Road Cycling Essentials

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The MTB probably had a triple crank set so he had more "easy" gears available. What chaing rings and cassette do you run out of interest?

I like to attack hills as hard as possible then worry about recovering when I'm at the top. Sounds like you are doing the gears right though. Just treat it like a car and when the revs/cadence gets low drop a gear rather than going straight into 1st.

Varying in and out of the saddle is a good idea too I think, although if it's a short steep hill I might just do it all out of the saddle. I like to climb with my hands positioned on the tops rather than the hoods, I find it feels more comfortable and lets me breath better.

I'm no expert so others may offer better advice, but I do think I'm physically suited to climbing rather than sprinting on the flat or rocketing down descents. I just need to learn the Contador pedal dance!
 
You weigh less than your bike though, don't you Shamrock?

It's hard to tell from the link how long or hard the hill is. Don't suppose you have a link to a Strava segment for it do you?
 
[DOD]Asprilla;22936538 said:
You weigh less than your bike though, don't you Shamrock?

It's hard to tell from the link how long or hard the hill is. Don't suppose you have a link to a Strava segment for it do you?
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Looks to be about 350~metres. If you have a triple chainring using the granny gear would be too low and maybe you're over spinning i would say as that hills not particularly steep unless the imagery is deceiving.
 
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I hate hills but I've been making an effort to attack as many as I can lately. One I've had a few good practice runs on is here. It goes up, levels out, then goes up again, and so on. I hate it.

It's this segment.

I find the best way is to hit the bottom as fast as possible and then before you start to really decelerate, downshift into a gear that you can maintain a decent cadence on, but isn't to low that you'd be going 10mph in a granny gear. Change down as necessary to keep your cadence high but do not slow down your pedaling speed whatsoever.

I used to ride a MTB and I was guilty of mashing in a high gear when on hills but it's inefficient and my knees despise me for it.

Edit: I just realised that's exactly what you did Dimple. In that case I reckon that MTB guy just had immense quads and just powered up there before his legs had time to get tired. I used to do the same. You can't stand up and mash on a MTB because the suspension just drains all your energy. Instead you just pull on the handlebars as hard as you can to offset the suspension and blast away like you're squatting plates and hope you get to the top before your legs give out. That's why most will take it super easy at the top to give them a rest.

Edit2: Dimple, your road is part of this segment. Just so everyone can see the grade. It's steep I'll give you that.

I'm going to hit this one when I have time. I haven't rode up that since I was little.
 
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Dimple said:
I need some advice for riding uphill and one particular hill which to most of you is nothing but knackers me every day.
Some riders get off and walk up (MTB's), I've actually overtaken a couple of riders (MTB's) but one bloke half my age on a road bike and dressed in lycra has come past me a couple of times.
I can accept that and mentally live with it because he's got a good looking bike and obviously trains harder.
This morning just as I was hitting the brow an MTB came past me which really pee'd me off but if I knew it was behind me I would have put a lot more effort in.
Anyway, as soon as I was on the flat he didn't stand a chance, I put it into top gear and flew past him but its upset me all day (yeah, I'm a mardy bum).

Now the technical bit - https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=e...EUj_vyOX7KrOmnzb9Rtkw&cbp=12,336.06,,0,-11.67

This is the start of the hill and I usually hit it on 6th gear (1st=granny).
By the time I get to the first street on the left I may now be in 5th but I'll maintain it until the first street on the right and then I'll slowly move down to granny even though I'm starting to level out :(
I do try and stand up but I find this hard to do and can't maintain standing for long.
As soon as I get on the flat I'm in 17th gear and hit over 20 mph for the rest of my journey.
So I need some tips:
Am I in the wrong gear?
Should I be in granny straight away?
If I was running I would have 15 second bursts so would 15 seconds standing up and then sitting down for 15 secs help and then slowly increasing my standing? (well obviously this would help but what would you do?).

Any advice appreciated because I can't let an MTB ever come past me again even it was for only seconds.
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Just keep at it! I know that road, been up a few times! Don't they have roadworks there at the moment which are a bit of a pain?

