Please advise – How to attack a hill?

Hi All,

I ride one particular bike on the road more than others. XC P5. Anyway, I’d like to know if I’m attacking the road hills right for best speed…

I ride clipped in, when approaching a hill, I drop to 100mm on the fork, Stand, hit the 11tooth out back & pull/push in circles.

Is that right? I’m wondering about cadence, balance & things like that.

I would really appreciate any help, especially of the roadies out there! 😉

Why not just ride up it, rather than ATTACKING it? I mean, what’s that hill ever done to you?

lol @ crickey + 1 :wink:………. yep-just ride it

Short & sharp – big gear, out of the saddle and stomp on the pedals.

Long & grindy – sit down, low gear and keep your heartrate out of the warmer zones. If you can just about maintain a conversation you’re doing it right.

Depends on the hill, long drag sit and spin a gear that’s hard enough to have you nearly lifting your bum off the saddle, short an sharp shift up one or two gears and get out of the saddle.

Edit:- Too slow, must type faster.

In strict roadie terms, you don’t attack hills, you attack other riders on the hill, and remember to ride over hills, not up them.
In other words don’t do the mountain biker thing of stopping at the top, carry on riding to dole out the pain.

Historically/strategically speaking Hills are easier to defend than attack.

That was a serious question!

Big John wins… thanks mate. 😀

I would have thought that there may be a quite a few people speak up on this?

My hills are usually huge gradient, about 28 degrees for one, no more than 100 meters in length i presume, I just attack & seems I’m doing it right? I don’t stop when I get to the top either, I use the next flat or down to recover.

Is that right? I’m wondering about cadence, balance & things like that.

Are you falling off a lot?

What’s your objective? Are we talking about racing here? Or trying to beat your mates up?
Get yourself a singlespeed 32:16.

Make sure you keep shouting “come on robsoctane, attack atack!” whilst your riding up it.

Generally speaking I normally have a cup of tea at the bottom, get into granny gear, ride up at a barely perceptible rate, breathe out of my arse for 10 minutes at the top, ask myself why I own a mountain bike then ride down something fun to make it all worthwhile. I feel that it’s often the hill that’s attacking me.

Go fast enough not to fall over sideways. This is the bit i need to work on 🙁

I’m was a pretty poor hill climber,much better now after a great piece of advice from a mate ‘ride as slow as you can without falling off’ my wrists are ‘back’ like I’m revving a motorbike on full throttle and I slide my posteria along to the end of the saddle.Now I’m not too bad at all.

Dog, I don’t fall of much, that’s you, that is… 😉

Don, simply speed mate for personal goals, nothing more.

Dave, I’ll try that, usually listening to aggressive music, would that also work ❓

Serious cycling question & near all of you flame?

Dave, I’ll try that, usually listening to aggressive music, would that also work

Yes! You’ve got it in a oner, something like the new world disorder 5 soundtrack. Ideal.

try riding as fast as you can up a hill. generally it’s the accepted method for riding up hills fast.

Serious cycling question & near all of you flame?

I was just curious about the balance thing. 😕

Don, simply speed mate for personal goals, nothing more.

It’s pretty much as iDave says, for me I generally ride up at about 80% max heart rate for the whole climb trying to control my breathing and then just play with the gears and keep a nice candence. Not all hills are the same though.
My climbing also improved after a winter singlespeeding. 😀
Get out and ride and don’t think about it too much.

Stand, hit the 11tooth out back & pull/push in circles.

really?. Must be a shallow hill to go up it in your 11 tooth, or your running a 22 front.
If its a long steady climb, then dont go too fast into it. Ride normal speed into it, then as it gets tougher wiat for your heart to settle at a good pace, then slowly up the speed. Keep as smooth as possible at all times. Gearing wise, you should be spinning at a slightly high cadence, enough to not be feeling too much pressure in your thighs or if you need to stand up you can up the pace by 1-2 mph without changing gear.

look at Andy Schleck or Contador climbing for ideas, only use the Cadel method if your seriously strong, chasing another rider near the end of a race or have taken plenty of drugs 🙂

Pedal ‘through the top of the hill’. i.e. keep the power on well over the crest. Only coast when you’re heading well downhill.

