What makes a good bike climber

You can adjust your position on the saddle and by doing so, you can emphasize some muscles you use while relieving others. By moving to the rear, you can accentuate the strong gluteus muscles in your butt and push the pedals forward as well as down.

Now you can engage the quadriceps muscles in your thighs, and you can increase your cadence, and your gluteus can recover. Sliding back and forth like this fights fatigue and makes the most of your energy. It also changes pressure points to improve your saddle comfort. Cadence One of the most effective ways to get the most out of your cycle training for endurance events is to keep your cadence high.

This is the first thing we get all our clients to do when they start on our coaching programs. Now, the physiological reason for a high cadence is very simple. As you increase your cadence, you rely more on your cardiovascular fitness and your endurance muscle fibres that are designed to work all day to drive the bike. As you lower your cadence below 80 rpm, you rely more on your muscular strength using your strength muscle fibres.

While these strength fibres deliver more short-term power than your endurance muscle fibres, they also fatigue more quickly. Slow it Down to build strength Ground yourself on the seat, stable hips, locked core, strong full-stroke pedalling action focusing on the top and bottom of the stroke. Start out with your cadence at Then, over time, drop it to 70, and then 60, then 50, then 40 rpm over time.

Start out doing around six repeats on it at 80 rpm, once every week for two weeks. Then drop your cadence to 70 rpm for another two weeks … I think you get the pattern. It is also important to balance this big chain ring cycling power training with high cadence recovery bike rides. Too much big chain ring work is like doing too much weight training at the gym. Big chain ring work can also be done on the home trainer. Anything that has intervals with cadences of 70 rpm or lower is great.

We have a heap of these video sessions that I pass out as part of the training programs so my clients get the best from their trainer and improve their technique and climbing speed. Well, I hope that provides a few pointers to help you climb better. If you have any questions, you can contact me at support cycling-inform. All the best with your hill climbing.

You must be logged in to post a comment. To use social login you have to agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. Privacy Policy. Cancel Accept. Username or Email Address. Random Article Log In Register. Switch skin. Search Search for: Search. Unfortunately, this is a tough one to quantify and learn without trial and error.

My best advice is, when you believe you are close to achieving your ideal weight be careful losing those last one or two pounds. It can make the difference between healthy and strong, or sick and weak. Non-climbers or climbers who are good, but not great, do not excel on the steeper pitches no matter how light or low in body fat they might be.

If we look at Figure 2, we see one of the best climbers, a professional rider from Japan. He not only can he out-climb all the other Japanese riders, but he also climbs with the best in Europe. Notice that his peak eight minutes is watts and when the climb is between 4 and 8 percent, his best is watts—or an percent loss of power. However, when the climb pitches even steeper, his best eight minutes is watts, for only a 7-percent loss in power. His peak eight minutes is watts, and when he climbs a 4- to 8-percent grade, he loses 16 percent to watts.

However, when the gradient goes to 8 percent or greater, he loses a whopping 39 percent of his power! Reminder: This is a pro racer and he loses a tremendous amount of his power or ability to climb when the road is really steep!

The next factor that determines success in climbing is your anaerobic ability—that is the ability to attack or accelerate hard for 30 seconds to two minutes and then recover quickly. Many riders are excellent at long, sustained and steady climbing efforts, but cannot respond to repeated accelerations or attacks.

If two riders are equal with their power-to-weight ratios, but one rider has a stronger anaerobic ability, he or she will be able to create a gap on the pure steady-state rider. Think about it this way: Both riders are riding at watts up a climb, have the same bodyweight, but Andy Anaerobic can do a one-minute effort at watts and then recover back to watts without blowing up, whereas Steve Steadystate can only exceed his FTP by 10 watts, to watts, for the same minute without blowing up.

Andy Anaerobic attacks and in the one minute he effectively puts a to second gap on Steve Steadystate and then maintains that gap all the way to the finish line. This is a key factor in determining a great climber from a good climber. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. Are Wider Tires Always Faster? Brian Barnhart.

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