You just gotta keep at it, push yourself, you will improve :)
 
Dimple said:
I need some advice for riding uphill and one particular hill which to most of you is nothing but knackers me every day.
Some riders get off and walk up (MTB's), I've actually overtaken a couple of riders (MTB's) but one bloke half my age on a road bike and dressed in lycra has come past me a couple of times.
I can accept that and mentally live with it because he's got a good looking bike and obviously trains harder.
This morning just as I was hitting the brow an MTB came past me which really pee'd me off but if I knew it was behind me I would have put a lot more effort in.
Anyway, as soon as I was on the flat he didn't stand a chance, I put it into top gear and flew past him but its upset me all day (yeah, I'm a mardy bum).

Now the technical bit - https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=e...EUj_vyOX7KrOmnzb9Rtkw&cbp=12,336.06,,0,-11.67

This is the start of the hill and I usually hit it on 6th gear (1st=granny).
By the time I get to the first street on the left I may now be in 5th but I'll maintain it until the first street on the right and then I'll slowly move down to granny even though I'm starting to level out :(
I do try and stand up but I find this hard to do and can't maintain standing for long.
As soon as I get on the flat I'm in 17th gear and hit over 20 mph for the rest of my journey.
So I need some tips:
Am I in the wrong gear?
Should I be in granny straight away?
If I was running I would have 15 second bursts so would 15 seconds standing up and then sitting down for 15 secs help and then slowly increasing my standing? (well obviously this would help but what would you do?).

Any advice appreciated because I can't let an MTB ever come past me again even it was for only seconds.
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For me I leave it in a hard gear and push harder as I find dropping to an easier gear and spinning actually ends up slower and I'm out of breath.

Big gear,power up it,click up one or two smaller gears if it's really bad then once over the top recover. Keeping it going until you're over the top helps too as you then know you can do it.

It's in the head sometimes and I've went up a climb in 50/15 one day and 34/23 the next...:o
 
[Damien];22936647 said:
I hate hills but I've been making an effort to attack as many as I can lately. One I've had a few good practice runs on is here. It goes up, levels out, then goes up again, and so on. I hate it.

It's this segment.
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Ah, that one's easy! You can do it quicker than me, so I don't know why you're complaining!

[Damien] said:
I'm going to hit this one when I have time. I haven't rode up that since I was little.
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I cycle through Tyldesley pretty regularly and see that - it scares me!

You should try this one. Very nearby and pretty good fun. I'm number 8 on the leaderboard, so you should be able to make top 5 without too much bother!

And yeah, I ought to drag you out round Rivington sometime ;)
 
Vonhelmet said:
Ah, that one's easy! You can do it quicker than me, so I don't know why you're complaining!



I cycle through Tyldesley pretty regularly and see that - it scares me!

You should try this one. Very nearby and pretty good fun. I'm number 8 on the leaderboard, so you should be able to make top 5 without too much bother!

And yeah, I ought to drag you out round Rivington sometime ;)
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Yeah it's easier now that I've had a few runs up it ;)

I did Newbrook Rd the other day and it near killed me. I remember flying down that one in Tyldesley years ago with mates, before all the traffic calming was there. Getting up it after was a bitch I remember.

I'll definitely take you up on that sometime. It's getting a bit boring riding the same old routes and I'm sure a few hills will do me good.

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Vonhelmet said:
You should try this one
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Damn I know that road! I used to live on Dorset Rd so I know all round there. It's bringing back memories. I only moved back to Atherton in March. I've not been up that side of the town centre in 15 years, easily. You're 9th though now, not 8th. Someone's sniped you off :(
 
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If you have good form you shouldn't need to stand. Good form is having barely any weight on the saddle as you are putting down a lot of force through the legs and with no wobble at all. Getting into a lower gear earlier and maintaining a higher cadence will be much easier than using a higher gear while standing at the same speed.

