FYI, Pruitt works with cyclists of any ability level. You don't have to be a pro to make an appointment at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. The claim that "no one pulls up on the pedals" isn't restricted to elite cyclists; it means everyone.

When you're on the upstroke, you're lifting your leg. What you are doing is changing the muscle groups you're using on the upstroke, which gives the muscles you normally use a rest. It almost certainly feels like you're providing power. But that's just not what is happening.


So "clipless is better because clipless is better" ?

The simple fact is that we just aren't good judges of these kinds of things, and people have gone for decades believing that attaching your foot to the pedal increases power output. That's why someone actually had to put a power meter into a pedal to prove it, and even after they've proved it, people still don't want to believe it.

Again, I'm guessing it's useful for high-powered sprinters, and the rest of us are unnecessarily emulating the pros. Thus, at least in the absence of actual empirical data to the contrary, I'm skeptical that people should feel the need to switch in the first place.