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In Search of Power

Pantani finds his power in the drops. Photo: Tom Able-Green/ALLSPORT

It’s no secret that I’m prone to riding in the big ring as much as possible, mostly on account of my not being a giant sissy. In accordance with the ISO Non-Sissy Standard, I also never read instruction manuals or ask for directions when lost. I make sure to only rarely ask my VMH to turn up the radio when Adele comes on, usually followed quickly by an ernest explanation of how I thought it was Metallica, and how Rolling in the Deep ripped off the opening to Enter Sandman. The record does show, however, that I occasionally fly into hysterics when surprised by an insect or amphibian – but that’s just good common sense.

Pantani’s in-the-drops climbing style has always impressed me, but he’s only one of the riders who won races going down in the drops looking for more power on the climbs; Jan Ullrich was often climbing in the drops as well as our mate Johan Museeuw – not to mention Richard Virenque and so did Frank Vandenbroucke. Looking at that list, I wonder if the UCI should explore adjusting the test for EPO to examine time spent climbing in the drops.

Riding the route of Liege-Bastogne-Liege with Johan last Keepers Tour, I noticed a pattern in his riding style. Whenever the gradient increased on a climb, instead of changing gear he just moved his hands to the drops and rose out of the saddle to casually push the same gear over the steep. It looked so easy, it was impossible to resist trying it myself. At first, there is a strange sort of sensation, like you’re dipping your nose into the tarmac. But then when you switch to the hoods, you notice an immediate loss of leverage. After practicing it, it becomes second nature.

Someone once told me that the key to going fast is to try to break your handlebars, and that’s just what I’ve been trying to do lately although I hope I’m ultimately unsuccessful. Since gleaning this trick from Johan’s riding style, I’ve been staying in the big ring longer and climbing out of the saddle in the drops, pulling hard on bars and feeling them flex. Its not always faster than spinning a low gear but it has the benefit of taking the load off your cardiovascular system and putting it on your muscular system – a handy thing if your form is missing something or you’ve got massive guns (which I don’t).

This has brought another notion to light: the lower the hand position, the better able you are to find the leverage you need to turn the pedals. This is one of the principle issues with the sit up and beg epidemic, apart from it looking crap and being less stable. But hand height seems to impact power; I’ve noticed that when I’m climbing on the tops, I can breath easily and I’m able to maintain a speed well, but acceleration is difficult. To accelerate or hold a pace up a steep gradient (which is almost the same as accelerating), I’m better served riding on the hoods where my position is a bit lower. But when I really need power, I go looking for it in the drops.

All this brings into question the current trend towards compact bars and flat hand positions between the tops and hoods, with the drops only a bit lower. Compare that to the deep drops ridden in the past, in the style of Eddy Merckx and Roger de Vlaeminck where the hoods were halfway between the tops and the drops. The modern bar shape and hood position seems to reduce the riding positions to as few as possible, while in the past, they were designed to provide as many as possible.

In any case, big sweeping drops look the business and I’m pretty sure they are in complete compliance with the ISO Non-Sissy Standard.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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piwakawaka says:

Apr 15 2014 at 2:17 pm

I rode with a fine bike rider who always said to try and maintain your gear as you climb, when you change to an easier gear your cadence will naturally tend to drop back to where you were, rather than increasing, so you just go slower, and why would anyone want that?
Ccos says:

Apr 15 2014 at 3:15 pm

@Teocalli

@frank

Interestingly I bought a second hand winter bike in the autumn and that was a good frame size for me set up for someone probably 6 inches taller. Riding that with a longer stem that was right for my setup just made the bike unstable as I ended up with my CoM too much over the front wheel. As soon as I shortened the stem the bike became massively more stable. This was most noticeable when standing on the pedals.

Interesting, I find the opposite with stem length - the longer the stem the more stable (you have to move the bars more to create the same amount of steer as you do with a shorter stem). But I am very flexible and I exercise my core; I use my core to control how much the front wheel is being weighted when seated and especially when cornering - the low bars I ride together with the stem length does tend to get overweighted if I'm not loading things up right.

Maybe it's a proportion thing and being a shortarse otherwise known as somewhat vertically challenged, I hit some limit to be able to accommodate earlier. However, what I found with a longer stem is that with what is as my natural standing position I felt that the bike was on the verge of folding under me and I would go over the front wheel. Visually it looked as if there was some relationship whereby if the steering point became closer to the axle of the front wheel some dynamic changed somehow. So it could also be that with larger frames you can use a longer stem too before reaching that point. Of course in all probability it is neither and it's just me! I was also ONLY taking about the effect when standing and powering not when riding seated

On the other hand I did doubt what you were saying in the article until I tried it this evening with my brain engaged and found that over a quick "power bump" it is very effective as a method to avoid shifting and produce more effective power vs being on the hoods - which on my vintage rig with downtube shifters is a good method to have in the toolbag - but it is definitely for short bursts.

Self observation here: up until six years ago I rode a steel bike with down tube shifters (6 wheel cogset) and shifted not so much, choosing instead to change my cadence and power over small climbs (not in drops but will have a go soon). After "upgrading" to a new bike with a few more shifting choices I transitioned to being a spinner and shift like hell keeping the same cadence more or less, but carry a little more speed (I think ).

I may go back to being lazy in the shifting arena on climbs and see how things go (in the drops for s and g's).
The Pressure says:

Apr 15 2014 at 3:27 pm

@frank

@pistard

@frank

@freddy

@TommyTubs really blew my mind about the 17deg stems being a cm longer than advertized, but he's right - I measured mine and the 14cm I've got on the Graveur is actually 15cm. Which is why the bike fits.

