultimate key to surviving an endurance event – and remember, one man’s Rhino Run is another man’s Ride Joburg – is to never look at the total distance. “Take the near-3 000km Rhino Run,” he says. “I broke that down to towns, then I broke down the town-to-town distances even further, into two-hour chunks. And if I knew there were four hills in that two-hour stretch, I would break it down hill-to-hill.” 

Photo by Sam Clark / Wines2Whales.

Race Trails Like Candice Lill

Candice Lill had what can only be described as a cracker of a 2024 season on the international circuit. She claimed bronze at the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships, finished fourth in the UCI XCO World Championships, and claimed third place overall in the UCI XCO World Series. It’s no exaggeration to say she’s currently South Africa’s number-one female mountain biker.

Lill is also a cyclist who never rests on her laurels; she’s constantly striving to improve her performance, ever eager to find ‘the edge’. It makes sense, then, that her advice to mountain bikers looking to improve their racing ability on trails boils down to: “Never neglect the basics.” 

Once you’re comfortable with the basics, then you start pushing the envelope

“You can always be faster,” Lill says. “I have a certain level of skill, but I do the basics over and over again. Once you’re comfortable with the basics, then you start pushing the envelope. Repeat the process over and over, until it becomes second nature.”

Lill adds: “There’s no right way to do something. Riders must find what works for them, and then progress at a speed they’re happy with. The best way to learn is to ride where you feel a little bit challenged, but not completely out of your comfort zone. If you try and progress too quickly, or always outside of your comfort zone, then it gets way too overwhelming and you might fall out of the sport altogether.” 

Candice’s Top Tip

If you’re training for a specific trail event, Lill says, the best way to improve is to ride more trails. “It seems obvious; but I often see people training on the road for big events like Cape Epic and Wines2Whales. This is obviously great and makes you fit, but some of our most popular events in South Africa are very trail-heavy, and you need to ride more trail if you want to improve your performance. 

“I know it’s not always possible to achieve this, but I highly recommend it. If you can’t get to the trails, then it’s worth incorporating specific skills sessions into your training programme.” 

Photo: Getty Images

Descend Like Théo Erlangsen

Three-time national downhill champion Théo Erlangsen has spent time on the UCI Downhill World Cup Series, but it’s at freestyle events like Darkfest where his rampaging talents come to the fore. Any image search for Erlangsen invariably shows him upside down in the middle of a 30-metre jump. Little wonder, then, that his advice to become a better descender on the trails is: “Crash a lot!” 

“I was lucky enough to start learning when I was very young,” he adds. “But in essence, to become a good mountain biker – or at least a good mountain bike descender – you have to just crash a lot. Unfortunately, when you’re older, crashing sucks! But when you’re younger, you can crash your brains out and it doesn’t really matter. 

“To be honest, these days I prefer to stay off the ground…” 

Erlangsen says another good way to learn how to descend – when you’re young – is to ride with friends. “There’s no faster route to success than some good old fashioned peer pressure!”

The biggest mistake you can make is failing to commit, or hesitating

More pragmatically, Erlangsen says that the best way to improve your descending skill is to commit. “I want it on record that I’m not a fearless descender. Everyone is scared when they descend; it just depends on the context of where you’re riding and the speed you’re going. That said, the biggest mistake you can make is failing to commit, or hesitating. If you can overcome this, you’ll be a far better descender.” 

Théo’s Top Tip

“This is not always possible; but if you can, I recommend you shuttle a trail and ride that same trail repeatedly. Do 10 laps instead of one. Ride it over and over in a session. You get very comfortable riding a trail like this, and it helps remove a lot of the anxiety you might normally face. It’s very hard to get better at something when you’re only doing it once a week or once a month.”

Photo: Change a Life

Be Mentally Resilient Like Martin Dreyer

“Anybody can be mentally tough,” says Martin Dreyer. Easy for him to say! After all, Dreyer is a man who made his name at the Dusi Canoe Marathon before proving his now-legendary toughness on the adventure racing scene, and who holds three of the top five fastest times for the Freedom Challenge.

“Being mentally tough is a state of mind,” he says. “That said, it’s important to build your skillset before you undertake any challenge. This is true of Cycle Tour riders, Cape Epic riders, or people like me and Jeannie (Dreyer, Martin’s wife – Ed.) who tackle events like the 1 900km Silk Road Mountain Race.

“For any event you want to participate in, you need a skillset to handle the conditions. Get the skillset, and the mental toughness follows.” 

Dreyer concedes that some people are able to ‘hurt’ more than others, but that’s also when your motivation for undertaking a challenge kicks in. A recent example of Dreyer’s grit came when he was asked by the organisers of the 36ONE MTB Challenge to test the route for a potential 72ONE event – the 36ONE route twice, fully self-supported. Dreyer’s response? “Hell yes, why not.” 

Having started at 1am, he reached 180km only to realise he was running low on supplies. He reached 270km, limped into Calitzdorp, and stumbled into the Spar to stock up. Before making it back outside, he’d downed a can of Creme Soda; but his body rejected the sudden infusion of hydration and sugar, and he ended up vomiting all over the Spar stoep. Onlookers offered encouragement, with cries of, “Die man is dronk!”

“I was so shattered,” says Dreyer. “But I still had 90km to go to reach 360km and to start my second leg. By the time I got to the 360km checkpoint, everyone was gone, even my wife!” 

In her absence, though, Jeannie managed to spur Martin on.

“She’d left a note on my pillow that said, ‘Mart, you have to fall before you can fly.’ I lay on the bed for an hour with my legs up, rested and found my ‘why’. I knew I could do it.” Starting again after 9pm, Dreyer inched his way along the route, eventually catching the backmarkers of the actual 36ONE MTB Challenge, slowly reeling in more riders – after 600km of riding – before ticking off his 720km. 

With some dry understatement, he adds: “My strategy… wasn’t good. But I took a time-out, and I found my motivation.”

Martin’s Top Tip

“I believe that you get mentally tough when you expose yourself in smaller races, events or situations to what you’ll face at your goal event. You have to take baby steps before committing to the big one. People will often ask me, ‘How did you survive that?’ And the reason is because I’ve been building up to it, not just diving head-first into a situation.” 

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