Originally posted by VeloFlash
I was having a discussion with Martin Vinnicombe, a cycling coach and former World track kilo champion, about pedal technique for a start of a track TT/pursuit.
He said to totally concentrate on your downstroke and forget about your upstroke. Bringing in concentrating on the upstroke is an inefficient application of power as for the maximum (wasted) effort you get about a 15% return versus 100% on the downstroke.
The upstroke only should come into play in the first couple of rotations and then it is total concentration on power application to the downstroke.
IMHO, from experience I find one legged cycling drills a waste of precious cycling time. You gain more neurological adaption by concentrating on technique by cycling with both legs, as the designs of Messrs. Shimano and Campagnola intended.
I agree 100 per cent with his advice, pulling up can offer extra
power for the initial acceleration but that is all. The best way to
practice this is to follow the stop at red lights advice and
give it all you have got at the green.
For anyone who is interested I did already state that Anquetil's
power generating technique can , when extreme effort is called for, totally eliminate the dead spot area (11 to 1 o'clock) but this
cannot be maintained for long. However a new idea ROTOR
CRANKS has come on the market and together with Anquetil's
technique give pedaling perfection and make completely
eliminating the dead spot area so easy. On their own, they only
give one third of the advantage and you still have all the
disadvantages of round pedaling, back pain , knee pain,
sliding forward on the saddle and the inability to combine arm
resistance and hip/leg power when riding at speed in the saddle.