Here’s how i see your cycling issues.
Cyril has achedness in his shoulders when he rides for longer periods, this is very common and especially so if you go over bumpy roads, or cobblestones as they were in the tour de france! Its a simple case of getting used to it, or trying not to press quite so hard on the handlebrs, though this can be difficult. Let me know how you get on.
Regarding the big question on the gear selection, i answered that by saying i would look at 80 revolutions per minute. This is hard to count on the bike but it is quite a fast pace so select a gear that will allow you to do it, in other words to allow you pedal faster while still maintaining good speed.
For instance, the bigger the gear, the slower your legs will go but you will develop A LOT more power and if you get up a head of steam, or you’re going downhill, you will be flying along. The bigger gears are really meant for downhills or if you manage to get up a big speed on the level ground and you still manage to have a high cadence (your legs are going very quickly). This will be your very maximum speed.
Simply going at a higher cadence and pushing a too easy gear wont do you much good either, because you’re not really pushing yourself. Select a gear that allows you to get your legs going quickly but hopefully still at a faster speed and you test yourself.
The first thing you will notice is that you will get out of breath quickly when you use a high cadence, your heart and lungs will work very hard to keep the speed of pedalling up. With practice though, you will become very accomplished at it.
When you use a slow cadence, you will feel your legs working much more in a brute strength fashion. This is very hard to do also but as i mentioned earlier replies to posts, this can lead to knee problems if you’re not careful. Also, if you cycle like this all the time, the pressure on your knees will be tremendous.
Another thing to keep knee pain away is to keep your seat at the right height, in line with your hip. If your seat is too low, your knees will automatically hurt and your knees will be wrecked unless you raise the height on the seat!
Examples of slow cadence riders would jan ullrich, who won the tour de france in 97, and was runner up 5 times, and the great example of high cadence riding would be lance armstrong.
Armstrong changed to this way of riding because his lung capacity was so great, and this meant less strain on his legs in the mountains, which of course benefitted him immensely. It also gives him great acceleration, against ullrich’s more “diesel engine” style of riding.
Hope you all understood that, if im talking a foreign language then let me know!!!!
