FrankDay said:
The purpose of the thread is to discuss whether pedaling technique makes a difference to performance as there are many "loud" voices out there that say it doesn't. I want to discuss the implications of this paper in this thread and nothing else.
Here's some N=1 longitudinal data. It represents my personal best 5-minute mean maximal power to weight ratio for each year from 2006 to 2011.
In early 2007 I had two legs. In May 2007 I had a trans tibial amputation.
Since then I've pedaled with a prosthetic and can do nothing other than push down. My pedaling technique with a prosthetic means pull up, pull over, scrape mud etc is simply impossible.
So how come my W/kg is better with 1.5 legs?
Maybe pushing down is more efficient?
Note that in terms of race performance comparisons (masters racing):
In 2007, I (and my team) set a State record in wining the team pursuit championships and I was on podium at national points race and 4th place at States.
In 2011, I (and my team) set a State record in winning the team pursuit championships and I bombed the points race at nationals (going for a lap mind you with two world champs in the field) and was 4th at States (with two world champs in the field).
Seems to me that something as drastic to one's pedaling "technique" as removing an entire lower leg hasn't actually had much impact on ability to generate useful power.