cadence

53/11 with a cadence of 80rpm is approx 30mph.

21mph would be 56rpm.

80-85rpm is most people's sweet spot and if you can maintain 30mph plus for extended periods, you should ignore your club and sign up for the GB Olympic squad.

Yes your numbers and speeds dont seem to add up. You're confused about your gears/speed or cadence ?

Pro racers have pretty much the same gears as you - you're in the gear they'd be hitting for their 40mph bunch sprints.

If you're going to be TTing I think you can get away with grinding a bigger gear. If its bunch racing - then you wont be able to respond to attacks as quickly in a big gear.

For now I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Yes it sounds like you're riding a lower than average cadence but that suits some people (It's an average, some people have to be under it!).

Do a few races and see how it goes, personally I find that I have to spin a high cadence in crit races because I don't have the strength to accellerate quickly if I'm in a big gear so I get gapped too easily. You won't know if that happens to you until you race.

You may be fine as you are but you'll only know by doing some racing.

What distances are you currently riding while pushing 11/53?

I was like you when I picked up a bicycle. I'm 186cm and 90kg and I have a medium build.

My legs represent quite substantial muscle mass and it was comfortable for me to push a big gear.

However, I found that when out riding with my gf I would struggle badly on hills (she's almost half my weight but my muscle mass should compensate right?). When I changed to an easier gear I found spinning uncomfortable as it placed a stress on my heart & lungs rather than on my quadriceps femoris.

I since have started to spin more and now routinely ride at around 90rpm although this drops to 60rpm up long hills, but for me, this is an improvement.

Physiological changes occur from this change in technique I think. I now find I struggle to turn 50/11 (top gear on my cyclocross) I'm even considering changing the cassette to a 14-25 which will give me closer ratios on my commute as the 11 only gets used downhill.

So am I right in saying to build slow twitch muscles you need to train with more reps using less weight? Or am I way off the mark?

Bar Shaker wrote:

In simple terms, we can build two types of muscle, call them 'power' and 'twitch'. Power is what Hoy has, twitch is what the tour riders have. Power can be seen as massive quads and is a slow strong muscle. Twitch is leaner and a faster moving muscle.

Power muscle will let you put down an explosive pace for short periods of time, twitch will let you ride at a given pace all day. Power muscle tires very quickly and can suffer from lactic acid build up. Twitch tires slowly unless used to apply high loads.

How much of each you have depends on the training and riding you do.

If you can average 18mph over a 45+ mile ride, there isn't much wrong with your technique.

This is useful to me.

I would say that I'm more 'power' than 'twitch' and that is why I struggle with hills.

I'll have to try spinning in a lower gear from now on to try and improve my twitch muscles for hills.

I suffer a similar problem as you Clunky.

For just over a year (before I got injured and started cycling) I used to be a bit of a gym nut. Just before my injury (torn sholder/bi/tri/chest muscles in a oner) I was up to squatting 3x10 of 180kg without much of a problem. This has given me a decent set of quads and glutes but bugger all stamina.

When I started cycling, I would mash a big gear at low cadence and go the same speed as everyone, but would tire fast. But recently I've made a conscious effort to increase cadence, and I find for less effort I am going nearly as fast for longer.

Try increase it slowly, if you find you cycle at 60rpm, increase it to 70 until it feels natural, then to 80, then to the magic 90. Dont increase cadence by 50% instantly, all it will do is "shock" your body. I'm no scientist and still quite new to cycling, but going from one extreme to the other in anything in life is never a good idea, I can only assume its the same for cycling

Essentially I've had to (and you will have to by the sounds of it), re-train your legs, instead of big strength for low time, you need low strength for a long time (in relative speaking, cycling doesn't need the strength of squatting!)

On the plus side, the great thing about knowing you have the strength to mash a big gear is sprinting is a breeze, just heave away and before you know it, you're out pacing the weight weenies! I assume we can think about someone like Cav, he was a track cyclist so has massive strength (yet still manages to have massive endurance somehow), but check out where that strength comes in handy, at the last strait, his track background means that big gear can be spun up and off he goes to the line like nobody else in the field.