Roadies with super-fast cadence

Part of my commute in the afternoon involves coming down a particularly scenic stretch of road which is always bustling with full-on lycra & oakley & silly cap thing wearing roadies. There’s a bit of it which is downhill and (usually) has a tailwind and I often see roadies cycling in really low gears with a really, really fast cadence. There’s a steepish uphill just after it, but the downhill stretch is long enough that it would justify a change of gears.

It looks really weird to me – I’m always in my highest gear along that stretch. Are they just wrong or is are they doing some training thing that roadies do that I don’t know about?

High cadence is more efficient supposedly. One of the things Ferrari had Armstrong change was upping his cadence when he started coaching him,

One of the markers of a newbie on the road is the way they shift into their hardest gear at the top of every hill. Gears don’t work like that, and learning to ride at a high cadence is part of learning how to ride a road bike. If you can spin each gear up to 110-120 rpm, you gain so much extra ability in each gear you have rather than thinking ‘Ooh, downhill, must pedal hard’.

High cadence also preserves your leg strength in long rides as opposed to clogging along in too high a gear. It also makes attacks or accelerations much more effective.

Power is force times velocity. I have low force and hence high velocity = cadence. I average 105 in races, lower in time trials. I ride single speed off road, and an ability to spin helps enormously.

There’s a chance that they might be using it for sprint training. Some folk will separate out the strength part of the sprint and the cadence part of the sprint into different drills.

Always amazes me how many people still grind big gears considering how long (since Lance) its been known that spinning a little gear to preserve legs is better.

Maybe they are riding fixed?

Higher cadence keeps my knees happy. 75 hilly miles today averaging 91.

The Lance high tempo thing is full of shit, a bit like him having “lost weight” and gotten more powerful.

Most pro cyclists have what many would consider to be a high cadence, to the point that riders that are considered as mashers actually have a faster cadence than many casual cyclists. The rider you saw are probably not pros but are at least developing positive habits.

Yes, so full of shit near enough every modern pro does it.

considering how long (since Lance) its been known that spinning a little gear to preserve legs is better

Yes, that – apparently it relies on your aerobic capacity more

… remind me, what was it about Lance’s aerobic capacity ? Something, I’m sure

Always amazes me how many people still grind big gears considering how long (since Lance) its been known that spinning a little gear to preserve legs is better.

Always amazes me how few people can actually use their gears properly!
The thing about high cadence has largely been debunked – you can achieve the same power output with 60rpm as you can with 100, it just depends on which you prefer personally and which muscular structure you have.

Are you sure they weren’t riding a fixed gear? If you ride somewhere even moderately hilly, this means a medium gear – mine’s set up for 100rpm @ 20mph, consequently fast downhills are ‘fun’ . As for Ferrari and Pharmstrong – merely an ruse to divert attention from his doping.

Interesting thread. I’ve always been a spinner (MTB and road) and never understood how/why some people roll those big gears without making any ground on me.

I’m often surprised at how slow roadies cadence seems to be, especially climbing.

It hasnt been debunked at all, its not about the ability to produce power, and indeed your body is actually more efficient at lower cadences, but pushing a bigger gear causes more muscular damage. Better to load the cardio system with a higher cadence wherever possible so muscles are still in best shape possible when you need them.

No matter what the terrain, I almost always tend to average a cadence of 72-75 rpm, whilst I can hit 110+ on short ateep climbs it seems my natural cadence is mid 70’s.

Spin to win boys

Are you sure they weren’t riding a fixed gear?

Yes.

This is all interesting. My steely commuter (allegedly a CX bike) has a very low top gear such that I can often find myself wanting higher gears on uphill stretches, let alone downhill. I’d been considering getting a bigger chainring, but maybe I should embrace my inner spinner instead.

Were they in a chaingang? I sustain some crazy high cadences in a group but it seems to fit the ebb and flow. On my own I just cannot keep them up and it also seems to serve no purpose.

