this is indeed a worthy question to seek input on.
some riders develop a smooth flowing pedaling action without any consideration of the factors involved. there are those, too, who even after riding some condsiderable miles look labored and sloppy.
when a rider who has a smooth style nears their limits of output, endurance or fatigue they commonly look as "ragged" as the rider who has less smoothness.
this then contributes to inefficiency, and you get passed.
it's probably a good thing some with whom i ride sre not really smoothed out at times or i would have an even harder time...
my advice is to disregard those who will tell you to just absorb a smooth style and actually consider the components of a smooth efficient spin. after all this is what propels the bike, puzzling how some would leave this to chance.
when i first started getting coached to race there was a lot of emphasis placed on developing a good spin. one pan am games sprinter told us you need to have leg speed if you are going to turn the big gear when it counts.
upon being asked how to develop this he advised to start and end a ride with high cadence spinning, wind it up until you bounce on the saddle then try to smooth this out and hold it there. no way this can be pulled off without a smooth spin.
it is true that the actual force that propels the bike is exerted only through a small portion of the spin, so this makes considering everything involved even more valid.
a district champ time trialist told me he would envision his knees being pulled up at the top, all the way up. since then i have heard it is common for time trialists to concentrate on their spin for the duration of the event.
during a solo breakaway this is crucial as well.
greg lemond was mentioned here as popularizing the "scraping mud off the shoe" at the bottom of the stroke.
for myself, i like to picture the revolution of the cranks as comprised of several sections, and try to transition between each of these as smooth as possible.
pulling up with the leg opposite of the leg applying the power works to lesen the dead weight that would work as an antagonist to counteract your power.
when the muscles are firing in coordinated bliss and you are conditioned to a peak nailing a good spin these are things you will treasure for a lifetime.
i offer up this rambling commentary on not from a desire to be a know it all (that i am not, i try to be teachable, always looking around...)or prove anything, but to pass on some of the things i was fortunate enough to have been coached about early on.
i was also told early on that even the cat 1/2's (who were at the time looked up to as gods to us, even though they would have an "aw shucks" attitude or shrug their shoulders at any implication opf greatness for the most part...)
would work on specific components of their cycling. sure, we knew they must work on miles, climbing, sprinting, but their "spin?", yes we were told they would work on their spin, too.
Chance3290 said:
It might sound like a silly question, but how do you pedal? I know you press down on the pedals from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock but what happens after that? Do you push back from 6 to about 8, then pull up from 8 to 12? I know this sounds like biking 101, but I'll bet there are a lot of people (like me) doing it wrong.