Look Pro: En Danseuse
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.
- 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.
Diabolical Finish:
Almost every climbing style imaginable (and some not) can be found in the 2010 Fleche Wallone finale:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2itSMsLvRo[/youtube]
*Thanks to G’rilla for inspiring this article.
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…
Great article, Frank. Although, given you all were within a hair’s breadth of the man, I’m a bit surprised this article does not include a picture of Boonen conquering the classics this year:
Also, while not depicting a climb (I don’t think), check this out:
Found here: http://paintingletour.blogspot.com/2012/04/tom-boonen.html
@Ron
I snapped a Scott AT-4 handlebar once mountain biking. But I think breaking bars is pretty rare and I would assume I’d already weakened it crashing or whatever else you do to a mountain bike.
I would suggest Marko might have overtorqued his seatpin, but he assures me he didn’t. That was an oddity and anything can break. But if Greipel and Cav don’t regularly snap their bars, then you can be pretty sure that you won’t either, I’d say.
@The Oracle
@JesperXT
No shit, dude! He makes riding a bike look more painful than Mancebo did! This is a hard sport, but he makes it look like torture!
@ChrisO
True story!
I love Pantani’s bianchi….so effin sexy. I know it’s been praised on here before, but it bears repeating: one of the coolest bikes ever. I had a proud dad moment the other day, my kids regularly play “bike racer”. They are 4 and 2 and mostly wear just wear helmets and run laps through our house. My son (the 4 yo) always assigns the riders most common choices are Faboo, Voeckler, Nibali and Cav. A couple weeks ago though I hear this fro my son assigning himself and my daughter Violet their racers pre race: okay, Violet I’ll be Cadel and you be Pantani…..yep, if nothing else I haven’t failed them.
@frank
This might sound weird, but one of the finest sights in cycling are wet, tanned legs.
@wiscot I don’t think it’s weird, I think it’s spot on. When the guns are glistening when Rule #9 is in action, it just looks cool. But I also think the guns look dope when lubed up with bag balm.
Great article. I will contemplate on my climbing form during the ride tomorrow.
@frank
Yes more Pantani love, just because.
+1 @Frank. Great article and comments. Re: the bop, anyone recall the dude in the Tour around ’03 I think that had such a unique and exaggerated bop that I recall that even the noob OLN playpay-play announcer commented that he looked like a hammer head shark. A Gerolsteiner rider I think. Was it Totschnig? I think not and that it was some flash in the pan guy. Anyway, always loved the hammer head shark label, but definitely not the style.
And tonight I tried all of the above on my fave hilly ride with Lay Brother Simon and ended up with the most appalling cramp in my calves over the last mile which denied me a shoe-in PB/PR whatever you want to call it. Nearly dumped me of the bike – agony. Never cramped out my calves before – must be because for once I was really giving it The V on the climbs rather than just doing enough to get up.
@Steampunk you are right! That kind of bad habit would be rectified with a short ride on a fixed bike…
Btw, Jan Ullrich was great to see on the mountains, like here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPabWyUrxTo
@graham d.m.
I wasn’t sure what to do the other day when my 3 y.o. son sat enraptured by synchronized diving (sorry Frank). I have been trying my best to expose him to as much cycling as possible, but we are generally watching anything olympic we can find time for. He cries when I turn off whitewater in the mornings. I told my wife we were going to watch the individual time trial the other day, and my son squealed at me and said, “you mean the one wit the start house?” Win! I thought it was fantastic last weekend when I arrived home after breaking a chain, and told my son about it. He thought for a second, and said in a very serious tone, “but you got a new bike from the support car right?” “Right!”
This parenting thing is a drag on the riding, but is turning out to be a pretty good gig.
Great article, not only because I was always a Pantani fan, but also because since I really got into this beautiful sport, this is what I’ve been striving for. I climb on the hoods because I haven’t yet developed the finesse for long climbs on the drops – and some of the hills around here are hellishly steep. I’ve slimmed down so that I’m no longer too fat to climb and I can enjoy channelling my inner Pirata whilst spinning my way up the local climbs. I have to tame my lack of finesse and try to keep everything in line, imagining my legs as pistons, driving down to the crank with no effort wasted through swaying – it might not have the balletic grace of Marco at his best, but I’ll work on that. The feeling when it clicks to dance your way up a hill is fantastic, more so if you’re giving your mates a guided tour of the dark end of the pain cave. Stay light, float, enjoy the views.
