Our last Look Pro edition discussed moving Sur la Plaque as you approach the top of the climb, thereby reducing your riding companions to withering leaves of wet lettuce. But the article ignored the other component of climbing like a Pro, which is commonly referred to as going Steady Up with More Speed. Right from the bottom.
Many riders make the mistake of assuming that going less hard is an easier way to get up a hill than by drilling it. In fact this is a myth. Scaling a climb at speed is in many ways easier than ascending slowly. At low speeds, we stretch the duration of the climb, we feel every change in gradient, our minds dwell on nuances that might indicated how we’re feeling or how well our machine is adhering to the Principle of Silence. None of these help you climb better.
But, assuming you can sustain the effort, going faster up a climb accomplishes several things. First, rhythm is everything. You body is completely dominated by rhythm, and cycling is no exception. The beating of your heart, the rate of your breathing, the cadence being tapped out by the guns; all these things work together. Settling into your natural cadence in a higher gear means you’ll go faster. Your body wants to maintain the rhythm it’s in, so it will assist you in keeping the speed higher. As you feel your cadence lift and body start to groan, flick your chain into a cog less. Your body will again seek out the cadence it was in – at a faster speed.
Second, momentum is everything, and carries you over the changes in gradient with little effort. Hitting a steep ramp at low speed will dramatically change your rhythm and velocity. Hitting it at high speed means that lifting out of the saddle and adding just a bit more power will let you dance over the ramp with hardly a change to your effort.
Third, the duration of the effort is much shorter. This seems obvious, but consider my climb up Haleakala. It took me four and a half hours, while Ryder Hesjedal motored up that brute in two and a half. That means that at any given time, he was going a little less than twice as fast as I was. That’s a lot more speed, but the complexities of maintaing an effort and keeping the body topped up on fluids and foods are disproportionately greater for a four and half hour effort than they are for a two and a half hour effort. The simple fact is that Ryder could do it and I would have been collectedin a dustbin, but his shorter effort is easier to gauge and monitor, given that it can be sustained.
The mistake most riders make when beginning a climb is to reserve strength or recover from a previous effort by easing off prior to the accent and on the lower slopes. Worse yet is the impulse to downshift at the base into the gear you expect to do the climb in. Counter-intuitive as it may be, increase your speed as you approach the climb. Hit the base as fast as possible, and only downshift as the gradient increases in order to avoid going into the red. A trained cyclist can sustain an effort just below the red zone for quite a while; so long as you don’t go red, you should be able to sustain a high pace.
Breathing also plays a major factor. Many riders will ignore their breathing entirely and slip into short, shallow breaths that start to fall into rhythm with your cadence. Other riders will only start to control their breathing as the effort takes its toll. This is the kiss of death for your climbing. Control your breathing in long deep breaths from the base of the climb and don’t slip into short shallow ones despite the considerable temptation to do so.
In summary, take it from a guy who can’t climb for shit and keep these pointers in mind:
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frank, brilliant advice but I might as well say it before one of the many other esteemed pedants of our community does: in the headline it's "deux" not "duex."
Part Duex?
Yes on the breathing. Also often overlooked is the importance of breathing out even harder than you inhale. Getting rid of the bad air is essential and frequently forgotten as we try to gulp in the next wasp.
Frank,
Speaking of part duex, are you going to repeat the Climb of Death this year?
AWESOMENESS!
Nice one, big fellow Frank! Really great piece. The entire thing is gold, but I like this part the best:
First, rhythm is everything. You body is completely dominated by rhythm, and cycling is no exception. The beating of your heart, the rate of your breathing, the cadence being tapped out by the guns; all these things work together.
This couldn't be more true. When I'm in rhythm my entire life seems to flow, nice and easy. When I break that rhythm, with sleeping changes, diet changes, cycling changes, I'm into the dustbin.
In my very green days as a road cyclist, even before I was a nascent Velominati, I used to fear that frequent shifting would diminish the lifespan of my drivetrain. I used to big ring it all the time, standing up when I needed more power, rarely shifting. I've learned since then, thankfully. But what my early naivete left me with was the ability to climb pretty well in big gears. Not bad.
Cool piece. TGIFriday the 13th, lads!
Climbing 101 from Dr. frank. Its good to know pedaling squares also looks Pro.
"Don't be afraid to overshoot your limit and crack; you might just make it before blowing up."
Frank, I like a WHOLE lot of things in this article but I'll start here, at the end, since I'm that kind of person.
This is EXACTLY what eventually became my overall philosophy (it's always about MEMEME, you know...), with some tempering. And I would encourage anybody to try it and see how it works, especially if you are feeling stuck in a rut at some point in training/racing; and particularly as a neo-competitor.
If anybody doesn't know, in the USA in sanctioned (USCF) racing, even at large races they almost always throw ALL categories (cats) of women together... still (I've been on a hiatus from competition - which I'm hoping will end. The hiatus. - but I've been asking around to double check if this is still the case; sadly - because it's done due to the low number of women usually present - it is; anybody correct me if they know otherwise). Including Pros. So you can be a cat 4 in with a field of Pro-1-2-3's depending on who's there; and no, you aren't racing only against your cats, you are all racing against everybody for one prize list.
Needless to say, this can be a little demoralizing for the less hardened, less experienced racer. It got me down, after I started hitting bigger races (early races, small ponds, I just ate everybody up heeheehee). Plus I'm genetically a sprinter, so no matter what, the story would be "please please please let me hang on until the end!!"
Can't remember when or why, but at some moment, epiphany: This sucks. I'm trying to save myself for the end -- and if you aren't moving up, you are moving back -- and it ain't working. I get worked over anyway, and don't have any fun. Not to mention it's friggin dangerous back there. SCREW IT! From now on I'm going to start every race like I'm a favorite, be aggressive, ACT like I'm a bad ass, and if I blow up half way (or less!) through at least I'll have seen a different part of the pack.
It worked. I blew up a WHOLE lot (but ALWAYS FINISH. Unless they physically come and drag you out... no, no, leave if the officials tell you to, I jest). But I a) had a lot more fun even while I was blowing up and b) got a lot stronger, and learned waaaaaaaaaaaay more than I learned just sitting on the back, hoping I could make it to the final sprint. And magically, being a bad ass stopped being something I pretended, and became something I believed. And, possibly, even was. Am.
Thanks, Frank!
It is worth noting that Casual Deliberance only comes after years of hard, isolated practice.
Falling over while zipping up or removing jacket... not casual. Not PRO.
Nice selection on the photo, by the way. Wasn't it Il Pirata who when asked why he liked climbing so much who replied that in fact he hated it and went so fast out of a desire to be over the top faster?
Point 2, about powering over the hills is one of those little things that I'm so glad I've learned.
It looks and feels great when you can just stand on the pedals, still in the big ring as you hit a short incline and go powering up it, leaving all the downshifters trailing.
Merckx forgive me but I ride with a lot of triathletes and they inevitably ride in far too high a gear on the flat, then when they see a hill - even just an overpass (we don't have a lot of actual hills in Abu Dhabi) - they have shifted down before they even reach it, when 30 strokes would take them most of the way up.