Originally Posted by
San Rensho
Back in the day, mashing was the rule. Look at Merckx in the 70's
Merckx wasn't a masher. By necessity everyone trained for low-cadence efforts because racers were using absurdly narrow drivetrains even on mountain stages, but they didn't necessarily use low cadences all the time.
Eddy Merckx chose a 52-14 gear for his hour record. His average cadence was over 100rpm for that hour.