Cycling - Better Pedalling Technique Really Can Make Your Faster

I had always believed that pedaling technique makes a difference when cycling, but until recently I had no idea how much. You hear all of the tips about pedalling in circles, to make sure you're applying pressure the whole way through the pedal stroke.  Equally as important is to make sure you're not wasting energy by pushing or pulling in a direction that doesn't help to turn the cranks.

One often mentioned piece of advice is to make sure you're not bouncing in the saddle as this is an obvious indicator that you're wasting energy by pushing down for too long and thus lifting yourself up off the seat (even just slightly) with each pedal stroke. So I assumed that if I wasn't bouncing in the saddle then I wasn't pushing down for too long, or at least not to any great extent.  However I've been aware recently that my pedalling doesn't feel as free and easy as it used to, I put this down to poor fitness from a lack of training.  The other day it dawned on me that my whole body actually felt more tense and I tried to relax my body.� At this point I actually started to bounce on the saddle quite a bit and it became apparent I was pushing down to much at the bottom of the pedal stroke. 

So I consciously tried to stop this and the result was really quite amazing.  My speed went up about 2-3km per hour for the same effort, a very exciting development.  It was just amazing how little I had to try compared to what I was previously doing. It seems that I had been using the muscles in the rest of my body to resist the force coming from my poor technique.  This probably developed from riding to work without my cycling shoes, when I can't clip in it's very easy for my feet to slide of the pedals so pushing down a lot all the time was keeping them a bit more secure. So it's definitely worth considering this, it can be hard to tell wether you're doing it but with a bit of thought and experimentation with your pedalling you should be able to tell if you have a similar problem.