Climbing hills

[velosam]

I need to keep trying.

On the plus side, my 5 year old son, is better at hills than I am.  He rattles up them figuring out not to stop, as its ridiculous (his words) and not standing up till the end.  He is also really determined, even though I gave him the option of stopping and walking up, he kept going.  At the top he does say 'my legs hurt, my back hurts, everything hurts'  but I am amazed he just carries on.

Anyway proud moment off for now.

[Kim]

Sounds like you need to get him on the back of a tandem.    

[mattc]

I'm certain I wouldn't re-gear my bike for a 30% climb. 
I'd walk if necessary because there really aren't that many 30% climbs about and MTB gearing would most likely mess up the rest of my ride.

Riding in an extremely low gear is kinder on the ankles and Achilles than walking a bicycle up a 1:3 gradient.

Depends on how fast you do each activity.

Lee's right - its daft to regear just for one climb per day (or more likely a month. or a year ... )

[menthel]

Velosam, once I am back on a bike (couple of weeks hopefully!) I would be happy to go round Richmond Park with you and we can see how climbing hills goes! I will be well out of practice as I will have been off the bike for 3 months. Sawyers is not the hardest hill in the park but it is the longest. Start slowly and speed up in the second half!

[jamesld8]

When it comes to spotting the true summit of a climb, nothing in my experience, beats having the profile in advance on a GPS device.  Very handy for telling you not to put all effort into a false summit.


Of course, I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's a double edged sword.  Some climbing profiles on them look like a an infinite wall of death which can be extremely demoralising.  I suspect climbs like that don't really exist in the southeast though I could be wrong.

I`m not sure how it happens / is set up but on some .gpx Garmin routes the summit (and low points) have a small icon against them on the map track---so you can think oh fxxx so far to go or yippee nearly there. OR look before at spot height maxm for a climb and pace yourself accordingly; latter can be immensely useful or incredibly demotivating depending on how you feel at time 

However if you ever venture into the dark slopes of Alps / Pyrenees etc knowing summit height can be useful, and for me its how I deal with thoughts of its a 15km uphill by breaking it down into feasible segments based  on summit height ----just another hours climbing to go   

[LEE]

However, by process of accumulation it is possible to generate some very hilly rides in the South East - there is a circuit of Ashmansworth - East Woodhay - Combe Gibbet & Faccombe on the Hampshire - Berkshire border which has 500m ascent in 21km, which is similar to some of the hard sections of the Cambrian Series perms.  After a few circuits of this, a speed bump can feel like a mountain.

The Faccombe Haul 100 used a double loop of those climbs and it came in at around 2% average gradient. 
That's a significant average gradient that would make for a very tough 200, a real struggle of a 400, and a 600 that would be beyond me most likely.

I find it much easier to gain altitude on rides like BCM600 where you go very high but climbing for 30-60 minutes at a relatively steady pace followed by lovely sweeping descents where you can make up lost time.

Hampshire/Berkshire/Dorset Downs consists of many 5-10 minute climbs followed by short, steep,hairy descents.  It all gets very wearing.

[jamesld8]

IMHO a 2% average gradient is very tough; effectively on basis of what goes up comes down this means that all climbs are average 4%. And a 100km loop will have 2000m ascent.

 few years ago I thought the 74km / 2 400m climb day on Raid Dolomites was a `rest day`----oh how wrong  I was , the 3% average included the 14 km / 1000m ascent Giau followed by 4 km @ 12 % Tre Cime Lavaerdo one of my hardest days out...so message is beware the average !!! Because of course what went up came down halving the average uphill gradient so this `rest day` turned out to be about 30 km uphills average 8% not 3 

[Ningishzidda]

"Clovelly's High Street drops 400 metres in elevation over the course of it's 800 metre length - which is a 50% gradient!"

I felt I had to check this out.  The really steep bit is from just before the hairpin to Temple Bar Cottage, which is about 170m, over the course of which the elevation drops from 100m to 40m (so still a fairly lethal average gradient of 35%).  Even Higher Clovelly is only 200m above sea level.

If a cyclist’s ‘all day’ riding capability is 125 Watts average, 125 Newtons per meter per second can be back-calculated to give a gear development for gradients.

Newton.metres per second, surely?

Sorry. Hairy arse engineer talk. Should be Newtonmeters per second or Joules per second.

The quote about Clovelly was straight out of a Tourist brochure I found online. I'v never ridden up it.

[Peter]

Unless you are Sky, don't analyze (analise?) just ride, it usually gets easier.