@razmaspaz
It keeps it interesting right? It’s cool though when you see little light bulbs like that come on! I’m jealous for my kids because I wasn’t really exposed to all this. I like that they’ll grow up with cyclling as the norm. It does take a hit on ride time, but totally worth it! This morning I missed my ride because the little guy was up when I tried to leave and wanted to hang, I’m gonna take it all before he gets older thinks I’m no longer cool and grunts at me….hopefully we’ll always have cycling as that bridge over those times though. I noticed on your profile you’re from Chicago! I lived in Illinois from birth to age 23. We lived in Chicago to age 7 and then moved like 60 miles west to around Rockford, IL.
@the Engine
That’s fantastic! I have to start doing this, too. I spend alot of time surviving climbs vs kicking their teeth in with killshot of The V. Must channel Il Pirata….
Great article. Getting uphill and looking good doing it is no small feat. While sitting is the most efficient, it’s not always the most effective. Mixing it up so you’re at the front, but not cooked requires attention to the small details.
@Pedale.Forchetta
In some very small way, I miss the days when a small group of riders, all from different teams and doped out of their minds, would relentlessly hammer each other on the climbs. You felt dirty for being entertained by it, but it was fun to watch.
I think Boonen’s Classics bike(s) this year was a fine example of keeping a modern bike totally classy & sharp. Simple black & white for the most part, but then the tan sidewalls with the carbon rims just looks boss. His hubs should have been black though. If you are going for carbon bits & a black/white theme, gotta keep the wheels black too.
I’ve been having a lot of daydreams lately of a new wheelset…Yes, yes I have.
@onceaclimber
Sing it brother. It does feel dirty, but its true. And I preface that saying I wish the riders were clean. But the racing during the EPO era was the most consistently exciting.
But not to say that there wasn’t better racing before those days; the 1989 Tour predates EPO and that was certainly the best ever in terms of attacking racing.
Something worth pointing out: None of the riders pictured actually dance the way en danseuse expresses. Fignon did, Gaul did. Coppi did. I think at times the Grimplette does – the boy is beautiful going uphill.
Fignon:
Coppi:
Gaul:
@scaler911
Trudat. Climbing takes 100% concentration. Focusing on keeping your cadence going and momentum positive; every inclination is to gradually slow down as you get higher, but if you focus you can keep your cadence tapping out. Focusing on when you stand and sit, and timing it as the pitch kicks up, you can really keep your speed up.
Awesome.
@graham d.m. You lube your legs with bag balm??
@Oli sure do. I use it sometimes when it’s wet and cold, forms like a wax barrier. Like a non-hot embro. Is that insane?
@Steampunk
Yes, but a Keeper only divulges V points on any Look Pro article; the rest are to be discovered through the journey. But that is an important point. These are hard things to explain to people – you just do it. But I think @Oli described it best by saying you keep “pedaling over the top” of the stroke. Don’t throw your bike back as you get up (your bike is lighter than you are, and its on wheels, so if you suddenly move your mass forward by standing, your bike will slow down and effectively get thrown backwards, wreaking havoc on the riders behind you).
This comment of “grim arrogance” together with @Scaller911’s observation about standing/sitting concentration are key elements. Climbing well takes aggression, focus, calm. I suck at it, but I fucking love it.
@Ron
No kidding – those tan sidewalls…I’m thinking that the only tire choice of the Velominatus should be natural. I’m so sick of all black and colored sidewalls.
That said – you are way off on the black hubs. Black hubs are an abomination for the same reason black sidewalls are. Gleaming metal bits, baby.
I love that Zipp still makes a beautiful, silver hub. Love it.
@frank Amen to that, bro.
@graham d.m. There are so many good embrocations for the legs I’m surprised that you’d use a product designed to reduce chafing on your testicles instead! Seems an unusual choice to me when there are so many dedicated products around…
@Oli in all honesty man, I’m just totally green on some things and I was using that in the chamois and was getting ready to Rule #9 it one morning and decided to give it a whirl and it worked pretty well and it just sort of stuck, At any rate, I really should branch out to the real deal, huh? I’m definitely still learning. My first anniversary as a devoted cyclist was August 1. So thusly, use real embro not nut cream….seems so obvious doesn’t it!
Two brief stories about my oldest, now 17, who is a huge sports fan.
