Originally Posted by
Camilo
I feather my brakes and keep my cadence and gear selection as constant as possible. I tend to spin a little faster in a paceline than when I'm by myself (seems to be 90-100 in paceline, 85-95 solo).... don't really know why. But like I said, I find feathering the brakes works better for me than trying to micro-adjust pedal pressure (i.e. soft pedaling).
Originally Posted by
ericm979
Using your brakes means that you are wasting effort.
You are yo-yoing because your attention is not far enough ahead of your bike. You need to react sooner to changes in speed at the front. Look farther up the line.
I use a slightly higher cadence in a pace line because that makes it easier to respond quickly to changes in speed.
I don't disagree with the wasted effort thing, but since I'm not racing, but just riding in recreational pacelines, it really doesn't matter to me. But I do think it's an efficient way to micro-manage speed. Just barely feathering brakes, but mostly just keeping the fingers on the levers.