Heya!
Umm, I think your type of muscle make-up determines your best cadence.
From my uninformed reading of cycliterature (and other stuff), if you are a mainly short-twitch
muscle type - a sprinter - then your natural cadence will be higher that if you are a mainly
long-twitch muscle type
- a hill-climber, or in neddy-racing terms, a "stayer" (I think).
Tho, it does seem that body size, or rather how tall u are, does have some correlation to firstly
what type of muscles u have. Fer example, it seems all the TDF winners lately tend to be lanky
types, whereas the sprint kings (and queens - allez Longo!) seem to be stubby persons. I think there
is also some correlation here with wee-but-bemuscled 100 m sprinters and stratospheric 5 000 m
winners - tho of course, there are plenty of the opposite height-wise, tho more importantly, there
seem to be none of the opposite, muscle-wise.
Summary: sprint-types have higher (90-100) optimum cadences, and are often, but not always,
shortish. Distance/hill-climbing types have lower (80-90) optimum cadences, and are often, but not
always, tallish
Andrew Morris wrote:
>
> Ben,
>
> I don't think body size really has anything to do with spinning... I used to amateur race, and
> could maintain 85 for about 6 hours straight, irrespective of incline, and stay in the
> saddle... I'm about 5'10" and weigh anywhere between 70 and 85 kgs, depending on my muscle
> density at the time...
>
> The secret I found to maintaining the cadence was to use a cycle computer with a cadence alarm,
> and to pick my gearing to maintain the cadence I wanted to ride at... When I upgraded to a
> flightdeck, I found that the lack of alarm feature was a huge negative... Now, I ride to maintain
> heart rate, rather than to maintain cadence... Creates a different level of fitness...
>
> Cheers,
>
> Drew
>
> "Mick D" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > www.spinning.com might be a good place to have a read. "Ben Wight" <
[email protected]> wrote in
> > message
news:[email protected]...
> > > I read the value of 90 being used often, is this considered an optimum speed? What are the
> > > variables that affect this value, ie. what body
> size
> > > is better at 85, and 95, etc.
> > >
> > > Anything else besides body size?
> > >
> > > Ben Wight
> > >
> > >
> >