What Is the Best Cycling Cadence? The Research on RPM

James. Welcome to the WattPlan Podcast, I'm James. Between a family, a day job, building WattPlan and the odd podium, I read far too much sports science, and today's topic is one I've argued about on more club runs than I can count. What's the best cycling cadence? We've all been told to spin at 90. Is that right, or is grinding a big gear up a climb fine? Lyra, our AI research voice, has gone through the studies, and every one of them is linked in the show notes.

Lyra. There isn't one best cadence, and the research is clear about why. The most economical cadence goes up as the power goes up. On an easy ride a relaxed 80 or so costs you the least oxygen. At threshold the number climbs towards 90 or more. So 90 rpm is a decent answer for hard riding on the flat, and a poor answer for everything else.

James. Where does the 90 come from, then? It feels like gospel.

Lyra. Partly from watching professionals. Lucía and colleagues measured seven pros through the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta, published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in 2001. On flat stages they averaged 89 rpm and in the long time trials 92. But on the big mountain passes, about 15 kilometres long, the same riders dropped to 71. [1]

James. Seventy-one? That's a grind by club standards.

Lyra. It is, and their heart rate on the climbs was the same as in the time trials, so they weren't easing off. They chose a slower rhythm when the road went up, and a faster one when it didn't. The 90 everyone quotes is the flat-road number from that study, with the climbing number quietly dropped.

James. Okay, but is faster actually more efficient, or do pros just like it?

Lyra. At high power it really is more efficient, in trained riders at least. The same group took eight professionals and had them ride six minutes at about 366 watts, at 60, 80 and 100 rpm. Gross efficiency, the share of the energy they burned that reached the pedals, was about 22 percent at 60 rpm and about 24 at 100. Heart rate, lactate, perceived effort and the electrical activity in the thigh muscles all fell as cadence went up. [2]

James. So spinning at 100 is better. That's the opposite of what you said a minute ago.

Lyra. At 366 watts it is. The catch is in a Norwegian study from the same year, from Foss and Hallén. They tested six elite riders at 60, 80, 100 and 120 rpm across loads from nothing up to 350 watts. The cadence with the lowest oxygen cost moved. At zero load it was 60 rpm. At 350 watts it was 80. The economical cadence rises with the power, so the number for an easy Sunday ride and the number for a threshold interval are not the same number.

James. Right. So if I'm pootling along at 60 percent and I'm spinning at 100, I'm burning energy for nothing.

Lyra. A little, yes. Not a disaster, but your natural rhythm on an easy ride is probably higher than the cheapest one. Most trained riders' oxygen cost bottoms out somewhere around 80 to 90 on an endurance ride, and the quick cadence earns its keep when the watts are high and you want to spread the force over more pedal strokes.

James. Fine, but what about training at low cadence on purpose? Half the sessions on the internet have you grinding at 50 rpm to build strength. Does that work, or is it just hard for the sake of it?

Lyra. The honest answer is mixed, and it splits by intensity. Hansen and Rønnestad reviewed the seven training studies that existed in 2017, in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, and found no strong evidence that training at low cadence helps. Some studies showed nothing. Some showed the riders who trained at their own cadence did better. Their cautious suggestion was that low-cadence work might be worth including when the intensity is moderate to maximal. [4]

James. Moderate to maximal. So not the easy grind.

Lyra. Not the easy grind, is our reading, though the trial itself sat a notch above easy. A Norwegian study took 22 well-trained veteran cyclists, average age 47, through twelve weeks of five by six minutes at 40 rpm at a moderate heart rate, twice a week. Nothing improved. Not aerobic capacity, not power, not efficiency, not leg strength. Meanwhile the group that added the same time at their own cadence improved VO2max and threshold power.

James. Ouch. Twelve weeks of grinding for nothing.

Lyra. And then the other side. A Polish trial in 2024 took 24 well-trained female cyclists through eight weeks of the same polarised programme, sprints, four-minute VO2max intervals and long easy rides. One group did the sprints and intervals at 50 to 70 rpm, the other above 80. Peak aerobic power and the second threshold improved only in the low-cadence group. Same riders, same sessions, different cadence in the hard bits, and the low cadence won.

James. So low cadence in the hard stuff, natural cadence in the easy stuff.

Lyra. That's how we read it. Low cadence earns its place in work that's already hard. The grind at 40 rpm was tested at moderate intensity and did nothing, and nobody has tested it on a truly easy ride, so the honest version is that the hard end has evidence and the easy end doesn't.

James. Let's make this practical. If you're new to this and you've never looked at your cadence?

Lyra. If you're new to this, don't chase a number at all. Ride at the rhythm that feels natural, and on climbs pick the gear that lets you keep going without your breathing running away. The one thing worth doing is glancing at your average cadence after a ride, which WattPlan shows you in ride review along with a chart of the whole ride. If your easy rides are averaging over 95, try one at 85 and see whether your heart rate at the same power comes down.

James. And if you train with power?

Lyra. If you train with power, let the watts decide. As a rule of thumb, because the trials only anchor the ends of it, endurance rides around 80 to 90 and threshold intervals at 90 to 95. And watch the last interval. If cadence drops by ten at the same power, that's a coaching rule of thumb for the legs tiring first, not something the studies measured. WattPlan's library has sessions built around cadence drills, with high and low blocks inside an endurance ride, and the player shows your live rpm next to the target and says the target out loud when a step has one.

James. And if you race? Because racers have opinions about this.

Lyra. If you race, that's where the low-cadence intervals belong. One hard session a week with a block or two at 60 to 70 rpm in your hard intervals. Nobody has tested that exact dose, the Polish riders did every sprint and interval at low cadence, so treat it as a sensible place to start. And on climbs, do what the professionals did. Nothing in the research says you have to spin a 10 percent gradient at 90. Hold the power in whatever gear does it.

James. Hang on though. Surely on a smart trainer in ERG mode none of this matters? The trainer holds the watts whatever I do.

Lyra. It holds the watts, but your cadence still decides how the force is spread across each pedal stroke, and ERG tends to drift your cadence upwards because any gear works. That's a reason to watch the number indoors, not to ignore it. The tell is the same rule of thumb. If it falls through the last interval at a fixed power, the legs are probably the limiter.

James. What can't the research tell us?

Lyra. The efficiency studies are tiny. Six and eight riders, all elite men. So the exact cadence at which an amateur's oxygen cost turns may be different. The training trials are small and they disagree, and nobody has run both designs in the same riders. And people's natural cadence ranges from the low 70s to above 100, which suggests the most economical number is personal, within the ranges we've talked about.

James. So this week, check my average cadence from the last few rides, ride the easy stuff a bit slower if I'm spinning like a hamster, keep 90 to 95 for the threshold work, and save the grinding for when it's hard anyway.

Lyra. And judge it by whether the power holds and the heart rate stays put, not by hitting a number. Cadence is a habit, not a fitness marker. The best one is the one that lets you finish the last interval at the same watts as the first.

Lyra. The full article and every study we mentioned are on the WattPlan blog, linked in the show notes. And if you've enjoyed this, follow the WattPlan Podcast wherever you're listening, so you don't miss the next one.

James. And if you want a plan built around the time you've actually got, get WattPlan on the App Store or Google Play. Thanks for listening.

Voices produced with ElevenLabs. James's voice is a clone of his own, Lyra is an AI voice, and James reviews every episode.