The climbing times keep dropping, the racing speeds keep rising, and no matter how you frame it, the top World Tour riders today are producing more power than ever. As a former World Tour racer and now a full-time coach, I pay close attention to what’s happening at the top of the sport, partially because I’m fascinated, and partially because it helps me evolve the way I coach my own athletes.
The truth is this: riders like Tadej Pogačar are the ones raising the bar. While they have great coaches around them, they are often the ones imagining, experimenting with, and testing new ideas in real time. Coaches and experts then help turn those ideas into structured, repeatable plans.
One of the most interesting evolutions I’ve watched over the years is Pogačar’s pedal stroke. He has always pedaled with elevated heels and sat more forward on the saddle, but recently he has refined a technique where his heels do not drop at all during the downstroke, even under massive force. The moment that truly caught my attention was his attack on the Mur de Huy in La Flèche Wallonne. On the steepest pitches, during a seated, high-cadence, high-torque acceleration, his heels stayed elevated the entire time.
This is extremely difficult to do. That’s when I knew something deeper was happening, and I started digging.
I spoke with trainers, staff, and riders, both on his team and on rival teams. Sure enough, several World Tour riders were actively working on the same technique. As both a rider and a coach, I became obsessed. I wanted to understand it so I could help my athletes unlock the same benefits.
That technique is pedaling with plantar (calf) flexion, or pedaling with your calf locked out and your toes pointed downward. It sounds simple, but the chain reaction behind it is anything but. Here’s what makes it so powerful.
Knee and Ankle Stabilization
This might look like a small benefit, but it’s massive, for high-torque surges, threshold work, VO₂ efforts, and even sustained endurance (Zone 2–3) riding.
Often, weaknesses around the knee and ankle limit the body’s ability to unleash its most powerful muscles, mainly the quads. A lot of riders don’t realize that the brain actually “governs down” quad output when it senses instability around the joint. I can personally say this was holding back my own progression.
Here’s the chain reaction:
-
Plantar flexion activates the peroneal muscles, stabilizing the ankle.
-
A stable ankle improves how force transfers into the downstroke.
-
The gastrocnemius (calf) helps stabilize the knee on the downstroke.
-
This reduces wasted movement, protects the tendons, and prevents irritation.
In short: plantar flexion reduces torque loss, increases usable power, and reduces injury risk.
Downstroke Enhancement
Plantar flexion allows you to produce more power by improving how early and how effectively your glutes and quads can contribute.
-
With the heel elevated at the top of the pedal stroke, the glutes can engage near 12 o’clock, far earlier than a heel-dropping stroke.
-
As the downstroke continues, the quads join in and remain powerful all the way to the bottom.
-
The real magic is from 5 to 7 o’clock, where most riders have a dead spot. Plantar flexion lets you carry glute and quad power deeper into the stroke.
-
With proper technique, you can even add hamstring contribution in this phase.
The result?
A longer, smoother power phase using multiple major muscle groups, not just a short “stomp.”
This dramatically increases torque and, importantly, increases your durability at higher power zones. You can hold more power, for longer, with less breakdown.
Upstroke Optimization
The benefits of plantar flexion don’t stop at the downstroke.
With the heel elevated, the hamstrings can engage earlier and stronger. There’s no ankle range of motion to delay the pull, so the hamstrings can apply torque immediately and more effectively.
A few key points:
-
When the heel drops at the bottom, the hamstring is delayed, lost torque.
-
When the heel stays up, the hamstring engages the biceps femoris in its strongest line of pull.
-
The upstroke becomes smoother and more efficient, reducing friction points.
-
This eliminates negative torque, which is when the downstroke leg must overpower a “dead” upstroke leg.
Negative torque is one of the biggest killers of high cadence.
If you struggle with spinning smoothly at 95–110 rpm, this is almost certainly part of the reason.
A Faster Upstroke: Downstroke Transition
One of the most overlooked sources of lost power is the transition at the top of the stroke.
Plantar flexion makes it easier to activate the hip flexor and pull the leg up and over the top more quickly. Most riders struggle here, they rock on the bike, hesitate, or lose momentum.
A slow or weak transition costs you two things:
-
Power (you’re late to push in your strongest phase)
-
Cadence (you can’t maintain speed through the dead zone)
A hip-flexor-led upstroke into a glute-led downstroke is one of the biggest upgrades you can make if you want to ride at high torque and high cadence simultaneously.
Use Torque to Track Your Technique Progress
Power moves the bike forward, but torque tells you how you produced that power.
Torque is your circular force, what drives the pedals, not the one-dimensional force most riders fixate on.
A lot of people claim pedal stroke technique doesn’t matter. But torque shows the truth. By watching your torque during your efforts you can more clearly see the benefits of your technique adjustments. Torque is a much smaller number than watts and it bounces around a lot less. What is exciting too is you can see how a "small improvement" with pedal stroke can make a big difference. Here is a quick breakdown on what your torque might look like and how big of an improvement you can make with some specific focus.
Your lactate threshold might look like:
-
250 watts at 80 rpm = 30 Nm
-
350 watts at 80 rpm = 42 Nm
What is interesting is that a 100-watt difference is only a 12 Nm increase at 80 rpm.
And here’s the big one:
A 1 Nm increase in torque often equals an increase of 8–10 watts!
This is why technique matters.
When you start training with the plantar flexion, small improvements show up instantly in your torque numbers. You can use lower cadences (65–70 rpm) make these gains even easier to see as you learn the technique.
Conclusion:
Most riders chase bigger numbers by training more or going deeper. But the top pros show us that one of the biggest remaining frontiers isn’t about "more", it’s about looking deeper into the details and strengthening key.
Plantar flexion:
-
Stabilizes your joints
-
Increases usable torque
-
Extends your power phase
-
Smooths your transitions
-
Improves your cadence
-
Unlocks more muscle recruitment
-
Builds durability in the high zones
*One thing to note is that this technique is incredibly hard to do. It is one thing to be riding around with your heel up and it is another to be able to do high amounts of torque like this for sustained periods.
Most cyclists ironically have considerably weaker calf and hamstring muscles their quads. Also they do not have the neuromuscular ability to engage the glutes and hip flexor strength to add in the key parts. To actually do this technique it takes specific training and time. I have been creating workouts and drills for my athletes to develop and improve this technique over and we are seeing excellent results. But it requires the athlete to buy in to it and commit to all the details, not just some when they feel like it.
This is the kind of technique that compounds over time and pays off across every discipline, climbing, time trialing, gravel, accelerations, breakaways, and high-speed racing.
The pros are refining this technique because it gives them an edge.
Now you know and can start building that edge too.
