Hi all,
I keep seeing blogs, articles, posts, etc. that basically say that while climbing you should try to maintain a cadence of 90 - what I never see is an explanation of why 90 is such a significant number for cadence while climbing.
I'm still way out of shape, I spend most of my time in the 70-80 range of cadence on roads that are for the most part flat (slight rolls, maybe 5 feet up/down on a very low grade), while climbing I spend most of my time in the 60-80 range.
I don't really care on one level that I don't go 90 on climbs right now, I'm just not at that point physically where I can do that (heck, I'm still using flat pedals at this point - not quite ready for clipless yet until I get a different bike); what I'm more curious about is why it's important to strive for that number.
Hi,
There is no point striving for that number if your only doing 70-80 on the flat. It is worth
looking at when your doing around 100+ on the flat, but to do that you have to be fit,
and be interested in going as fast as possible, like racers obviously do.
The best time trialers do 110 -120 on average on a relatively flat course,
and with big gears that most of us can only dream about going that fast.
If your interested in just getting fit, ignore it and do whatever feels comfortable.
However to try and answer your question, if your really fast on the flat,
having trained to push high cadences on the flat, you aren't going
going to be able to mash up hills at low cadence, you have to spin.
I'd say that is where it comes from, all the top racers spin, and even,
no especially, in my advanced years, because I can't mash like
I did in my youth, spinning is the best way to make (slow) progress.
Not like I'll ever go up any real hill at 90 rpm ever ... I'm too slow ...
rgds, sreten.
