How to Climb More Effectively While Cycling

Focus on training your system instead of endless hills for better performance

by Chris Bagg and Molly Balfe

No one ever forgets the first time they get dropped. For me it was the Fitchburg-Longsjo Stage Race, a mainstay of the East Coast cycling world that seemed to turn central Massachusetts into France for a few magical days in July (or, for cycling-besotted me it seemed that way). The final stage wound its way up Mount Wachusett (these are real names, I promise), a ski resort that, in the American West, wouldn’t register as much more than a place to take your five-year-old. But it DID boast a long paved access road to the summit, and one day in 2007 I was climbing it as hard as I could, watching the leaders of the race dance away from me towards the finish. How was this happening? I was a newly minted professional triathlete—how could I be getting dropped? I sulkily spun to the finish line, arriving minutes—days—behind the winners, who lay around the foggy summit like extras from The Sound of Music who had also been hit with a chemical attack. I swore that day that I’d do everything possible to never let that happen again.

You Don’t Need to Climb to Be Good at Climbing

Say what? Yeah yeah yeah, the law of specificity and all that. Yes, you should include some climbing in your training, much in the same way that you should include all types of terrain in all of your training: rolling hills, flats, false flats, descents. But rather than thinking your workout needs to mirror your goal event (workouts aren’t rehearsals, remember), focus on the physiological needs of climbing and train those. Those physiological needs are:

An ability to sit at or just below threshold power/heart rate/effort for as long as possible
An ability to ride at those powers at a wide range of cadences, in a array of positions on the bike (standing, seated)
An understanding of pacing, since most athletes ride too hard at the base of a climb and then blow up

Threshold power

Few subjects incur as much hand-wringing and Internet-trolling than FTP, OBLA, MLSS, LT2, etcetera and etcetera, forever. We’ve really liked Kolie Moore’s definition of of FTP which is as simple as “A power above which you tire out quickly, and below which you tire out slowly.” No, it’s not sexy, and you can’t graph it, but it’s accurate and it works. Climbing well is about understanding what that number is and then being able to hold it for as long as possible, usually at a slightly lower cadence than normal, but not much lower. You could do far worse than to do standard FTP-style intervals (3x10, 3x12, 2x20, 3x15, 5x10, etc…) at 75-90 RPM as a way to increase your ability to climb. What’s that? You’re doing a race that won’t require riding at threshold, like an Ironman or a 70.3? Great question. You’re probably also doing tempo or sweet spot intervals. Training those energy systems will also make you a better climber. Sensing a theme? Yeah, climbing isn’t about climbing, it’s about improving your ability as a cyclist as much as you can, and you’ll go uphill better. Do some of your intervals on climbs, but even if you lived in Kansas (actually not as flat as represented) you could train to be a good climber without a hill in sight: train your endurance, tempo, sweet spot, threshold, and VO2max systems effectively and you’ll climb better.

Cadence

Only slightly less divisive than FTP, cadence is also a hot button issue. Here’s a quick primer for cadence while climbing: while seated, cadence will be slightly lower than your normal cadences on the flat (maybe 5 RPM); while standing, cadence will be slightly lower again (maybe 5-10 RPM lower again, or 10-15 RPM lower than normal). In order to get some specific work, perform the training outlined above at a range of cadences: higher than normal, normal, 5 RPM below normal, and 10-15 RPM below normal. Again, you don’t need a hill to do so! Simply adjust your cadence on a flat road or on your trainer, and train your body to deal with as wide array of cadences as possible.

Pacing

You can always spot the newer triathletes in the pool: they always start off too hard and blow up early, or they’re the dude (and it’s almost always a dude!) who will wait for you and then try to race you for a 25 or 50 and then throw up in the gutter. Don’t be a Broheim. You’ll also see this behavior early on hills during a group ride. When the road tips up, you hear grunting and clicking, and the group remains suspiciously large. Two or three minutes later and things have gotten…sparse. A lot of people would have gotten dropped anyway, but a few of those Broheims, had they paced themselves better, would have been able to stay with the group. When you begin a climb, do not immediately attack it! Try to carry the same level of effort by keeping your heart rate relatively stable as you begin to climb. Don’t worry, the effort will come up on its own, but if you go too hard at the start you’re almost certainly going to blow up later, and that’s BAD for good climbing.

