Back to Basics - Sprinting - coming soon

My next "Back to basics" posts will look at sprinting.

Many cyclists believe they can't sprint or are rubbish at it. It's true that we can't all be like Mark Cavendish, Mario Cipollini, Erik Zabel or Sean Kelly but everyone can sprint and everyone can get better at it by the combination of training, technique and tactics.

Perhaps these posts should be called the 3Ts - because training, technique and tactics are the basic tools that any cyclist can use to improve any aspect of their performance.

In the meantime have a read back over the Climbing - Back to Basics - Parts 1 to 3 and watch the real experts in the Tour de France. And when they get the chance watch Cav, Goss and co. in the sprints - hopefully my next posts will go some way to explaining (in simple terms) how those guys do it.

Back soon!

Fred Witton Challenge - Howard's day

The Fred Whitton Challenge is a gruelling 112 mile sportive challenge ride for charity around the Lake District, run in memory of Fred Whitton. It starts & finishes at Coniston, and the route includes the climbs of Kirkstone, Honister, Newlands, Whinlatter, Hardknott & Wrynose passes

This year my friend an colleague, Howard Gott, completed the event in difficult and unpleasant weather conditions. Howard has kindly passed me his report of the event to include in my blog. Here are Howard's own words:

The day didn’t look too bad at 5am - no rain, not too cold and the promised wind had not yet whipped up.

With a start pretty much straight up Hawkshead Hill from Coniston, I took this first climb easy and waited for the much bigger Kirkstone Pass, which was easier than its height suggested - gradual mostly, and a rising wind pushing us up. “Is this Kirkstone” someone said in passing. “I hope so” was my reply (thinking if the biggest is this easy it’ll be fine......). It was steeper near the top but nothing to stop steady climbing.

Down to Ullswater and up Matterdale, the one climb I’d seen recently, the wind must have been helping, because turning west onto the main A66, a side/head wind struck us. I hid in groups where I could but didn’t escape the wind.

Turning south at Keswick, we were in narrow tree lined roads which kept the wind off, and it all felt pretty good until Seatoller and Honister Pass. Honister rises at 25% from the flat, there is no gradual rise, so a third of the way up this steep part I joined many others, and walked up, or more accurately teetered on my toes to get some grip. The gradient eased to bearable and I rode the rest, realising as we climbed that the wind was getting stronger and partly in our faces. 

A sheltered valley into Buttermere led to a welcome food stop - all sweet stuff but I wasn’t picky at this point - then turned north east into the climb of Newlands. The wind helped as on Kirkstone, and even the steeper parts didn’t feel too hard (all that sugar probably).

Descending from Newlands and approaching Whinlatter, my shoulders and neck started aching, and this persisted the rest of the ride, helped a little by angling my head to one side for a few seconds - not recommended on twisty descents. Whinlatter was a variable gradient climb I remembered from riding the C2C route some years ago - it seemed longer, which was not a good sign. At the top the wind became a straight headwind, seemingly increasing, so even some downhills felt hard work. 

Around pretty Loweswater was fine, and some shelter from the wind came in the twisting lanes to Ennerdale Bridge. The first climb from there up to Cold Fell nearly made me walk, it was so steep at first. The wind blew down the hill and made the easier part seem as hard as the first - I tried to concentrate on recognising the landscape but the legs wouldn’t let me. Joining a few others sheltering from the wind for a snack break, I scanned the daunting road ahead - a slight gradient but a howling wind across the fell. The break helped and I joined other suffering riders over the top to Calder Bridge and the much needed food stop. Tea and tuna butties and now only 28 miles to go - wonderful. 

In theory the wind should have helped from here but it didn’t until beautiful Eskdale and the approach to Hardknott. The beauty and the welcome push from the wind became irrelevant as the scale and steepness of the pass came clearly into view. A car driver wished me good luck as I approached the climb, which I just made up the first 200m but then had to walk the 33% first part - the legs had nothing left. I slowly pedalled the middle section but just ground to a halt as it got steeper near the top, and took tiny steps to the summit. One rider was walking up in trainers, carrying his gripless cycling shoes - that’s planning for you. Only about one in ten riders pedalled the whole climb - at Honister it had been more like seven out of ten, which shows the effect of the accumulated miles and climbs.

Hardknott’s descent is a genuine white knuckle ride - you cannot let the speed get up because you won’t slow enough for the sharp bends if you do. Giving grateful thanks to new brake blocks, I teetered down descents that felt even steeper than the other side. At the base it was straight into Wrynose, shallow at first but the steeper sections stopped me, along with most other riders I could see (the route notes call it nothing like as hard as Hardknott - maybe if you’re thirty years younger). A final steep descent, then it was bound to be easy to do the last few miles - except the last five or six were back into the wind and by no means flat. I was so exhausted I nearly missed the turn into the finish, but I made it. Would I do it again? Probably not, but it was a great experience - and very well organised. With more savoury snacks to go with all the sugar, it would have been perfect!