When he was probably five years old, we were over at a friend’s house to watch a mountain stage of the Tour. As different cyclists appeared on the screen, he would immediately identify them. Pantani, Virenque, Ullrich, Armstrong, etc. My friends were blown away that he could identify them on sight.
Second story:
At one of his first Little League practices when he was seven, he was asking all his teammates who their favorite pro cyclists were. I’m pretty sure at the time his favorite was Super Mario. The other boys were looking at him like he was from a different planet.
@Flying Crowbar
Awesome! I love that!
Resting your wrists on the Tops, not choking them like a chicken helps look pro whilst climbing. I have spent a fair bit of time working on my out of saddle endurance, it really seems to demoralize fellow competitors when you just keep standing. No good at being in the drops though, I need to work on that next.
@all
Bag balm was originallly designed to soften up cow udders. Farmers, both my Illinois grandfathers included, determined this salve helped heal irritations, cuts and other farm-related skin issues. I use it on my hands all the time, but never thought about using it as a chamois cream. It might actually be worth trying .
As far as an embrocation use, I’m sure graham d.m. has his reasons.
For years I’ve played a game called “Ride like the pros”. It started when I was BMXing. Though I lacked the jumping skills of others I could snap out of the gate like nobody’s business and getting out of the gate first is 70% of the race in BMX. The reason that my gate is so good is because I watched lots of video of races and did what the pros did. While other guys were pulling back or up on the handlebars as the gate dropped – thus making their momentum go up or back – I was slamming my hips into the bars just like the pros were doing and I reaped huge dividends (and a state championship) by mimicing the pros.
Now I play the same game but on the road bike. However, now I do it merely for entertainment. I got Hincapie’s, Ullrich’s (right down to the facial expression), and Vino’s stroke down. I’m working on Tommy V’s now too. Earlier in the season I was doing and awesome Andy Schleck by DNF’ing or going off the back of all my races that wasn’t quite as entertaining.
@niksch
@all and @oli;
For all you spending half your paycheck on some fancy boy embro know this; Bag Balm is the shit of you wanna run knee warmers on cold rainy days out. It’s thick, so its like a layer, but without clothing. Mix in a bit of Max strength Tiger Balm and your legs are toasty. Keeps the guns smooth. The new stuff is indeed hotter, but it’s always all oily like rubbing yourself with chain lube.Just don’t use it during summer I’d think. Too warm.
@graham d.m. Fair enough, I was just surprised is all.
@scaler911 I feel educated now. Personally I’ll stick to my baby oil and wintergreen mix on my legs, but if it works for you I don’t see why you shouldn’t use the bag balm…
Anyone else recall the sports science paper from a few years back that looked at the best way to climb given your body weight? I think it related to the change in heart rate caused by getting out the saddle to climb – little guys, there wouldn’t be much change so climbing out of the saddle was beneficial. Guys over weight x, I think it was mid 70kgs, their heart rate would increase more from the effort of lifting themselves out of the saddle and climbing, meaning the exertion wouldn’t be worth the extra speed and they’d be better off sitting and climbing. I only remember this for confirming that a) I’m too fat to climb and b) if you’re gonna come last in a hill climb, it’s much more nonchalant looking to do it in the saddle, spinning away than it is to be out of the saddle flailing away to come 34th out of 41.
I’m guilty of both handlebar humping and a touch of the monster mash…. Got some work to do.
@minion
never read the article, but can believe it. I often watch the lighter boys easily dance up the hill where as I gain 5-10 bpm if I have to stand. I have made the biggest gains by getting a large rear cassette and spinning up the hill and if I have to chase down the small boys simply upping the cadence.
@minion
Yeah, there is a lot to that. Finally losing some weight I noticed it is sort of painless to ride out of the saddle. In the heavier days it was ,”sit down now big fella, or you won’t make it up.” It’s not just the effort of getting out of the saddle that raises your HR if you are big, it’s having all that mass being supported by your legs instead of the saddle. It’s more efficient to stay seated.
Frank, maybe this helps me look better climbing but it’s not going to make me faster. And these days I’ll settle for that. I need a new engine and to lose many more kg to climb better. Neither of which are going to happen.
Even ditching all the winter crap when the weather improves (Jackets, knee warmers, spares, lights) feels like it makes a difference. For some reason I think Ullrich was the example from the study of the heavier rider which isn’t exactly heartening for people who might think losing weight will get you across that arbitrary line.