Sorry everyone, should have said my set up is 34 tooth single ring up front. Does that make more sense as to why I’m asking?

Devoeron, always do that – thanks though as it’s sound advice you didn’t know I had.

Idave, thought that you’d have more to say than that? :wink

Dog, balance – I was kind of wondering about Honking? Side to side movement, right? Any advice?

I was going to say sur la plaque, but with a single ring that’s a bit tricky.

Look Pro, Part II: Casually Deliberate

YOU GO DEEP. YOU GO MAX. YOU GO FULL GAS. YOU GO OVER YOUR LIMIT. BUT TO REACH SOMETHING HIGH YOU HAVE TO BE READY FOR THIS PAIN… I LOVE IT.

Also,

you ride a 34:11 up a 28% climb?

Not 28%, it’s a 28 degree climb, so a 12.6% climb.

Edited for accurate calculations…

That’s not a hugely steep hill, but if you’re pushing that sort of gear on a climb like that then you’re either extremely strong, or not really going anywhere, and you’re not doing it right…

Don’t be bound by the numbers of gear selection, choose a gear that you can comfortably turn the whole way up, avoid changing gear halfway. Avoid starting too hard then blowing halfway up.

If you want to get quicker, don’t rest at the top, sprint over the top and carry on.

3 Options

Ride
Carry
Push

Hill Climbing

and remember to ride over hills, not up them.

Yeah, that seems to make a big difference to both speed down the other side, and overall average speed for me.

Also, I’m guessing from looking at it that you don’t mean the 11 tooth cog, as that’s the highest gear, you’re meaning 32 or 34, ie. the lowest gear you have?

Oh and 28 degrees? That’s 48% grade, steeper than the steepest road in the UK. You probably mean 28%, which even so is pretty high, there can’t be many roads that steep unless you live in the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands or somewhere?

I’m slow up hills but……

+1 for riding over hills not up them. I knocked 3mph onto my average speed on a local ride just by going slower up the hills then ‘attacking’ the flat bits, I’m heavier than most* so ‘attacking’ the hills was counterproductive and actualy slowed me down.

*roadies, MTB’ers tend to be chunkier :-p

as slow as you can without falling off’ my wrists are ‘back’

+1 for this too, although the ‘wrists back’ I just ride with my tumbs on the bars not under them, has the same effect of pushing the bars down rather than lifting them with each pedal stroke which causes the front end to wander about.

Riding really slowly forces you to concentrate on the technical bits you’d normaly rely on momentum to get you over. So once you’ve got the technique right for getting up a step of x height at a slow speed, getting up a step of y height (where y is biggerthan x) is simply a case of more speed/momentum, and if you can get up that at a slow speed then try an even bigger step. There’s a vid of McAsckil (sp?) riding his 5 up some rocky steps most people would bottle coming down, he just rides up them the same way I’d ride up a small step, only he’s better than me and mixes it with more speed to get up the bigger ones.

Okay guys, I mean 34 tooth up front & 11 on the back. I pedal clipped in & pull up on the bars moving side to side slightly. One particular hill i go up is a 28 degree climb (to the best of my knowlege) & as said above equates to 12.6%.

I reckon I’ve got some good advice on here now & hope there’s no more confussion.

Agressive music, Morbid Angel, Nile, Mastadon etc. 😉

Okay guys, I mean 34 tooth up front & 11 on the back. I pedal clipped in & pull up on the bars moving side to side slightly. One particular hill i go up is a 28 degree climb (to the best of my knowlege) & as said above equates to 12.6%.

How do you know it’s 28 degrees? That’s very random, hills are virtually always expressed as a gradient (1:4 etc) or a percentage.

