What benefits does standing on your pedals have?

Question

Having watched a number of "Matt Stephens, The Cafe Ride" episodes, where Matt interviews while riding, I've noticed that the guest cyclist would often stand on their pedals every now and then as if its incorporated in their daily cycling routine.

Apart from exercising a different set of muscles, do you know of any other reason for incorporating "standing on your pedals" on a cycling routine?

Answer 1

There are various reasons to stand on your pedals from time to time besides exercising different muscle groups:

• Generate more power: while standing you can increase your power output to reach higher values than if seated. Standing you can use your whole body weight to load the pedals and can even increase that a bit further by pulling down on the handle bars. Downside: depending on how much effort you put in, this can easily be more than your functional threshold power and hence tire your muscles within short time.
• Relax and remove static load from body parts: when riding seated some muscle groups are kept in the same positions (think of your lower back) and/or receive static load (hands, shoulders and also butt) for prolonged time. Standing up every now an then allows for another position and/or to relieve the pressure for a short time. With the butt this allows to ride on with saddle sores to a certain extent.
• Increase manoeuverability: The bike has a higher range of motion, e.g. to tilt it to the side, when the rider is not seated but standing above it. In Mountainbiking in technical terrain this is the default mode of riding since you can manoeuvre way better around obstacles. On a road bike it might be useful to circle around something like a pothole without making a huge swaying motion.
• Suspension: When seated on a bike without rear suspension every bump in the road hits right into your butt and lower back. By raising your butt slightly from the saddle you can absorb such bumps with your legs, making the ride much smoother. However, for an experienced cyclist you might not even notice such a move if there is only a small bump to cross.
• Overview: Standing on the pedals makes you taller and therefore allows you to see things you can't see when seated. Imagine approaching a road crossing with a high fence, hedge or bushes at the side which obstructs the view on traffic from the crossing road.

Answer 2

A bump of any kind, such as a large root or a change in the road surface, can be handled more smoothly when standing on the pedals. This is because the majority of your body mass doesn't need to follow the trajectory of the bump. Instead, your body can maintain a relatively straight and stable path, while the bike frame moves underneath you, absorbing the impact with less transfer of force to the rider.

Answer 3

Despite Biomechanics, I can think about the so called "surplace", or "track stand", often practiced by pistards.

Citing Wikipedia:

*The track stand or standstill is a technique that bicycle riders can use to maintain balance while their bicycle remains stationary or moves only minimal distances.

[...]

The term originated from use of the technique by track cyclists prior to starting, or as a tactic in track sprinting whereby riders will initially ride very slowly and maneuver across the track in an effort to get their rival to take the lead so that they can then draft (or slipstream) behind, conserving energy for the final sprint. Other types of cyclists also use the technique. Commuters and bike messengers use it while stopped in traffic, especially at red lights, mountain bikers use it in difficult terrain to determine a path and BMX cyclists use it in preparation for tricks.