Recovery rides ARE essential after hard efforts (whether long or short). an easy recovery ride using moderately high cadence is far far better than having a day off the bike completly. Do it and you will recover faster and the high cadence is nearly as good as a massage.
I'm not so sure... I think recovery rides the day after a tt really help.
If I don't ride at all the day after a hard ride, say a 20 mile tt, my legs will still feel crap after 48 hours. If I do a slow, easy ride the day after I always feel much better after 48 hours.
I guess different things work for different people.
I tend to agree,immediately post exercise warm down,or massage is essential and beneficial in moving on that lactic,but 24 hours later when the heart has pumped hundreds of litres of blood around? It seems like an Idea that the cycling fraternity mainly has taken up.
After a short event, do it immediately - like riding home after a 10 TT Only really useful as a separate activity if you do a mega ride like Mountain Bike Mayhem, 100 mile, 12 hour or 24 hour races, then a couple of rides spinning along low load. Any other ride should be a training ride not recovery.
