I’m trying to improve my bike skills and hills are my nemesis. I was wondering when do you stand while climbing? It seems to take alot more effort, but it seems everyone does it. I’m also focusing on maintaining momentum through the pedal stroke. Besides riding more and losing weight, any other suggestions? Thanks!
You should try to stay seated when climbing, because you’ll have a smoother pedal stroke in the seated position than when standing, but its ok to stand every now and then. It changes up the muscles you are using, and can also be a bit of a mental break. When I’m climbing, if a hill is getting arduous, I’ll do something like “seated for 5 minutes, standing for 30 seconds”.
Overtall, the most important thing when climbing is to try to keep your cadence as “normal” as possible (85-100), and get into a good rhythm. Try starting at the base of the hill with a gear that seems too easy, and it may help you get into a good climbing rhythm. Now, of course, sometimes a hill will get so steep that you can’t keep your cadence at 85-95 and you’re forced to ride at a low cadence, but hey, that’s just the way it goes. At those lower cadences, standing becomes more beneficial.
Two great drills to smooth out your pedal stroke: 1) fast pedals. Do this as 1 minute Fast Pedal, 1 minute recovery, and repeat. Try to get your cadence as high as possible (110+) without “bouncing” in the saddle.
2) One-legged pedaling. Try this on your trainer first, before trying it on the road. Just take one foot out of its pedal, and pedal with the other leg for 45 seconds, then switch legs and go for another 45 seconds. Then take a little recovery, and repeat. If there are any “dead spots” in your pedal stroke, it will become obvious very quickly while doing one-legged pedaling.
And after that, yeah, climbing hills is all about how many W/kg you can produce. Technique is good and it helps, but horsepower and a light body are probably the most important things.
Hope this helps,
Doug
Once my cadence gets low and the legs burn I stand up. I have a very low threshold because I think standing tends to save my legs more than grinding it out on the really steep ones. My HR definitely jacks up though.
Jodi
I’m trying to improve my bike skills and hills are my nemesis.** I was wondering when do you stand while climbing?** It seems to take alot more effort, but it seems everyone does it. I’m also focusing on maintaining momentum through the pedal stroke. Besides riding more and losing weight, any other suggestions? Thanks!
When I realize I don’t have low enough gearing for the particular steepness 
Or, when I want to put out a little more power in a short section to maintain momentum…oh, and to “change things up” periodically, too…
I’m not sure how accurate this is, but I remember hearing that seated climbing tends to be better for bigger, heavier people, while standing climbing can work better for smaller, lighter people. This makes sense to me, since a bigger person will put more weight on the legs when standing, and would likely tire out quicker. And the smaller person doesn’t have the weight to get as much leverage while seated. Of course, it will be different for each person, but this seems to be a general guideline. I tend to prefer standing for short bursts very often; a long, seated, grinding climb is just too brutal for me.
hills either expose the fact that you weigh too much (from fat, or height, or muscle)
or they expose the fact that you just aren’t really as strong as you thought. When I go from Houston to Austin for rides on the weekends I find this out, repeatedly!
just keep riding hills, all the time, they force you to pedal hard, making you stronger, and probably lighter too if you are too heavy now =)
There are benefits to both, and you should be proficient in both. Personally, i stand when i want to power over something short and steep, seated for longer climbs i can settle into with a good cadence (which are few and far between around here), and stand to accelerate and try and drop people, or if i want to work the different muscles.
Watch AC on the hills. Do what he does
Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lay down.
Beautiful!
Suck it up - keep your cadence high when possible, when not possible, stand up. If you need a sudden burst of speed, stand up.
The biggest thing ever - surging up “rolling hills” is a bad plan. It’s similar to running a 27 second 200 in the middle of your 6:00 mile. Just doesn’t make sense, especially on hard efforts.
However, when you do decide to surge up hills, remember to follow through. Those seconds you gained hammering up it will be wasted if you just sit down and freewheel down it.
I try to do most of my climbing in the saddle, but there’s different points that I’ll stand.
- As I’m about to crest the hill, to regain momentum (so that you don’t end up going 12mph or less on the flat on top of the hill)
- At steep sections of the climb, again to preserve momentum
- And during road races/group rides when I need to accelerate to either drop people or avoid being dropped
- During really steep long ish sections I’ll alternate between sitting and standing rapidly (10 seconds standing, 20 sitting, or something similar), at this point its just about being able to survive and turn the pedals fast enough to not fall over
FWIW I’m 5’9 and in the 170-175 range.
Yes, loose weight. At 5-10 and 155 lbs, I’m a big climber
What hasn’t been mentioned: sit far back on the saddle, put your hands up near the stem, and pedals smoothly and in circles using all of your legs (mash down with quads, pull up with hip flexors and hammies, etc.). Keep is smooth and at your own pace. Go too hard on a long 7 mile climb to stay with someone, and you are done. Stand only for really steep (say over 13% grade) sections to keep momentum or to stretch if on a long climb (i.e. over 5 mins).
And in the immortal words of E. Merck, “Don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades”.
I’ll add one to your list:
Just after slowing down to go around a turn is a good time to stand up and regain some momentum.