If you’d like to cycle faster, keep going round in circles..

Pedal technique is often overlooked when training for triathlon and cycle events, but mastering the art is an easy way to give your performance a boost. The great thing about developing an effective pedal technique is that you can do it every time you cycle and it doesn’t require an extra training session or any additional time. There is a great deal of confusion regarding optimal cadence and how this impacts upon your pedal ‘mechanics’ so let’s try to explain the basics:

Cadence

Since Lance Armstrong introduced the world to ‘high cadence riding’, a lot of people have chosen this as their preferred method. I regularly hear coaches and athletes advising that a faster cadence, spinning easy gears is the best way to cycle. The first thing to identify is the difference between ‘road racing’ and ‘time trial’ cycling. When riding in a bunch race, higher cadence is more beneficial and allows a change of pace / acceleration with greater ease, hence road racing cyclists promote higher cadence. When riding a time trial as per age group triathlon, the focus is to maintain once steady pace and intensity throughout, which is very different to bunch racing.

Higher cadences result in higher heart rate, oxygen consumption and fuel use, all of which have a negative impact upon performance. From a bio-mechanical perspective,  pedaling at faster cadences can also result in a less effective pedal technique, to read more about this GO HERE. If your main discipline is triathlon or time trial and you are pedaling ‘super quick’, then you may wish to change your view regarding cadence selection. My personal opinion on this topic is that too many people select easy gears and high cadence, often coupled with compact or triple chain sets and this results in a lack of ‘leg strength’. These people are unable to ride even moderate hills without changing into very easy gears and on flat sections are unable to use the ‘big chain ring’, resulting in slow speeds during short course events.

Contact

If you have a Watt Bike, Computrainer or similar training tool, you will know that there is an option to analyse your pedal stroke and check whether you pedal in smooth circles or whether you are stomping on the pedals! The ‘figure of 8′ graph changes to a circular shape as your pedal action become more efficient. The ‘dead spot’ curing the pedal stroke occurs between 11 and 1 o’clock as the foot moves over the top of the stroke. The reason for this dead spot is that hip flexors are at their shortest and therefore weakest length, this is exaggerated when riding in the aero position. As the foot passes over the top of the stroke the alternate leg is passing under the bottom of the stroke from 5 to 7 o’clock, this is an equally weak position. The strongest point of the pedal stroke is the 2 to 4 o’clock position, pushing down on the pedals, this also assists the opposite leg moving upwards from 8 to 10 o’clock.

Developing a circular pedal action is important for 2 main reasons:

1. It reduces fatigue over time by distributing the workload across all muscle groups. In simple terms, the muscles can become fatigued within specific ranges of movement, if most of your power is produced during the 2-4 o’clock position, you rapidly become tired within the 2-4 o’clock position. By contrast, the muscles which work from 4, all the way back round to the 2 o’clock position (the remaining 300 degrees of pedal stroke) may still be relatively fresh.

2. It maintains bike momentum, in particular on bad road surfaces and going up hills. If you only produce power during the 2-4 o’clock position and tend to push, push, push on the pedals rather than turning circles, your bike will continually surge and slow, surge and slow.. If you are riding on bad roads with poor rolling resistance, in particular when going uphill, your bike stops rolling if you are not providing propulsion. Pedaling in circles ensures continuous propulsion and continuous forwards movement, this is far more effective and significantly faster.

What to do from now..

Initially you need to start pedaling in circles, at least start thinking about it on all rides! You should fee ‘constant contact’ with the pedals when riding i.e. you should always feel as though you are pushing against the pedals and feeling ‘pressure’. If you choose a very easy gear you will often feel a ‘slip’ or ‘clunk’ at the top of the stroke, for that reason, a bigger gear and slower cadence is a great place to start. Remember that it’s harder in the aero position so practice on your aero bars in the time trial position.

Have fun and pedal smooth
Marc Laithwaite
The Endurance Store

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