(logo whooshing)
- Emma, I've been wondering,
some cyclists seem to go better uphill
when they're standing,
whilst others seem to go stronger when they're seated.
- Yeah, that's a good point.
I always thought it was just about the gradient,
so obviously when it's steep, better off standing
and if it's a more draggy climb
then you're more efficient to stay seated.
- [Chris] But yet you stand even
on the slightest of gradients.
What are you doing?
Are you tryin' to train for the next presenter challenge
that I've not been told about?
Or are you tryin' to look tall?
- Well, it's a good point, maybe it's that
but I dunno, it just feels better,
I don't feel like it's any more effort,
just feels more comfortable standing, really.
- Feel, since when did you care about feel.
I know that you only go for the science.
- Yeah, good point.
I think we need to do an experiment Chris.
- Aha, I love experiments.
So, we're gonna be comparing seated
versus standing climbing on a not super steep gradient.
And we want it to be as fair an experiment as is possible
so we will be doing our best to control all of the variables
and keep them constant.
- Most importantly power and weight
which means that we can't have coffee stop mid ride
which is making me quite sad already.
The other thing is that we have to repeat it several times
to make sure the result's reliable.
Given all those things,
I think we need to choose quite a short section of climb,
otherwise we're gonna be here all day
and frankly, I already need a coffee stop.
- Yeah, so with that in mind,
we have measured out a 500 meter section of climb
at around 8% gradient.
But we will be checking all of that later
when we upload our Wahoos and get the results.
- Yeah, and in terms of output,
well it's actually quite difficult
to directly measure cycling efficiency.
Like we'd have to be in a lab with masks
and gas exchange measuring equipment
and we can't really do that on the road,
especially not out here in beautiful Oman.
So what we're gonna do instead is measure heart rate,
both average for the segment and final heart rate.
That's kind of the closest we can come
to measuring effort we reckon.
Does mean that we have to make sure we're fully recovered
before we start each interval
so that our heart rate returns to baseline.
- Yeah, that makes good sense
and one final thing to note is
that we cannot control everything.
So for example our aero drag will change when we stand up
and ride out of the saddle
because of course your frontal area is getting much bigger.
And the other thing, cadence will be self-selected
because you also tend to pedal a little bit slower
when you stand up.
- [Emma] That's a very good point.
We didn't talk about how much power we're gonna use.
Like, watts per kilo, what d'you reckon?
- [Chris] I think five is a nice round number.
- Five?
I'm not gonna do five watts per kilo for three reps.
Four.
- 4 1/2, in the middle.
- Okay, deal.
- So, we have found our perfect climb for this experiment.
Six laps, three seated and three standing
in alternating fashion.
It's a short climb of around 90 seconds
and a gradient of 4 to 8%.
Great for easily repeated efforts.
We will spin 'round at the top,
roll back down to the bottom, spin around and start again.
So of course we need to mark our starting spot
and whilst the end of this bridge is a great place,
ideally you'd mark it with a stone or something but, well.
- [Emma] I'll find a stone, hold my bike.
- Emma, out of all the choice you have around here.
- There we go.
Rolling start.
We'll do a rolling start and gonna cross the line
to start the effort at the right power.
- Okay, let's go.
(upbeat music)
It's actually quite hard not to go on the right effort.
- Yeah, I think you were right
about the five watts per kilo I have to say.
This feels so slow!
- I hope that's on camera, Emma said I'm right!
- [Emma] Why are you going faster than me Chris?
- Well, there's a good reason. - Same watts per kilo.
- I know, there's a good reason for it though.
Even though we're doing the same watts per kilo,
the fact that I produce more, it's because I'm heavier
and it's not a steep gradient,
will propel me faster up the climb
and the total weight of myself and my bike
also comes into play.
As in, Emma's bike is pretty much the same weight as mine
and she's got less power to propel it.
(upbeat music)
Good work Emma, I quite enjoyed that.
- Yeah, it felt like we were doing real science.
- Yeah, and exercise.
- Can't really tell anything from the data
so better go back and we'll do it later.
- [Chris] Yeah, get the laptops out.
- But next time, I'm gonna weigh your bike down
so that it weighs the same
in proportion to your body weight as mine.
- That is not a bad idea actually.
- Don't like getting dropped on the hills.
- Nor do I, let's go.
- Well, we're back, we've written down the numbers,
we've averaged the numbers.
- And we have so many numbers now.
- Yeah, a lot of numbers.
And after all those numbers and all that effort,
I have to say that in my case, fairly inconclusive results
in that my heart rate was ever so slightly higher seated
than standing but within the realms of error, really.
- So I find that quite weird because mine shows
that my heart rate was on average five beats per minute
higher when I was standing,
which was sort of what I expected to see.
- Yeah, I mean that's what you'd expect from the theory
because physiologically it's more effort to stand
'cause you're using more muscles in your back
and your shoulders and your arms
so it's kind of, well it's harder work
so it's physiologically less efficient.
Which kind of makes me think
why would a cyclist bother standing up anyway?
- Well that's a good question because I actually was slower
when I was standing as well,
despite doing a tiny bit more power, around 1 1/2%.
- I think it comes down to,
like is efficiency always the thing we care about?
And it's not, like there are situations
where you don't care whether you're efficient,
you just need power.
- Yeah, going fast or tacking up a short, sharp climb.
- Yeah, or sprinting in your case
and definitely there's climbs that I've been up
where I don't care about efficiency,
I just need to get up it.
Like the Angliru, I just needed every watt I had
and I guess when you're standing
you bring your bum further forwards
and you can exert more muscular force
because it's kind of a better position.
- And even a feather weight climber
like Emma still has 50 kilos of gravity
helping assist the pedal going down.
- Yeah, so basically you can get way more power
when you're standing than when you're seated.
So, yeah there are definitely situations
where you need to stand
but then on the other hand, like you said earlier,
I would stand even sometimes when it's not very steep,
when it's a gradual climb and.
- That's because cycling's a sport that you do on feel
as much as anything else.
Science is great but, sometimes, if you wanna stand,
you've just gotta stand.
I would hate to ride the whole climb forced.
- Yeah, I mean would we change how you ride based on this?
- No, definitely not because I didn't like being forced
to sit down or stand up.
- Yeah and I agree, I love changing
between seated and standing on climbs
and you know, you gotta feel good on a bike,
you know, we're not robots,
we've gotta be able to ride on feel.
- But it is good to train your weakness
so if you're not very good at standing,
it's definitely good to practice that
whilst you're out training.
- Yeah and I have to practice seated power
'cause I don't have much of that so there you go.
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