tttiltheend wrote:
DrAlexHarrison wrote:
rayman54 wrote:
I did the exact same thing a few years ago. I'm 66 and I found that I almost never used the 11/12 sprockets. Living in New England and a hilly area I really like my Franken-cassette!! The only downside was buying 2 cassettes.Bingo! Waste of space. Better off spending Watts elsewhere on course than at >34mph unless you're world class. Time savings per kcal energy expense at those speeds is horrible!
A waste of watts if you're trying to push hard at those speeds. I'm not that strong since I'm old, but I'm relatively very aero and efficient based on what I've seen in the thread about race power/speed. At higher speeds, such as on gradual downhills, I like to concentrate on getting as aero as possible (shrug/turtle/low) and continue to pedal at a decent cadence but relatively low power output such as ~100 watts. I find I really fly without much effort since I'm very aero, and at that power output it's like active recovery. Pretty much impossible to do that if you don't have at least reasonable gears, for me 50 x 11 w/ 165 cranks is plenty.
Speaking as an older rider whose fastest average of any ride this year is 23 mph, I find it hard to imagine averaging in the mid to upper 20s without having reasonable high gears, but hey, whatever works for you.
YMMV.
I bet you'd go faster in the race overall if you stopped pedaling once you hit 30-32 mph and just focused on aero as you say. Agreed that you can totally fly if you nail the aero position on a downhill. Passive recovery works better than active recovery at race-level exertion when work to rest ratios are very high. When work to rest ratios are lower (long descent), some passive recovery at the beginning may be optimal. That should probably transition into place as a rider makes their way up from race average speed to spin out speed. (Once over crest and accelerating downward with help of gravity.)
Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub