The goal of the thesis work was to investigate the effect of cadence on cycling performance.

 

Professional and elite cyclists usually employ a higher cadence during competition (90-105 rpm) than that which previous research has found to require the least energy, i.e., the most economic cadence (approximately 60 rpm). This discordance was the starting point for this thesis work.

Øivind Foss (f. 8/6-1970) is from Vestfossen in Øvre Eiker. After high school, he completed his military officer education, cand mag at Høgskolen in Telemark and cand scient at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. After completing his undergraduate education, he worked as a research assistant before starting graduate studies at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, under Jostein Hallén.

Weaknesses with previous studies
A weakness with many previous studies is that they did not use well-trained cyclists and that trials were conducted at low workload. This study employed elite national-caliber cyclists, and trials were conducted at high workloads.

 

It was found that the most economical cadence increased with increasing workload. The most economical cadence was found to be close to 80 rpm when the cyclists simulated competition effort, higher than previously thought and closer to the cadence typically used in actual competitions.

 

Another weakness with previous studies is that research has seldom focused on the relationship between cadence and cycling performance, rather focusing on that between cadence and economy. 

 

Performance tests are difficult to simulate in the lab. However, this study has overcome these difficulties and shown that high cadence has a positive effect on maximal energy turnover, although the best performance was still found to be at the most economical cadence. In other words, the cyclists in this study performed better at 80 rpm than 100 rpm.

 

It has previously been suggested that increased blood supply to skeletal muscle explains why cyclists use a high cadence in competition. 

 

In this study, we measured blood supply to skeletal muscle at different cadences and found that differences in blood supply mirrored the differences in the metabolic cost and that blood supply therefore would not have any other positive effects.

 

Judges committee
- Professor Gerald A. Smith, NSSS

- Lektor Preben K. Pedersen, Institute for Idræt og Biomekanik, Syddansk Universitet, Odense
 
- Professor Gisela Sjøgaard, Arbejdsmiljøinstituttet, København

Program
10:15 – 11:00: Lecture:”Economy, Efficiency and Performance across Modes of Locomotion”

13:00 – 16:00:  Defence of the thesis, with subsequent discussion