Table of Contents
For many cyclists, climbs are dreaded challenges that present themselves every so often, during our rides.
Whether a single small climb, a set of rollers, or a monumental “King of the mountain” peak, inclines in cycling are largely unavoidable and should be viewed as mini challenges, and part of our growth as cyclists.
In a group setting, it becomes painfully evident who is proficient at climbing, and who is not !
For some, it is challenging and frustrating watching the pack ride away chatting as comfortably as they would in the post ride coffee session.
Before we embark on strategies and methodologies to improve your climbing skills, let’s review some of the factors that largely influence a cyclist’s climbing ability.
Climbing in cycling is largely correlated to a cyclist’s’ power to weight ratio. This is defined as a cyclist’s wattage (power output) divided by weight (in kilograms).
Needless to say, lowering your weight can be a tricky task.
For those riders who may already be deemed “skinny”, perhaps focus more on the upcoming factors.
For riders who are carrying unnecessary body fat, a healthy weight loss regime including plenty of exercise and an improved nutrient composition may be required.
Athletes in all endurance sports have a sweet spot, where weight and performance are optimal and the athlete can perform at their very potential.
There is however, a point of diminishing returns in this ratio, which is accompanied by substandard performance, a weaker immune system and an increased risk of injury. In cycling, this is evident in a loss of power and endurance.
Fortunately, improving climbing does not stop at power to weight ratio alone.
Sport specificity training is crucial to improving climbing performance.
Long and sustained efforts at functional threshold power, with substantial efforts in Zone 2 to improve your endurance, whilst improving your VO2max and anaerobic power, are key ingredients in a comprehensive strategy to improve climb.
Whilst indoor training is beneficial in training to gain power, indoor climbing training exclusively indoors, is insufficient.
In addition to power, physics comes into play, affecting a rider’s position, which in turn affects weight distribution on the bike and the cyclist’s center of gravity.
This affects not only cadence, but the range of motion, which differs from that of riding a heavy gear on a stationary bike.
This in turn,leads to rapid exhaustion of the muscle group.
By frequently practicing on the gradient of climbs you will be training or competing on, progression will take place.
Increase Core Strength
Improving individual biomechanical functionality, pays big dividends in cycling as it directly correlates to our ability to sustainably generate power, over longer periods.
When creating a strategy to improve core strength, sport specific exercises where we are ‘looking forwards’ or ‘face down’, accurately mirror what we require when cycling.
Examples of suitable core strength exercises:
- Use free weights
- Face forward or face downwards
- Forces that create diagonal stress loads across the body
- Standing on one leg
- Multiple-joint movements
Enhance your technique in training
Optimum climbing technique is often perceived as highly complicated or hard to access in a structured format.
Here, we will do our best to simplify and put together a clear reference guide that can be periodically referred to as and when desired.
Our goal is to work on various techniques on all rides (presuming riders do not live on the prairies), with the objective to enable you to attack hills for hours at a time.
These techniques also translate to the flats, which invariably will make you an all-round better rider.
Granted for some, this learning curve may be monumental, whereas for others it may simply require a few minor adjustments. Although we all have differing capabilities, experience, physiologies, strengths, bike set-ups, etc. all of these technique adjustments are applicable within the context of climbing.
By improving your hill climbing technique, you will increase your functional threshold and become a better cyclist.
We will start with technique, which covers numerous factors.
Cadence
Tens of thousands of discussions over coffee have taken place on the subject of ‘the ideal cycling pedal stroke’.
Simply watch any professional tour and it becomes painfully obvious that professional cyclists have some of the choppiest, and most unbalanced pedal strokes, you may likely ever witness.
Higher cadence efforts, in the 90-100 rpm on the flats, and at least >65 in the hills, is a generally agreed upon benchmark to optimize our cycling fitness and strength in endurance training.
This cadence assists in enhancing our cardiovascular fitness whilst minimizing physiological stress generated on a ride.
Increased cycling cadence requires more cardio fitness to generate wattage.
If we were to incorporate a lower cadence this would utilize more muscular strength and a lower cardio demand.
Although this would deliver more power over the short-term, as compared with high cadence it also expedites fatigue.
Most riders’ preferred cadence is between 80 – 90 rpm, with widespread agreement that as climbs get steeper, a higher cadence to at least the 85 – 95 rpm range, is more beneficial and sustainable.
However, as mentioned earlier, we are all individuals who have differing physiologies.
Some have more fast twitch muscle fibers, some more slow twitch, some mesomorphs, others ectomorphs or endomorphs, etc.
Once climbing technique has become proficient at higher cadences, it is then advisable to become proficient at lower cadences to further develop hill climbing power.
Practice both high and low cadence and stick to what feels most natural to you.
Cadence work
Big gear work could be done at home on a stationary set up and should include lower cadence intervals, commencing in the 70s and over time (every 2-3 weeks, pending results and recovery) descend into the 40s.
As these sessions place extensive stress on the ITBs (Iliotibial band) they are best done with a quality warm-up and cool down, including stretching, physiotherapy, rollers or self-massage.
Too much big gear work may trash your legs, as the required recovery time far surpasses that of the average ride.
Bar Grip
Although this may seem trivial and simple, hand position is critical in mastering the base skills required to properly execute all other climbing skills.
There are two primary hand positions used in hill climbing, both of which optimally open up the chest, facilitate breathing and climbing economy.
