Originally Posted by
terrymorse
I haven't seen many riders doing climbs at 95 cadence.
A cadence of 90 is a rough average for flat time trials or flat road races, but for mountain stages, the average is closer to 70.
Here's a decent article about "
optimal cadence", with references.
That would be Lance/Froome country - which doesn't exactly make it right for me (even if I had the gearing and/or strength to pull it off).
I came to that conclusion (for me) based on an observation of what I do when I am riding indoors on a spin bike (with power pedals) trying to ride for 15 to 30'ish minutes at 95% to 105% of my ftp. On a spin bike you kind of have infinite gears and when I do those rides I tend to gravitate toward 95 or so rpm.
But that is hardly a scientific analysis. Even though Froome and Armstrong climbed at high cadence, I believe that Quintana is more of a 75 RPM guy.
Of course I was not looking for the optimum cadence, but looking for the cadence (when pedaling in the vicinity of your ftp) that things kind of fall apart.
dave