It's not so much that the stems are longer than advertised, just that 3t uses proper ISO specifications, despite their nomenclature. The reach, as measured perpendicular to the steerer, is 14cm, even though the extension (as measured along the stem) is around 15cm. This disparity becomes more pronounced with longer stems and more acute angles "” basic Pythagorean theorem. Unfortunately, different manufacturers use different measuring standards. (Traditionally "length" only referred to the part of a quill stem that inserts into the steer tube.)

That makes sense - I would have assumed that the measure would be on the 0deg orientation but they did it on the 17 per the standard. Anyway, it works out for me, I like the extra cm!

Is this just another version of 'Dangler's Law' which states: "The Angle of the Dangle is proportional to the Mass of the Ass while the Meat is constant"?
TheVid says:

Apr 15 2014 at 3:39 pm

@The Pressure:

Holy flashback to the 90s...
Puffy says:

Apr 15 2014 at 5:58 pm

@Ccos @frank

@Puffy

Did it hurt when they removed your sense of humor?

@frank since it's pulled out of someone's ass, it's very painful (so I'm told). Getting it back in presents a whole new set of problems.

Hey, I actually have a great sense of humour only sarcasm,subtlety, and veiled humour is lost on me. Actually, the greater problem is I just suck at conversation....
Nate says:

Apr 15 2014 at 6:11 pm

@Puffy thanks for putting your nose in the wind on this. I can't remember how many times I have told @frank that a gear inch is a gear inch. His reaction to that one does not get old.

@frank with all that talk of marginal gains I am surprised Sky haven't offers you a gig.
Ccos says:

Apr 15 2014 at 6:18 pm

@Nate

@Puffy thanks for putting your nose in the wind on this. I can't remember how many times I have told @frank that a gear inch is a gear inch. His reaction to that one does not get old.

@frank with all that talk of marginal gains I am surprised Sky haven't offers you a gig.

Then there's the Belgian approach to chain rings: small in the winter, then move to big in the spring and summer. Of course, they only eat the crust of the bread, think house plants use up all the oxygen in a room, don't have sex for a week before a race...
Mikael Liddy says:

Apr 15 2014 at 6:20 pm

@Daccordi Rider

Heres me Pantaniing a KOM point in a race. It was a brutal headwind and I'm convinced the fact I can climb in the drops helped me win that one. Plus I look fantastic, please excuse a couple of minor rule transgressions.....

What throws me with this is that you're repping 3 different teams between kit, gilet & gloves! Helmet cover is forgivable as that's being imposed upon you (for the non South Australian readers, that's how the race organisers show the rider's grade).
frank says:

Apr 15 2014 at 6:31 pm

@Teocalli

@frank

Interestingly I bought a second hand winter bike in the autumn and that was a good frame size for me set up for someone probably 6 inches taller. Riding that with a longer stem that was right for my setup just made the bike unstable as I ended up with my CoM too much over the front wheel. As soon as I shortened the stem the bike became massively more stable. This was most noticeable when standing on the pedals.

Interesting, I find the opposite with stem length - the longer the stem the more stable (you have to move the bars more to create the same amount of steer as you do with a shorter stem). But I am very flexible and I exercise my core; I use my core to control how much the front wheel is being weighted when seated and especially when cornering - the low bars I ride together with the stem length does tend to get overweighted if I'm not loading things up right.

Maybe it's a proportion thing and being a shortarse otherwise known as somewhat vertically challenged, I hit some limit to be able to accommodate earlier. However, what I found with a longer stem is that with what is as my natural standing position I felt that the bike was on the verge of folding under me and I would go over the front wheel. Visually it looked as if there was some relationship whereby if the steering point became closer to the axle of the front wheel some dynamic changed somehow. So it could also be that with larger frames you can use a longer stem too before reaching that point. Of course in all probability it is neither and it's just me! I was also ONLY taking about the effect when standing and powering not when riding seated

A few things; the VMH rides a 51cm R3SL with a 13cm stem - no issues. I think its just a matter of how you are used to the bike feeling - for sure your weight has the ability to get out farther over the wheel which will make a huge difference in handling. If your upper body sits like a lump on your bars, then you'll have a greater issue than if you are able to unweight it effectively. This is part of the skill we Cyclists refer to as "bike handling skills".

And just to point out the obvious - you'd need something like a 50cm stem to get so far out that you'd flip the bike over standing up. Just saying.

On the other hand I did doubt what you were saying in the article until I tried it this evening with my brain engaged and found that over a quick "power bump" it is very effective as a method to avoid shifting and produce more effective power vs being on the hoods - which on my vintage rig with downtube shifters is a good method to have in the toolbag - but it is definitely for short bursts.

YOU'RE a toolbag. Seriously though, its totally its just a tool to have. I'm not about to big-ring Haleakala (although I will mount a 42x25 vs the 39x26 for next time.)
frank says:

Apr 15 2014 at 7:30 pm

@piwakawaka

I rode with a fine bike rider who always said to try and maintain your gear as you climb, when you change to an easier gear your cadence will naturally tend to drop back to where you were, rather than increasing, so you just go slower, and why would anyone want that?

Absolutely agree with that theory! You have a natural cadence and your body will always gravitate to it, and what's more you will find its harder to accelerate again after the steep bit because your speed will have slowed and inertia is a total asshole.