Question: After rounding a corner, should I stand when pedaling back up to speed? — Chris H.
RBR Replies: The main reason for standing is to accelerate quickly to regain the speed lost in a corner. So the decision depends on the type of turn and your need to resume riding fast.
After sweeping turns or downhill turns where you lose very little speed, it’s not necessary to stand. But if a corner is tight and you have to slow down to get around, standing will help you regain your cruising speed faster than accelerating from the saddle.
Remember to shift into a lower gear if you do lose significant speed in a turn. Otherwise, it’ll be hard to get moving again no matter if you’re standing or sitting.
Another reason to stand is to remove pressure from your rear end and stretch your legs and back. If you get in the habit of standing for a few strokes after most turns, you’ll ride more comfortably.
If you’re racing or riding with a fast training group, the lead riders will usually accelerate hard out corners in an attempt to drop riders behind them. You won’t have a choice then. Get out of the saddle and sprint back up to speed — or wave goodbye.
Coach Fred Matheny is an RBR co-founder who has four decades of road cycling and coaching experience. He has written 14 eBooks and eArticles on cycling training, available in RBR’s eBookstore at Coach Fred Matheny, including the classic Complete Book of Road Bike Training, which includes 4 eBooks comprising 250 pages of timeless, detailed advice and training plans. The Complete Book is one of the many perks of an RBR Premium Membership. Click to read Fred's full bio.
I have seen this issue come up a couple times in this newsletter with the advice to stand up coming out of corners. I think it is worth pointing out that when riding in a paceline when the distance between your back wheel and the wheel of the rider following you is measured in inches, not feet, the leading rider must be very conscious of not doing anything that would disrupt the “flow” of the paceline, such as moving unexpectedly from side to side (i.e., “Hold your line!”), but also not altering your speed unexpectedly. An issue that comes up quite often when somebody stands up out of the saddle is a momentary pause in pedaling pressure when you are standing up. This causes a slight deceleration before there is an acceleration from stomping down on the pedals and to the person following you, it appears that your back wheel is actually thrusting backwards towards their front wheel, due to the change in relative speed. This can easily cause the back wheel of the leading rider who stands up to contact the front wheel of the following rider who is maintaining a constant speed. Even if there is no contact, this situation can cause the following rider to panic and grab the brakes hard. Either way, the results can be disastrous. So if you are going to stand up to pedal while in the midst of a group, please make sure to consciously maintain or increase your pedaling pressure while getting up into the standing position.
Even if there’s no pause in pedalling pressure when you stand, the bike goes backwards (relative to others). That’s because your mass centre moves forwards relative to the bike.
(It’s the same principle which is used, in reverse, when a sprinter throws the bike forwards across the line. They move their mass centre backwards relative to the bike.)