Video: The 10 worst bits of advice we could give you for the New Year

Cycling is a sport perhaps less filled with old wives tales than before but some silly theories still survive. You can never train yourself to master the freezing cold. So, like the riders above, wrap up well at this time of year.

The video below goes through some of the daft theories that have survived the progress of the last couple of decades.

We may have modern training methods now and a level of quality advice that the previous generations couldn't have dreamed of, but some pretty ridiculous old wives tales are still doing the rounds.

The topics covered in the video below include:

Back pedaling on descents: Some people think it keeps your training effort up and prevents you from getting cold. It does neither, so forget about it.
Sweat out your winter cold: It just does not work. Take a break and get better in the hope your illness and time away from training is kept to a minimum.
Push a massive gear uphill until you come to a standstill to increase your power: This is simply crazy and is no way to improve your power or your climbing.
Don’t drink anything on a long ride: You will never train your body to deal with dehydration so don’t try. Just keep getting the liquids in.
Put a plastic bag over your saddle to keep it dry: Eh, don’t do it. It doesn’t work and you’ll look like an idiot.
Pedal uphill with one leg to improve your pedaling technique: It doesn’t mimic your proper cycling movement and will put strain on all sorts of places.
Get your body used to the cold by not wearing gloves in winter: It won’t do you any good. And when it’s really cold it will be no fun and can be dangerous as it can impact braking.
Train without food, gels or energy drink: A one or two hour spin with no food is manageable, but any longer and you are emptying the tank and running yourself down rather than losing weight.
Blast up climbs when you come to them: It’s not good training. You will simply put yourself into the red, you probably won’t recover and it will ruin your ride.
Use green grass to fix a puncture: You can use straw or long tough grass if you’re stuck. But short green grass just won’t work.