Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
No, of course not on the "upstroke" because that's done by the relatively weak hip flexors. I work my hip flexors at the gym, but they still aren't much. The hammies are for pulling back at the bottom and then another ~30° before they become ineffective. No reason to stop producing power just because your feet hit BDC. The coordination necessary to keep force normal to the crank also prevents bouncing in the saddle. Anything one can do to decrease the load on the quad main drivers makes them last longer at the same power. At moderate power, I can switch back and forth between quads and hams to rest the one that's worse off. I have trouble comparing myself to a 30 y.o. pro with the talents of one in 10,000 riders. I don't understand why that even comes up, 50+ forum no less.
I just got off my rollers, 15'@105%, 56rpm, but I had a long cool-down, so not that pumped.
I think it's valid to compare pedal stroke with pros. They have exactly the same anatomy and kinematics as everyone else, just different power and endurance levels. What really sets them apart from ordinary people is their vast cardio engines.
I've noted that the old-school foot scraping technique seems to be gradually losing favour, although still with very mixed views from modern coaches/riders. Actively pulling on the up stroke seems to be almost universally regarded as poor technique even at very low cadence - with the notable exception of standing start track sprints, which I don't think is relevant here. One study noted that amateur riders tend to pull more on their pedals when climbing out of the saddle than pro riders, which I thought was interesting. I don't think it attempted to reason why that would be the case. To be honest I don't over-think it when I'm riding, but my feet don't lift up off my flat pedals when I'm climbing out of the saddle on my mountain bike, so I guess I don't tend to pull up naturally. It's not like I don't climb steep gradients either. Our local UK terrain is full of 25%+ sharp climbs, both on and off-road.
Edit: Just a thought on the pulling up when climbing at very low cadence. Maybe the trend toward lower compact gearing on road bikes has made it much less likely to find yourself forced into doing it.
There's obviously a fair degree of personal preference involved in all this too and technique varies with cadence. I was watching the classic film Stars and Water Carriers and it reminded me how much of a "masher" Merckx was compared to many of his smooth pedalling contemporaries.