King of the Mountain

[mattyb]

I want to win the King of the Mountain Jersey for stage 2 the HHCCC.
Ambitious? Yes. Unrealistic? Yes. But as my mum always told me - better to aim for the stars and miss, than aim for the gutter and hit.

So, apart from what I usually do and ride routes that have big elevation changes, how can I train for this?
I try to do Mt Dandenong once a week (I do this comfortably in 38/25 gearing if that helps) and also do hill climbing intervals on the wind trainer which seems to really help with strength.
It's in March 08 so I have 4 months, but I don't really have a plan.
Can anyone help? I don't mind how hard the training or rides I need to do are, and I can cope with the odd vomit session from over working.

[toolonglegs]

I like the plan!!.
From what I have read it is all about riding in the hills.I can't remember who it was but it was a big article in Cycle Sport about a TDF rider from the 80's.He was a pure climber,but did give some training tips and they where pretty simple...if you want to ride well in the hills then that is where you should train,especially closer to the event.Souplese is the euro word for it...maybee look it up.He sort of said that a few hard rides on the flat can muck up a lot of the muscle memory that is gained from training on climbs.
Very interested to hear how you go...KOM rider is one thing I will never be

[Deanj]

http://www.cptips.com/climb.htm

Not sure if you've read this before but may be of some use. I seem to do ok on hills but they may have something to do with living at 360m above sea level.

[mattyb]

That's interesting. I thought a few spin sessions on the flats would complement the hill work but I guess maybe not. I have noticed lately that since I have dropped a gear or two on the usual hills and really power up faster, it's been difficult to spin on flats.

Or maybe it's because I'm exerting more effort in the hills and have less energy on the flats.

[mattyb]

Thanks needsapush, that's a good article.

[europa]

Umm, that route's got pointy bits in it

Wonder if I can get time off from the kids

Richard

[toolonglegs]

That's interesting. I thought a few spin sessions on the flats would complement the hill work but I guess maybe not. I have noticed lately that since I have dropped a gear or two on the usual hills and really power up faster, it's been difficult to spin on flats.

Or maybe it's because I'm exerting more effort in the hills and have less energy on the flats.

I think spin sessions on the flat wouldn't be a problem but maybee I think if you went out and did a few really big efforts in bigger gears it may be different.I think the aim is to have a really fluid spinning motion.I suppose it depends how long and high and steep the climb is?.Obviously a 4 or 5 kilometer climb may not be enough to crack a big rider who can power over a climb.But if it is a good gradient and lenght then will be more critical.Do you just have to win one climb?.

[mattyb]

Yes it's just one climb - Option A Stage 2 - it's 50kms and most of it is climbing so I think it's safe to say those that can power over short climbs will not be able to do it with this.

At the moment, I try to give my feet that floaty feeling on the pedals. It feels like I'm not really exerting much effort anywhere in the pedal stroke. But it's difficult to maintain consistently.