My natural cadence is about 80-82. I’m not a spinner, but have a high level of muscle endurance and good top end, sprint speed, etc. A very close friend of mine - bike racer for many years - has been riding me hard about elevating my cadence. He thinks optimum crit cadence is about 100. While I do not get dropped or gapped in accelerations, he thinks because of my low cadence, that I burn more energy which hurts me in the final tally. He also thinks it is far more efficient to spin at a higher cadence in order to deal with the constantly changing pace of a crit paceline. Is there merit to his contention?
There are big differences in “efficiency” between bike racing (multiple accelerations) and long course triathlon/TT (steady state).
Ultimately, your training will need to reflect your primary racing focus. If you want to race IM, training for steady state 80-85 RPM is spot-on. However, to be the best bike racer possible (whether crit, road, track, or CCX), you need to learn to vary your speed quickly and effectively. This necessitates a higher cadence approach to “save your legs” for the surges/sprints that matter (usually late in the race).
In short, your friend is correct (from a bike racing focus perspective). However, ultimately, YOU need to decide your priorities and optimize your training and racing for those priorities.
I would think that you could react faster to accelerations if your cadence were higher, and that doing so would require less muscular force (but more aerobic effort).
I guess part of my reluctance to change is a nagging question as to whether cadence is naturally related to your physiology. I’m not a small guy, for starters - 6’-1" @ 185. I am stronger physically than I am aerobically. I have slow leg turnover on the run as well. The low cadence has carried my very well on the bike, though admittedly my run is rather pedestrian.
I agree that it may help with excelleration. Last year I rode on Powercranks (until I was told they where banned for bunch races), in some local crits. I was riding much bigger gears than I had prevously to compensate for a low cadence (as I had not been riding them for long) and I found that I was alot slower to excellerate. In an easier gear it is a bit easier to spin it up quickly. Though I think that above 80 rpm should be fine.
You may be fine with the lower cadence (usually people with lower cadence will like to try to solo off the front), but you may be even better with the higher cadence. Give it a try. As has already been said, crit racing is all about reacting to changes in speed. You may be able to muscle through an acceleration just fine, but most people find it very fatiguing.
It seems that the last thing on my mind during a crit is cadence… too busy avoiding death in every corner and the newbie Cat 5’s.
I read somewhere (and I’ll say right now that I don’t buy into it) that the best way to sprint is at a very high cadence. However, acceleration is pest done at lower cadences. Ideally, you would have the ability to spin up to 120-140 rpm to take the sprint while being able to accelerate our of low cadence.
My natural cadence is about 80-82. I’m not a spinner, but have a high level of muscle endurance and good top end, sprint speed, etc. A very close friend of mine - bike racer for many years - has been riding me hard about elevating my cadence. He thinks optimum crit cadence is about 100. While I do not get dropped or gapped in accelerations, he thinks because of my low cadence, that I burn more energy which hurts me in the final tally. He also thinks it is far more efficient to spin at a higher cadence in order to deal with the constantly changing pace of a crit paceline. Is there merit to his contention?
Robert
Your friend is only telling you the “common wisdom”. That don’t make it correct. Until you’re being dropped on those accelerations I wouldn’t worry about it. While a higher cadence can allow you to generate more power, what is what gears are for. Change your gear and increase your cadence when you need it and stay in your most efficient cadence for the bulk of the racing. If you increase the cadence to anticipate the need, then you are only tireing yourself out and hurting yourself in the long run, IMHO.
Whether you feel it or not every acceleration in a bigger costs you more muscle energy and fatigue. crit racing is all about snap and saving energy until you need it. Almost the opposite of TT riding which is steady state where you use the same amount of energy for the duration.
If you just race an occasional crit your style may do ok, but I don’t know of one big time crit rider that rides with a slow cadence. G
Having the ability to ride a faster cadence is like giving yourself an 11 speed on a 10speed bike. It allows you more options. you can ride a bigger gear at slower cadences or a smaller gear at higher cadences. If your spinning at say 90, then pace accelerates you now have two options. Increase the gear or increase the cadence. If your at 80rpm then most likely you have to increase the gear. Sooner or later you’ll probably run out of gears. If your TTing into a strong headwind, crosswind etc again more options. Watts applied to the chain is ultimatley what makes you faster. If you can do it at higher and lower rpm’s you have more tools in the toolbox.
