Clad in skin-tight clothes and cleated shoes, we walk with all the grace of a chicken with a repetitive stress injury. Yet once astride our machines, hovering above the tarmac and enraptured by the sensation of flight, we are transformed into a picture of fluidly harmonic articulation which belies the power and skill that drives us forward. Years of fine-tuning our position, together with thousands of kilometers passed under our tires have built to perfect our magnificent stroke and continue to blur the lines between rider, machine, and passion.
The still is shattered, however, as we move out of the saddle in search of more speed and power. Once an elegant creature, the rider is spontaneously transformed into a beast of bobbing head, swaying saddle, and protuberant elbow. It is a complicated matter, this business of riding out of the saddle, but when done correctly can embody all the grace and power of the seated cyclist. The French understand this well enough to have given mastery of this art a special phrase, en danseuse, which means that the rider exhibits all the elegance and beauty of a dancer when riding out of the saddle, particularly when going uphill. Few Pros embody this, and even fewer enthusiasts.
It’s not beyond the grasp of the Velominatus to Look Fantastic while standing. Next time you lift your caboose off the saddle, keep these points in mind.
Stand on the hoods or in the drops. This is Standing 101: absolutely never, under any circumstances, no matter what anyone tells you, whatever is happening, in spite of any special circumstances, ever, stand on the tops. Grab a handful of hoods or the drops when standing; these postions help get your weight lower and farther forward and give better control than do the tops, which are awkward and wobbly. Also shy away from the bend of the bars just above the hoods in favor of the hoods themselves; this is better than the tops, but not as stable and powerful as the hoods or drops.
Move to the V-Locus. The temptation is great to let your elbows flare out and stick your ass out like you’re trying to red-eye the rider behind you (and maybe you are, I’m not judging), but you should keep as much of your mass centered over your bike as possible. Shoulders down, elbows bent, hips forward of the saddle. Practice shifting your body forward and back a bit to weight the front and back tires differently and learn how it affects traction and power. Your weight distribution will need to change as the gradient does and on different kinds of road surfaces.
Go with the flow. As you stand, let your bike sway back and forth naturally in rhythm with your strokes. Don’t hold it too still or you’ll risk draining energy into holding the bike in place that could otherwise go into your pedaling action. On the other hand, don’t let it sway so much that you’re just swinging your bike around needlessly because you think it looks cool.
Hold your line. If Greg LeMond could have pointed his bike in one direction, he would probably have won the sprint against Gianni Bugno at Alpe d’Huez in 1990. Your tendency will be to let your bike swerve around as a result of the heaps of power you’re dishing out from your massive guns, but not only is that dangerous, every change in direction means a loss of energy and inertia. Some movement is natural, but don’t overdo it.
Lower your cadence. You’ll want to shift into a slightly higher gear just as you rise out of the saddle; standing gives you access to additional power, but it is also inefficient because you’re holding your body up with your legs and arms. Lowering your cadence helps steady your body and move it less.
Keeping in mind the principles above, below are some stylistic considerations.
Avoid the Bopping Betty. You’re trying to look like you’re dancing, but steer clear of doing The Bop. Alberto Contador is the master of this particular faux-pas, in spite of his astonishing speed. But assuming you’re carrying more weight on your upper body than a Spanish Beef-Eating Uphill Specialist, you’re going to want to keep the torso reasonably still; its the heaviest part of your body and every time you lift it up, it wastes energy.
Don’t Be a Handlebar Humper. We love our bikes, but not that much; try to keep from thrusting your hips into your stem like Lance Armstrong. Its a passable technique on dry roads, but riding with your weight so far forward not only looks distressingly sexual, but will unweight your rear wheel too much and you’ll find yourself slipping when the road pitches up or becomes damp.
Avoid the Monster Mash. Though you want to change into a lower cadence, you also don’t want to overdo it. Cadel Evans and Greg LeMond are two riders who come to mind as trying to mash their bikes to death, climbing out of the saddle in a monster gear.
Channel your Pantani Power Ranger. I don’t know why it’s so hard to climb in the drops like Pantani did, but it’s also wicked fast. If you’re looking for some extra power, go searching for it in the drops. You’ll burn out quickly, but you’ll get up over the hill quickly too.
Go Gorilla. Ask a Pro how they go so fast, and they usually look at you quizzically for a while before eventually giving an answer somewhere between “why would you go slower?” and “push harder on the pedals”. My favorite piece of advice is this: try to break your handlebars. Standing is all about counter-acting forces, and you can’t do it without using your handlebars, so try to break them. You won’t. Probably.
Almost every climbing style imaginable (and some not) can be found in the 2010 Fleche Wallone finale:
*Thanks to G’rilla for inspiring this article.
frank
The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking.
As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it.
Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen.
Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.
Pure snob awesomeness. Great primer on how to climb!
Nice stuff. The only thing missing (and alluded to elsewhere on the site) is making sure you don't drop the bike back as you stand up. With or without company on your wheel, this is not cool. But there's nothing quite like the grim arrogance that comes with digging that bit further into the pain cave to climb out of the saddle on a particularly steep patch of a climb (weight distribution be damned) or opting for this over gearing down to get over a shorter pitch...
...and am I the only one looking forward to seeing Contador at the Vuelta?
I think I read somewhere that Pantani's handlebar were much higher than normal (by pro cyclist's standards) so he could climb out of the saddle in the drops more easily, he had custom bikes made with taller headtubes than normal.
Nice one, Frank! Wow...Betty Bop followed by Tommy V. Eck, those two together bouncing all over.