The first is ‘on the hoods.’
The second is ‘on the tops’ with thumbs placed under the bars. This hand placement is more effective at opening the chest as compared with hand placement ‘on the hoods’.
Developing a smooth cadence
Climbing efficiently is developed through powerful, relaxed pedal strokes conducted in a smooth motion.
This starts with being comfortable, professionally fitted to your bike and properly positioned on the saddle.
Most cyclists are aware that even the slightest ‘micro’ positioning change affects your pedal stroke and perceived exertion.
Optimally, we want to pedal ‘circles’.
This means, using the analogy of scraping your foot through the bottom of the stroke, as though you are cleaning the bottom of your cleats. At the top of the stroke, drag your foot over the top from 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock.
Do 10 circles and change legs. After 3-5 sets, clip both in and practice together.
This should be practiced in a safe area with no traffic, by unclipping one leg and executing the aforementioned exercise.
This is more exhausting than it may initially appear and requires a strong core that is basically fixed, whilst maintaining stable and straight hips.
Seated climbing
From an economy of motion perspective, seated climbing is more efficient than standing, as less muscles are isolated when seated, as opposed to standing.
Especially on long climbs or courses that have extensive rollers, it is most efficient from an endurance perspective to stay seated as much as possible, in addition to maintaining a high cadence.
For the triathletes out there, this is of utmost importance to be able to put together a decent post bike run.
Maintaining efficiency and conserving energy
It is common sense that the less energy we expend, the more we have in the tank for later stages, or to keep in reserve for a surge or sprint. This economy of motion will enable us to maintain effective climbing speeds for longer durations.
As touched on earlier, even minor adjustments to your saddle position can partially rest specific muscles and better target others. By sliding back in the saddle, we can better engage our backside muscles (gluteus maximus) enabling more of a ‘forward’ pedal push, in addition to a ‘downward’ push.
Cycling economy is about training and racing smart.
If we use the analogy of an airplane, fuelled to fly from New York to London, but mid flight requires to fly the additional distance to Rome, the pilot would use every last bit of fuel and “gliding” to get the plane and passengers to the destination safely.
This is a wise frame of mind in long endurance events. Using too much fuel, anywhere in an event is not always recoverable later on.
Always, think of how to best conserve energy whilst moving forward as fast as possible, with the given ‘budget’ of available fuel.
Whether this mindset works for you or not, develop your own and be strategic about energy usage..
Race smart, not hard.
Applying this mindset to climbing, we can deduce that, when we feel additional muscle fatigue, we may then slide back on the saddle to further engage the powerful quadriceps muscles, which allows our glutes to rest a bit.
This continual activation and semi-deactivation of muscle groups assists in an improved strategy overseeing our economy of motion.
Climbing in a standing position (out of the saddle)
By and large, standing whilst climbing can be very therapeutic and provide a worthy stretch of the entire body while climbing.
Besides allowing us to access more muscle groups, it enables us to drop into harder gearing (smaller rear cassettes) and push substantially higher wattage.
When standing, grip the handlebars and maintain a solid and erect upper body posture, forming a stable platform for your hips,core, bodyweight, legs and bike frame, to act as one cohesively, and drive kinetic energy into the pedals.
For steep inclines, grip the handlebars firmly and use them to leverage and support your hips and back. This creates extensive leverage to generate additional climbing power.
By moving slightly forward, your bodyweight is further activated, which is beneficial in energy management, especially in longer events.
For those of you that may not be proficient in standing whilst climbing, continue to concentrate on spinning, even when out of the saddle and rock the bike laterally beneath you as you turn the gear over.
(Newer riders are urged to watch climbing videos to better envision what is being mentioned here.)
For experienced riders, standing for short durations is all part of riding.
For riders that may be new or not of a lean stature, standing can quickly lead to a high heart rate, which in a race setting, should be a well calculated expenditure.
Standing is best used when wanting to access strong, yet short bursts of power, such as in specific sections of a climb, near the crest or on the flats in an attack !
The final product, combining what we have discussed
Combining decent climbing power with economical technique and a sound cardiovascular system, provides riders with the full arsenal to climb at higher intensities. By continually enhancing technique and functional strength, riders may then proceed to increasingly longer climbs.
We could not discuss climbing without touching on drafting. Drafting still presents aerodynamic benefits as low as 22 kph in some scenarios, depending on wind direction, pack size and your position in a pack.
Riders would be wise to use a draft (where legal) in climbing to save energy as well as a morale boost and gauge your ‘comfort’ zone during ascents.
Finally, weight as discussed is of course critically important in a climbing discussion.
As mentioned though, unless you have a large budget, riders are urged to be realistic and use common sense. Cycling gear, as we all know, can be very expensive to save a few hundred grams.
Besides the individual cyclist, a bike frame and wheels are the heaviest pieces of equipment to consider in the weight equation.
Although most performance frames these days are carbon fiber, aluminum,magnesium, titanium and a host of other materials are used to construct bicycle frames. Take your pick.
All cycling equipment can be bought lighter and better if you are prepared to pay for it.
It also does not mean that it is better or guarantee a PB on your next favorite climb.
If you are a serious climber, you can get even lighter by eliminating bidon cages, removing cassettes(cogs), losing the front derailleur,using low resistance tyres,etc.
Hopefully this enables you to view hills in a new positive light, or at the very least, assist you in attacking them more efficiently!
