The climb is 8.8 miles, 2,905 feet and total average grade of 7% (there are several 13-14% in there). It is the local dick waving contest. I have a PowerTap, know my zones and have a lot of experience riding this climb. I’d like to get better at it. I consider myself better than average at metering out a steady file of watts.
How would you approach using power data to improve? Intervals on the climb? Ride it 85-90% in training? Then, how would you TT (on a Road bike) to get the best time? Approach it like any other TT?
If I’m going for a best time; I’d approach it like any other TT. I’d also probably do some practice runs to fine tune the watts I can hold for the 8.8 miles. I think if you want to get better at it though; you need to go ride it more. That whole principle of specificity thing. The longer period of time and the more frequently you do that ride; the faster you should get.
That sounds like a sick ride though. I’d love to find out where that is and try it. It reminds me of all the people I saw trying to ride up Little Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake City at 5 mph.
The key for me with the small handful of hillclimb TTs around here has been to run the right gear (low Crr tires made the biggest difference) and to the preview the climb via a ride in the weeks before done at about 85% so I knew when to start ramping up the watts during the actual race.
For me the other key is not to “attack” the really steep stuff during the effort because then I go into the red which means whatever wattage floor I have picked for any sort of less steep portion I have trouble with.
If it starts steeps, stays steep and end steep then pick a power window and go up. However if the approach is flattish or rolling then perhaps the strategy is different- hit that harder to gain time or keep something in reserve? Same thing with a break somewhere during the climb- how to attack it.
I know this isn’t a definitive answer and one reason I think hill climbs are more mentally challenging than any pure TT could be.
For a real race: #1 rule is to not go to hard in the beginning. Many people are idiots about that. If there isn’t a headwind, let them go and pass them later… it’s great fun! #2 go a bit harder on the steeper parts and less hard on the shallower parts.
For Strava: #1 favorable conditions! Tailwind, hot road surface but cool air (evening).
Training… ride up the climb at near race pace. Do VO2 intervals on the climb.
Lowest Crr tires, latex tubes, ditch all unnecessary weight.
Note that your power should gradually decline as you go up, even if you pace perfectly… altitude effect.
that is pretty much all there is, make your aerobic power as high as possible by riding a lot. get as light as possible by eating nothing, then execute perfect pacing by figuring out how much to ramp up power on the steeper bits and what goal normalized/average power to hit and pace it even
Since you are asking about training for it. If it was me, I would do different length intervals. I would do things like 5 min sweet spot x 1 min vo2 max. Try and recover in sweet spot. Anouther might be 15 min tempo then 10 min 1 min ftp x 1 min vo2 max recover in tempo. Repeat until climb finished. Many different variations, some you can do up the whole climb some you won’t be able to. Also dont overtrain. If the race is really soon not much you can do, figure out your pace and go with it.
Little Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake City. The views are epic. Not shown or realized in the photo is the towering granite walls as you climb this canyon. I ride it 2X a week in the summer.
The approach is about 1-1.5 miles of grades in the 2-5% range. Once you actually hit the mouth of the canyon it gets interesting. The only distinctions between grades is “Steep” and “Steeper”. There really is no saddle or flat sections until you are almost to Snowbird ski resort, which is the end of the segment.
I’ve driven that road many times in the winter going up to Alta…thought many times what it would be like to ride it, I’ve always thought it would be pretty brutal. It must be gorgeous in the summer, it sure is in the winter.
Personally I’ve found that intervals provide the best bang for your buck. I have one local climb here which is about the same as the one you mention and I usually do 4 or 5 intervals of 5 minutes on a biggish gear all out which I think has really increased the size of gear I can use just while spinning up the climb.
Edit: For the intensity by all out I really mean like you want to stop within the first 30 seconds
Think about how you were riding it in recent times. This will take somewhere on the order of an hour for most people to climb. Toward the end how is your form on the bike? If you start bobbing around or need to resort to standing (versus standing purposefully for steep pitches or posture breaks) then I would do more repeats at 85%. An extended climb works your upper body and arms, so if your form suffers you can build strength in this area by doing more climbing at lower intensities. If your form is tight to the end then I would do shorter efforts (10-15 min) at slightly above threshold, depending on how far away this event is.
As for pacing, if you are doing it in TT mode (sent off in separate intervals) then steady power is your friend. If it is a mass start you may want to peg it hard when it gets steeper and try to force some others to blow up. This largely depends how well you recover from over threshold efforts during a climb.
Assuming this is a mass start hillclimb, it’s a little different than a TT. You have to know your power number and largely stick to it, but you also have to know when it might be smart to go a little over your number in order to stay with a rider or group of riders and keep a wheel in front of you and when you need to let people go and stick to your number.
Looks fantastic. Agree with all tips given so far and have some more ideas for you.
I’m taking part in a hill climb series of races over 3 months (much shorter than your climb). Not my strength so have been looking for ways to improve.
I’ve found training by looking up my mean maximal power for the expected time in WKO+, then doing 4-6 reps for that time at about 90% of the mean maximal power, ascending the power through the set. Really tough but I do improve after 3 sessions like that. For a longer climb like yours I’d plan 2-3x20 minutes at 90% of your MMP for 20mins
I prefer doing the training on the actual climb. I gain a lot of time from nailing exactly where to change gear. I noticed from power files that my power was very variable after changing gear so have been working on smoothing it out. The trickiest bits are changing gear when the climb flattens off a bit for a while.
Also, I look for all the places I can ride in the drops and practice that. I played around on http://bikecalculator.com/veloUS.html and was surprised how much that can gain me.
Eg yesterday I did 5 reps on the hill that’s next in the series. All ridden within 10w of each other. By the last set I had improved gear changes, use of drops and upped power a little resulting in ~7% time improvement, It’s also interesting to then compare intervals and plot time versus power. Gives me an idea of what time I’ll do on the day if I can up my average wattage to X and think if that’s enough to beat rivals.
Other than the obvious (reduce weight, use good tires/tubes), I would say make sure you pick the right gearing. Not just about having enough gearing, but the spacing as well. Generally you’re going to be riding in the small chainring and flipping between 2-3 cogs in the rear. Unlike flat TT’ing where you may be flipping between the 13-15 tooth cogs that have only a 1 tooth jump in between, you may be flipping between the 19-27 tooth cogs which have 2-3 tooth jumps in between. Higher chance that you may be in between gears. So experiment with different cassettes. For climbing, tighter gearing isn’t necessarily better. Sometimes it’s better to have a 2 or 3 tooth jump rather than a 1-2 tooth jump depending on how the grade on your course varies.