The physiological angle

So what’s happening inside while you’re climbing? Ideally you are smoothly pedaling, putting out a consistent level of wattage/effort that doesn’t surge or drop too much. Good climbing is all about finding one particular intensity and hanging your hat there. When you watch cycling on television, you’ll notice that the good climbers look machine-like—they just keep pedaling at the same cadence, even as the hill changes pitch. Since they’re professionals, they make it look easy, even though they’re very likely in the 6-7 w/kg range. So practice generating a smooth wattage WITHOUT using ergometer mode on your trainer, regardless of that effort being endurance, tempo, sweet spot, or threshold. You don’t want your effort to be too much or too little, so this is the skill you should practice. Sure, doing that practice on a hill will force you to deal with the terrain, but see if you can do it on the flat, too—it’s always a good idea to remove the crutch (in this case, the hill) to see if you can be smooth without a climb dictating your behavior.

The Skills

OK, so how do you actually move your body on a bike while on a climb? It’s not too different from riding normally, but it’s never a bad idea to simply go through the slight differences so you can practice your new skills.

Seated climbing

Seated climbing is preferable to standing climbing, although standing gets all the attention. Sitting allows you to ride at a higher cadence (using more your cardiovascular system rather than more of your muscular system), generates a smoother pedalstroke, and usually keeps you more relaxed. When climbing in a seated position, scoot your butt back very slighlty, keep your shoulders relaxed, and keep your elbows bent. Allow your eyes to rise towards the top of the hill, where you are going. Try to keep your cadence only about 5 RPM below normal, so don’t be afraid of shifting to an easier gear to achieve that cadence. Drape your hands over the hoods of your bars and dream of the Alps.

Standing climbing

Standing climbing is punk to seated climbing’s Mozart. Standing is a little thuggish but probably necessary (and this is coming from an inveterate standing climbing). Some great studies have been done about cyclist’s instincts, and it turns out that when your brain tells you to stand, it’s time for you to stand. Standing will allow you to generate a little more power, although it comes at the expense of cadence, and your pedalstroke will be a little rougher. For triathletes, we’d urge avoiding standing climbing, since maintaining an even power output is important to save your running legs. But still, you’ll need to know how to do it. So, here’s what you do when you stand to climb:

Just as you are about to stand, shift up 1-2 gears (this means shift to a harder gear)
Stand up, using the new resistance from the higher gear as the “platform” you are pressing down
Shift your hips so that the nose of you saddle is just between your thighs, your hips still hovering just over the saddle (not in front of it)
Keep your torso upright, avoiding as much rounding of the spine as possible
Keep your eyes focused uphill
Rather than pulling your bars towards you (the “spin class hangover”), think about pressing each hood away from you in turn. Pulling tends to make a cyclist round their spine and waste energy.
Try to keep cadence about 10-15 RPM below normal

don’t forget your strength training

A lot of athletes new to cycling struggle with climbing for several reasons. The first is that they usually haven’t accrued hundreds or even thousands of hours of cycling that will just make them a better cyclist. Yes, where cycling is concerned, more is usually more. If you ride more in a variety of terrains, you will become a better climber as you become a better all around cyclist. But you can also improve things by focusing on your strength training in general, and your anterior chain in particular. The anterior chain comprises the muscles on the front of your legs, and we’re really talking about the quadriceps, here. Make sure you are doing your squats and lunges and leg presses, and you’ll be able to push on the pedals a little harder. If you take that strength and marry it to solid cycling training principles (lots of volume, a good amount of sweet spot and threshold work, and a little high intensity work), you’ll find yourself generating more watts as you ride, and you’ll really feel that strength during the slightly lower cadences of climbing.

conclusion

As I trained more and more, dreaming of being a better climber, I did get better at going uphill, although it was difficult for my 81kg frame to hang with the spindly 60kg climbers. Still, many of my competitors seemed surprised that I hung around as long as I did on climbs, primarily because I was a triathlete and spent a lot of time training my threshold power. I could peg an effort just below FTP and hold it most of the way up a long climb, outlasting climbers who might have been lighter than me. And since you, reading this, are likely a triathlete, you can do the same. Who knows, someday soon it might be you doing the dropping, rather than the other way around.