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Old 07-17-19, 12:09 PM
  #42  
canklecat
Me duelen las nalgas
 
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Bikes: Centurion Ironman, Trek 5900, Univega Via Carisma, Globe Carmel

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Ride your own natural cadence. It'll vary over time and distance anyway. As long as the bike fit is appropriate and no harm is being done to your joints, it can't be wrong.

The high rpm technique evolved to be more efficient for pros riding multi-day stage races with little time to recover. It wasn't common in an earlier era of bigger guys like Merckx, Indurain and others who didn't fit the currently vogue stringbean body type.

Among local enthusiasts I ride with who are fast but not racers, styles vary tremendously. Sunday I rode with a couple of friends who couldn't be more different in riding styles. One is a bigger guy (by cycling standards), around 6' and 185 lbs. He mashes bigger gears, around 40-60 rpm. The other guy is a little smaller than I, around 5'9" and 145 lbs. He spins effortlessly. Both own many KOMs and top tens locally. I'm sorta in between in size, weight and cadence. I have zero KOMs and only a few top tens.

I'm 5'11", 150 lbs with bird legs. No amount of training will make these matchsticks bigger. My natural cadence after warming up is 90 rpm like clockwork. I have a cadence sensor but it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. It slows a bit on climbs, and I'll get up to 130 rpm on downhills if I'm going for a new PR.

The hard part was improving my cardio fitness to recover more quickly from the aerobic stress of spinning. But once I got past that obstacle it's worked for me. If I mash bigger gears, especially on climbs, I risk cooking my legs and I'm done for that ride. No big deal if I'm riding solo or with patient partners, but on fast group rides I've been dropped and couldn't recover when I tried to mash up climbs or stand to pedal too long. Then my knees ache the next day. If I sit and spin I look like an eggbeater but I keep up just fine.
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