Okay, the guy asking about switching to a road bike reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend of mine this weekend. We were talking about spinning up hills (keep in mind, this taking place in Austin, so I’m referring specifically to terrain like what we have here . . . slight rollers and some short hills . … but I suppose it could apply to any terrain).
The long and short of it was that my friend argued to me that on most hills, it is more efficient to ride the bull horns to open up the chest so that one gets more oxygen. (Despite exhaustive questioning, I’m still unclear on what he meant by “efficient” – I know what I think it means.)
I countered that, when riding my tri bike, I find that as long as I’m spinning and not grinding up the hill, riding the bull horns tends to encourage me to push harder with my legs causing more fatigue without a lot more speed. Thus, if I’m in a race, unless the hill I’m riding is pretty darn steep and/or long, I’m better off staying aero and saving my legs for the run, even if it means going a little bit slower on the hill.
Am I wrong? I confess not to know much about physiology, but his argument seemed counter-intuitive to me. (Maybe I’m so oxygen-deprived that I just don’t get it! ;p).
“I’m referring specifically to terrain like what we have here . . . slight rollers and some short hills”
we have a guy on the forum who is exceptionally analytical, while also a very good age group road racer and time trialer. he’s been messing with his TT position and developed one which, if you saw it, you’d know that i would like it. he writes in a PM to me the following:
“my power is back up ~30-40W and this position… I’ve been taking the bike out on my weekly lunchtime hillclimb ride… With a 12-27 cogset on the rear, I can climb the 3 mile, 8% hill turning ~80-85 rpm IN THE AEROBARS! and average only 5-10W less up the climb than I normally do on my road bike with a LOT of standing. There’s no way I could’ve done that in my old, more slack position. My riding buddies think I’m nuts.”
in the old days in kona, with the loosely formed groups of 6 or 8 riders going up the 3% to 4% grades between kawaihae and the airport, you’d see mark allen, greg welch, wolfgang dittrich, jurgen zack, kenny glah, christian bustos, all in the aero position. from those days 'til this, it’s been the same. these guys aren’t going to go onto the pursuits.
the best among these athletes also figured out that you stay in the aero position regardless of the pitch of the climb, and you just make sure your cadence stays high. this is the trick that the fellow who PM’d me expresses. this is how you save your legs without giving up any speed.
i just read an article online on this subject (xtri maybe?). The main topic was power and riding your target wattage uphills. The article favored your perspective towards hill climbing specifically to keep at your target wattage.
That’s pretty much what I figured, and have been trying to train myself to do. However, I’ve had a number of folks (some more “in the know” than the friend I debated this with this weekend) who have said it’s better to sit up on the climb. I just always figured that, unless I really needed the extra oxygen (and I can tell when I do), I’d be better off staying aero and spinning. I’ve been finding lately that I can spin up the same hill on either my tri bike (aero) or on my road bike (on the hoods) and not have a huge difference in speed and effort. (I don’t train with watts . . . yet . . . so I really have no way to compare those numbers.)
“I’ve had a number of folks – some more “in the know” – who have said it’s better to sit up on the climb.”
their “knowledge” would not be typical of the best athletes. certainly sitting up on the climb is more comfortable, and less stressful. that’s because an immediately drop in power and in cadence accompanies sitting up while riding a *tri *bike. whether you’re in or out of the aero position, if you drop your power a bunch you’ll find riding more comfortable. i think the most appropriate question is, what is the most efficient way to maintain your power, or to maintain power that is even 10% or 20% higher than your average power for the ride? what i’m suggesting is that if you are riding a tri bike, your best bet is to stay in the aero position.
on some of the bikes i’ve ridden, where the pursuit position is very narrow, i’ve found that i can ride with my hands on the pursuits on a hill and be quite comfortable. this works as long as i keep the aspect of my back unchanged. i can do this during an ascent because on a hill the body’s center of gravity is considerably rearward – more so as the pitch steepens – and i’m no holding up my whole upper body weight with my arms (much of it is on the saddle now).
for some reason this just does not work if the pursuits are wide, only if they’re very narrow, like on the original HED one piece bar.
Thanks again, Dan. My pursuit position is definitely NOT narrow, so it seems staying on the aero bars would be best for me. Hadn’t thought about the correlation between comfort and power drop, but it makes logical sense.