How To Climb While Cycling: Short and Sharp Or Longer and Flatter, Plus My Training Method

I climb well. And I love it. I'm not sure what it is that makes us cyclists hunt out the steepest longest hills and go to town on our legs in some sort of self-harm session of pain, but a ride without hills is not much of a ride.

As a British Cycling trained coach I have been taught how to climb properly. As a cyclist I learnt myself. As a member of a club I picked up tips there too. There is a right way that we all know about, it's documented well and I have summarised it below, but there is a second way, a way that goes against the conventional method. It's how I learnt to climb, I don't always use it when I compete, but when I train I use it almost exclusively...

Ask most people how to climb correctly and depending on the hill you are faced with and your own ability you will be told a set of techniques to use:

Short and steep hills are to be attacked. Get out of the seat and power up them. Just ensure that you know where the top of the hill is, there is nothing quite like powering up to the "top" of a hill to find you aren't even half way - by which point you've blown out your legs and energy and will start to struggle.

Longer flatter hills are more of a stable affair. Stay seated, open up your chest and get ready for a long slog. Hands on tops of the bars where getting oxygen into your lungs is more important than being aerodynamic and you won't be going fast enough uphill to make a difference anyway.

There are of course some universal techniques to apply to all hill types like trying to remain relaxed, you want your energy supplying muscles in your legs not clenching your face, arms etc. Keep your pedal movements stable and smooth. Keep your cadence high, remain in an easy gear and spin your legs, it is generally accepted that a lower gear higher cadence is more efficient than grinding out in a harder gear and lower cadence.

My training technique follows almost all of the above techniques with one exception. Rather than dropping into a lower gear and keeping my cadence high I remain in a larger gear and "grind" out my pedal rotations. This leads me to build muscle strength in my legs. At first it is difficult and in most cases you are in the easiest of the gears while remaining in the big ring. But with practice I have become very strong on hills and very rarely drop out of the big ring, even when completing categorised climbs.

This takes practice and it is really only mainly effective during training. I have done events, like my local Hard Riders' Time Trial, where I haven't dropped out of the big ring. This is a bit of a mistake as I would be using too much energy in the climbs which would leave me short during the flats and downhill sections. But similarly if you are able to complete a hill in the big ring should you be dropping out of it? Difficult decision and one that is made at the time of getting to the hill.

My training method mirrors interval sessions, you go very hard for a period of time followed by recovery and repeat. On the road this would be hard efforts up hills with slow recovery riding after the top. It's certainly not the best way during a race nor is it a cleaver thing to do if you are looking to keep a high average speed but the stronger you can get climbing hills and improving your power output the more this will help you, both on encountering hills in races but also for sustained periods of exertion.