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Guide to Proper Pedal Stroke

Getting power to your pedals is all that matters. This advice from Crucible seems to go against the grain for pedaling technique, however the advice is quite sound, and watching a video of the pro’s it seems to work quite well for them:

1. The bike goes faster because you apply more watts to rear wheel, period. The rear wheel doesn’t care in what manner that power is generated at or applied to the pedals. What matters is what that power is when it reaches the wheel.
2. Your feet are attached to the pedals, attached to straight cranks, attached to circular chain rings and a round axle or bottom bracket. You have no choice other than to pedal in a circle. All you are really in control of is what muscles you fire when as your legs spin through this circular trajectory.
3. Your legs have been engineered to apply the most power most efficiently by pushing against the ground (running, jumping, walking), not by pulling up (activating the hip flexor). Contrary to product claims, there has been no evidence to suggest that the “way” to pedal a bike is by applying power in pretty little circles.
4. If you are thinking about this or that area of the pedal stroke and firing/relaxing different muscles at different times, but the power at the rear wheel is the same or less, you haven’t accomplished anything. If you are doing all of this AND applying more watts, then we can talk, but my next question is how long can you sustain this? Another point in here is that nothing is free. If you’re applying more watts to the bike, that work has to come from somewhere. It is not gained by efficiency, energy savings, etc. You must do more work in order to output more work. Period.

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