Interesting that Go Gorilla comes up today. I was having a chat with the old man, a mechanical engineer, just last night about the likelihood that one would/could break their alloy/Al/metal bars. He reckons it could happen, but more likely than a snapping in two would be a bending of them. I wonder if anyone 'round here has actually snapped their bars in half?
Then again, the sit pillar from the KT suggests that anything is possible...
And, I climb on the tops sometimes, but only when trying to get a laugh out of my riding pals by goofily bouncing and bobbing.
...and am I the only one looking forward to seeing Contador at the Vuelta?
No... a showdown between him and Froome will be something to relish.
YES, I love short, poppy out of the saddle climbs while in the drops. It's the most fun way to handle smaller rollers without losing much speed. I have two small hills on my work commute that I'm working up being able to do all the way in the drops out of the saddle.
I think I read somewhere that Pantani's handlebar were much higher than normal (by pro cyclist's standards) so he could climb out of the saddle in the drops more easily, he had custom bikes made with taller headtubes than normal.
The rumors about Pantani's bike are all over and contradictory. And awesome! Some people say his "compact" frame was really a standard frame with a raised headtube, not a standard headtube with a down-sloping top tube as is normally considered a compact.
Honestly, I don't think those reports are correct, but as its incredibly hard to even find actual photos of his actual bike, its hard to validate.
CampyOnly is the only site I know of that has really, truly gotten close to his actual bike; to my eye, the bike is very clearly just a 53cm frame with a -17 degree slammed stem. If he wanted his bars higher, he could have used any number of tactics to get them up that wouldn't involve having a special frame built. In line with "the simplest explanation is likely to be the right explanation" lines of thought, it seems to me he just rode a normal compact.
Granted, his position definitely had less drop than many other riders, but that's a different matter than having a tall headtube made.
Also, if you look at the exposed seat post on his old carrera frame (pre-compact) you'll see there's loads less showing than on his compact Bianchi. That alone says to me the top tube is sloping down, not up, as otherwise he'd have the same post extension but no rise on the stem.
And, I climb on the tops sometimes, but only when trying to get a laugh out of my riding pals by goofily bouncing and bobbing.
Climbing on the tops is fine, of course - I'm talking about STANDING while gripping the tops. Climbing on the tops while seated is ultra pro.
Very nice rundown of climbing techniques. I've spent most of the mountainstages of this years Tour, shouting at the telly and Chris Anker Sørensen. The way that man sits on a bike should be a bannable offence...
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Pure snob awesomeness. Great primer on how to climb!
Nice stuff. The only thing missing (and alluded to elsewhere on the site) is making sure you don't drop the bike back as you stand up. With or without company on your wheel, this is not cool. But there's nothing quite like the grim arrogance that comes with digging that bit further into the pain cave to climb out of the saddle on a particularly steep patch of a climb (weight distribution be damned) or opting for this over gearing down to get over a shorter pitch...
...and am I the only one looking forward to seeing Contador at the Vuelta?
I think I read somewhere that Pantani's handlebar were much higher than normal (by pro cyclist's standards) so he could climb out of the saddle in the drops more easily, he had custom bikes made with taller headtubes than normal.
Nice one, Frank! Wow...Betty Bop followed by Tommy V. Eck, those two together bouncing all over.
Interesting that Go Gorilla comes up today. I was having a chat with the old man, a mechanical engineer, just last night about the likelihood that one would/could break their alloy/Al/metal bars. He reckons it could happen, but more likely than a snapping in two would be a bending of them. I wonder if anyone 'round here has actually snapped their bars in half?
Then again, the sit pillar from the KT suggests that anything is possible...
And, I climb on the tops sometimes, but only when trying to get a laugh out of my riding pals by goofily bouncing and bobbing.
@Steampunk
No... a showdown between him and Froome will be something to relish.
YES, I love short, poppy out of the saddle climbs while in the drops. It's the most fun way to handle smaller rollers without losing much speed. I have two small hills on my work commute that I'm working up being able to do all the way in the drops out of the saddle.
@Dan Gerous
The rumors about Pantani's bike are all over and contradictory. And awesome! Some people say his "compact" frame was really a standard frame with a raised headtube, not a standard headtube with a down-sloping top tube as is normally considered a compact.
Honestly, I don't think those reports are correct, but as its incredibly hard to even find actual photos of his actual bike, its hard to validate.
CampyOnly is the only site I know of that has really, truly gotten close to his actual bike; to my eye, the bike is very clearly just a 53cm frame with a -17 degree slammed stem. If he wanted his bars higher, he could have used any number of tactics to get them up that wouldn't involve having a special frame built. In line with "the simplest explanation is likely to be the right explanation" lines of thought, it seems to me he just rode a normal compact.
Granted, his position definitely had less drop than many other riders, but that's a different matter than having a tall headtube made.
Also, if you look at the exposed seat post on his old carrera frame (pre-compact) you'll see there's loads less showing than on his compact Bianchi. That alone says to me the top tube is sloping down, not up, as otherwise he'd have the same post extension but no rise on the stem.
More Pantani love, just because.
Here's an old piece we did on his '98 bike.
@Ron
Climbing on the tops is fine, of course - I'm talking about STANDING while gripping the tops. Climbing on the tops while seated is ultra pro.
Very nice rundown of climbing techniques. I've spent most of the mountainstages of this years Tour, shouting at the telly and Chris Anker Sørensen. The way that man sits on a bike should be a bannable offence...