Originally Posted by
BikeArkansas
It is amazing how quickly a post can go in different directions. I do not believe I mentioned gearing in any way in my post. The coach is a former professional racer, with some wins, so getting dropped is not in his vocabulary. The method of pedaling is to give a little rest to the muscles by using mostly body weight. I do not race, but do ride with some good groups. If my legs are going bad during a climb I have had some relief with this stroke so I could recover and keep up. I am not very good at this yet, but coming along. This is just a little pedal deviation I am working with that has worked for this former racer. This is not a revolution is climbing, just a chance to recover a little.
Try this experiment. Start climbing a long hill, seated, in a gear that allows you to turn the pedals fairly easily at around 90-100 rpm. Which, for me, passes for "spinning" up a hill. Now pedal standing in the
same gear, at the
same cadence, for five minutes. Stop and have rest. Now repeat the experiment, but when you switch to pedaling standing, upshift a few gears (shift to smaller cogs), at a lower cadence - around 60-70 rpm - but the same road speed (mph), for five minutes. See which style you prefer.
I find pedaling standing at 90-100 rpm in a lower gear (bigger cogs) tires me much faster than pedaling standing at 60-70 rpm in a higher gear (smaller cogs).