Originally Posted by
urbanknight
Interesting. I guess that can get into the definition of work. I would argue that in that study, they were working the same (since this implies same wattage), but thought they were working harder simply because they were pedaling faster. I can understand the tendency to think that, but it hardly makes an argument for them to stick with whatever cadence comes natural to them.
Perceived effort was minimized at freely chosen cadence. It was higher for cadences both above and below the FCC, while holding power fixed. In addition, other studies show that as power increases, riders increase both their freely chosen cadence and their freely chosen pedal force -- they don't keep their cadence constant and simply increase the force. This explains why more experienced riders tend to have higher cadence: their power output increased so they responded with increased cadence. Their pedal force also increases but to onlookers pedal force is invisible There's no evidence that artificially raising cadence results in improved performance.
Originally Posted by Tulex
I'm just blown away with the idea oh just how good Lance could have been if he hadn't bought into the idea of a higher cadence.
Dude, Lance had high cadence because his power was high.