Originally Posted by vasuvius

This is my first year of serious road cycling. I've been clocking about 400 miles a month for the past 5 months and ride with a group that is a racing team and really fast. Of course, I get dropped on 80% of the rides.

I ride a Cervelo S1 Ultegra Compact (50/34, 12-25).

For the life of me, I simply cannot climb. I can hold my own on A rides on flats at 25mph. But on the hills, everyone passes me.
I've gotten stronger over the past 4 months, but the inability to climb is bothering me.

Yesterday on a B* ride where I was mostly at the front of the peloton on flats, minor uphills etc, on any hill with a decent grade, all the little old ladies passed me effortlessly. On very short steep hills, I can easily power through fast even on the big crank. It's the long mid-grade or long steep hills that totally kill me.

At 5 9" and 150lbs, I feel I'm light enough to be able to climb well and certainly don't have any excess weight to lose.

Apart from just working harder and doing hill repeats to get better at it, is there anything else I'm missing? Can I blame any of it on the bike and make a case to buy a new one ;-)

Thanks, V