A day with Sean Yates
Ex-pro and current Discovery Team Directeur Sportif, Sean Yates, is offering half day rides (plus a pub lunch) and Kingston Wheelers Andy Lack and Ian Beston joined him on 8 June for what turned out to be one of the best days of the summer so far. Andy Lack tells more
Sean can come to you and ride on routes you choose, or you can go down to meet him near his Sussex home. We went for the latter option and, having seen where he lives, I’d definitely recommend that for anyone considering booking a ride with Sean.
We met up outside a pub in Groombridge Village at 9.30 am and Sean was there with his Discovery people carrier looking very incongruous by the quiet village green. After exchanging pleasantries we were off with Sean saying he was going to start by showing us a couple of drills used by the pro teams.
Sure enough we reached the bottom of the first long climb (by UK standards) and Sean explained the 40/20 drill he wanted us to do. This one started in a lowish gear, but increased in cadence and gearing for 40 seconds, then 20 seconds recovery. Repeat as required up the hill. We did about 10 reps of this before reaching the top. The pros do 10x10 up the long alpine climbs.
The next was more straightforward – five minutes pushing 53x13 up another longish climb. This one was all about power, said Sean, and he was right. It was also, by his own admission, his particular strength as he had spent his youth riding all these hills in big gears. No surprise to find that Ian and I were falling back on this one fairly early on. With both of us at 6’5”, climbing is not really our thing, and doing it in a massive gear didn’t agree with us. Yatesy was at the top some time before us.
From then on, it was all about having a social ride. As you’d expect, Sean is very knowledgeable about the current pro scene, the current UK time trial and road racing scene, and is full of anecdotes and advice built up through years of riding. He’s also a very likeable down to earth bloke who loves talking about bikes.
So, while Ian tried to get inside info on the dark horses for this year’s Tour (don’t put money on Azevedo apparently), I quizzed Sean relentlessly about gearing for the Etape, and what my TT position should be if I was ever going to break the hour for a 25. In amongst all this, he took us through some stunning countryside on a day which topped 28oC in the sun.
The ride finished with a surprise, as he took us up a cheeky little 20% climb which “Lance once climbed”. I suspect Lance wasn’t weaving from side to side on the road, nor did he ask how much further to go when he got to the top.
Not much further as it turned out. The ride finished with a pub lunch in Groombridge, all included in the price. I think you could tell how we all felt by the drinks chosen – pints of orange, lemon and lime for me and Ian – large red wine for Sean.
Definitely recommend the ride to anyone who wants training tips, who has an interest in the pro scene, or who just enjoys talking about bikes and cycling with someone who knows more than most on all of those subjects, and who’s a nice bloke with it.