This month we will start by summarising findings from the paper from Duc et al. 2019 (Strategies for improving the pedaling technique), which covers a very interesting element of cycling biomechanics, pedalling technique. The paper introduces elements around pedalling technique, developing from the review that we did some years ago on pedal force effectiveness. Even though, key findings have not changed in the last 7 years, the authors did a good job in including some recent work on single leg pedalling. In this issue, it is well demonstrated that, single leg training has an acute response in helping cyclists to pull the pedals upward in the recovery phase of the crank cycle. However, no evidence is available that this strategy will lead to improved performance and/or efficiency. In this topic, we did a pilot study demonstrating that, even though improvements in pedal force effectiveness can be observed, no gain in performance was measured after 8 sessions (4 weeks) of pedalling retraining.
Even though a study demonstrated that professional cyclists unload more the pedals at the recovery phase of the crank cycle, it is unclear if this response was the result of a culture in cycling training of using technique drills or if this different technique was a key determinant of their performance. Further studies are needed looking at the longer-term responses from pedalling technique training in highly trained cyclists, if this intervention is to be a part of the training of these athletes. Moreover, further understanding on which cyclists benefit from a different technique (e.g. sprinters, MTB, etc.) is critical before advising cyclists to attempt changing their preferred technique, as this has been shown to lead to greater efficiency.