Ok. I did Columbia this weekend. It went really well, all things considered. As some of you know, Columbia is hilly. You’re pretty much going either up or down for most of the bike leg. Well, and the run too.
I’m pretty good at getting up hills and pass a lot of people on the way up. Then I about halfway down, whoosh, they all come flying by me going down. It really started to tick me off after awhile.
I have a tri bike. I have an ok position. It could be better, but this works for me for now. (People on road bikes w/o aero bars passed me downhill too.) I don’t have really good race wheels.
My question is: is it my bike? What makes a bike fast going downhill? Is there a technique to going fast downhill? Would wheels make that big of a difference? Is body weight the biggest factor?
Don’t stop pedaling…even down hill. Pedal until you “pedal out”. I always pass lots of people downhill cause they are coasting and I’m pedaling!! Stick the knees to the top bar, reducing wind resistance and get low!!! Feel the “need for speed”!!!
Don’t stop pedaling…even down hill. Pedal until you “pedal out”. I always pass lots of people downhill cause they are coasting and I’m pedaling!! Stick the knees to the top bar, reducing wind resistance and get low!!! Feel the “need for speed”!!!
Knees to the top tube and getting low is good advice, as would be “getting the elbows in”. However, may I suggest that, for triathlon, “pedalling till you pedal out” is not. Due to the nature of aerodynamic resistance, the faster you’re going, the more the law of diminishing returns kicks in regarding the extra speed gained by a given amount of effort. You should be freewheeling in as aero a position as you dare. Also aero wheels make a lot more difference at high speed (don’t forget, at the top, they’re going twice as fast as you are). For more proof about how we should apply less effort when going downhill, see the following very informative site:
Carrying more speed over the first part of the descent will do it to.
I noticed at AIT that the pro women I started descending with ended up being a tad slower on the descent. She was pretty good going down the hill, no braking in the aero position. Just was not taking the shortest route or not taking advantage of the draft (legally of course).
I was a spaz on the descent this weekend and still she was gone when I got to the bottom.
It’s not wheels or position. You are blowing your energy climbing the hill, and you are not powering over the top and back up to speed. It might feel like you are, but you aren’t. I’ve seen it a million billion times. It is what most people do. You need to work the hill more carefully, building the effort over the final third and hold high effort until you are back to 30 mph. Only then do you relax.
You don’t need to go faster downhill. You need to go faster over the top.
also, what kind of gearing do you have? What kind of wheel size? maybe you should put an 11 instead of a 12 in the back or get a bigger chainring in the front.
Are you passing anybody going downhill? Are people passing you in straights or just before curves,in curves or just after curves? Have you ever done any group rides and noted where you get dropped on descents? We need to pinpoint your problems that can be fixed.
I think Ashburn is spot on here. At a recent race I was really surprised how people ride the hills. One guy would catch me and pass me mid-climb and then towards the top or over the summit I would blow by him every time. This happened a few times at Powerman North Carolina as well. If you are passing lots of people on the climb you may be climbing too hard and not carrying your momentum over the crest.
If you ride a lot of hilly races then a computer is a must, especially one with cadence. As you come to a climb maintain a good high cadence while keeping your effort level even. The supermotivated riders will pass you early in the hill and you have to resist the urge to surge after them. Maintain the high cadence in a low gear and as you start to roll over the top start kicking it up a gear at a time and build up your speed. You will nearly always roll past the guys who passed you at the bottom of the hill. Once you go past about 25 mph then start to back off your effort, since it just going hard at that speed.
If you don’t catch them on that hill then be patient. Triathlons are usually long days and the even effort will win out by the time the run is done.
Also, if you are only 120 pounds you will never be a downhill bomber, but riding them more evenly will help.
I did Columbia too. What a GREAT day for a race. Congrats.
I had to laugh when I read your weight. At 200+ lbs I always pass people on the way down. I would try some other things before resorting to Khai’s fried food diet.
Granted your weight puts you at a dissadvantage compared to people a lot heavier than you going downhill but if you learn how to descend well you can minimize the damage. For big hills one thing you need to know is at what speed you are better off getting out of the aerobars and tucking versus staying in the aerobars. Even if you are pedaling in the aerobars many times it’s faster to get on the base bar, get up off the seat, get your head down, knees in, but in the air and tuck. For me it’s anything above 35mph or so. Granted I can pedal up over 40mph but once the grade of the hill is steep enough to sustain over 35mph, I can usually increase my speed more by getting super aero than by pedaling.
The biggest problem you are going to have is the initial acceleration at the beginning of the descent. Once you get up to speed you won’t get passed as much as long as you learn how to descend tucked and without touching the brakes. As you reach the top of a hill and pull over the crest to the descent KEEP accellerating! At the start of a big descent pedal hard as you want to get to terminal velocity, coasting speed as fast as you can. You can put a lot of time on people at this stage, use it. My training partner/exgirlfriend used to get smoked by me going downhill as she’s only 105lbs. Been working with her on the descending and now she barely looses a step.
Yeah, what Ashburn said, really build speed towards the end of the climb and the start of the downhill. This in Columbia is very important since it is a “momentum” bike course, you gain a lot of time by going hard on the downhills and then power the uphill.
Also in Columbia I don’t remember any hill where I spun out a 54/11 on 650c wheels.
Wow, 120.
I guess you haven’t been attacking those snacks too hard.
I used to get passed a lot going down hill too.
Now I train harder, go lower, and have an eleven tooth on the back of my disc.
Now if I could get a 54 or 55 tooth up front I’d be set.
I had the opposite problem at Columbia and would love any pointers! I was passing people left and right on the straights and downhills (in fact, I was surprised how slow some people were going downhill and was wondering why/how that was possible), but I would lose all momentum going uphill and even in my lowest gear, couldn’t spin. So I played leapfrog with a lot of people - I’d pass them on the straight or downhill portion, and they’d pass me going uphill.
I have a stock Cervelo P2k that’s a couple years old. I have no idea what size chain ring/cassette. Is that something to maybe change? Or is it climbing technique that I suck at? I did make sure I spun as long as possible and let up easy at the base of climbs so as not to tire myself out, and I power over the top ok (but not too fast, obviously). So I dunno and would love any pointers! I’m also in NoVa and there aren’t a lot of hills for practice around here.
Still, the bike was my best leg, so I’m pretty happy with the end-result, but I’m always open to improvement!
I am so glad I trained on the course (both bike and run) a couple times or I would have been a goner there.
If you weigh 120, and I weigh 170, and we have roughly the same frontal area, I am going to crush you on each and every downhill. I get 50 lbs times the grade of the hill of extra force pushing me.
On the other hand, if our power outputs are similar, you will crush me on every climb the same way, which sounds exactly like what you are seeing.
Go Team Gravity!