I still am :/ I attributed this in 2016 to virtually zero MTBing in the winter as I pursued Trainerroad interval pretty much 100% of my time. The result – as soon as I approach wet roots I was under confident and therefor slow.

I’m rectifying that with more mid-plan actual riding this year.

This is a danger I guess. I ride offroad every weekend unless its pissing it down. only indoors doing the IIT midweek if i feel up to it. I rode behind someone I haven’t ridden within a while, down a trail I’d never gone down before and not realise I was being seriously stupid as strava shows I was up around 30mph , going down a hill, at barely 0 degrees (we’d started at -3). if he’d had to stop i’d have gone up the ass of the guy i was following. everytime i have a little off it steadies me for a while.

On the climbing front, the posts about geometry and twitch muscles make me wonder. I’m 41, an ex-skateboarder (of approx 3 years) so my leg twitch muscles were probably decent. (on the rugby front – I played at school and town level. i was hooker, scrum half sometimes flanker and tried playing as fly half but was no where near quick enough). The final climb on The Quantocks by bicknoller post (end of sheppards combe what a lot of people erroneously call lady’s edge) I did on my old late 90s marin hardtail, but haven’t done on the I had HT since then, or my current short travel full suss (locked out). It’s a goal for this year. first attempt Sunday unless i get waylay’d with another adventure..

i’ll also add – I did it before I rode much, i’ve ridden a year solid, plus another 6 months of intermitten, and even more infrequently before that.. How can I ride every week, and not ride up something I could do when I wasn’t riding much 3 years ago? (I wasn’t any more fit then either)

tap out a constant cadence and est. power via RPE and focus on that not people coming me tinged with angry disapointment.

Maybe for long events but for shorter ones I fundamentally disagree. The aim is to get in front whatever it takes before the next singletrack, recover and put distance on the next fire road.

You got up to them, make the pass, try and make it stick, repeat as required until your superior fitness skill wears them down or there’s you.

There are some advantages to strength training

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/training/off-the-bike/article/izn20160113-Ask-the-experts-How-to–Strength-exercises-for-cyclist—climbing-0

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/training-plans/intermediate-advanced/article/izn20160113-Intermediate—Advanced-4-week-Hill-Climbing-Training-Plan-0

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/training/article/izn20161128-Off-the-bike-Strength-training-for-winter-cycling-0

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/weight-lifting-intelligence-study-improve-iq-a7378066.html

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/11/27/strength-training-brain-health.aspx

Maybe for long events but for shorter ones I fundamentally disagree. The aim is to get in front whatever it takes before the next singletrack, recover and put distance on the next fire road.

We’re all different Adsh – for me doing that on a climb would put me in the red and I’d be all over the place on the next piece of singletrack.

When I say tapping it out I don’t mean in Z2, I mean basically not getting distracted by other riders and pushing on at a sustainable – lets say 110% FTP for example – pace over the distance of the climb. I’d be dropping some too. But not being a pure climber, putting myself in the red at my w/kg has a detremental effect to what I can then lay down on the flat afterwards.

We’ve both ridden at Beastway so picture the climbing up = distinctly average, the lower sections / sprint start = much better. My best result there was when the course had only the single climb up per lap, which just happend to be the same race I concussed myself on the first lap.

Thats about power of course – strategically I agree, get in fron then elbows out. But you have to be capabale and pick your overtaking moments.

But not being a pure climber, putting myself in the red at my w/kg has a detremental effect to what I can then lay down on the flat afterwards.

I’d say that being able to go into the red and recover is the mark of a sprinter, not a climber. Or what they call ‘puncheur’ I think on the road.

I can be in the red for a while then pick up again quickly. What this means, I dunno. I am still too fat.

I’d say that being able to go into the red and recover is the mark of a sprinter, not a climber. Or what they call ‘puncheur’ I think on the road.

