by Steve James on Sat Mar 25, 2017 4:46 pm
Yeah, track is a different beast. Are you old enough to remember Nelson Vails, the sprinter from the Bronx who took silver at the 84 Olympics? He'd go on road rides, but it was much harder for him to climb hills. It was a simple matter of power to weight ratio. Going downhill, though, was another matter; and, on the flats, it would be impossible to keep up. So, to beat him, or keep up, it was necessary to tire his long twitch muscles by raising the pace overall. That gets to the issue of recovery, and I think it applies just as much to tendons as to muscles.
For ex., afa rpm, Froomey rides at 97+ uphill. The advantage is that there is X distance at Y incline to cover. Give that an overall figure of N, and every cyclist will have to complete that much work. No matter the time, but faster is better. So, the guy who pedals more will have divided the work up more. Obviously, pushing a lower gear is easier and uses a higher rpm. Of course, if the cyclist can get a big gear to that rpm, he'll be going much faster. But, you see the problem. That means that cyclist has to have bigger muscles but long distance cardio. Cyclists of that sort are extremely rare. (Last one I remember was Eddie Merckx "the Beast"). Usually, it's us relatively skinny guys --with high power to weight ratio, and are forced to push a low gear anyway-- who are the climbers.
However, a high pedal cadence is fine as long as technique is maintained. That's hard, and what happens is that casual cyclists will waste more energy pedaling than they will be putting into the pedals. That's also the connection to tendon elasticity, and specifically to the ability of a stretched or extended tendon to rest. There are books on pedaling technique, but nowadays it's all very scientific. The smoother the stroke, and the more the energy is distributed throughout the stoke (aopt to only when one foot is pushing down) usually determines pedaling efficiency. Elastic tendons and ligaments around the ankle, especially, are desirable.
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