My Tips For Mountain Climbing

I can still remember how I felt the morning before I climbed my first "real" mountain the [Col du Solour].

I started at the bottom frightened of not being capable of reaching the top. I ended with a combined feelings of relief, fatigue and elation. I had found the thing I loved doing most on a bike.

Since then I have climbed many hundreds of mountains including most of the longest, highest and steepest in Europe. My idea of a perfect days riding is one with as many thousand metres of ascent as possible (descent is a different story but that's another subject.)

Here are the main things that I find make mountain climbs if not easy then at least less hard

Keep a steady power and cadence from the bottom to the top. 

I start every climb with a clear idea of the power I want to average and aim to do as much of the ride as close as possible to that target. Similarly I aim to keep cadence steady, for me in the mid 60s rpm.

The key thing to achieve both is to have enough gears. For me there is only one rule if mountains are on my route, I want to have as few teeth as possible on my chain ring and as many as possible on my cassette. If I have low gears that I never need then it's not a problem, if I need low gears that I do not have then it is.

Pace by altitude not distance. 

I have always used a bike computer that shows elevation and paced myself using that. Climbing is as much a mental battle as a physical one and this can help in the fight. The hardest climbs are those that start gently then get steeper the longer you ride. If you pace these by distance you may think you are past half way when in fact you are not even done a third of the hard work.

Often local authorities mark every kilometre of a climb with information about what is to come. Seeing the next section will average 12% can be a hammer blow if you judge it by the distance you travel. However if you judge it by the speed your elevation goes up and what that means in terms of being closer to the top it can be a welcome relief (provided you have the right gears on your bike, see above)

Set intermediate targets

Keeping a high effort up for an hour or more takes a lot of concentration. Even the best riders need help with this and almost all will split a long climb into smaller bite size chunks setting intermediate targets along the way.  

 

These may be a village, crossroads or section where the gradient changes. It helps to be familiar with the climb so plan these in advance (which is easy these days as pretty much every climb in the world has its own web page and you can even ride many using a virtual simulator). 

 

But if the climb is totally unknown then the easiest way I find is via elevation as above. Tackling mountains 100m up at a time makes even the biggest feel manageable. 

 

 

Add variety with micro rests and surges. 

While my overall power will be constant every now and then I will vary pacing, maybe taking it easy round a hairpin or standing and surging up a short steep bit of road. Partly this is for mental relief, but part is physical as well. Remaining in the exact same position for an hour or more means that some muscles will get overused, others underused. 

Changing the pace up or down helps spread the load a bit and gives those muscles most under strain a quick rest. Often just a few seconds is enough to recharge them for minutes more effort. I will often "reward" myself when taking it easy by eating something nice. Eating during climbing is hard but absolutely essential if you are intending more than one ascent in a day. If you don't plan to eat or fail to follow this plan it may result in disaster (one that even professional riders suffer from on occasion.)

Use a wheel if it is a friendly one. 

I've turned into a pretty good climber so pass other riders far more often than I am passed. However I have on rare occasions been grateful to hold onto the back wheel of a passing rider to help me over a rough patch. 

The key I find is that it needs to be a friendly one. I don't mean the attitude of the rider but that the wheel of the bike they are riding is going at a steady pace ever so slightly faster than I can hold by myself. 

If they are going much faster or if they are surging then easing I find I am better off going alone. But I've found, on more occasions than not, that if I can just hold contact with a friendly wheel I recover and can share the load.

Look behind you. 

Finally my favourite thing about climbing mountains is the sense of achievement, that just using my muscles I can experience absolute beauty and do something I thought was only in the purview of professionals. 

I love the feeling of seeing a distant church steeple high up on the slope only a few minutes later to be through it and be able to look down on it as if a bird. 

So even when going hard I'll look down and appreciate how much I have already done. 

No matter how tired I feel this gives me the impetus to push on and get to the top so I can appreciate the full view will a well earned cold drink.