Cycling Technique: The Stuff That Actually Makes You Faster

I remember my first long bike ride after getting back into cycling. I did maybe 15 miles and felt like I had run a marathon. Meanwhile, my friend who bikes regularly did the same ride looking like he had just gone for a casual stroll. Same route, same weather, very different outcomes.

The difference was not that he was some superhuman athlete. It was technique. And that is something nobody really taught me when I started – you kind of have to figure it out or stumble across it.

So here is the stuff I have learned that actually helps.

How You Sit on the Bike Matters

This one seems obvious but it took me forever to get right. On a road bike, you want to lean forward – like, more than feels natural at first. It is not just about comfort though it does get comfortable once you adapt. It is about aerodynamics. You are fighting the wind every second you ride, and sitting upright is like pushing a billboard through the air.

Mountain bikes are different. You are more upright because you need to move your weight around for different terrain. And you do actually shift your weight constantly – forward for climbing, back for descending, centered for flats.

The universal stuff: keep your back relatively straight because hunching is bad, elbows slightly bent because rigid arms mean sore shoulders, and try not to death-grip the handlebars. Your hands should be firm but relaxed.

Pedaling is Not Just Moving Your Legs in Circles

This blew my mind when I first learned it. Beginner cyclists, and that included me for a long time, basically just push down on the pedals. But there is a whole other part of the stroke you can use.

The way people describe it is scrape mud off the bottom of your shoe at the bottom of the stroke, then lift your knee toward the handlebars on the upstroke. Basically, you are trying to apply power through more of the rotation instead of just stomping.

It feels weird at first. Really weird. I practiced on my trainer during winter and it took probably a month before it started feeling natural. But now my legs do not burn out as fast because the work is spread more evenly.

Clipless pedals help with this, by the way. When your feet are attached to the pedals, you can actually pull up. With flat pedals you can sort of do the scraping motion but the pulling is basically impossible.

Gears: Use Them

I used to be that guy who stayed in one gear because shifting felt complicated. This is dumb. Shifting is your friend.

The basic idea: you want your legs spinning at a fairly consistent rate regardless of terrain. This is called cadence. Most people do well around 80 to 100 RPM. When you are going uphill, shift to an easier gear so you can keep spinning at that rate. Downhill? Harder gear so you are not spinning like a hamster on a wheel.

Electronic shifting if you are fancy makes this seamless. Even with mechanical shifting, you should be changing gears constantly – especially on varied terrain. I probably shift 50 plus times on a 20-mile ride with any hills.

Braking Without Face-Planting

Both brakes, not just the front – that is how you flip over the handlebars – or just the back – that is how you skid. You want maybe 60 to 70 percent front, 30 to 40 percent back for most situations.

Brake before corners, not during. Weird things happen to traction when you are leaned over and braking at the same time. Slow down before the turn, then coast or even pedal through it.

On steep descents, I pump my brakes rather than dragging them constantly. Constant braking heats up your rims or rotors, which is not great. Pump, coast, pump, coast.

Cornering: Do Not Fight It

The instinct when you are new is to stay as upright as possible and steer with the handlebars. That works at slow speeds. At any real speed, you need to lean.

The outside pedal goes down so you do not scrape it on the ground, inside knee points toward the turn, you lean the bike and yourself into the corner, and you look where you want to go – not at your front wheel or the scary thing on the side of the road.

Looking where you want to go sounds like obvious advice until you realize how often you naturally look at obstacles. Your bike follows your eyes more than you would think.

Climbing: Pace Yourself

Here is what I used to do on hills: attack them hard at the bottom, blow up halfway, and suffer-crawl to the top. Here is what I do now: start easy, stay easy, only push hard if there is a finish line.

Hills are about energy management. If it is a long climb, shift into an easier gear than you think you need, spin at a comfortable cadence, and just keep moving. Sitting is more efficient but standing gives you more power for short steep sections.

And for what it is worth, everyone finds climbing hard. Some people just hide it better.

Group Riding Has Its Own Rules

Riding in a group efficiently saves a ton of energy. You take turns at the front pulling, and when you are drafting behind someone, you might be using 30 percent less energy than the person in front of you.

But it requires trust and communication. Hand signals for turns, slowing, obstacles. Calling out hazards. Not braking suddenly. Staying predictable. It took me a few group rides to get comfortable with this, and I still will not ride super close to people I do not know.

The Underrated Stuff: Eat, Drink, Rest

You are burning way more calories than you think. On anything over an hour, you should be eating something. Gels, bars, bananas – something. And drinking constantly, not just when you are thirsty.

I bonked – ran out of energy – on a 40-mile ride once because I forgot to eat. It is not fun. Your legs turn to concrete and everything becomes miserable. Now I set reminders to eat and drink.

It All Takes Practice

None of this becomes natural immediately. I am still working on some of it. The good news is you do not have to be perfect to enjoy cycling – you can learn as you go. But knowing what you are working toward helps.

The biggest shift for me was realizing cycling is a skill, not just fitness. You can be incredibly fit and still waste energy with bad technique. Getting more efficient is satisfying in its own way, and it definitely makes those long rides feel less like death marches.