Quite, the issue I’m describing to Adsh if I’m in the red on the overtake and then recovering because of my lesser climbing power, Sir now behind me who wasn’t in the red has ample opportunity to come back at me, because I’ve comprimised my other strength – the ability to be fast along the next flat bit. What Adsh is correctly saying is that if the flat bit is narrow singletrack who cares, becuase I’m in the way.

If its double track I’ve set myself up for a fall whilst burning a match. However, if I track the rider just under FTP, I’m able to turn a big gear on that double track and get past without burning that match. Thats my strength.

Its a genericism for sure, we have to pick our battles on the course on which we are riding against the adversary of choice, sometimes I may have no choice but to light that match to gain a place.

Yes.

Agree – has to be into singletrack.

I`m 6ft 4 the last time I dieted to about 13 1/2 stone friends said I looked like I had Aids I was so skinny

Interesting thread!

As a very strong climber on the mtb, my initial thoughts are:

1. Do you climb steep enough hills on the road? Offroad climbs are effectively steeper than road climbs because of rolling resistance etc. The amount of grunt required is therefore much greater.

2. Are you actually trying hard enough? People seem to think I’m a different species because I seem to climb so easily, but I’m not sure what natural advantages I might have. I’m not abnormally light, I have very little power (I have to stand to climb), and I don’t train properly (I’d rather give up cycling than do intervals etc). I think the difference is simply that I put in more effort than they do. In a race I will be close to collapse at the top of a climb (though obviously I won’t let it show). On normal rides I treat most hills as a KOM opportunity. I also spend a lot of time on a singlespeed.

Put me on the flat though and the roadies leave me for dead. Embarrassingly so.

I need to be in the same races as chrispo 8)

Haha, i’m a bit like chrispo too, and usually find most race-courses are too flat for me. I get completely destroyed at places like Checkendon by bigger folk who I can usually drop on a hilly course elsewhere.

Checkendon

I like Checkendon 🙂

I like places like Pippingford. Not much flat there 🙂

I love hilly courses. Just a shame both fforest fields races last year were in torrential rain last year so I lost all my climbing gaps messing up the descents and basically came last both races 😥

Think Dalby was my favourite course, not a climbers course by any means but the climbs are good fun

I’m guessing Wasing is pretty flat? just negotiated permission to do the national there later in the year 🙂

Wasing is flatish, but there are some short hills, so plenty of opportunities to make up places. Mostly it’s got some quite technical features – a small gap jump/drop and a mahoosive, monster, scare-you-witless drop.

Did I say it had a big drop? 😀

Sorry, didn’t mean to sound big-headed. Just trying to come at it from the angle of someone who actually can climb well and does so without training at elite/pro level. Of course there are still plenty of people faster than me; they must try even harder…

I like flat courses. My best results ever were at Ringwood and on the Bristol Bikefest course at Ashton Court. Fast and furious!

The final climb on The Quantocks by bicknoller post (end of sheppards combe what a lot of people erroneously call lady’s edge) I did on my old late 90s marin hardtail, but haven’t done on the I had HT since then, or my current short travel full suss (locked out). It’s a goal for this year. first attempt Sunday unless i get waylay’d with another adventure..

so, weekend before the one just gone i rode with someone who’d been out of riding for a while. on a rocky, slippery climb we always push up, (i’ve never seen anyone do) he stubbornly tried over and over placing his bike at the side and diagonally until he was all the way up.

so, i made it to the other climb i mentioned in the quote. and apart a slight pause a few feet up, pointed myself diagonally, and made it up easy. now just to do it proper-clean.

realisation is i’d really been avoiding this one, it doesn’t actually look like much now either. funny how your brain can make things loom large!

last year i only went up it 5 times, whereas i went the alternate route up (holford combe) 22 times

and another longer, harsher climb i’d found if i start elsewhere (and can make it up clean occasionally) 6 times..

lessons learned:
– don’t avoid the super hard climbs (unless really spinning out)

– if fail, start from the side, don’t give in and push up! (how are those climbing muscles going to develop if they don’t get used? you just get better at pushing up hills!)