I don’t want to hijack the thread too much, but this is on the subject of crit racing… I’m going to do my first crit as a Cat 5 in two weeks and wonder if anyone can impart some wisdom on me so I don’t piss anyone off.
I’ve got decnt bike handling skills from years of mountain biking & commuting and am fairly strong on the bike (under-2:30 half-IM bike splits.) Anything specific I should watch out for or expect in a Cat 5 race??
This is not just common wisdom but plain old wisdom.I can hang on a cat 4 race at 50 cadence but the higher the level of racing the higher your cadence needs to be.25 mile an hour tt at 80 rpm will not keep you in a group that excelerates to 32 for thirty seconds at 120 rpm.If you’re not getting dropped you might think about upgrading.
Cullen
I think your friend is sort of right. You need the range of cadence to re-act to jumps, coming out of corners, etc. Crits are far from a steady state effort.
That being said, do things that increase your range like 5x2 min @130-140 rpms, or some steady state intervals at 90-100. Do enough to increase range but not so much that you lose strength. Not everyone is Lance armstrong. If you cannot produce max and near max power at the higher rpms it will not work for you.
Before doing a crit, do at least one road race. Before doing a road race, ride with a fast, aggressive group several times. You need to not only have bike handling skills, but the instincts to predict what the 10 other riders in your vicinity are about to do.
Crits have a ton of sudden acceleration/deceleration. Don’t run into anyone and don’t make anyone run into you. Watch your handlebars so you don’t get tangled with a friend. When cornering, lift your inside pedal so as not to drag it on the pavement.
Out of curiosity, I rode yesterday and today to see what drills to elevate cadence would feel like. I rode 25 each a.m. with a goal of maintaining a cadence of around 90-92. I would also spin up to 100 and hold it for a period of time, then repeat. Not easy, but no one said it would be.
I’m racing some crit series on March 5 and March 19. Probably too soon to see any improvement, but perhaps I’ll force myself to race one at a higher cadence to see how it works.
For the poster asking advice about crits, try to find organized training crits. In central florida there are three training crit venues that draw very large crowds. Last one I did had an “A” group field (cat 1-3) of over 50 guys. The B (Cat 4) and C )Cat 5) groups were decently sized as well. These training crits are designed to give beginners an opportunity to learn the sport, and elites a venue to prepare for race season. I do not recommend that you ride the front on your first crit. I think the exact opposite. Ride the back until you know for a fact that you can hold a line through turns, pedal confidently through turns and can accelerate at the drop of a dime, therefore not getting gapped. PS. aero bars not allowed!
It seems like you probably already realize this based on your last post, but I was going to suggest to you that you train at the higher cadences before trying to race with them. If you simply show up at a crit and try to spin at 95-105 RPM it will feel impossible if you have been training for weeks and months using a cadence of 80. If you have any access to power measuring devices, they are a very good way to determine your optimal cadence based on how much power you can produce at various RPM’s. Check out www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com for more info on the process of finding optimal cadence.
You only have 4 safe positions relative to another rider –
*Directly behind (okay, offset the wheels a little, but NEVER overlap)
*Directly in front of
*Elbow to elbow
*Elbow to hip
Anything else should be a transition to one of these areas. In addition, keep the arms loose so that any incidental contact doesn’t get transmitted to your front wheel (and a resulting crash). Use your elbows like cat’s whiskers.
If you’re at the back of the pack, you’re going to get accordianed to death. Crit riding is not smooth, so don’t expect it to be – TT and half-IM splits mean nothing. You can be a strong rider and still get dropped due to not being able to respond to jumps and corners. Staying near the front is not only good to avoid the accordian effect in corners, but also to avoid crashes.
It will take a few races before you start feeling anywhere near comfortable. It’s stressful, scary, and initially very hard to have the spatial awareness necessary to be a decent pack rider. But that’s why you start in Cat 5 - you’ll all be learning at the same time.
My advice is to try to stay toward the front of the pack, do not chase any breaks (some dolt always shoots off the front 10 minutes in and blows up, gets caught and spit out the back within the subsequent 10 minutes), and try to be somewhat aggressive while also being defensive and relaxed.
Good advice - however, something i always wonder about - it seems impossible to me to not be in a situation with wheel overlap - space is always at a minimum.
Another thing to address - what are your thoughts on braking into corners - i’ve done a ton of pack riding in road race form, but only one crit, and i kept getting the advice of ‘don’t brake into corners’. sounds suicidal to me…