Cycle Climbing Techniques

Climbing in the seat, good for long steady climbs

With the hill climb season round the corner, I am switching my training to lots of interval sessions up hills. The idea of racing up hills is not everyone’s cup of tea, but, whatever form of cycling you take up (save moving to Holland) you will probably have hills to climb. I have already mentioned some hill climb tips here. But, one of these issues is the choice between Standing up on the pedals and climbing whilst seated in the saddle

Benefits of Climbing Whilst Seated.

• More aerodynamic. You expose less of your  body to the wind. Even at speeds of 10-15 mph, aerodynamic drag is still a signficant factor in reducing speed.
• More power. Pedalling whilst seated is more efficient way of cycling, you will go faster for the same effort compared to climbing on the drops.
• You conserve energy because the weight is supported by the saddle rather than your legs.
• You don’t use energy in your upper body.

Benefits of Climbing Standing Up.

• You bring other muscles into play (in the upper body) allowing greater power and effort to be made.
• Taking a different position enables you to ease pressure on some muscles.
• You can use greater power and a higher heart rate because of the different muscles.

Generally, I try to climb whilst seated where I can. An important thing is to use the full range of gears. I often see people walking up hills, but, looking at their gear choice, they are a long way from being in the lowest gear! Cycling up a hill is easy than walking!

When the climb gets to a certain gradient, the benefits of climbing whilst standing become relatively bigger, when your speed falls to 6mph, the aerodrag is limited and it  becomes a question of how much power you can muster to drag yourself up the 20% climb.

In a hill climb race, I am often switching between the two methods, depending on the gradient. Towards the end I will be inevitably on the drops unless  the finish is very shallow.