I am a little behind in my email and read this from RBR newsletter from last week. I thought it might inspire some debate. It was really just the first sentence that struck me, especailly being a PC fanatic.
- Try This on Your Next Ride o^o o^o o^o o^o o^o o^o
Improve your uphill pedal strokes.
It’s well established that cyclists can’t actually pull up the pedals with enough force to propel the bike. Nice theory. Doesn’t work.
But pedaling in smooth, round circles certainly helps. It lightens the load on the ascending pedal so there’s less resistance against the one you’re pushing down.
That’s most important when climbing. The rounder you can pedal uphill, the more you’ll get out of each stroke. In fact, your technique is easier to work on when climbing because your cadence is slower, letting your brain keep up with your feet. You can concentrate on feeling the pedals all the way around.
Try this, too. Instead of simply pumping up and down, pedal across the top and bottom of each stroke. This horizontal approach smoothes the up/down transition and has two other benefits:
—It helps momentum, always a good thing when fighting gravity
—It alters the load on leg muscles to reduce fatigue
A good time to switch to a horizontal emphasis is on the flatter sections of a tiered climb.
Josh Cunningham