When cyclists think about getting faster, the first thought is usually about producing more power.
More watts. A higher FTP. Harder intervals. Bigger gears.
All of those things can play a role in improving cycling performance.
But there is another skill that often gets overlooked:
How smoothly are you producing that power?
You can produce plenty of watts while bouncing in the saddle, rocking your upper body, stomping on the pedals or allowing your cadence to become increasingly erratic as you fatigue.
The number on your screen might still look impressive.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re riding well.
Good cyclists don’t just learn to ride hard.
They learn to ride smoothly while riding hard.
And indoor cycling gives you an excellent environment in which to develop that skill.
What Do I Mean by Riding Smoothly?
Smooth cycling isn’t about trying to create a mathematically perfect pedal stroke.
Nor do you need to spend your entire ride consciously trying to pull upwards on one pedal while pushing down with the other.
Instead, think about the overall quality of your movement.
Your cadence should be controlled.
Your hips should remain relatively stable.
Your upper body should be relaxed.
Your power should be applied without unnecessary surging.
And your pedalling should remain controlled as the intensity increases.
When you’re riding well, it should look as though your body is working with the bike rather than fighting against it.
That’s smooth riding.
Smooth Doesn’t Mean Easy
This is an important distinction.
When I tell an athlete to ride smoothly, I’m not telling them to ride easily.
You can be producing Level V power and still focus on riding smoothly.
In fact, that’s where the skill becomes particularly valuable.
Almost anyone can look reasonably controlled while spinning gently during a Level I recovery.
The challenge is maintaining that control when you’re halfway through a demanding Level IV Threshold interval or approaching the final minute of a Level V VO₂ Max effort.
As fatigue increases, technique often begins to deteriorate.
Cadence becomes less controlled.
The shoulders tense.
The upper body starts rocking.
The athlete begins forcing the pedals rather than smoothly producing power.
That’s why smoothness needs to be practised.
Good technique isn’t something you suddenly discover when you’re racing hard. It’s something you develop repeatedly during training.
Why Indoor Cycling Is Perfect for Developing Smoothness
One of the biggest advantages of indoor cycling is the controlled environment.
Outside, your attention constantly moves between traffic, corners, road surfaces, hills, wind, other riders and everything else happening around you.
Those are important cycling skills too.
But indoors, many of those distractions disappear.
That gives you an opportunity to concentrate on how you’re riding.
You can pay attention to your cadence.
You can notice whether your hips are rocking.
You can relax your shoulders.
You can listen to the sound of your drivetrain.
You can observe whether your power is relatively stable or constantly surging.
And you can practise making small adjustments without worrying about the next corner or pothole.
Rather than viewing indoor cycling simply as a convenient way to produce watts, use some of that trainer time to become a better cyclist.
Cadence Plays a Major Role
Cadence and smoothness are closely related.
For most cycling circumstances, I encourage athletes to become comfortable riding at approximately 90–100 rpm.
That is a very useful operating range for efficient cycling and should feel natural rather than frantic.
But that doesn’t mean every training session should be completed at exactly the same cadence.
Deliberately riding at lower and higher cadences can help develop different cycling skills.
Lower-Cadence Training
Purposeful lower-cadence work—often around 60–70 rpm—requires greater torque with each pedal stroke.
Used appropriately, this can help develop cycling-specific strength and improve your ability to maintain control when pushing a larger gear.
The important point is that low cadence shouldn’t automatically mean poor technique.
Don’t simply stomp on the pedals.
Stay controlled.
Keep your upper body stable.
Maintain your position.
Produce the required power smoothly.
Higher-Cadence Training
At the other end of the spectrum, progressively increasing your cadence challenges coordination and neuromuscular control.
You might progress through ranges such as:
90–95 rpm
95–100 rpm
100–105 rpm
105–110 rpm or higher
The goal isn’t simply to see how quickly you can make your legs move.
If you reach 110 rpm but you’re bouncing around the saddle and losing control, you’re not necessarily developing the skill we’re looking for.
