Cadence in the ramp test

Hello and welcome. I have a question regarding test ramps. What cadence should be maintained during the ramp? Is it pedaling slower but maintains satisfactory power? Do I have to, for example, maintain 90 rpm all the time? Regards

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There is no mandatory cadence target. Hold whatever cadence is comfortable for you. Typically, as the power increases it helps to hold a higher cadence. But for every rider the ideal/comfortable cadence is different. And it can also be different for the same rider at different fitness levels.

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Sir @emacdoug just beat me to it, but I’ll post anyway. We’re saying basically the same thing.

There’s no specific requirement for cadence in the ramp test. Ride at whatever cadence works best for you. I’ll generally start at around 95 rpm at the start of the ramp, and then pick up into the 100-105 range by the end. But everyone’s natural and preferred cadence is different.

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By coincidence I just did the ramp test today. Here is a graph of my cadence.
image
You can see the dashed line is my average cadence of 83rpms. As I get higher in the ramp my cadence slowly increases. I started at about 80-82 rpms and was up between 85-90 when I finally entered the erg death spiral.

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While what everybody has said is true, the instructions encourage you to keep a high cadence.

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Yep. 90-95 rpm is best for me and allows prolonging the agony as long as possible before the ERG spiral of death puts me out of my misery.

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Whatever works for you, I start the ramp at 80rpm, build to whatever feels natural which is about 90-95rpm, once my HR is above threshold I’ll spin upto 100rpm and hold that until I hit the erg spiral of death.

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