mooska

I went on my 1st group ride with a club yesterday. It went really well but they noticed that I point my toes towards the ground instead of keeping my heel down. Nobody seemed to know why I would do that. I wear a 14 shoe and the cleat is under the ball of my foot, possibly a few millimeters behind it. Any ideas?

For now I'm just assuming it's a bad habit I picked up from riding alone and am going to try to just work the habit out of my system.

RT

I used to do this 100% of the time. When I started noticing excessive lower leg fatigue, I modified to a heels-down stroke, sometimes toes-down when speeding up. I'll try to describe the change for my legs: Heels down allows a more solid base at the foot for my leg to more efficiently use its full potential for leverage. Toes down was simply killing my ankles. It takes focus, but I am slowly making it second nature to keep the foot more flat. Helped me a ton.

dieseldogpi

I noticed I do this as well, but I wasnt sure if everyone does....guess not. I am wondering if this could have anything to do with the hot spots i feel on the balls of my feet after long rides.

fa63

Your saddle might be too high.

Mike F

I was/still do this. I started unclipping one leg and working on my stroke with the other.

eippo1

I used to do this until I got a fixie, which fixed my stroke.

You're a ballerina at heart. Do some trainer sessions where you slow pedal w/ one leg and concentrate on keeping your heel down. It's boring, but it trains muscle memory. I've now gone the other way and am an ankler, but that is way more efficient for me and helps me hit high cadences when I need it.

byrnemm

Proper pedal stroke is a lost art. At least that's what the book I'm reading is teaching me.

The 2 best things you can do to improve your pedal stroke are 1) ride a fixed gear 2) do 1 leg pedalling drills on the trainer.

topflightpro

This.

Also, concentrate on pedaling with your heels down. You don't need a fixie to do this, you just need to focus on doing it.

jwill87ta

I found myself doing this (at least while climbing). When I focused on keeping my foot horizontal to the road or even heel slightly down it was much easier to climb. It seemed like my legs were extending more and my quads were more efficient. Or could all be in my head.

bonz50

funny, a few rides back I suddenly started getting a cramp in my calves, noticed I was riding toe down, despite the fact that I know better and have never really done this before... I've been paying close attention lately to my foot position and other details about my riding because of the cramp incident... I noticed that when i wick up the pace to either keep up or catch up I have a tendency to break form... so now something ~else~ for me to concentrate on during my rides... haha

globecanvas

A racing coach (not mine, I've never had one) once told me the maximum power pedal stroke is one where it looks like you scraping your shoe on a curb to get something off it. Heel down at first and press the ball of your foot against an imaginary corner as you stroke downward, then lift the ball of your foot through the upstroke.

Mike F

Somebody posted a few days back. "Think forward backward, not up ot down". Has worked for me keeping my foot level at 3 and 9.

RT

Addendum: One thing I did notice when riding heels down is that yes, my saddle was suddenly taller. Definitely part of fit, the pedal stroke.

mooska

I'll have to start doing the one foot unclipped tonight. Only riding for a couple weeks, I'm sure it's not going to be too awfully hard to switch my muscle memory.

DScott

There's no "perfect" pedal stroke that works for everybody.

And be careful about doing to much "ankling". You can cause a repetitive motion injury to the foot/ankle area, like a tendonitis in the achilles tendon or ankle pain. At least, according to Sheldon: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/pain.html

Just note that everybody pedals a little different- some pedal more toes down, some more heel down. Newbs who pedal toe down are often dealing with tightness in muscles and ligaments, so it can be something that improves.

Here's a video showing what I think is a reasonable amount of ankle movement: https://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/11/ankling/

Proper bike fit is important, of course, but even that changes with more time riding.

Finally, pedalling with your ankles locked into a toes down position can get you few more RPM in really hard efforts, at least for a little while. Thanks to psimet-the-two-grand-and-one for that tip.

byrnemm

When you do 1 leg drills you realize exactly why that is such a good description.

withsriracha

Best advice I've been given about leg/foot position while pedaling -- pretend you are balancing a beanbag on your foot while pedaling.

Also +1 to one-leg drills.

zigmeister

Where does everybody get this idea that there is some perfect stroke and technique.

There is this guy people say is pretty good at the World Pro Level currently. If you watch video of his pedalling technique and style, you notice it very quickly how he has a very toe down/heel up stroke.

But, since the coaches and 41 experts think it doesn't work and not successful, I guess it shouldn't be done.

Oh forgot to menntion the pro cyclist, Phillipe Gilbert. Look at video of his pedal style, very toe down mostly. Is this mostly an exception? Sure. But proves that claiming something works carte blanche is ridiculous.

RT

Settle down, ziggy. I think the intention is to save some folks some time and pain by offering advice based on personal experiences. At least that was my intent.

mooska

So is it possible I can keep doing it toe down? The only problem is my toes occasionally go numb.

CoyoteEatsGirl

Not that there isn't probably some merit to the fixie thing, but I rode fixed for a long time and still pedaled toe-down when I switched to road.

I had to make a concentrated effort to correct it.

mooska

I honestly didn't know who Phillippe Gilbert was until I YouTubed him, but that is exactly how I pedal. Subconsciously, I'm using him as a cop-out to avoid change.

zigmeister

Beaker

I had that happen on faster group rides too. There is something to be said for paying attention to your form.

Bob Ross

or, as it was explained to me several years ago: "Don't pedal in circles, pedal in footballs."