Instead, increase your cadence while maintaining smoothness.
Once your technique starts deteriorating, you’ve found the current limit of your ability.
Over time, that limit can improve.
Don’t Confuse Smoothness With a Perfectly Constant Power Number
There’s another trap with indoor cycling.
A smooth rider doesn’t necessarily produce a perfectly flat power trace.
Human beings aren’t machines.
Your power will naturally fluctuate slightly from second to second.
That’s normal.
Trying to force your power meter to display exactly the same wattage every second can actually make you less smooth as you constantly react to the number.
Power drops slightly.
You accelerate.
Power jumps too high.
You back off.
Then it falls again.
Instead of riding naturally, you’re continually chasing the display.
Look for controlled power rather than perfect power.
Over the duration of an interval, you want your effort to match the prescribed intensity without unnecessary surges.
This Is One Reason I Don’t Want You Relying on ERG Mode All the Time
ERG mode can be useful in certain circumstances, but one of its limitations is that the trainer can do some of the power regulation for you.
You select a target power and the trainer adjusts resistance according to your cadence.
That can be convenient.
But cycling isn’t simply about having a machine force you to produce a particular number.
You also need to develop the ability to select an appropriate gear, control your cadence and regulate your own power.
When you’re responsible for producing the required intensity yourself, smoothness becomes part of the skill.
Can you settle into Level II without constantly chasing the target?
Can you hold Level III Tempo smoothly?
Can you establish Level IV Threshold power without repeatedly surging above and below it?
Can you increase your output for a Level V effort while maintaining your technique?
Those are useful cycling skills.
Keep Your Upper Body Quiet
Smooth riding isn’t only about your legs.
Watch a skilled cyclist riding at a controlled intensity and you’ll often notice how little unnecessary movement occurs through the upper body.
The hands aren’t strangling the handlebars.
The shoulders aren’t sitting somewhere near the ears.
The head isn’t bobbing around.
The torso isn’t swinging from side to side with every pedal stroke.
There will naturally be more movement during maximal efforts, sprinting and some climbing situations, but during most steady indoor riding you should aim for a relatively relaxed and stable upper body.
Try periodically checking yourself during a workout.
Are your shoulders relaxed?
Are your elbows slightly relaxed rather than locked?
Are you gripping the handlebars unnecessarily hard?
Are your hips stable on the saddle?
Sometimes simply noticing the tension is enough to allow you to relax.
Listen to Your Bike
This is a simple technique I like.
Listen.
When you’re riding smoothly, your trainer and drivetrain often produce a relatively consistent sound.
When your cadence starts surging or you’re repeatedly accelerating and backing off, you can often hear it.
Indoor cycling makes this particularly obvious because there isn’t much background noise from wind or traffic.
Try riding for a short period without staring at your numbers.
Listen to the trainer.
Feel your pedal stroke.
Notice your breathing.
Pay attention to the rhythm.
Then look back at your data.
Developing that internal awareness can help you become less dependent on constantly watching the screen.
Smoothness Becomes More Important as You Fatigue
Your first interval isn’t always the most revealing.
The final one often is.
When you’re fresh, maintaining good technique is relatively straightforward.
When fatigue builds, your body starts looking for ways to keep producing the required power.
That’s when shoulders tighten, hips move, cadence falls and pedalling becomes less controlled.
This gives you another useful way to evaluate your workouts.
Don’t only ask:
“Did I hit the watts?”
Ask:
“Could I still ride well while hitting the watts?”
If the answer is yes, that’s a good sign.
If your technique completely falls apart just to maintain the target, that tells you something too.
Don’t Chase Power at the Expense of Technique
This connects closely with another principle I regularly reinforce with athletes.
More power isn’t automatically better.
If your workout prescribes Level IV Threshold, the objective isn’t to produce as many watts as possible.
It’s to train at Level IV.
Likewise, if you’re completing Level II endurance work, there’s no prize for turning it into Level III because you felt good.
