What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

JoelBelton
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What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby JoelBelton » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:53 pm

I'm only a beginner road cyclist and have just got back into cycling and trying to get a KOM for a short hill in my area. What would be the best way to cycle up this hill, as in a higher or lower gear? Seated or standing in the saddle? And would it be better having a strong tailwind behind me as I'm going up the hill or a tailwind before the turn to the hill for a fast start?
Thanks.

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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby cancan64 » Mon Nov 07, 2016 11:18 am

Strong tailwind before and up the hill always helps....
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby mikesbytes » Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:20 pm

For most people seated is usually quicker than standing, gearing is a personal thing you will need to experiment. Sustained power to weight ratio is critical. It takes time to build power, a little less time to loose the gut
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby macca33 » Mon Nov 07, 2016 2:09 pm

Hang onto the back of a moto......

OR, just ride harder - with a tailwind..
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby Calvin27 » Mon Nov 07, 2016 2:35 pm

What is the incline and distance for starters. When I was beginning on the road, I called small inclines on beach road a 'hill'!
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby koshari » Mon Nov 07, 2016 3:38 pm

JoelBelton wrote:I'm only a beginner road cyclist and have just got back into cycling and trying to get a KOM for a short hill in my area. What would be the best way to cycle up this hill, as in a higher or lower gear? Seated or standing in the saddle? And would it be better having a strong tailwind behind me as I'm going up the hill or a tailwind before the turn to the hill for a fast start?
Thanks.
best way is to find a hill nobody else has ridden, log it and you will be KOM :-) however after a bit of time strava will backfill all the other earlier efforts and you will likely plummet down the order. :-(

Seriously though as others have suggested, hit it with speed on a day when the wind favours the approach, try and hit the beginning of the segment at a nice pace then start shifting through the gears to keep as much cadence/momentum up , once you hit the big ring on the back get up on the flats to clear your airway out and try to keep feeding your screaming lungs. at this point you will be doing far less speed and the wind advantage of being in the drops will have given way to the requirement to breathe.

of coarse its a moot point on some hills,
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foo on patrol
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby foo on patrol » Sat Nov 12, 2016 11:51 am

Get fitter and stronger and then worry about KOMs. :idea: :wink:

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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby Rural Rider » Thu Feb 09, 2017 7:23 pm

I've got a hill near me that I've seen only a couple of Cyclists riding - the gradients are insane and it's about a half mile straight up a ridge winding - my goal is to get fit enough to try and conquer it. I've got a Shimano Sora 2x9 ... not sure if this is enough for a Hill like this - I have been riding a few years now and only just upgraded to a decent road bike. I thought I was fit ... I'm not even close at this stage!

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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby g-boaf » Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:09 pm

foo on patrol wrote:Get fitter and stronger and then worry about KOMs. :idea: :wink:

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That's right, just do laps and laps and more laps of that damn hill and eventually it'll get easier.

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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby singlespeedscott » Sun Feb 19, 2017 5:24 pm

Climbing technique also depends on the length and grade of the hill as well as your body build.

Lighter riders will find the sit and spin technique easier whilst heavier riders, like myself, prefer to stand and muscle their way up.

All this is moot once you hit a cat2 climb or higher. You can only stand for so long and this is why lighter riders make better climbers. They simply have less mass to drag up the hill.

So the simple answer is to climb lots of hills and loss lots of weight.
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby Derny Driver » Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:15 pm

JoelBelton wrote:I'm only a beginner road cyclist and have just got back into cycling and trying to get a KOM for a short hill in my area...
Thanks.
If you know you are just a beginner cyclist, and that many other cyclists are better/stronger/fitter/faster than you, what does a KOM prove? Surely its an exercise in self deception?
I dont get it

JoelBelton
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby JoelBelton » Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:25 pm

Derny Driver wrote:
JoelBelton wrote:I'm only a beginner road cyclist and have just got back into cycling and trying to get a KOM for a short hill in my area...
Thanks.
If you know you are just a beginner cyclist, and that many other cyclists are better/stronger/fitter/faster than you, what does a KOM prove? Surely its an exercise in self deception?
I dont get it
If you don't get it, then why reply?

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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby Derny Driver » Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:45 pm

JoelBelton wrote: If you don't get it, then why reply?
I thought someone might explain it to me

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g-boaf
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby g-boaf » Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:57 pm

JoelBelton wrote:If you don't get it, then why reply?
There is an excellent topic on training here:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=91287

You should read it. When you have read it and applied the principles, let us know how you've progressed in a month or so.

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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby tcdev » Sun Feb 19, 2017 10:51 pm

As another beginner who has tried his hand at a few hills, competing only for KOM against a few mates, as all the cycling knowledge says, it's all about power-to-weight when climbing. I've lost around 18kg since I started riding, half of that in the last 6-8 months, and my climbing has noticeably improved in more recent months, despite doing no more cycling than previously. If you've got weight to lose, that'll be the biggest factor by far.

Next will be gearing, and that will depend on the hill itself. It's something that you will simply have to practice. A few weeks ago I flew up a hill that I'd struggled on before; I had a fair bit left at the top and, a little surprised if I'm honest - no PR for me that day because I'd got the gearing wrong. On another day on another hill I just got to the top right on my threshold; thought it was too slow but ended up with a PR! I've still got plenty to practice too!

EDIT: I should add, all my successes have been hitting the bottom at the highest possible speed, whilst not blowing out beforehand. The only time I find I'm standing on the way up is when I've got the gearing wrong, and that usually means I've blown it.
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foo on patrol
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby foo on patrol » Mon Feb 20, 2017 6:59 am

Hitting the bottom of a hill as fast as you can, is the wrong approach. The stronger riders will just ride around you towards the top. :wink:

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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby bychosis » Mon Feb 20, 2017 8:27 am

If you want to hit it fast practising and learning what gear you should be in will help. You will also need to know when to drop from the big ring on the front back tot he small ring.

I find I run down to the largest cassette ring then switch down to the smaller front ring. Depending on the hill it might be more useful to switch to the small chainring a couple of gears earlier so you don't need to back off the power as much. I find changing rear gears is easier under load.
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queequeg
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Re: What's the best way to get a PR on a hill?

Postby queequeg » Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:46 pm

I find it depends on the hill and whether it's a constant gradient, or starts gentle and ramps up later, or has insane gradients at the start and then flattens out.
Really, it all comes down to power to weight. There are guys 20kg lighter than me who can basically float up hills, and to simply match their pace with my weight I would need to be putting out 450W avg power for 10 min. You can't cheat the physics, so you have to understand what YOU are capable of.
Of course, you can always do a group ride and get some assistance from friends to snag a KOM. I have seen that done (e.g. Bobbin Head East KOM in Sydney was a calculated effort)
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