To that one person reading this who wants to become a pro cyclist, you can do it even if you think it is to late, you can, I believe in you even if no one else does, I do. Keep going, and have a wonderful day

That's a proper rapid question round Matt. I tip my hat.

I know we shouldn't have favourite presenters, but... :)

#torqueback how does your guys (the legendary GCN presenters) ftp compare now to back in the day when you were professional??

I'm 14 now and I am going to start riding at road races in a year. I just got a decathlon bike (they are great value pls make a review ) with a Sora groupset. I rode a Mountainbike for 6 years and then I started with cyclo cross riding when I was 10.

I love gcn.... I've just realised how long you've been there for me, every single evening when I get home from work, it's like a warm hug and cup of tea waiting for me on KZfaq. Perhaps I will buy a t-shirt after all

Halfway through, Matt - you're doing great! Fast, efficient, to the point, speaking clearly.

How good would Matt Stephens have been if he could have clipped in? I mean he was a national champion without even clipping in...Maybe if he could clip in he would have Won the Tour de France?

I live in flat area and to compensate for the lack of hills I try to ride as hard as I can in windy days which are many

Chapeau Matt, Fantastic edition of 'Ask GC-Anything' - Love the fact you guys are addressing the speed of the quick fire round ;p

Pedaling issues - I would suggest riding the rollers. 30-45min once a twice or week, you'll sharp improve.

Can you do a video on bidons? A Day In The Life of a Bidon, maybe? I want to know how many are used per day? How many do teams bring to a grand tour? Where do they keep them? How do they keep them cold? Do the team cars get new bottles or just in the back in a huge cooler bin? What about the ones handed out on the side of the road? Cheers!

#torqueback Can you do a "behind the scenes" or "bloopers" episode?

#Torqueback with Froome winning the tour 4 times over on Osymetric rings why don't they get more love and acknowledgment?

Chapeau to Matt. The rapid round was really rapid

In GCN videos featuring Matt, on average, how many retakes are required due to his maniacal fits of laughter? #TORQUEBACK ....Matt is actually my favorite GCN presenter...just taking the "wee".

When riding with slower friends. Make it a recovery ride, ride extra before of after. I sometimes ride with slower friends and then a already did my commute.

Since you've moved onto team car tours, how long until the broom wagon tour?

Riding with people slower than you: wear heavy & baggy clothes, unzipped. Cheaper than extra bikes, tyres etc - Aero is everything!

Came here mainly for the title question. Thanks for the answer! Start small

#tourqueback August 4th is only 7 days away. How aero are the three of you now?

#torqueback How to recover morally after a crash? Being a novice, my wife has recently crashed on a descent at 50kph. Luckliy she did not break anything, but the crash was quite nasty. Now she feels extremely anxious and panicking sometimes in some uncomfortable situations (riding too close to other riders, on narrow lanes, slow cornering or turning around, etc.), which makes her unstable on the bike and leads to falls from time to time.

Well done Matt. Gotta be the most questions answered in the quick fire round. Stuck it up the rest of the team there.

Yeah, Matt is rather ambitious at 10:20 with the amount of stacking needed on the front wheel when training indoors for hills. Since the wheelbase of a road bike is about 100cm, using 10cm rise would give roughly 10% equivalent grade.

Thanks for that! I was sitting there the other day watching the first stage of La Course up to col d'Izoard, and I'm thinking the whole time, Lizzie Deignan looks just like the "Cycling Shorts" girl from the GCN videos! Go me! I must say, I so wish that more women's professional races would be televised. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I got to see a lot of women's professional mountain bike races in person (while NORBA was still running things and before the UCI dicked it up :-) and I can tell you, of anyone I have seen ride professionally, Juli Furtado is still one of my absolute favorites.

At the moment all the races at my age are crits. I do a lot of distance and endurance 3-6hours with longer sweet spot/threshold intervals in them etc however this isn't good training for sprints in crits, I'm also no sprinter and considered as a light climber. My question is should I train for the short races at my age or carry on doing my distance rides with intervals which can benefit long term #torqueback

#torqueback, why do splits in a group happen much more in crosswinds as opposed to tail/headwinds?

#torqueback In a tailwind, is it better to sit up and allow maximum assistance from the wind or remain in an aero position to reduce drag.

Any stories of people going pro while they’re in their early 30s? I already saw the one about the stock broker

Rapid fire round masterclass

i ride with slower friends a lot. for a 120 km ride i'm in the front for ~100 km, riding an old steel frame bike which is ~26 lbs while my friends are riding expensive light weight race bikes which are something like 10 lbs lighter than mine, they still often crack after ~80 km, and i am not fit at all

Thanks for the advice GCN!

