Originally Posted by
telebianchi
These studies, which I have no reason to doubt and I am certain that the people involved are a whole lot smarter than I am, all seem to be focused on whether a highly trained cyclist is pulling up on their pedals. I agree that when I am spinning a high cadence, or sprinting, or sitting in at a moderate pace in a group or pace line that I never pull up on the pedal. However, I am not a highly skilled or highly trained cyclist. I do not have $300 fitted carbon soled shoes. Sometimes my feet and legs start to hurt a little bit. In those cases, I like to pull up on my pedal on the rear upstroke. It tends to help loosen up my legs and gives my toes and foot arch a little breathing room. I have no doubt that if Pruitt put his force-measuring gear on me at those times that it would register power being applied to the upstroke.
I'm back to riding flat pedals, and if something starts bothering me in the legs I can make a very simple change: switch up the position of the foot. It's recommended that you change positions on the handlebar every once in a while, and to me it's almost bizarre that oftentimes the same concept is ignored for the legs. And I don't feel any loss in power either; flats are still easy to spin through, and hills aren't a problem either. At mile 200 it's a struggle, but I doubt a little bit of 'pushing up' is going to help overcome a situation where I can't get my heart rate up any longer.