Anatomy of the Ascent

[ornoth_cycling]

Introduction

It’s interesting to read what people write about cycling. For the most part, since there are so few variables, there’s only so much to say about cycling technique, and nearly all of it has been written already. There’s a great deal of conventional wisdom out there, and most of it is rock solid and timeless. But maybe I can add a little to that body of knowledge in this post.

If your club rides are anything like mine, the group starts out together and zips along for several miles in something resembling a nice trim paceline. Then the peloton explodes on the first good hill, shedding riders like a malamute in the Yucatan sheds fur.

Real time differences aren’t made on the flats. In most rides, hills are where gaps happen, where you’re most likely to get spit out the back and dropped.

And that’s exactly what’s going to happen if you just think of hills as hills. In order to be your best as a cyclist, you need to understand the terrain, and I don’t mean simply having a course profile taped to your bar. You need to look deeply into the nature of hills and understand how the undulations of the Earth impact us as cyclists. If you don’t have the insight to see the different parts of a hill and the strategies they require, then you’re not well prepared for the challenge they present.

This isn’t about short hills you can just power over. If you can fly over a small hill without pain, by all means do it! I’m talking about hills that present a sizable challenge, that make your legs burn and your lungs gasp and your strength of will shatter.

To begin, let’s break a hill down into its constituent parts. They are, in order: the approach (A), the region of increasing grade (B), the area with the sustained maximum grade (which I’ll separate into two separate sections: C and D), the area of decreasing grade (E), and finally the crest of the hill (F). Sounds obvious, right? But you’d be surprised how few cyclists have even thought it through that far.

After the illustration, I’ll share my preferred climbing strategies for each section of the hill. They’re not the only strategies, and they might not be the right ones for you. But I hope you’ll discover the advantage that comes from making conscious choices about how you approach hills and finding out what works best for you.

A: The Approach

Even before the road turns upward, what you do in the few hundred meters before a hill makes an immense difference in how quickly you get over the top. Your goal here is maximize your momentum, so that it will help carry you partway up.

Rather than keeping your steady cruising speed and just riding into the hill, as most people do, consider upshifting and accelerating a little in order to build up extra momentum. You don’t want to redline, but a good 80 percent effort now will serve you well on the upside.

Some riders, looking to put the hurt on, will choose to attack on the approach to a hill, and the best scenario for us would be to latch on behind such an attacker, as this is the only part of the hill where you’ll be going fast enough for drafting to produce any benefit.

B: Increasing Grade

As you begin an ascent, there’s a short period of time when the grade is shallow and your momentum will carry you forward. This is the proverbial calm before the storm. Use this time to recover from your exertion during the approach, soft pedaling at about 70 percent effort in order to nurse the precious momentum you’ve got left.

Since you’re not putting a lot of torque on the chain yet, now is the best time to downshift from the big chainring, and find a suitable sprocket on the rear.

C: Sustained Grade, Part 1

It won’t take long for the hill to reach its maximum grade. With your momentum gone, now it’s just you and the hill. Since it’s too big to simply sprint over, now is the time to be patient and conserve energy. Find a gear that requires an amount of torque that you can sustain for the duration with an 80 percent effort.

Resist all temptation to push harder, because you don’t want to blow up before the hill starts leveling out. Let other riders who are pushing harder pass you; you’ll probably see them again later, going backwards.

D: Sustained Grade, Part 2

Eventually, you will start watching for the point where you believe you can sprint the rest of the way. This can be difficult to judge correctly, because it varies based on the grade, your speed, what gear you’re in, your cadence, and your level of fatigue.

From here, you’ll get out of the saddle and drive at 100 percent effort. Having held some energy in reserve thus far, your goal now is to maximize the benefit of being the fastest when everyone else is at their slowest.

When picking your jump point, keep in mind that you don’t have to sprint to the actual summit of the hill. A lot of coaches will tell you to drive all the way through the crest, but you really only need to sprint hard until you’ve reached an area where the grade decreases enough for you to begin recovering. Remember that you have the most advantage over other riders by sprinting while the grade is still at its steepest, not when it’s easing up.

E: Decreasing Grade

Just before you reach the summit, the hill will start to flatten out and get easier once again. Your goal here is to keep your effort around 80 percent so that you retain the advantage you have gained. If you judged your sprint correctly, you’ll have just enough juice left to begin accelerating as the hill levels out. But don’t ease up yet…

F: Crest

As you crest the hill, your top priority should be to get back to your optimal cruising speed as quickly as possible, to lock down the advantage you gained on the ascent. Every second you delay in getting up to speed gives back the hard-won time you gained on the incline. This is doubly important if a descent follows, since cresting the hill first allows you to stretch your advantage because you start using the gravitational benefit of the descent earlier.

Only when you’re back up to speed and in your aero tuck can you soft pedal a bit, take a drink, and start managing your recovery.

Conclusion

Riders use many diverse strategies to overcome hills. The approach I’ve described isn’t the only one, and it may not be the best one for you. However, the parts of a hill never change, and you should think about how you approach each of them and experiment to discover what works best for you. If you consciously choose how much energy you’re putting out at each stage, and know why, I guarantee you’ll go faster.

Of course, I’ve talked exclusively about strategies, but technique doesn’t trump training. If you want to be fast on hills, you need to make hills a central part of your training regimen. Training is the base, which strategies like these can only incrementally improve.