Originally Posted by
livedarklions
You do realize that pro riders actually do lift their legs some to lighten the load on the descending leg, right? That's pretty basic.
First of all world class pros do not exert upward force on the rising pedal,
https://www.researchgate.net/publica...ng_performance
Second, such an obvious moving of the goalposts fools no one. The issue you raised was energy needed to raise the upward moving leg in the pedal stroke. Other than a slight imbalance between the two legs, whatever force is needed to raise one leg is provided by the weight of the other.