When riding with slower friends I tend to stay behind and ride on my computer bike and do a lot of single leg drills. The leg that's not working I put my foot up and rest it on the rear rack. Sometimes they get a little annoyed. Lol

Has the green jersey been consigned to the puncheur? Are sprinters still the kings of speed across the whole of a Tour? Kittel was already losing ground to Matthews before he retired.

On the last question try riding while holding your brakes I've never tried this much my self but watch a documentary on Chris froome and it said when he lived in Kenya thats what he did

@kevinGunaman - try shims or custom insoles for the knee alignment - if you have cash Edco make a pedal especially for wonky knees :)

Matt is playing humble boy on his breakaway sprint win.

That rapid fire round was rapid!!!

Matt crushing the rapid fire round! Well by GCN's standards anyways...

#TorqueBack How fast or good do you have to be until you should start worrying about being aero?

#torqueback.What is the best position to be on your seat when climbing? I noticed that a lot of the pros seem to be forward on their seat when climbing, but my mates say to sit further back so you can "push" on the pedal earlier in the pedal rotation.

Question: In pro races are the roads swept beforehand? I am always amazed at the pros riding in areas of the road (like cross hatches) where us normal riders would never go, due to debris and puncture risks.

Matt is the king of rapid fire!

great job Matt with rapid fire. answered more questions but how about mine about compact vs standard frames?

Awesome rapid fire round!

When I was younger, I rode a bicycle for fun and transportation, being American Football player, cycling as a sport was out of the question (6 foot 225 lbs) My grandson is more a proper build. How would you recommend he start out (he's 6 years old)

Matt! According to Danny Nelissen it was the 1995 Tour of Wallonie where you got ill & swept up in the Broom Wagon..with him. He included that in telling the tale of his 1995 Junior Worlds win in Colombia - where next time he saw you, in what became the winning break. Any tales from the altitude training in Colorado earlier that year.. - did you take part in any of the impromptu races for example? #torqueback #WeDemandAnecdotes

Thanks for all the videos. The info is interesting and thorough. You cover the whole cycling experience, equipment, technique etc. Jim Byrnes

Disk brake is a good think

Matt going for a solo break to bring Ask GCN to the finish in record time

Thanks to whoever cleared up the "It's now time for cycling shorts." enigma! Was wondering that myself. :)

Please Si, bring back those Bono shades!

A race position is always a compromise between aerodynamics and power output - What would an ideal power output position look like, if aerodynamics would be out of the equation, like in indoor races on zwift? #TorqueBack

One question: I have a Garmin power meter (left pedal), and recently I have been playing around with my saddle position, pushing it a bit more forward and downwards. Yesterday when reviewing my Garmin stats I noticed that I had been putting out a bit less power on average than I should. When measuring the saddle height I noticed that it was about 5mm too low. Does less than optimal saddle height lower power output, or am I just falling out of form. The other variable was that I was cycling in 10 degree Celsius warmer conditions.

If you're knee moves inward then either your seat isn't high enough or your feet are on the far side of the pedals. If im not mistaken that would engage more of the crotch muscle which would be less efficient? I'm guessing

I have been debating using mountain bike shoes on my road bike. There is more movement on the pedal , but it still feels good. Have you ever done a time test to compare Road VS mountain Bike shoes on hills and flats ???

What's the expiration date for water bottles? When I change my bottles with new ones?

#torqueback I have a 2005 Specialized Tarmac Comp. I bought it bran new and have taken decent care of. Would you invest in new ancillary gear if nothing is too far gone? Replaced chain, grip tape, etc, but nothing major. +/- 2,000km/year. fyi GCN is the best channel on KZfaq!! Well done.

How does one become a pro bike rider? It helps to be born as Eddy Merckx's love child.

can you make a review about Tannus tyres vs tubeless, the reason why is: I am a bike courier at Deliveroo holland and I got a lot of punctures in my tyre. sometimes i got the feeing someone is sabotaging me. tanks says that their tyres will never get punctured cause there simply is no inner tube, also no sealing, just some kind of solid tyre. I think a lot of people will find this tyre quite interesting. From Bill Rotterdam , The netherlands

GCN: When will you show the full completion of that awesome over the water backflip in your opening video?? I need completion!!! Until then, its like the guy is still floating in space.. upside down.

#torqueback for climbing you always say increase power or loose weight, but for us heavier/husky cyclists (over 90Kg) with good power for flats and downhill, what suggestions do you have other than to suck it up and hate gravity.

