Alongside coaching some of the best cyclists in the country and further afield, we also work with a good number of triathletes, both through Ride Revolution and also through our recently launched sister business, Tri Revolution.
Head Coach, Jake Hales, has been working with professional triathlete, Kieran Lindars, as a client since April 2021, when Kieran came to us with the very clear aim of working with a cycling coach to improve his cycling within the context of Triathlon, after feeling that this element of coaching really lacked in the Tri specific coaching world. Kieran would have been the first to admit that since his move over to focussing on long course triathlon (full ironman and 70.3 distances), his cycling very much a weak link in his performance and limiting his scope within the discipline.
We identified that Kieran was around 30w away from where he needed to be against the worlds best. To make things even more challenging, this is a moving target – not only did we have to find 30w, but also account for improvements others were making both in fitness, race nutrition and equipment each season. So fast is the sport moving forward currently, that we concluded we needed to close the initial 30w gap, plus a further ~10w or so for each year moving forward. No small challenge.
This 30w was based around getting Kieran to a point where he could simply keep up with the strongest riders. No heroics. No winning bike legs. Simply keeping up and entering the run in a position to use his strength as a runner to propel him up the results table. We identified that for the foreseeable future, Kieran’s training was to focus heavily on the bike, giving a substantial percentage of his weekly time to one discipline was a risk, but one we felt worthwhile. At the time of starting with us, Kieran was floating around the #250 mark in the world rankings, very much self-funding and going all in on his dream to make it to the top.
For the remainder of 2021 we got our heads down. Changes to Kieran’s training included the implementation of riding and training regularly with Elite level cyclists. We felt that alongside outright improvements to his numbers, we needed to turn Kieran into a cyclist – someone who was faster, better technically, more aerodynamic, more comfortable riding on the limit. Much more than simply adding an engine, we needed to turn cycling into a strength.
Despite quick and obvious improvements, bad luck in his goal race, the 2021 Challenge Almere, meant we would have to wait until 2022 to show the world the improvements Kieran had made.
The plan going into 2022 was to continue to build, plugging away at the 30w gap we had identified. As the Tri world continued to progress, both in terms of fitness and equipment, Kieran’s ageing self-sourced equipment was starting to look like an added disadvantage to work around. Over the winter we worked closely with our bike fit partner, Velomotion, to close the gap as much as possible. We made significant changes to Kieran’s bike setup and position working within the parameters of the setup we had.
Given the start to the 2022 season, it would be easy to say that we got things wrong. A 12th place at challenge Salou followed by a DNF at Challenge Gran Canaria hardly felt like we were setting the world alight. We stuck to our guns and trusted in the process, going all in for the late season Challenge Almere (European champs). Kieran was rewarded with a career defining result, putting in a strong bike leg followed by a 2:42 marathon to take victory.
The result perhaps went a little undeservedly under the radar, leaving Kieran in a position where 2023 was set to be another year of plugging away, largely unsupported by sponsorship deals. By now we really were starting to lose ground in terms of equipment and sports nutrition had now firmly moved forward in one big step. Initial testing of the new nutrition products didn’t run as smoothly as hoped and left us feeling a definite step behind the competition. The initial 30w gap had firmly been closed from a physical point of view, but we’d then gone and lost a chunk of it again in equipment and were struggling to hit the new race carbohydrate intake goals. Nether the less, Kieran ploughed on undeterred. After all, no race is ever won by sitting around moaning….
The 2023 season started strongly, with a string of top 10 results in various challenge events, all part of a build up to a defence of the Challenge Almere title. If last year’s win wasn’t quite the kick forward to Kieran’s career we had hoped for, this year’s event was set to be, but for all the wrong reasons…. It can be funny how things work sometimes. The now infamous viral last 500m video that saw Kieran struggling to finish the race due to hyperthermia was perhaps the unexpected catalyst that his career needed, raising his profile ten fold compared to any previous race results.
As much as this newfound presence and awareness helped in many areas; new bike, wheel sponsors among others meaning we could finally close the equipment gap to the other top level athletes, underneath there was a problem – Kieran simply wasn’t feeling good and wasn’t recovering well from the hyperthermia. Winter was spent slowly and steadily easing back into training and continuing to try and adapt to the new nutritional demands.
A slow and frustrating process at times, Kieran stuck with it. We knew his set up was now quick, all that was left was to get back to pre-hyperthermia fitness levels and finish adapting to the new nutrition regime and we were confident that a big result was just around the corner. Finally, we started to hit breakthroughs in training and Kieran started to feel good off the new nutrition strategy, driving a new level to his training. We added 20w to his LT1 power very quickly, hit new pb’s in threshold sessions and everything was starting to fall into place.
Heading into the biggest race of Kieran’s career, a move across to contesting the Ironman branded European champs at Ironman Frankfurt. Kieran knew he was in his best ever form, he just needed a little bit of luck and things to fall into place and he was confident of delivery a big result. Being a home-based athlete operating on a small annual budget, Kieran doesn’t have the pleasure of regular foreign training camps and can often be found grovelling away around the Buckinghamshire lanes in all kinds of weather. A terrible race day weather forecast came through – could this be the catalyst that was needed?
Kieran started well, coming out of the Swim exactly where he needed to be. He followed this up with a strong bike leg of 4:03, staying with the lead pack and later explaining that he ‘felt in control’ at that pace. As the run started, technology issues caused by the poor weather meant he was running somewhat blind. He has been quoted as saying that he could see (eventual winner) Kristian Blumenfelt in front of him still for quite some time, so knew that he was on a flyer. Kieran would eventually cross the line in a frankly outrageous 7:32:14 to take silver.
The culmination of three years of hard work and thoroughly deserved. If 2022’s European Challenge gold wasn’t the announcing of Kieran on the world stage, then this definitely was. It’s an absolute please to call Kieran a client and Colleague at our more recently launched sister business Tri Revolution coaching, where Kieran heads up our Tri coaching team.
Want to be trained by one of the Uk’s leading triathletes? Spaces are limited, so don’t delay and drop us an enquiry today.
A triathlete or multisport athlete and just looking for help with your cycling, we can help you in much the same way we have Kieran. Please contact us through either Ride or Tri Revolution and we would love to have a chat about how we can help you to achieve your goals.