Climbing hills the smart way
By
Unknown
Posted: 2020-08-15T21:18:00Z
With 20 years of Illinois bike riding, cycling mostly flat terrain came easy to me. But when I started cycling with members of the Bike Palatine Club a couple years ago, some Barrington area hills really challenged me: Braeburn Hill and Signal Hill, for example. After cycling all summer, I was impressed by the difference in how I rode them in the fall versus my first spring attempts. The reason was how I trained to ride them.
This summer I relocated from Wheeling, IL to Palmyra, WI. This Kettle Moraine State Forest area provides breathtaking views and fantastic hills, hills longer and steeper than what I'd ridden, formed by enormous sediment deposits as major glaciers receded 15-18,000 years ago. The Barrington hills, also moraine in origin, now pale in comparison - just warmups in my view. I quickly realized attacking these new hills meant riding smarter, so as to conserve some energy for the return ride home. I have never used my gears more than in the Kettle Moraines.
Cycling different kinds of hills means knowing which gear(s) fit the climb. Get it right and you love the hills; get it wrong, well, you don't. Longer inclines, while not too steep, are sneaky. I rely on the middle front sprocket, adjusting my rear gears for a com-fortable climb. These hills can be really exhausting if you don’t manage pedaling cadence. Easing up on the gear level conserves your energy - grinding it out doesn't. On steeper hills, I keep a regular pace until I begin to ascend. Then I switch to the middle front sprocket and work my rear gears down until I am in the easiest one. If the strain gets to be too much, the largest front sprocket is my friend, letting me switch to a middle rear gear for a perfect finish.
Climbing is also a mental game. What works for me is NOT looking at the hill's peak as I climb. For one thing, the peak you see at first may NOT be the actual top. How many times have I crested a hill only to find it turns and climbs another half mile? So I just glance up once or twice, visualize the summit, but focus only on the road ahead of my tire. I know a great downhill awaits me, even if it's not immediate. It is ALWAYS a welcome relief!
Of all the hills, my favorites are the rollers. Once at the top I switch to my biggest front ring, coast a bit, then open the throttle to climb at least halfway up the next roller. I revert to the middle ring and adjust the rear gears to finish the climb. On an especially big hill, I switch to that friendly large ring before clicking down in the rear.
Gearing correctly really makes you love hills, no matter what types you encounter. While challenging, they leave you with such a great high once you master them.
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