- Riding hills in training is one thing.
Riding hills in a race
is whole different thing all together.
After all, it is a race, you want to go fast
this is your big dance.
But trust me on this one,
and this is coming from a man
that's known for some bad mistakes,
there is knack to riding a hilly triathlon.
So let me run you through a few of my tips.
(whooshing)
(upbeat music)
Today I'm riding the Ironman 70.3 Mallorca course.
It starts out with 15 kilometres or so
of relatively flat roads leading into a rather cheeky climb.
As a race I've done numerous times,
some well, some not so well,
but one thing I have learned from racing these kind
of courses is that a majority of the field
will ride the hills far too hard.
It's a fact that we have to accept before we move on,
if you can't, then you'll likely fall in
to one of the following scenarios.
Alright, just hitting the climb,
I am holding a great cadence,
I'm just keeping it going from the flat into climb,
I feel great, yeah.
Oh god, maybe it's not so good.
(upbeat music)
We subconsciously try to maintain
the same comfortable cadence from the flat into the climb.
But this just results in a sudden spike in power
and probably a sudden regret too.
Right, here we go, still sitting in zone three heart rate,
I am flying.
Yeah.
Oh wait, hang on, zone four, zone five, zone six.
I think it's broken.
Oh man.
Heart rate is a great tool for measuring effort.
But, it's not as quick to respond as power.
Your monitor might read zone three
and you might feel quite fresh in the start of the climb
but it could take a little longer
to reach the actual effort zone you're in.
If you done either of these,
you're likely be suffering in the last third
or quarter of the climb.
Perhaps still holding a higher power
than you were on the flat,
but considerably less than when you first started the hill.
But by this point it's too late,
you'll have burnt a number of precious matches
that could cost you later in the race.
(upbeat music)
Yeah, nailed it.
Ahh...
- Yeah!
- Where'd he come from?
I didn't go hard enough.
Push too hard on the hill
and the tendency is to back off at the top.
And potentially cost you more time
than if you paced it better.
Recognise any of those?
I think we're all guilty of a couple.
But, let's look at how you can avoid them.
You want to start thinking about the climb on your approach,
not as you just hit it.
Now I appreciate it is race day,
you can't afford to fully back off.
But, perhaps consider keeping a slight cap on it.
Actually for some, riding with a slightly high cadence
will help to reduce the muscular fatigue
leading into the climb.
And it's also really important to reduce any sudden surges
or spikes in power before the climb.
Just try to maintain a constant effort level,
settle into a nice rhythm.
As you're into the climb,
you should start shifting down your gears to easier gears
as it helps to reduce any spikes in power.
It also helps to reduce that urge to maintain your cadence
from the flat to the climb.
And even if you don't have a power metre
you should work to the feel and pressure of your feet
through to your pedals,
the aim being to maintain the pressure
from the flat onto the climb.
Don't be surprised if you see a few athletes
opening up a gap here.
They're likely making all those previous mistakes
and you may well see them later on the climb,
later on the bike or even on the run.
As we get stuck into the meat of the climb,
it's important to try and find that groove and rhythm again.
Now if you are working to power,
most athletes naturally find
that they ride a slightly higher power on the climb
and they struggle to hold back.
However, I tend to advise,
that you cap this at around five to 10%
above your target race power.
That way, you're still utilising this increase.
But you're making sure you don't go too hard
into the red, potentially causing damage
for later in the race.
If you are working to heart rate instead,
just make sure you keep this the same to the flat
to the hill but make sure you're not making any surges
or spikes in effort level.
If you pace the climb well, as we crest it,
you should be able to settle straight back in
to your target power effort or pace.
As Matt Bottrill mentioned in one of our previous videos,
this is a point that so many athletes
lose a considerable amount of time.
So you want to try and get straight back into your aero bars
and start laying that power down, if you paced it well,
and potentially start passing some of those athletes
that have gone far too hard on the climb.
Now ultimately, we want to remind ourselves
that the run off the bike.
So going into the red or far too hard on the climb
is only gonna hamper that.
So you want to aim for a really evenly paced ride.
At the end of the day, we're own worst enemies.
And mostly comes down to holding ourselves back
and pacing the bike evenly.
I'm sure many of us have loads of stories of mistakes
on courses like this.
So please do share them in the comments section below.
It's always fun to read.
And if you haven't done so already,
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If you'd like to see that Matt Bottrill video
on how to cycle faster for free, just click down here.
And today we haven't actually spoken about the technique
of climbing, particularly on a road bike,
so you can see a video on how to climb on a tri bike,
by clicking down here.