4 cycling drills to improve cycling technique

Wondering how you can improve your cycling technique? Here are four proven sets from triathlon legends Spencer Smith and Joe Friel that will do just that...

How can I improve my cycling technique?

Joe Friel

Spencer Smith

Published: February 15, 2021 at 12:09 pm
  1. ISOLATED LEG

Coach Joe Friel

Benefits
To improve pedal technique.

Kit Bike, turbo trainer, apparel.

Nutrition
Bottle of water or electrolytes.

Warm-up 5-10mins of increasingly harder-effort cycling.

Main set With light resistance on a trainer, do 90% of work with one leg while the other is rested on a stool. Spin with a higher than normal cadence. Change legs when fatigue sets in. Focus on eliminating dead spots at the top and bottom of the pedal stroke. Don’t worry about heart rate or power with this one – it’s all about technique.

Cool-down 5mins of gentle cycling.

2. SPIN-UPS

Coach Joe Friel

Benefits This drill helps to widen the bandwidth of cadence, making you a more complete cyclist.

Kit Bike, bike apparel, bike computer, turbo trainer (or you can do this outside).

Nutrition
Bottle of water or electrolytes.

Warm-up 5-10mins of increasingly harder-effort cycling.

Main set Set turbo trainer to light resistance then for 1min, gradually increase cadence to maximum. This is the rpm you can maintain without bouncing. As cadence increases, allow your legs and feet to relax – especially your toes. Hold your max for as long as possible. Recover for at least a minute and repeat several times. These are best and power aren’t important here.

Cool-down
5mins of gentle cycling

3. THE WEAVE

Coach Spencer Smith

Benefits This drill really helps your bike handling. It’s also a good one to work on concentration and it helps strengthen your core a little, too.

Kit Bike, cones, bike apparel.

Nutrition
Bottle of water or electrolytes.

Warm-up 10mins of easy-to-moderate cycling

Main set The in-and out weave drill can be done either on the road or, to add complexity, on a softer surface. Simply place three or four objects in a row (cone or stones, for example) around 5m apart. Then, in a figure-of-eight motion, weave your way through the objects in a continuous manner. The more proficient you become, the closer you can bring the objects together. A key pointer is to look ahead not directly at the object you’re manoeuvring around.

Cool-down 5mins of gentle cycling

4. PEDAL, DON’T FORCE

Coach Spencer Smith

Benefits This drill adds fluidity and suppleness to your pedalling.

Kit Bike, bike apparel.

Nutrition
Bottle of water or electrolytes.

Warm-up 10mins of easy-to-moderate cycling.

Main set Some coaches love to over complicate things and pedalling style is something that really keeps them busy. I’d advise keeping it simple – don’t overthink the issue. I like a simple 1min at high cadence (around 100-plus RPM), keeping your upper body still and relaxed, letting the pedal return to the starting position without forcing it, followed directly into 1min slightly overgeared at around 70 to 75-plus rpm. The contrast in cadence will really help your pedalling form.

Cool-down 5mins of gentle cycling.

Joe Friel

Coaching legend

Joe Friel is a life-long athlete and has a masters degree in exercise science. He has trained and conferred with amateur and professional endurance athletes from a wide variety of sports since 1980. Based on this experience he cofounded TrainingPeaks.com in 1999 with son Dirk Friel and friend Gear Fisher. He currently coaches only a few athletes. He mostly focuses on training emerging top-level coaches on best practices in preparing endurance athletes for competition. This regularly takes him to coaching seminars around the world. He also consults with corporations in the sports and fitness industry and with national Olympic governing bodies worldwide. His Training Bible books for road cyclists, mountain bikers, and triathletes are used by several national sports federations to train their coaches. Friel’s philosophy and methodology for training athletes was developed over more than 40 years and is based on his strong interest in sport science research and his experience training hundreds of athletes with a wide range of abilities. His views on matters related to training for endurance sports are widely sought and have been featured in such publications as VeloNews, Bicycling, Outside, Runner’s World, Women’s Sports & Fitness, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, American Health, Masters Sports, The New York Times, Triathlete, 220 Triathlon, and many more. Joe lives and trains in the mountains of Sedona, Arizona.

Spencer Smith

Former world champion triathlete and multisport coach

British-born triathlete Spencer Smith is a three-time world champion turned triathlon coach, and one of only a handful of athletes to have consistently succeeded on the biggest stage at both short- and long-distance triathlon. His triathlete and sports career record is exemplary. Spencer Smith has won over half of all the races he has ever competed in – a phenomenal statistic that is almost unparalleled in the sport of triathlon. At the age of 20, Spencer became the youngest-ever world and European champion. He was then the first male triathlete to win consecutive senior world championships (1993 and 1994) in addition to his junior world title in 1992. However, it's not just Spencer’s success as a triathlete that has made him an iconic figure in the sport – it's also his ability regularly to bounce back from adversity and his positive, down-to-earth attitude that have helped to make him one of the most marketable men in the world of triathlon. Known and respected for his tough, hard-driving style of racing, away from the course he's universally considered to be one of the friendliest and most charismatic of athletes. A good example of Spencer’s extraordinary ability to overcome severe hardship came while training for the 2005 season, when he suffered a horrific accident that not only cost him his season but also nearly cost him his life. While out on his bike, he was struck by a car. He suffered third-degree burns from being trapped beneath the engine, and also broke his scapula, clavicle and six ribs. Despite his injuries, which would have forced many lesser athletes to retire, he astonished the triathlon community by coming back strongly in 2006, placing second in Ironman Arizona and qualifying for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii for the fifth time. Interestingly, he's also one of the very few champion triathletes to have raced in the highly-competitive world of professional cycling, where he spent the 1999-2000 season with the Linda McCartney team before reverting back to triathlon, proving his adaptability by winning Ironman Florida in a record time and coming 8th in the Hawaii Ironman World Championship within a year of his return. Spencer now runs the multisport and triathlon coaching company, S2Coaching to help athletes all of abilities develop and reach their potential through world-class training.
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