What's a good cadence for beginners?

Whatever feels comfortable. Beginners often settle between 65 and 85 RPM, and 80–95 RPM on the flat is a reasonable target to work toward. Adjust based on how it feels.

Should I focus on cadence or power first?

Power. Build the fitness first, then refine how you deliver it.

Is low cadence bad for your knees?

Not inherently, but cadence does change the load. Research shows that riding at 90 RPM produces around 30% lower kneecap compressive force than riding at 70 RPM at the same power output.

Is there a difference in cadence needs between road and MTB riders?

Yes. MTB riders often need smoother, more consistent pedal strokes to maintain traction. Road riders benefit from forceful downstrokes. Cadence demands vary.

How can I measure cadence without a power meter?

Use a cadence sensor, or count your pedal strokes for 15 seconds and multiply by four.

Does ROUVY offer training plans for subscribers?

Yes. There's a wide range of training plans available for ROUVY riders, catering to various cycling goals and fitness levels, including options for improving endurance, strength, speed and specific skills like climbing or time trials. These easy-to-follow plans are designed by professional coaches and cyclists, offering structured workouts to help you achieve your cycling goals, whether you're a beginner or an experienced rider.

Which fitness platforms can the ROUVY indoor cycling app sync with?

The ROUVY app currently offers easy integrations with: TriDot, Strava, Wahoo, GARMIN Connect, TrainingPeaks, CoachCat, COROS, Final Surge, Humango, Intervals.icu, Map My Fitness, Relive, Ride With GPS, Suunto, Xert, Xhale and more.

Jordan Grimes — 9/12/2026

Cycling Cadence Explained: What It Is and How to Find Your Ideal RPM

Cycling cadence is how fast you pedal, measured in revolutions per minute (RPM). It's a highly individual metric that shifts with the rider, the terrain and the intensity of the effort – which is why there's no single ideal number to chase. This guide explains what cadence is, what counts as a good cadence for cycling and how to find the RPM range that suits you, with a cadence chart for every riding situation plus drills you can do on your smart trainer.

TL;DR

Cycling cadence is how fast you pedal, measured in revolutions per minute (rpm). Most experienced riders sit between 75 and 100rpm, beginners closer to 65–85rpm. There's no single ideal number – low cadences load your muscles, high cadences shift the work to your heart and lungs.

Rough targets: 75–90rpm on the flat, 70–85rpm seated climbing, 85–95rpm at threshold and 100–120rpm sprinting. To find your own, ride 3 minutes at a fixed power at 70, 80, 90 and 100rpm, then record your heart rate and perceived effort at each. The lowest pair is your optimal cadence.

Cycling Cadence Explained: What It Is and How to Find Your Ideal RPM

If you're new to cycling, it might be a surprise to learn that how fast you pedal can have a big impact on performance, and most cycling training plans include cadence drills for this reason.

This single data point has been the subject of many scientific studies and debates in the cycling community over the years, but thankfully, expert performance coaches mostly agree on its importance and the ideal cycling cadence ranges.

In this guide, we'll explain cycling cadence and how to find your optimal cadence, outline typical cadence ranges and share drills that you can integrate into your next training session.

What is cadence in cycling?

Cycling cadence is how fast you pedal, measured in revolutions per minute (RPM). A full 360-degree turn of the cranks by one leg equals one revolution. If you ride at a cadence of 80 RPM, each leg completes 80 full rotations per minute.

Riders can use a dedicated cadence sensor, a power meter or a smart trainer to measure cadence. All of these devices broadcast live cadence to bike computers or training apps, including ROUVY. Smart trainers usually have this built in, so indoor riders get it for free.

Cadence, or pedalling speed, is one of the two numbers that contribute to power, and most cyclists know how important power is. Power, measured in watts (W), is a product of torque (Nm) x cadence (RPM).

An individual rider can produce the same total power output at very different cadences by adjusting the torque applied at the pedals on each revolution, which puts very different demands on the body.

It's commonly understood that low cadences put proportionally more demand on the muscles than the cardiovascular system, whereas high cadences put more demand on the cardiovascular system. Takaishi and colleagues demonstrated this in a study of cyclists and non-cyclists, showing that high cadences reduce force output per pedal stroke, sparing the legs from neuromuscular fatigue but increasing oxygen cost.

Lance Armstrong's coach, Chris Carmichael, is often credited with bringing this finding to elite cycling by coaching Armstrong to increase his cadence, directing more load to his fatigue-resistant cardiovascular system and increasing endurance.