Morning guy's, here's a question AND a challenge for you! I'm looking for some prescription cycling glasses, how's about you guys doing a review of what's available??

How do you address tight hip flexors, both in training, and while on the bike?

I'm curious, which GCN presenter would win an Ironman triathlon and who would, hopefully not, drown or end up walking half the marathon until midnight!

Torqueback "What time difference would there be on a 45km time trial between riding a specific TT Bike and a Road Bike

I'm having Tour de Hangover. I thoroughly enjoyed the Tour this year. You guys have one of the best channels on KZfaq. GCN will tide me over the dark months and brighten Spring of 2018.

Matt ist the best at GCN!!!!

I'm looking to buy a set of new wheels. What should I look out for? The price range for them are so big and I can't tell the difference other than rim depth and weight differences. #TorqueBack

What do you do in the off-season (cycling wise)? #torqueback

#Torqueback How do you exactly identify the terms of drafting, and wheel sucker? If I draft behind my friend without his knowing/permission, am I a wheel sucker?

@7 throw it in a lower gear, and pedal faster, your friends can grind alongside you

Not wanting to cast aspersions on your age Matt, but what is a "catalogue"? Next you will be telling people to use something called a "phone book".

#torqueback If I have a under inflated tyre on my turbo trainer, will it effect my speeds, and then eventually make me work harder to gain a higher speed? Sounds like a bit of a stupid question, and probably is.

Is there different braking technique between aluminum braking surface vs carbon braking surface? If so what do you do different on carbon brake surface?

#torqueback - since tubular tires can be expensive, would you recommend using your old 90% worn, but still functional, tubular as a spare for training rides?

#torqueback What would you say are the first and basic things you should learn about yourself when begginning to use a powermeter?

#torqueback I noticed when you check out a bike and you do a free hub sound check it makes a ratcheting sound. I thought where there is noise, there is friction. Wouldn't a quiet hub be more efficient?

Wind is like a 400m sprint. It hates you before it even knows you ...

#torqueback , This is a rather easy question. What are GCN's favorite ways of storing their bikes and any recommendations on the best ways to for followers to store theirs?

#torqueback how you guys unclip and clip with clipless pedals in very slow conditions like commuting in heavy traffic or even worse traffic on a climb?

I barely turned 17 yesterday do you think I can still be professional?

Simple: find somebody that pays you to ride as hard as can for as long as you can!

If indoor turbo training is better then why don't the pros use them all the time?

#TorqueBack What age should juniors start trying to gain sponsors and start racing pro?

What are the best ways to train.

How to train for riding flat roads when you only have hills around you?

#TORQUEBACK Is strava power accurate when a climb with a strong headwind are combined ? (Worst day on a bike ever)

How often do I need to ride

We’ll miss you Matt

#torqueback what difference does body type make between climbers, gc riders and sprinters

What do you think of Q rings? I tried them very briefly and found them much faster but then I got knee pain when climbing out of the saddle so went back to round rings. Love to know your thoughts on them

#torqueback UCI Pro teams insist on team radios for 'safety' but all the meanwhile racing is becoming boring, and riders tactically inept, (chasing down teammates Astana TDF for example...). If the reason is safety why not just have one radio run by the UCi/race organisers for all teams, that only delivers 'safety' information? And that way you could leave tactics, and the art of it, down to the the racers on the roads? ...And would still keep the safety benefit of radios, for the peloton. Would be a lot more interesting.

#torqueback Hi GCN, how much does the type of bike (climbing/endurance/aero bike...) influence your sprint? How much acceleration and top speed difference is there if you use one type or another? Thanks in advance!

Hi-ho, I am 185 cm and 14 stone. My current training goal is to be able to knock out 100 miles in under 5 hours; current best is 45 miles in 2:45:00 on a fixed gear (sans brakes). My question is this: would it be smarter to first attempt PB's for 'time in the saddle' in order to build up the sheer endurance for a century? or should I keep edging towards higher and higher mileage goals? #torqueback

Going with slower friends - electric bicycles ! - for them, not for you

#torqueback What is the difference between estimated Strava watts and real watts measured with powermeter? Could you do a video of this? I understand Strava estimates watts on speed, weight of a rider and gradients of road. But when it's very windy you go much slower and on the same segment it shows lower watts.

In your previous episode you guys have shown us the difference between using normal pedals with normal running shoes vs. The clipless so is there any difference between touring or MTB shoes vs road specially that it's much easier to use MTB clears if you-for any reason-need to walk #Torqueback

#torqueback : At what point does a road bike become "vintage"?

What do you guys think about Creatine Monohydrate? Did Sir Chris Hoy take it?