Climbing is something I enjoy more than I am good at it; any time I see a new road pointing up to the heavens, I find myself irresistibly drawn to explore where it leads. Every season I come to the conclusion that my training routes are all very hilly and I arrive at the brilliant idea that I should plot out a new course which seeks out the flattest roads in town, allowing for an easy spin every now and again. As I ride happily along my new, rolling route, I will notice a twisty road snaking its way toward the sky and I will be helpless to resist exploring it. Before long, the route is as hard as any of the others. I simply can’t stop myself seeking out new climbs.
The beauty of climbing is found in its contrasts, in the beautiful duality of suffering and being in control – of burning muscles which somehow still feel strong and powerful. At 80 kilos and 193cm I will never be a good climber, but there is a magic zone of gradients between six and eight percent where I can get the guns turning over easily despite the pressure in my lungs and legs. At those gradients, I can feel myself sitting steady in the saddle, raising out of it occasionally to keep the gear ticking over or to offer some respite to my muscles. Beyond eight percent is a zone of gradients upon which I never feel comfortable; to maintain the tempo requires all my concentration; I feel the hill clawing at my jersey, pulling me back down to the valley. I can never seem to find the right cadence in this zone; either I’m spinning too much or I’m falling behind the gear. But beyond 12 percent, I find a renewed strength; despite my grotesque weight I am somehow still able to find the power to keep the wheels turning round. At these gradients there is little you can do apart from pushing on the pedals; skill and elegance have less little to do with it than does being stubborn and a bit dim.
The Prophet once said that to ride a time trial, you should start as fast as possible, and finish as fast as possible. When asked about the middle, he said to ride that as fast as possible. And so it is for climbing. In part one of Sur La Plaque, we examined how to ride the end of a climb; you go as hard as you can. In part two, we examined how to approach a climb and how best to tackle the base. Again, you go as hard as you can. We left it a mystery as to what one should do when riding the middle of the climb. Guess what? You go as hard as you can.
The middle part of a climb is mentally the hardest. At the top, you can easily wrap your mind around what needs to be done: push as hard as you can and embrace the lactic acid as it floods over you; the effort will be over soon enough. The bottom can be intimidating, but you are generally fairly fresh, though you may need some time to find your rhythm. The middle is where you settle in and focus as concentration and momentum mean everything. Breathing deeply in harmony to your cadence, the key is to make sure you don’t lose your concentration as you and your bike are urged to slow ever down by the Man with the Hammer’s loyal servants: Gravity and Fatigue.
The loss of tempo happens very gradually as a gear that was smoothly turning over begins to move a little heavier. In response, the cadence slows ever so slightly until finally you need to shift gear. It is a never ending cycle that leads irrevocably to plodding along in the lowest gear. Combatting this process takes complete and total focus. Concentrate on the rhythm and your breath, and if the gradient kicks up, rise out of the saddle to keep the pace up. If the gradient requires a downshift, do so before you fall behind the gear; once you allow yourself to become overgeared you will be on the back foot for the rest of the climb.
Climbing through the monkey in the middle is as much about mental strength as it is physical. Find a steady, fast tempo, and commit everything you have to maintaining it. Also, for the purposes of this article, Sur la Plaque is a state of mind more than it is a chain ring. And also remember that the only reason Merckx invented the inner ring is to give us a place to store the chain while replacing the worn-out Big Ring.
VLVV.
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That photo reminds me that we miss Roadslave525...
I hate to suck the romance and poetry out of this thread (when I say 'hate', I mean 'secretly like') but having a power meter and data has made so much difference to my climbing.
I'm of similar dimensions to Frank and while I can't dance on the pedals for that last 500m like the little guys who are 20 kilos lighter in the last year I've done some of my best times up the local climbs of about 10km at 1200-1250 VAM. I'm not far behind the mountain goats and I'm consistently ahead of guys I would never have dreamed of beating. On Box Hill as a reference for those who know it I'm doing under 6 and a half minutes (in fact I'm on the same Strava time as Laurent Jalabert but I assume he wasn't trying too hard).
Not by going as fast as possible at the beginning, middle and end. To me that's a recipe for going too hard at the beginning, suffering in the middle and clinging on/wishing for death at the end.
I know my power capacity and I know how long I can stay at certain levels for a given duration, so I can be pretty sure that I have actually climbed the best I can by sitting on or above my threshold power to weight and judging my effort accordingly.
Call me Chris Froome, but it works.
Kid's got me a drive voucher in a vehicle that would blow Rule #25 right up for Father's Day last year. Cashed in the voucher a couple of weeks back.
The drive was around my favourite part of the world, The Mornington Peninsula. After the drive, took the steed and kit out of my car and had a enjoyable time suffering over the rolling hills.
This was one of the road's our club use to race on/up. And the road surface is dead. Gotta get me some of those "good legs" for tempo.
@Barracuda
Geez! That road surface looks like power sucking deadness!
@sthilzy -
Yes, its quite a leg sapping surface, I did it in the dark the other night and was much quicker as the brain and body couldnt confuse each other.
Having said that, the Gallardo you drove would eat it up. How was the sound in the cockpit ? Awesome I bet. Loves me some V10 at full noise
@ChrisO
I know you're not a fan of instagram, but he's been posting up a storm lately about the bike tour he's currently on...seems he's doing some similar types of rides to the one that produced the lead photo...
On a totally unrelated note, I hate you Europeans!
So, I'm mildly confused. As an article on the mental aspects of hill-climbing, it was not bad. But the awkward attempt to include "sur la plaque" as part of the thought process didn't really work.
That rule should be re-written as " use the right gear". I had a bit of a discussion about this with a fellow called Alex Simmons recently, an interesting chap, who is a professional trainer, who recently trained one of his clients to a Masters World Hour Record, so he has what you might call a good track record. I e-mailed Alex while researching this subject and his interpretation of "sur la plaque" was, "bloody silly", or summat thereabouts.
The formula is Power = Torque x RPM. Now, I was asking Alex if he had any studies on the torque curve of the human leg, and he gave me some links, but they were all looking at torque at different parts of the pedal rotation, which is obviously least to the top and bottom, and maximises at the 90 degree position. Throughout the rev range though, it's reasonable to assume that the torque curve is flat, which means that the only way yo increase power is to increase RPM, which means optimising the gear selection. It's interesting to see that the whole pro world ignores the exhortation to "sur la plaque" and prefers to choose the right gear. Getting that right is a good start to getting your head right.
I'm sure someone will quote The Disciple at this point, and link to the ascent, but a pro on the juice is another proposition, isn't it ?
Ken, Ken, Ken... tl;dr?
Had you gone past the headline you might have noticed
As for citing a Masters World Hour Record in an article about climbing. I don't think the banking on a velodrome counts.
@VeloSix
Ok. Where is this? Simply googling doesn't work. (I now know how to Rock Ariat boots while looking like a punk rocker) Do you have some kind of a GPS map for the ride?
Thanks
@Velosix P.S. Just did Cherohala challenge and found myself wanting to play angry birds on the way up, it was that boring.
@Fausto Crapiz
You do realize that if you don't go pro and prove your awesomeness on the hills, there likely will be a petition to formally change your name to "Douche." Better still would be to move to England and get knighted. "Sir Douche" has a nice ring to it.