draft while climbing
 

Umd...do you find any benefit to drafting while climbing or does the climb itself neglect any effect of the draft?

Nice video.

Yeah, I see that a lot. Optimum pacing strategy for time trials is generally to do flats at FTP (or appropropriate critical power for the duration of the event), climbs a tiny bit above, and descents a tiny bit below. People that are JRA tend to push harder on hills and rest on flats. A power meter is great for learning all this stuff about yourself.

It is a Contour HD, and I use DashWare to overlay the data from my Garmin Edge 705/Quarq CinQo.

I did ok the first two times up it, couldn't stay with the attacks the last time up and got 25th of 73.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37474096

You always benefit somewhat from a Draft. It is much lower at 10mph but it is not negligible.

I've been practicing riding out of the saddle a lot more when on climbs and so long as you pace yourself and don't burn out early it's a really handy way to give yourself that final push once you're close to the end of the climb.

UMD, Thanx for the video clip. I also enjoyed the harmonic "whooshing" tone.
Was that shot with a VHoldr? (Sounded great without wind noise) Or did you also do some audio tweaking/noise cancellation editing?

Yeah, if you make a point of getting out of the saddle more, you get better at it, no matter what your weight.


Great video, umd! What a beautiful place to ride!

Thanks for this, it totally makes sense. The video is very nice, again thank you.

Yes, VHoldr Contour HD 720. No auddio tweaking, there isn't much wind noise cause we weren't going that fast ;)

Thanks. I had never been up there but I had heard how nice it was. I couldn't really appreciate it much while hypoxic so I'm glad I have the videos to review. I will probably post some descent in the ride video thread tomorrow.

When climbing out of the saddle, you have a smaller "cadence zone" than while seated. It requires more shifting to stay in that zone.

You may be able to do a climb (or section of a climb) seated, in one or two gears. That same climb done standing may require 3-4 gears.

+1 big time

When I first started I would put in to hard of an effort out of the saddle and I was only able to be up for short distances. legs killing and totally out of wind. Almost like an attack, just poor technique being new to riding road. Then when i sat down I was just shot and recovering spinning in lowest gear. I have found that you really do need to find YOUR pace up hills out of the saddle and get in good peddle/breathing rhythm. It might be in lowest gear at 5 mph on steep inclines but you will be to sustain much longer and recover much faster.

My pace is slower up hill than my riding buddies but I make it to the top in reasonable time, I am not maxed out and able to push pace back to them on ensuing flat. I am getting better each ride on hills.

not to mention that if gets breezy on the way up, you still get shielded

Nice video! I like to stay on the seat as much as possible personally and move forward for climbs. One reason I've stuck with my Serfas Furnano saddle, nice long nose.

I find no benefit in standing while climbing, unless I'm shifting up. For me, I get better results seated. I shift up one or two times and stand when I reach a switchback though.

Oh and just because your light, doesn't mean climbing is going to be easy. I'm 120 lbs, I still have a hard time climbing sometimes. And the reason for that, is that I need more power to the push.

But my goal is to make climbing my primary strength. I'm surrounded by hills anyways.

There's a difference between a short power-burst over the top of a hill and long sustained climbs out of the saddle. This is how the latter is done:




I love this guy's videos...

riding and climbing out of the saddle, like spinning at a higher cadence are both techniques I found challenging and requiring practice but I've found that getting better with these techniques has improved my performance and enjoyment quite a bit. keep at it and you'll get better! :)

But you can train for power. To weigh 120 lbs I'd have to amputate an arm and a leg, and I don't think that's going to help.

Good old haskins! :) One of my favorite climbs, although I take probably 3 times as long to climb it as you do :) I prefer that direction, I think. Coming back the other way looks significantly harder.

I feel a little more nervous sitting on someones wheel up a hill because people tend to get squirrely on climbs.

This was a hilly cat 3 road race. The squirrely people who can't climb don't come or were already shelled.

I have motored past lots of standers while I've been seated, but it sure is nice to be able to switch up muscle groups from time to time. I DO stand most of the time on climbs around 20%. Keeps the front end down, and allows better use of arms to leverage downstroke.

Of course it would be easier if you were in shape and carrying less weight.

[QUOTE=ktanner777;10997603]Mostly for the sake of being contrary, but because it does have some relevance, these are not necessarily the same thing. At 5'9.5" and 175 or so I was in shape at the weight I wanted to be at for swimming. For cycling this would probably be less desirable, but I certaintly wasn't out of shape.

[QUOTE=ktanner777;10997603]Coming from the climbing capitol of America, Palm City, FL. :thumb:

Well he did say in shape AND carrying less weight.