Originally Posted by
bigblackcrank
Sometimes, I think the low cadence drills even at high resistance offered by SS/FG is counter-productive to speed-endurance. I've only done it once and my speed suffered so I stopped doing it.
Best training results I have always involved some sort of intervals in each training session per day. I still push high resistance in intervals but always at high cadence like 20 to 30 second sprints / attacks but I never do high resistance at low cadence anymore. The only times I do "low" cadence drills is standing on the pedals but I try not to have my cadence drop below 60 rpm unless I'm really tired or feeling lazy and I'd rather stand than sit. I think for cycling performance, muscle power (watts) is more important than strength (torque).
I've had friends who's coaches prescribed them low-cadence intervals on the bike before, and it sounds pretty rough tbh. Never tried it. I've also never worked directly with a coach and won't pretend to be an expert in that sort of thing, so not sure what benefits it provides.
Power is certainly the more important metric for an endurance racer, road or track. I prefer to make mine with low torque/high RPMs, spinning a relatively small gear. However, some amount of torque is almost always required to win a bike race in the form of a sprint or an attack. Maybe SS/FG riders have more musculature developed for that sort of thing? Could be another benefit to SS/FG, all those starts from 0 MPH at high torque.