Last Updated on 17 September 2026:
Wind can be painful, it slows you down, and it often arrives with something wet. But cycling in the wind can make you a stronger, more resilient and more aerodynamic rider, once you learn to work with it rather than resent it. Of course, I’m talking about the infamous invisible force that destroys our speed and makes us want to cry. What did you think I meant…?
Covered in this blog
- How wind makes you physically stronger
- The training implications of wind
- How wind makes you mentally stronger
- Fear
- Common fear symptoms
- Systematic Desensitisation
- Flooding
- Coping
- Fear
- How wind makes you more aerodynamic
- Ways to cheat the wind
- Summary
How cycling in the wind makes you physically stronger
A study by Alan Cummings, a mechanical engineer at the University of Hull, was conducted after he battled against the wind on his bike near his home.
“I’d noticed that on a particularly windy day, it took longer to complete my circuit,” he recalls.
“Instead of taking about 25 minutes for the 7.5 miles, it could take up to 30 to 35 minutes.”
What Cummings found was that, regardless of receiving a tailwind, the stronger the wind blows, the longer a cyclist will take to complete a loop. Having a tailwind never fully compensates for the loss caused by having a headwind.
The results tend to be quite dramatic too, a 13kph wind speed will result in a journey taking 7% longer than windless conditions, while wind equaling a cyclist’s speed results in the journey taking 20% longer.
At a speed three times that of the cyclist, the journey takes a whopping 350% longer – that or we might consider the journey unfinished if the rider succumbs to an accident (or perhaps common sense to avoid cycling in those conditions in the first place!).
The training implications of wind
While this might have little effect on those who go out and complete a specific timeframe of training, an hour for example, this has a marked effect on those who ride a specific loop or commute via bike.
If we take even the lower effect of wind on journeys at 7% slower, a cyclist who usually rides a modest 6 hours per week outdoors will have to ride almost 30 minutes more.
What you do with that time, how you utilise that to better your physical fitness, is up to you. But remember to say thank you to the wind for giving you the perfect reason to get that extra little bit of training in.
How cycling in the wind makes you mentally stronger
One factor…
Fear
“to be frightened by something or someone unpleasant.”
In this case, it’s the wind. No doubt you, at some point and possibly still do, feel a certain unease when you know you are about to be confronted by the wind.
Some common symptoms of fear include:
- Chest pain
- Chills
- Dry mouth
- Nausea
- Rapid heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Upset stomach
All of this is compounded by you riding a bike, and none of these symptoms really want to be experienced when your body is trying to propel you through the wind.
A paper published in ‘Behaviour Research and Therapy in July 2014’ suggests that the basis of fear treatments (also known as phobia treatment or exposure therapy) is simply familiarity; slowly minimising the fear response by making it feel familiar.
There are several methods you could employ to overcome any anxiety or fear about riding into the wind (however little this may be).
Systematic Desensitisation
‘Systematic Desensitisation’ takes you through a slow series of exposures to the wind; this could be started by simply talking about the wind and how it makes you feel.
Flooding
‘Flooding’ exposes you to a vast quantity of the wind for a prolonged amount of time; go out on a very windy day.
Coping
‘Coping’ would be using specific techniques such as meditation and mindfulness to become more accepting of the way wind makes you feel; if you are a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know how highly I value this anyway.
Of course, all of the above can also help in becoming mentally stronger in any facet of cycling, be that climbing a hill, racing, or riding a particularly daunting Gran Fondo event.
Everything you learn in conquering your concerns of the wind is extrapolatable for any fear, phobia or anxiety you might have. Your mental performance is just like your physical, you need to train it for it to perform at the highest level.
How cycling in the wind makes you more aerodynamic
This is fairly simple and I can draw on the work with my clients. They want to be faster and a big part of this will be reducing their aerodynamic drag.
Here the wind helps as the faster you go, or the faster the wind is blowing, the more drag you will experience. You might spend thousands on improving the aerodynamics of your bike, but you (the rider) account for around 70% of the aerodynamic drag.
Ways to cheat cycling in the wind
The great news is there are simple gains to be had here and they are somewhat easier to deal with than the previous two points to this post. Step one ‘open wallet’, step two ‘buy wind cheating items’. Items such as tighter fitting clothing, skinsuits for example, aero inspired helmets and items such as shoe covers will go a long way to reducing your aerodynamic drag.
You can make some free gains too. Work on your position and do some testing. Make small adjustments to your position, hand position for example, and see how you feel, and what difference your speed is at a given power. You could also get a bike fit (note: not free) and save some time and faffing around.
Summary
Let’s all celebrate the wind for what it is, an opportunity for us to become stronger and faster cyclists.
Use windy days as a chance to add purposeful training time, practise staying calm and refine the position that helps you cut through the air. If you would like help applying this to your own riding and goals, Book a Free Consultation.
Further reading
For further reading on how cycling in the wind makes us stronger cyclists, check out these links that helped me write this article.
- University of Hull research or publication by Alan Cummings on the effect of wind speed on cycling loop times. Supports the numerical claims about journey duration in different wind speeds.
- Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach. Supports the discussion of exposure-based approaches to fear.
- NHS guidance on anxiety and panic symptoms. Supports the symptom list.