[Ningishzidda]

PPPPPP

 

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

The highest average gradient for a ride of 100km or more that I've done was exploring the environs of Le Bourg d'Oisans with Zigzag last summer.  Route was le Bourg d'Oisans - Alpe d'Huez, Col de Sarenne, Les Deux Alpes, D211A to Gard d'Huez, Le Bourg d'Oisans, Villard Notre Dame, Col du Saulude, 3600m ascent in 108km for an average gradient up or down of 6.7%.  It was a fun-packed day  especially as it was supposed to be a short ride fitted in on the drive between Albertville and Briancon. 

[jamesld8]

The highest average gradient for a ride of 100km or more that I've done was exploring the environs of Le Bourg d'Oisans with Zigzag last summer.  Route was le Bourg d'Oisans - Alpe d'Huez, Col de Sarenne, Les Deux Alpes, D211A to Gard d'Huez, Le Bourg d'Oisans, Villard Notre Dame, Col du Saulude, 3600m ascent in 108km for an average gradient up or down of 6.7%.  It was a fun-packed day  especially as it was supposed to be a short ride fitted in on the drive between Albertville and Briancon. 

must make Cambrian series rides seem like a doddle then Colin 

[mattc]

The highest average gradient for a ride of 100km or more that I've done was exploring the environs of Le Bourg d'Oisans with Zigzag last summer.  Route was le Bourg d'Oisans - Alpe d'Huez, Col de Sarenne, Les Deux Alpes, D211A to Gard d'Huez, Le Bourg d'Oisans, Villard Notre Dame, Col du Saulude, 3600m ascent in 108km for an average gradient up or down of 6.7%.  It was a fun-packed day 

Why havent you told us about this ride before?!?

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I have.  Its lurking in Rides and Touring from 2014

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=78064.0

Actually the highest average gradient on any ride was Peurto de Santiago (Tenerife) to Masca (Tenerife and return) which features sea level to 1083m descent to 612m and return all in 40km, at just under 8% average up and down.  The Masca route is famous because the local mayor had it cut into mountainside to turn his village into a tourist attraction.  Its best to do early in the morning before the tourist buses (all mini-coaches) get going.  I had people stopping to take photos of me trying to get up the hairpins on my Airnimal.  The best bit was overtaking cars on the way back to Peurto de Santiago.

[velosam]

I went back to richmond park and did a lap to see if I could still climb.

Did it barely, but what was interesting is that once my cadence hit around 70, I stood up for the rest of the hill.

So I cant seem to pedal and balance at a low cadence - well I think that is what a problem maybe and trying to spin too much means I blow up.

I am doing something wrong I just cant figure it out. On a rolling road I seem to be OK, although I want to try the hill at Northwood and try and understand how I cope with that as well.

[phantasmagoriana]

I can't do hills *at all* at the moment. No idea what's going on, but on even the slightest incline my legs just seem to turn to jelly, and I have to drop to the granny gear and twiddle up ridiculously slowly. I keep stopping, too. Yet flat roads are fine...

[jenhunt]

i am rubbish at hills too (well, going up at least). But I have improved this summer by mainly only riding hills. This was purely because I'd been entered for the Bruno 200 by a friend - 200 miles, 2 days, 18000ft ascent over the  days.

my technique is something along the lines of:
gather as much momentum as possible
as soon as it starts feeling difficult start flicking through the gears until there are none left to go at (and you're in 39/32)
keep legs going at a steady, constant rate until you eventually get to the top.

if I get to a stage where I really am out of puff, then I'll stop, take a half dozen big breaths and then start again. Over this year I've got to a stage where I can cycle up 10k at 9% or 3k at 17% without too much bother (though it takes me a short while to get my breath back at the top!).

[mattc]

Riding 10k of 9% (on 39/32) "without too much bother" is far from rubbish!

[L CC]

I can't do hills *at all* at the moment. No idea what's going on, but on even the slightest incline my legs just seem to turn to jelly, and I have to drop to the granny gear and twiddle up ridiculously slowly. I keep stopping, too. Yet flat roads are fine...

Have you had your iron levels checked lately? This is how mild anaemia manifests itself in me.

[Ningishzidda]

I went back to richmond park and did a lap to see if I could still climb.

Did it barely, but what was interesting is that once my cadence hit around 70, I stood up for the rest of the hill.

So I cant seem to pedal and balance at a low cadence - well I think that is what a problem maybe and trying to spin too much means I blow up.

I am doing something wrong I just cant figure it out. On a rolling road I seem to be OK, although I want to try the hill at Northwood and try and understand how I cope with that as well.

Ride for an hour round a flat loop of about 15 - 18 miles, getting faster as you warm-up.
Then go to the park and bury that hill.

A proper warm-up will dialate the pulmonary and blood supply systems.

We don't ride a Hill Climb without warming up properly