What's a good cadence for cycling?

Most intermediate and experienced cyclists naturally arrive at an average cadence between 75 and 100 RPM. Beginners usually start at lower cadences of 65 to 85 RPM.

Technically, there's no such thing as the 'ideal' cycling cadence. The best cadence at any given moment depends not just on the rider's age, physiology and fitness, but on the terrain and the power output.

Cyclists racing in competition, where cycling cadence changes with every attack

Research on cadence, including this study by Foss and Hallén, has demonstrated that the most economical (energy-efficient) cadence rises as power output rises, so your cadence should be higher when you're doing high-intensity efforts than when spinning away on the flat in Zone 2.

An interesting paradox with freely chosen cadence is that cyclists usually default to higher, and therefore less economical, cadences during low-to-moderate-intensity cycling rather than the slightly lower but more economical 'optimal' cadence, as pointed out by Hansen and Smith. The reasoning put forward for this is an innate voluntary motor rhythm.

This study by Formenti et al. on nine cyclists of varying experience levels shows that at moderate intensity, spinning at high cadences is less efficient, adding to the evidence that higher cadences are best reserved for high-intensity efforts, or for the pros who ride at high relative power output (250–300 W) even in their low-to-moderate-intensity rides.

Cycling cadence chart

A rough guide to training cadence for different situations on an indoor trainer and a training app like ROUVY.

SITUATION	Cadence (RPM)	Why	Practise on ROUVY
Recovery / easy spinning	80–90	Low power and low neuromuscular demand. Comfort and blood flow matter more than efficiency	Recovery workout, flat route
Endurance / flat riding	75–90	Pros average around 89 RPM on flat stages, balancing muscle force against heart-rate cost	Zone 2 workout, flat route
Seated climbing	70–85	Gearing, gradient and lower speed pull cadence down. Pros average around 70 RPM on long climbs	Simulated climb (e.g. Alpe d'Huez)
Very steep ramps / out of the saddle	60–75	Standing adds torque and body weight to each stroke, so cadence naturally drops	Steep gradient segments
Time trial / threshold	85–95	Pros hold high cadences of around 90 RPM in time trials	FTP / threshold workout in ERG
Sprinting	100–120+	Peak power occurs around 110–135 RPM in trained riders	HIIT / sprint workout
Low-cadence strength work	50–60	A specific drill for building muscular strength	ERG drill, big gear
High-cadence spin-ups	100–120	A drill for holding coordination at high leg speed and low power	ERG drill, low gear

Cadence (RPM)
Recovery / easy spinning	80–90
Endurance / flat riding	75–90
Seated climbing	70–85
Very steep ramps / out of the saddle	60–75
Time trial / threshold	85–95
Sprinting	100–120+
Low-cadence strength work	50–60
High-cadence spin-ups	100–120

Why
Recovery / easy spinning	Low power and low neuromuscular demand. Comfort and blood flow matter more than efficiency
Endurance / flat riding	Pros average around 89 RPM on flat stages, balancing muscle force against heart-rate cost
Seated climbing	Gearing, gradient and lower speed pull cadence down. Pros average around 70 RPM on long climbs
Very steep ramps / out of the saddle	Standing adds torque and body weight to each stroke, so cadence naturally drops
Time trial / threshold	Pros hold high cadences of around 90 RPM in time trials
Sprinting	Peak power occurs around 110–135 RPM in trained riders
Low-cadence strength work	A specific drill for building muscular strength
High-cadence spin-ups	A drill for holding coordination at high leg speed and low power

Practise on ROUVY
Recovery / easy spinning	Recovery workout, flat route
Endurance / flat riding	Zone 2 workout, flat route
Seated climbing	Simulated climb (e.g. Alpe d'Huez)
Very steep ramps / out of the saddle	Steep gradient segments
Time trial / threshold	FTP / threshold workout in ERG
Sprinting	HIIT / sprint workout
Low-cadence strength work	ERG drill, big gear
High-cadence spin-ups	ERG drill, low gear

Both elite and amateur cyclists can benefit from using an indoor cycling app like ROUVY to train cadence in a repeatable, controlled environment.

Structured workouts are very easy to execute.

Victor CampenaertsPro cyclist, Visma | Lease a Bike

You can do a really structured training session on the platform in a controlled environment.