Climbing - Part 3 - Technique - Back to basics

This third article on climbing looks at how you can improve climbing technique to make climbing easier and faster.

The main technical areas where most riders can improve are; pedalling, breathing, body positioning and timing and controlling their efforts. Trying to improve in several areas at once is difficult so for most people spending a bit of time on each until it becomes habitual and then moving on to the next will provide the best results.

Modern bikes offer different gearing options compared to those used for racing 20 or 30 years ago so some techniques have altered to take advantage of that. Previously very low gears were used by tourists but those gears were too widely spaced to be practical when racing so often when racing riders would push higher (heavier) gears than used today. The changes in gearing include more sprockets on rear wheels enabling a wider range of gears, whilst still keeping close steps between the ratios, and compact and triple chainsets enabling smaller rings to be used at the front.  Because of this riders would be well advised to look at the techniques of top climbers from the modern era rather than those from the past.

Technique 1 - Pedaling

My previous post "Pedalling - back to basics" covers various aspects of pedalling and much the same priciples apply when riding up hills although when climbing the cadence (how quickly the pedals are turned) would normally drop compared to when riding on the flat.

Many riders pedal too slowly up hills and rely on brute strength to keep moving perhaps moving body weight around to add some extra force to the pedals. Watching top riders climb you can see that most of them are actually still turning the pedals quite quickly and it is when a rider 'blows' that the cadence really drops.

How fast you should pedal would vary depending on the physical shape and natural rhythm of each rider but for a rider who rides at 90 to 100 rpm (revs per minute) on the flat would climb most hills with a cadence of 70 to 80 rpm.

For most riders that kind of pedalling rate seems very high and the only way to make it feel natural is to train at high cadence on hills, at first it will feel un-natural and you'll get breathless (see below for technique) more quickly but with perseverance it is effective.

The Science Bit

In simple terms when climbing at lower cadence the leg muscles will fatigue more quickly because of the higher force they have to apply to the pedals. At the same speed with a higher cadence the force exerted each time a pedal is pushed is lower BUT pedalling at a higher cadence will burn up more energy causing the heart and longs to work harder. There is a choice between putting more stress on your leg muscles or burning more energy. As long as energy supply and hydration are sorted the second is usually more effective.

There are couple of good articles on this subject see;

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/technique-pedal-like-a-pro-12772/

http://bikecan.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=BIKE_CAN_CyclingResources

Technique 2 - Breathing

It seems almost too obvious to say, but it often needs to be said; However fit and strong you are if you don't breathe you won't move. If you don't breathe effectively then you won't climb effectively.

Ideally most breathing at areobic levels is done via the diaphragm and you should breathe in a controlled and calm manner - once you are gasping or taking short fast gulps of air then you are getting insufficient oxygen for the effort you are making, the work becomes anaerobic and you will fatigue quickly, power will drop and you will build up lactic acid which will hurt your muscles.

Technique 3 - Body Position

When climbing wind speeds are relatively low so win resistance is less important than it is on the flat. This allows you to ride in a more upright position and that in turn helps with effective breathing.
Keeping your head up will also ensure the air pathway to the lungs stays clear.

Sitting on the saddle when climbing uses fewer muscles than standing up so when climbing for a long time sitting down requires less oxygen. Sitting down and gripping the top of the bars (on dropped bars) reduces pressure on the diaphragm and keeps the airways open making breathing easier. The easier it is to breathe the more energy you can generate to climb. Often holding the bars toward the middle means that your elbows are further out from the body and this gives more room for the intercostal muscles (between the ribs) to move so that you can beathe more deeply.

Like the pedalling techniques above this does not always feel natural at first and repeated training using these techniques is required to make it feel more natural and to be able to climb like this for longer.

Sometime when you want to accelerate,  the gradient is too steep or your gear not low enough (or you can't manage to maintain the seated position any longer) you will stand on the pedals - this allows you to apply more force to the pedals but the effort will tire leg muscles more quickly.

When climbing standing on the pedals (out of the saddle) you need to concentrate on breathing and balance. Breathing - keep your head up, keep elbows comfortably apart. Balance - keep enough weight on the back wheel to maintain good grip and prevent the wheel from slipping but keeping enough on the front wheel to keep it firmly on the road.

When moving from a sitting to standing position the bike will tend to slow down briefly while you make the transition and in close groups could cause a crash. To prevent that you should push harder on the pedals to lift yourself off the saddle rather than just standing up in a natural way.

Technique 4 - Timing and control of effort

Some riders climb best on short hills of a couple of minutes or less while others prefer long climbs taking to minutes or more. Whichever you prefer you are always going to have to climb the other sort of hills and you should measure your efforts so that you are riding strongly as you crest the summit. Knowing how hard to ride to crest the hill strongly comes with experience and getting to know where your own thresholds lie - both of those things come only with training - lots of training.


In summary - How to become a good climber

The old way to become a good climber was to get on your bike and climb hills, and do it again and again and again. That is still the best way but with attention to techniques and power to weight it will be even more effective.