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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!)