Andrew FeatherBritish hill climb champion

Cadence drills to improve pedalling

Doing drills at different cadences helps you improve the efficiency of your pedal stroke, maximise muscle recruitment and feel comfortable pedalling at a range of speeds. These benefits translate to faster average speeds on your rides.

Common cadence drills

DRILL	Main skill improved
Cadence match	Cadence control, pacing
Low–high cadence challenge	Leg speed, smooth transitions
Circle drawing	Smooth pedal stroke
One-leg pedal	Pedal coordination, awareness
Resistance ladder	Strength endurance, pacing

For more detail on how to perform these cadence drills on the road or using ROUVY, read our full guide to cadence drills.

Practising cadence indoors on ROUVY

By pairing a smart trainer with an indoor training platform like ROUVY, you can see live cadence data without any extra equipment.

Cyclist training indoors on a smart trainer to practise cycling cadence

These trainers also offer ERG mode, which lets you programme a target power and cadence to perform specific drills, such as the low–high cadence challenge: holding a preset power output while swapping between a low cadence (65–75) and a high cadence (85–95) every two minutes for a given period.

The ability to simulate climbs and real gradients on your smart trainer is also an excellent way to learn how to adapt your cadence to real-world riding situations – the Alpe d'Huez climb, for example.

High vs low cadence

As mentioned above, different cadences put different demands on the body, with higher cadences placing greater demands on the cardiovascular system, requiring more oxygen uptake and burning more energy, as this research analysis states. In the same analysis, low-cadence riding generated more neuromuscular fatigue. In other words, heart rate, oxygen uptake and blood lactate concentration all vary at different cadences, even when power output is held constant.

The analysis also shows that we all have a fatigue-free optimum, where the combined neuromuscular and cardiovascular cost is lowest. Most of us can approximate this range by training with a power meter and heart rate zones.

It's also worth mentioning that we all have a physiological upper limit to our pedalling cadence, beyond which pedalling any faster is less efficient.

Cyclist climbing out of the saddle at a low cycling cadence

Low cadences are usually preferable when the effort is low to moderate, while high cadences are more energy-efficient during high-intensity efforts. Despite this, cyclists naturally default to above-optimal cadences during low-intensity efforts and below-optimal cadences during high-intensity efforts.

If the range where you feel comfortable pedalling is 70–90 RPM, that means that, roughly speaking, somewhere from 70–80 will probably be optimal for low-to-moderate efforts, while 80–90 will be optimal for higher intensities, where gearing permits (you may not be able to pedal at 90 RPM on steep gradients with typical road bike gearing).

Another key difference between high and low-cadence riding is the strain put on the knee joint. As this study outlines, riding at 90 RPM produces around 30% lower kneecap (patellofemoral) compressive force than riding at 70 RPM while holding power constant.

How to find your own optimal cadence

Finding your optimal cadence can be done a few different ways:

Ride by feel: all cyclists naturally gravitate toward a cadence that's comfortable for their body, age and fitness. For many, that falls between 80–100 RPM on flat terrain. This approach may not bring you to the most efficient fatigue-free optimum cadence for the reasons outlined above, but it typically lands close, as this study found.
Use power and heart rate: monitoring how your heart rate fluctuates at different cadences while holding a constant power output can help you identify your most efficient cadence. Do this on a steady, flat road or using ERG mode on your smart trainer.

If you're new to cycling, it's important to learn when to shift gears so you can keep a steady cadence and then let your body guide you to what feels good. Beginners may tend toward a sub-optimal cadence, so it may be worth nudging yours slightly upward if you're new to the sport.

Using the ROUVY app in ERG mode, you can run the following test to find your optimal cadence:

Ride for 3 minutes at a fixed power output at 70, 80, 90 and 100 RPM (12 minutes in total)
Record heart rate and rate of perceived exertion at each cadence
Repeat on another day at the same time

Your optimal cadence is the one with the lowest heart rate and perceived effort. It may change at different power outputs, and it will change with fitness and training level.

Happy cyclist riding at a comfortable cycling cadence

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FAQ

Jordan Grimes

ROUVY Expert

Jordan is a writer and editor who specializes in cycling content, as well as a keen recreational cyclist. From his adopted home in Palma de Mallorca, he trains locally, leads rides with a local club, and, in service of his love for travel, he regularly takes his bike on trips around Europe. He’s obsessed with data, performance, and nutrition, and you’re likely to find him diving into his Strava stats at the clubhouse over a post-ride flat white.