Yeah, to a large extent, my gear sets my speed. Lower gear, and the slower I go. Which also means more time on the hill. Finish the hill in a minute or two, and I can go quite fast. Spend 10 minutes on it and it is quite a different beast.

I do wonder about those tortoise and the hare riders. The hares reach the top, then get off the bikes and rest waiting for the tortoises to catch up. Once the tortoises get to the top the hares are well rested and ready to hop on their bikes and take off before the tortoises catch their wind.

Interesting because I've noticed my recovery ability is progressing better than my stamina. My hill climbing stamina has plateaued the past few weeks. But it's taking less time to recover and continue. A few weeks ago it took 5-15 minutes to recover after being winded; now it's down to a minute or less. At least that's a little progress.

That's huge progress ... a short recovery time is a big part of what it means to be in shape.

Exactly. Using different muscles and at a lower cadence helps the tired muscles a bit, but there is no free lunch. In order to use your weight to push on the pedals, you first have to lift your weight.

Over the years I've gone to lower gearing so it has been a long time since I did this. But I recall on a really slow stair step it was more about shifting weight from right to left and back. Rock to your weight to the right to push the pedal down and the left foot comes up then rock your weight to the left...

I do agree that there is an initial lifting up to get out of the saddle and there is some effort to push down when you rock, so maybe rest is not the best word, but it was definitely easier to climb.

John

I don't race anyone but me so I Hammer the up hills and rest on the down hills~

As far as trying to figure out which way takes up more or less energy, it seems to me that it depends on the technique used and also how tired a rider is during that climb.

There's got to be some tipping point but who is going to try to measure that!

What I do observe is how those mountain stage attacks occur. The rider tries to break away and the others try to respond. If it goes as planned, the front rider puts it all out there off the saddle. Then sits down and repeats that cycle maybe two more times to shake off any responses.

It ends up to be the rider with the fresher legs.

Personally, I climb out of the saddle because I imagine I look like Eddy Merck....

This is exactly right. It's not just Frome and Contador but the entire field climbs differently. Seated and stranded climbing uses different muscles. So pro's, as well what we should do also, cater to their strengths. I haven't raced other than tri's in a while. But I know I climbed much faster relative to the competition standing. So that's what I did.

Exactly my experience too.

Agreed. However, when I "believe" that I am getting a rest by changing pedaling style I tend to feel better. Cycling is really a psychological sport in many ways.

One more note on the method of standing the coach is trying to get through to us. When standing to "get some rest" he is teaching us to swing the bike so that your weight comes directly down on the pedal to get every ounce of your weight into the stroke with a very minimum of muscle power. When I do hit the sweet spot it does make a big difference. I am not that good yet at placing the bike exactly as he wants, but close. I know that resting while out of the saddle does not sound correct, as noted a number of times in this thread, but when done as he says it comes very close.

I've been doing this for 65 years - since I was about 5! I thought everyone did it! Probably perfected during paper route days, long ago. My route had lots of big hills, and 125 papers on big days, was a big load!

Seems like the big ring had about 100 skip teeth, and the cog had about 6 single spaced --- that is sure how it seemed when chugging up those steep hills!

Man, could I fly when the basket and bag were empty!