The same principle applies to smoothness.
Don’t increase the power to the point where your technique falls apart simply because you want an impressive number on the screen.
Execute the session that was prescribed.
Use Cadence Sessions to Practise the Skill
One of the reasons I include dedicated cadence sessions within Qwik Kiwi’s Velocity is that they give athletes an opportunity to focus specifically on this skill.
My Coach Ray’s Cadence Session workouts progressively move through different cadence ranges while keeping the intensity controlled.
Rather than simply trying to survive a hard workout, you’re concentrating on coordination, leg speed, efficiency and control.
As the cadence increases, the challenge is to keep riding smoothly.
Combined with lower-cadence and Big Gear workouts, these sessions help develop both ends of your cadence toolbox.
The result we’re looking for isn’t a cyclist who can only ride comfortably at one particular cadence.
We’re developing a cyclist who can adapt while remaining controlled.
Try This During Your Next Indoor Ride
You don’t need to completely redesign your training programme to work on smoothness.
During your next indoor cycling session, periodically perform a quick technique check.
Ask yourself:
Cadence: Am I pedalling at the cadence I’m intending to ride?
Hips: Am I stable in the saddle?
Upper body: Are my shoulders and arms relaxed?
Power: Am I producing the required intensity without unnecessary surging?
Breathing: Is my breathing appropriate for the intensity?
Control: Does my riding still feel coordinated?
Then continue with the workout.
It only takes a few seconds.
Over time, those small checks help make good technique increasingly automatic.
Practise Smoothness at Easy Intensities First
Like any skill, smooth pedalling is easier to learn when the intensity is controlled.
Start during your Level II endurance riding.
Settle into approximately 90–100 rpm and concentrate on relaxed, controlled movement.
Once that feels natural, maintain the same focus during Level III Tempo work.
Then Level IV Threshold.
Eventually, the goal is to retain as much of that smoothness as possible during your hardest efforts.
You’re progressively adding intensity without abandoning technique.
Smooth Power Is Sustainable Power
Cycling performance isn’t simply about the biggest number you can produce for a few seconds.
For endurance cyclists and triathletes especially, performance depends on your ability to repeatedly produce useful power over a long period.
That means efficiency and control matter.
You want to reach the latter stages of a ride or race still able to maintain your position, cadence and power.
You don’t want every pedal stroke becoming a wrestling match with the bike.
Developing smoothness during indoor training helps build those habits.
And the more automatic those habits become, the less conscious effort they require when you’re tired.
Ride Smooth, Not Just Hard
There will always be a place for hard training.
You need appropriate overload to improve.
You need Level IV Threshold work.
You need Level V VO₂ Max efforts.
You need challenging sessions that push your current fitness.
But don’t become so focused on how hard you’re riding that you forget how well you’re riding.
Use your indoor trainer to develop both.
Produce the appropriate power.
Control your cadence.
Relax your upper body.
Stay stable on the bike.
And maintain your technique as fatigue increases.
Because becoming a stronger cyclist isn’t only about producing more watts.
It’s about becoming better at producing those watts.
Take Your Indoor Cycling to the Next Level With Velocity
If you’d like to put these skills into practice, Qwik Kiwi’s Velocity gives you access to coach-led video cycling workouts designed to develop fitness while also improving the skills that make you a better cyclist.
You’ll find hundreds of structured sessions covering Level II Endurance, Level III Tempo, Level IV Threshold, Level V VO₂ Max, cadence, technique, recovery and more—including my Coach Ray’s Cadence Session workouts.
You can also join the Qwik Kiwi squad for two live coach-led sessions each week at 6:00 a.m. New Zealand time:
Tuesday: 45 minutes or less
Thursday: approximately one hour, sometimes a little more or less depending on the session.
Can’t make the live rides? There are plenty of coach-led workouts available on demand to complete when it suits you.
You can try Velocity completely FREE for 14 days:
http://app.vqvelocity.com/join?a=rhs956
Train smarter. Ride smoother. Ride stronger.