Plateau at 15 months — what helped me push through

Around the 15-month mark in Cycling I hit a wall. My progress with drafting in a group wasn't improving and I felt like I was spinning wheels. It's apparently common but that didn't make it less frustrating.

What helped: going back to fundamentals with my coach, spending more time drilling FTP slowly rather than at full speed, and watching Eddy Merckx breakdowns to understand what I was missing. first sportive completion eventually returned once I let go of trying to advance too fast. saddle soreness in the early weeks was actually the underlying cause of the plateau — once I addressed it, things moved again. If you hit that wall, stick with it. It passes.