Warning lights: Nine health checks for cyclists 

Your cycling fitness relies on a complex interplay of biological systems. How can you check that nothing is falling out of sync? Chris Sidwells finds out

Illustration: David Lyttleton

You hear it after races, after group rides and wherever cyclists gather together: “My legs are dead”, “Pedalling in squares today”, “I just felt flat”, “Un jour sans”... Even the fittest bike racers experience days like that. Usually it really is just a flat day – it happens to the best for benign reasons. But it could mean something in the body is falling out of kilter or going wrong.  

A sudden drop in performance, feeling flat, or whatever you call that ‘not quite right’ feeling, may be an early sign of illness. If not illness, it may mean there’s a problem with one of the many things going inside your body – a biological process or system that is involved in keeping the pedals turning as well as keeping you healthy.  

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