If you truly want to understand and improve your performance on a road bike, the ramp test is a performance diagnostic tool that provides deeper insights than many traditional performance tests. In this article, we explain in detail how a ramp test works, what it measures, what benefits it offers, and how you can use the results to specifically target your training.

After the ride, a number appears: 142 TSS. Is that a lot? Too much? Can you go full throttle again tomorrow – or do you need a rest day first? Anyone who trains without being able to answer these questions is flying blind. The Training Stress Score (TSS) is an attempt to condense training load into a single number – and it succeeds surprisingly well.

Drinking sounds simple – yet most road cyclists systematically make mistakes when it comes to it. Too little, too infrequently, the wrong things. Even moderate dehydration of 2% of body weight can noticeably reduce endurance performance. For a 75 kg ^cyclist , that equates to just 1.5 liters – an amount that can be reached faster than you might think on a high-intensity summer ride.