We know what gear you’re talking about, but that’s a ridiculous gear for climbing in, do you put your car straight into 5th at the sight of a big hill? That’s what you’re doing on the bike.

If you’re comfortably getting to the top in that gear, then you need to start racing and chasing pro contracts. If (as I suspect) you’re turning a stupidly low cadence and wobbling your way up then you need to learn how to use your gears. As I said above: choose a gear you can comfortably turn the whole way up. Some people do get on with being out of the saddle in a higher gear, but even so, anything below about 60rpm is going to be very inefficient.

One particular hill i go up is a 28 degree climb (to the best of my knowlege) & as said above equates to 12.6%.

No it doesn’t. Or maybe I’m being stupid and can’t do my conversions right (I’ve tried to find a calculator see below, and it also comes up with a big number).

http://www.cactus2000.de/uk/unit/massgrd.shtml

Okay guys, I mean 34 tooth up front & 11 on the back.

Really, if so, there is your problem, you’re climbing hills with the highest gear that your bike has. That is crazy mad, especially if you are regularly climbing hills which are steeper than the steepest road in the world (which is 19 degrees). Try using the lowest gear rather than the highest.

No it doesn’t. Or maybe I’m being stupid and can’t do my conversions right (I’ve tried to find a calculator see below, and it also comes up with a big number).

I’m fairly sure it does…

100% = 45 degrees = 1:1. Ergo, 28 degrees = 12.6% = 1:7.9, I started over complicating it with trigonometry and what not, but I don’t think you need to!

100% = 45 degrees = 1:1. Ergo, 28 degrees = 12.6% = 1:7.9, I started over complicating it with trigonometry and what not, but I don’t think you need to!

Surely you do need to complicate it with trigonometry, on account of the relationship between angles and percentage gradients being non-linear.

It’s a right angle triangle – 28 degrees is the angle from the horizontal, tan(28) is the ratio between the two non-hypotenuse sides (opposite and adjacent). Which is .53, or 1:1.8, or unrideably steep.

Looking at wikipedia, that agrees with me, as does that calculator I linked. I think both of them know more about it than me.

Isnt 28 degrees roughly 1:1.88? you go up 1m in every 1.88m you go along? Which would put its % gradient at 53.2%?

Edit: too slow, out done by joemarshall

iDave +1

Your legs should be burning, your lungs hurting, if you’re not feeling sick and lightheaded you know you’ve let yourself down.

Yep, ok, you’re right, was over simplifying. So it’s over 50%, and there’s not a cat in hell’s chance you’re riding that in 34/11.

Doing a 12-13% hill that’s only 100m long or so (I think that’s what he said somewhere) in 34-11 sounds pretty reasonable, maybe even a bit low.

Am interested in where the OP got the number 28 from.

Whatever the gradient, you are riding up a hill in your highest gear. If you are extremely strong, then you appear to be totally under geared.

If it’s a short climb, then a good approach is to keep up your speed and push yourself to just get over it. However, if you are in your highest gear then I would guess you are doing it too much. I’m only guessing, but I imagine that this approach wouldn’t work well off road as you’ll be mashing your gears,not getting a smooth power delivery and losing traction. Also, constantly doing this over hill after hill will take it out of you and make your legs feel dead.

If you do infact feel comfortable clmibing in this gear, then perhaps you need to gear up slightly?

Thanks guys,

Iv’e done Hardonknot pass at 32 degrees (isn’t it)? The hill I’m now struggling to describe is almost as bad, honestly. It does not say anywhere that it’s 28 degrees but that’s my estimation.

Am I getting everyone arguing by accident because it should be measured in %?

Whatever, please imagine a VERY hard hill in front of you. Yes I’m pretty strong but not at athlete stage.

Thanks for the advice so far, I’ve ridden it tonight & I’m hot & sweaty so going in the shower… 😉

Think that I’m going to take a photo of this so you all believe me!

Rob