Originally Posted by
bigwapitijohnny
Good afternoon,
I have been riding a road bike for less than a year now...I have lost 40 lbs and I am really looking forward to more miles this year. Anyway, I have searched this forum for 'pedaling technique' and found some great articles on how to make my stroke more efficient. I used to 'mash' the pedals down from one to another, then I changed the stroke to 'pushing' over the top with my hamstrings and then 'wiping' the toes through the down stroke. I tried this 'stroke' 2 days ago on my Tacx trainer and found some promising results. Wattage increased by +30 overall and my MPH increased by +1. I know this is probably not that big a deal for you veterans, however, to me it seemed like a marked improvement. Is there anything else that you all can share to help me get faster? Thanks in advance for your insight and expertise...
Regards,
BWJ
Turn on the TV and watch the TOC and look at the pro riders. Their upper body is relaxed and not moving much, their pedaling is smooth...some have their foot almost level and the bottom of the stroke, some have their heel up a bit at the bottom. Their cadence is in the 90 to 100 rpm range most of the time, which allows them to make more power and longer than mashing the pedals really hard at 70 rpm. Just pedal smooth at higher cadence, and forget trying to force your ankle to flex in ways it really doesn't need to. THis is supposed to me fun...so don't get all OCD about cycling like most of us BF'ers