Power is force applied quickly
Power in cycling is the combination of how hard you push on the pedals and how fast you turn them. Drills that build it are short, sharp and demanding, so the quality of each effort matters far more than how many you pile up. These are general ideas rather than coaching, and the right dose depends on your fitness, age and health. If you have a heart, joint or other medical concern, check with a doctor before doing maximal efforts.
Hard efforts also carry real risks on the road: you are going faster, concentrating on the effort and sometimes looking down. Choose a quiet, straight, traffic-free stretch with a good surface, or a safe path, and keep your head up.
Warm up first
Cold muscles and maximal efforts are a poor mix. A typical warm-up is a good stretch of easy spinning, followed by a few gradually harder pedalling bursts that stay well below your limit. If you do any stretches for cyclists beforehand, keep them gentle and pain-free. Many riders also find it helpful to check their gear and tyres before a hard session, since a slipping chain under a sprint is both annoying and unsafe.
Drill 1: Short seated sprints
On a flat or very gentle slope, build your speed over a few pedal strokes, then sprint hard for a short burst, only a handful of seconds, staying seated. Keep your shoulders relaxed and your hips steady. Then ride easily until you feel genuinely recovered before the next one.
Fewer, better efforts are the goal. If your pedalling gets ragged or your last effort is clearly weaker than your first, the session has done its work.
Drill 2: Standing starts
Roll to a near stop in a gear that is moderately hard, then stand and accelerate. This trains the sort of force you need to launch from a junction or get over a short rise. Because you begin at low speed, balance is crucial: keep your hands steady on the bars and your eyes ahead. If you use clipless pedals, practise the unclip and clip-in in a safe place first.
The gear you choose matters. Too heavy and you may strain a knee or stall and wobble. Too light and the drill is mostly flailing. Starting gear choice is covered more fully elsewhere, but a moderately firm gear is a sensible starting point.
Drill 3: Low-cadence intervals
Here you stay seated in a hard gear and keep a slow, steady pedalling rate for a defined spell, then recover. The extra resistance asks for more force per stroke. Keep your back relaxed and your knees tracking straight, and cut the effort short if you feel pain around the knee or hip rather than muscle fatigue.
This drill overlaps with strength work, and another page here covers tempo and muscular-endurance sessions in more depth. To keep this one about power, treat these as a few short, hard intervals rather than long grinding blocks. Knowing how pedalling cadence changes the load on your legs helps you judge whether a gear is too heavy.
Drill 4: Hill sprints
A short, steady hill gives you resistance without needing an extreme gear. Ride to the base, accelerate up the slope for a short, hard effort, then spin down gently to recover. Because the climb slows you, the effort is easier to control than a flat-out sprint. Be careful on the way down, particularly when tired, and keep an eye on the surface.
Drill 5: Rolling accelerations
Ride at an easy pace, then lift your speed smoothly and firmly over several seconds before settling back. This is gentler than an all-out sprint and works as a lead-in for riders new to hard efforts. Over time, it helps you practise changing pace, which is a useful skill in a group or when bike acceleration is needed to join traffic gaps, though always only when it is safe and legal to do so.
Recovery and when to stop
Hard efforts need generous recovery, both within a session and between sessions. As a general rule, riders often do power work on one or two days a week, with easy days or rest around them, but this varies. Signs it is time to stop for the day include:
- Sharp pain, especially in the knee, hip or back.
- Dizziness, chest discomfort or unusual breathlessness. Stop and seek medical help if this happens.
- A clear drop in the quality of your efforts.
- Feeling unsteady or unable to hold a straight line.
Finish with some easy spinning to cool down, drink and eat sensibly afterwards, and allow sleep to do its part. If you are very new to cycling, spending a few weeks building a general base before adding sprints is usually wise. Progress in small steps, and treat these drills as a few sharp seasonings in a routine that is mostly easy riding.