I’ve been having conversations with people about higher cadence versus bigger gears in relation to Individual Pursuit performance. This has come from looking at results from our Queensland Masters Championships.

So here’s the background… a rider does laps 2, 3 and 4 at a certain cadence. Let’s say it was 105. Then, and this was a 2km effort, over the next few laps the cadence starts to drop to 102, then 100, then 98 and 96 on the 8th and final lap. 

So what do we do to make this rider faster?

Options are the same as always: 

1.     Have the average cadence at lap 2 replicated for all remaining laps in the same gear. (oh yes, obvious note, but let’s treat lap one as its own entity entirely and chat about that another day). If we look at the rider whose times are described above, if this rider averaged 103 she’d have ridden a quicker time.

2.     Ride at an easier gear for the gearing to take less...

by Cycling Performance Physiologist & Coach Michael Jordan 

Did you listen to the Webinar about training for Endurance Track Cycling? Was it useful? Was it what you wanted or needed to hear?  If not, do tell me!

I described how I break down events, and the word ‘lysis’ means breakdown, so to analyse something you have to look at its component parts.

For a sprint endurance event like the kilo or a more aerobic endurance event like the Individual Pursuit my approach is pretty-well the same. If you look at the body shape of Shane Perkins and Anna Meares versus Jack Bobridge and Annette Edmondson that may surprise you.

Let me explain:

To remind you of the basics of the physiology:

The first energy system you use at the commencement of an activity is the ATP-CP system. This is without air, or anaerobic, and takes you up to the first 6 to 10 seconds.

The next is anaerobic glycolysis which will be the dominant energy source for the next 20 to 120 seconds. Yes, that...