Also if you do some really big hills on training rides any hills on your commute or around town will become easy. Living near the peaks helps with this :p
 
[DOD]Asprilla;22936538 said:
You weigh less than your bike though, don't you Shamrock?
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Ha, being light is certainly a benefit to climbing, but on descents it feels like a light breeze will take me out!

jak731 said:
If you have good form you shouldn't need to stand
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I don't agree with that. Standing is great for powering up hills quickly. Tell Contador it's bad form to stand!:p
 
The Lezyne Macro Drive light got a good review in Triathlon magazine. I have to admit I'm tempted to stick a second light on the front now I'm commuting further, and 300 lumens with USB charging would be mighty convenient!
 
Woo-hoo!

My Garmin Edge 500 turned up today, despite the threat of a thunderstorm I got it setup and installed. Would be rude to not give it a test ride.

I wasn't that keen on the HR monitor, kept feeling like it was going to slip down my body, will have to adjust it slightly next ride.

http://app.strava.com/activities/24634081#440356362

I had thought my cadence would be slightly higher, but I am maintaining a steady 85-90. I had thought it was slightly higher but not to worry thats what I bought it for to help my riding.

Getting a max HR of over 220 when working hard on a few climbs into a tough headwind, 150-160 the remainder of the time.

Apart from that the Garmin worked nicely, will have to go over the functions and change what is displayed, it shows the time and a few other things I don't want to see.
 
Shamrock said:
I don't agree with that. Standing is great for powering up hills quickly. Tell Contador it's bad form to stand!:p
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Contador gets away with it because he weighs less than a bag of sugar. For *ahem* larger riders, it's far more efficient to stay seated during climbing and allows better power transfer at a lower heart rate.
 
Berger said:
Woo-hoo!

My Garmin Edge 500 turned up today, despite the threat of a thunderstorm I got it setup and installed. Would be rude to not give it a test ride.

I wasn't that keen on the HR monitor, kept feeling like it was going to slip down my body, will have to adjust it slightly next ride.

http://app.strava.com/activities/24634081#440356362

I had thought my cadence would be slightly higher, but I am maintaining a steady 85-90. I had thought it was slightly higher but not to worry thats what I bought it for to help my riding.

Getting a max HR of over 220 when working hard on a few climbs into a tough headwind, 150-160 the remainder of the time.

Apart from that the Garmin worked nicely, will have to go over the functions and change what is displayed, it shows the time and a few other things I don't want to see.
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I've got mine showing 8 bits of info. Probably overkill but I probably glance at each of them at least once over the course of a ride.

What version of the strap does yours have? Mine came with the premium soft strap even though it wasn't the red version that's supposed to come with it. I find it helps to angle the strap so it's higher on your back than on the front (although only slightly), so that it's pulled upwards a bit.

To those with HRM's, what resting heart rate are you getting? I've checked mine shortly after waking up a couple of times and I'm getting 57-58ish. I'm just curious to see how it compares to others who are doing regular cycling.
 
I still find it a surprise that people don't think there was doping going on.

Everyone during that time was taking drugs, just a question of how many!
 
[Damien];22938962 said:
What version of the strap does yours have? Mine came with the premium soft strap even though it wasn't the red version that's supposed to come with it. I find it helps to angle the strap so it's higher on your back than on the front (although only slightly), so that it's pulled upwards a bit.

To those with HRM's, what resting heart rate are you getting? I've checked mine shortly after waking up a couple of times and I'm getting 57-58ish. I'm just curious to see how it compares to others who are doing regular cycling.
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It said on the box that it came with the premium strap, even though mine is the black/silver, glad I didn't pay the extra now for the red/black one. My girlfriend has a HR monitor for her gym and her strap splits to make it easier to get on/off.

Not sure about resting HR, should be fairly low, will check it out next time I have it out.
 
Berger said:
Not sure about resting HR, should be fairly low, will check it out next time I have it out.
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Cheers. I think it's at its lowest straight after waking so if you're just doing it at a random time it'll probably be slightly higher. Mine usually bounces around the 60-65 mark when just chilling out on the computer.
 
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