You don’t necessarily have to ride on the track to train for track racing

By Edward Swier

For as long as Danny Stam can remember, he’s been riding bikes. And he’s been using rollers for about as long too. This coming season he will give his career another boost. Together with Peter Schep and Robert Slippens, Stam recently signed on for the AA Drink-team led by Michael Zijlaard. “These past few years track racing has seen many developments. We’re hoping that founding the very first genuine track team will help to further professionalize the sport”. The fact that Tacx is launching new rollers right at this time, over 35 years after their first model came out, is not surprising at all according to Stam. “The sport is still developing”.

Pedalling from the hips
By the way, Stam thinks it only natural that he and his fellow trackies use the rollers so often. “It is the perfect way to train that specific track rhythm and to increase the suppleness of your muscles without having to travel all the way to Alkmaar or Apeldoorn”. The other thing that Stam likes about the rollers, compared to a cycle trainer for instance, is that not only the rider uses his own bike, but also that the bike is not attached to the trainer. This makes for completely natural movements. You keep pedalling from the hips, just as you would on the road or the track. On a fixed bike it just isn’t the same really”.

The fact that the bike is not attached to the trainer also entails a few disadvantages of course. Stam smiles and confesses. “I’ve ended up in the cupboards more than once in my life!” This statement calls for an explanation. "On the older models, the ones with the straight rollers, it sometimes happened that you would run into trouble if you’re concentration slacked of a bit. Especially when you ride for a long time, you tend to get distracted and every now and then you’d catapult yourself off the rollers”. With the new and improved shape of the Antares’ rollers this risk has become insignificant”.