Aside from the Armstrong-tarnished fast cadence good or bad debate, they could have been working on leg speed. Another day you might see them mashing I big gear (or more probably they hide all their gear mashing on the turbo). Leg speed plus leg strength equals faster innit?

Depends what OP considers a fast cadence though doesn’t it? If he’s a masher 90 will seem ridiculously quick but that’s what I average on the road now. 110+ on sprinty bits or short hills; just makes it so much easier.

Fast (super fast for of us) cadence was a specific solution for Lance. It then became the accepted gospel for everyone…..odd

Were they in a chaingang?

No, I’ve seen maybe 7 or 8 people in the last couple of weeks riding solo doing this. The only time I saw a chaingang on the same stretch I didn’t notice what they were doing.

mashing

What is mashing? In Yorkshire it means making tea.

Pedalling a big gear slow as opposed to a small gear fast (spinning).

Depends what OP considers a fast cadence though doesn’t it?

I reckon 120ish. Downhill. In a low gear. For no good reason.

Pedalling a big gear slow as opposed to a small gear fast (spinning).

Is it supposed to be pejorative?

I don’t think so, just a different way of pedalling innit.

200 rpm down a steep hill on the fixed can be fun…
For a short while anyway, it soon gets tiring. Its a good idea to have front and rear brakes to control the speed.

For me, high cadence works on some stretches, whereas a higher gear/low cadence works on others. Certainly, I prefer spinning when climbing, but there are some uphill stretches of road where I find a high cadence just doesn’t work.

I don’t think the high cadence thing has been debunked at all, but it’s not a universal technique and therefore needs to be used appropriately, based on the physiology of the rider and the terrain.

If they had caught Lance befoe Ullrich we would all be mashing out 70-90 rpm

I’ve always favoured bigger climbing gears. Think my stance was formed from thinking Lance was a tadger back in the day, and big Jan was a dude.

Riding fixed has taught me how to spin better, and to be more comfortable at higher revs on a geared bike.

I know it works (for me) as I frequently pass the same commuters plodding away in higher gears, on lighter weight, geared bikes, they often look to be physically stronger, they’ve just not overruled their ego’s when it comes to gear selection, and are therefore just using the bike inefficiently.
Half of them are triathletes I think… 😉

I don’t have a road bike but I do a mixed dirt/road commute on my mountain bike most days and end up playing cadence games down the biggest road hill. I’ve been riding 1×10 for a few years now and know that if I can make my legs go very fast and very slow I can avoid the slippery slope into big and heavy or expensive cassettes that is 1×11/12 – and it makes the road bits less boring.

I’ve managed to keep pushing the pedals at just over 40mph in 32:11 on a 27.5 bike with 2.3 tyres, which apparently is a cadence of about 170rpm. I’m sure it looks absolutely ridiculous! 😉

As an ex-triathlete I will defend my old sport, I still use a much higher cadence than most of my roadie and mtb friends and climb more efficiently in general. Plus I change down a lot earlier when approaching the hill. All came from tri training (with the aforementioned Lance effect plus the ideas of matching run and cycle cadences)

A good mate of mine always used to always spin as fast as he could comfortably manage when going down hill, even if he was spinning out. He always told me it was to get his legs used to spinning at a higher rpm. My coach would love me to spin at a higher rpm but he reckons you can do what you can do, you can coach yourself to spin at a higher rpm but it is very hard.

My average cadence has gone up from probably 70-80 3 years ago to 100ish now. For me it feels more comfortable

“Roadies” is a description I only ever hear used on STW. Given that most people who ride on the road also ride other types of bikes its pretty passive aggresive as with this op.

What is it about people on road bikes that scares people who dont ride them, especially STW types?

“Roadies” is a description I only ever hear used on STW. Given that most people who ride on the road also ride other types of bikes its pretty passive aggresive as with this op.

Do you only look here? I hear it all the time, from all areas of cycling, including from roadists themselves…

Quick look over my last few rides, maximum usually just over 110…average around 80, not sure if that takes the zeros into consideration…