Road Bike Racing - pedaling cadence

i think we have all noticed that the pedaling cadence of jan and lance are alot different. jan uses the big gears for slower pedaling but more distance per stroke while lance uses the opposite a smaller gear with a faster pedaling action. i find a quicker quicker tempo werx better for me only cuz i have not the massive legs of ulrich so i find that i prefer the smaller gear witha quicker pedaling action. i was just wondering what everyone elses thoughts on this was.

I believe that when I read Lance Armstrong and Chris Carmicheal's book on training (the title escapes me), Chris talked about how Lance is somewhat of an anomaly because he produces more power at a high cadence in a lower gear than he does "mashing" the lower gears. Perhaps Jan has done his own studies and found that he produces more power in the lower gears.

Bottom-line: it's all about the individual.

If you were able to see any television coverage, you'd notice (under normal circumstances) Lance's cadence is very similar to the other riders. He'll go ballistic for attacks and some time trials. Jan, on the other hand, is almost always pedaling noticably slower.

I think your experience agrees with what most riders find. Pushing a big gear tires muscles, and requires hours for recovery. Whereas spinning a lower gear drives up the heart rate and respiration, and for most of us, is slower. But recovery comes in minutes.

When watching the two ITT's during the tour I thought it looked like Lance could have managed to gear up a little as it appeared that he was pedalling at such a high cadence that he seemed to be bouncing a little. I wonder if it would have been more effective to jump up one gear. His cadence would hardly have changed. I know that Lance knows more about this than anyone but that is how it appeared to me watching it.

The other thing I noticed about most of the riders in the TT's was that they were all over the road (ok, maybe not from one side to the other but certainly not straight as an arrow) and not keeping that nice line we all try to mimic while spending hours on the rollers for that smooth stroke. Maybe they were seeing thing in or on the road that the T.V. coverage was not picking up but it looked more like they were just exerting so much energy that they weaved all over the road.

Have any of you measured your heart rate at a slower vs. faster cadence? Or is it more important to measure the cadence by wattage alone? I know for myself that I can maintain a higher cadence longer than a slower "mashing" cadence.

I thought Ullrich's cadence was too heavy to allow him to respond quickly on the climbs.

and that is why Jan has had all the knee surgeries. but he is a different build than Lance. when Lance stands, he seems to dance on the pedals. Jan can't do this/.

The book is the Lance Armstrong Performance Program - written by LA and his coach Chris Carmichael good read and good training book whatever your standard.
To mash or not to mash - apparently Ullrich has tested the higher cadence (110+) and the juice just aint there - that's why he sticks with the knee crunching, thigh burning, mind altering 90 rpm - just like the rest of us.

Originally posted by 2stupid2quitnow
Have any of you measured your heart rate at a slower vs. faster cadence? Or is it more important to measure the cadence by wattage alone? I know for myself that I can maintain a higher cadence longer than a slower "mashing" cadence.


I've done a little experimenting with HR and cadence.
My HR increases with higher cadence, actually my HR increases in relation to effort in either mode; mashing or spinning.
In the drops on a slight down hill slope at a 95rpm cadence putting out what I think is little effort, my HRM indicates 87%/max. This I can never figure out.
Maybe it's that I'm using more of the larger glutes. :confused: