Material made from Lycra starts to improve cycling (7)
I believe the answer is:
acrylic
'material' is the definition.
(I know that acrylic is a type of material)
'from lycra starts to improve cycling' is the wordplay.
'from' indicates an anagram (from the letters).
'starts to' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'improve cycling' is 'ic'.
'lycra' anagrammed gives 'acryl'.
'acryl'+'ic'='ACRYLIC'
'made' is the link.
(Other definitions for acrylic that I've seen before include "material for coat?" , "fibre that's synthetic" , "The synthetic fibre is icy, Carl" , "Shiny paint" , "Type of twenty Dn" .)