Hill Climbing
- Thread starter Benlikestobike
- Start date
On short steep climbs maintain your speed and cadence and get out of the saddle if necessary. On long climbs find your pace and tempo climb stay in the saddle and only get out to stay with another rider or if you need to stretch out your legs. Keep youre hands onth etop of the drops and sit near the back of the saddle.
Stay as loose as possible in your upper body and never white knuckle the drop bars.
That's just a couple of suggestions.
Stay as loose as possible in your upper body and never white knuckle the drop bars.
That's just a couple of suggestions.
If you have a power meter or heart rate monitor, you should have some idea of the numbers that you can hold for the duration of the event.
Make sure you have gearing that will get you up the hill in comfort.
Make sure you have gearing that will get you up the hill in comfort.
Are you talking about climbing hills in general or the uphill races that seem to be relegated to the end of the season that are known as hillclimbs? The former is about balancing the effort by using a suitable gear to maintain a reasonable pedal cadence. Speed is determined by power, weight and how much you want to smell the roses and see the sights. As stated already, try to stay fairly relaxed and stay focused on the road ahead, changing gear whenever the gradient changes. I tend to feel better and go faster if I keep the rpms the same (apart from anything long and steep 10%+) and change gear as required. With regards to gearing, if your doing a long event with lots of climbs then factor in a bailout gear. You often hear that folks are overgeared for a hard climb at the end of the ride but you rarely hear them complaining that they never really used 53x11. Contador has been known to train and race with a piddling small 34x32, yet you mention that gear at most bike events and people laugh. If you need it then you should have it. Hillclimb races are just about power to weight - as little weight as possible and as much power as you can muster. Hardly rocket science but it also requires a masochistic desire to drive oneself into a very grim state at the end.Benlikestobike said:
All good suggestions above. Now its time for you to go ride up some hills. The best way to get up the hill is to try out the above suggestions and use what works for you. Training is not success on the first try it is working towards a goal and achieving it.
grab the seatpost of the guy next to you.... best weight compensationOriginally Posted by jpr95 .
I guess I won't be doing any hillclimb races. I can do the masochistic part, but I like beer too much to get the weight part down to a competitive level!
Jason
Change gears to keep a constant steady pace
Every person is different as to whether they sit on the front or back of the saddle - a lot of riders change throughout the climb
Only stand up if you have to keep up with other riders or the percentage of hill increased
Every person is different as to whether they sit on the front or back of the saddle - a lot of riders change throughout the climb
Only stand up if you have to keep up with other riders or the percentage of hill increased
All good advice thus far.
As someone who used to be described as a rouleur when I raced, my climbing was (and still is) difficult. I "got over" climbs rather than racing over them.
My advice is try to get as much climbing training in as possible if your climbing is weak. I found that the more I rode the climbs, the better my climbing became.
The important thing for me was cadence. Finding a cadence with which I was able to climb without going in to the red. As my climbing improved, I was able to use a higher
gear to climb and I gradually improved. I experimented to with "staying in the saddle climbing" and "getting out of the saddle to climb".
At different stages both varieties worked.
The goats still destroyed me on climbs but at least I was able to get over them!
As someone who used to be described as a rouleur when I raced, my climbing was (and still is) difficult. I "got over" climbs rather than racing over them.
My advice is try to get as much climbing training in as possible if your climbing is weak. I found that the more I rode the climbs, the better my climbing became.
The important thing for me was cadence. Finding a cadence with which I was able to climb without going in to the red. As my climbing improved, I was able to use a higher
gear to climb and I gradually improved. I experimented to with "staying in the saddle climbing" and "getting out of the saddle to climb".
At different stages both varieties worked.
The goats still destroyed me on climbs but at least I was able to get over them!
One thing that I've found somewhat interesting (and very annoying) is that since buying a power meter I've discovered that if I've not been riding in the hills for quite a while it's actually pretty hard to put out the same power as I do on the flat, even though it feels harder...
Weird.
So, the basic rule of thumb "climb, to get better at climbing" seems to be correct in more ways that one. You get fitter and more used to the higher torque efforts.
Weird.
So, the basic rule of thumb "climb, to get better at climbing" seems to be correct in more ways that one. You get fitter and more used to the higher torque efforts.
I've never used a power meter!/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eek.gif This may seem like a Luddite approach but I'm prepared to "listen to my system" and judge how well or how badly I'm going, be it on the flat or when climbing.
It interesting that you say you can't replicate the same power level if you've stayed away from climbing for a period.
I know for a fact that if I stay away from climbing, my climbing goes back to base levels no matter how well I may be going on the flat.
[SIZE= medium]As others have said it’s mostly about power to weight and having a decent aerobic ability. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]Gears – yep, use them as needed. Probably better to change down before you need to – especially get out of the big ring at the start of the climb as changing out of it part way up is a slowing down pain. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]Conversely – I train on a SingleSpeed quite a lot and so I don’t have the option of changing down going up hills – I’ve just got to grunt my way over them and end up spending more time off the saddle than I do on my geared bike. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]I’m pretty much a natural hillclimber (good power to weight – mostly lack of weight rather than lots of power) and the Singlespeed helps me develop that. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]I love passing guys on hot road bikes on my SS as they’re chopping down gears looking for speed or in survival mode!![/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]BBB[/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]Gears – yep, use them as needed. Probably better to change down before you need to – especially get out of the big ring at the start of the climb as changing out of it part way up is a slowing down pain. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]Conversely – I train on a SingleSpeed quite a lot and so I don’t have the option of changing down going up hills – I’ve just got to grunt my way over them and end up spending more time off the saddle than I do on my geared bike. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]I’m pretty much a natural hillclimber (good power to weight – mostly lack of weight rather than lots of power) and the Singlespeed helps me develop that. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]I love passing guys on hot road bikes on my SS as they’re chopping down gears looking for speed or in survival mode!![/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]BBB[/SIZE]
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