Hank: Have you ever been in a group and notice that one rider who constantly gets in and
out of the saddle on every slight gradient, and you get tired of watching him bounce up
and down while you sit and grind away while in the saddle. Then you've asked yourself,
well is it better? Should I be riding out the saddle? Now, I've got to be honest, I've
grown up watching those cycling greats, you know, the likes of Marco Pantani, famously
in the drops but hammering away out the saddle up those high climbs. Then there's Alberto
Contador winning climb after climb out the saddle, dancing away on the pedals. So that
makes me think, is that the fastest way of climbing? Is that the most efficient?
I mean it does look cool, but is it the best? You don't see the likes of Chris Froome in
and out the saddle, do you? He sits in the saddle revving that high cadence. So, well
there must be something in it. So in order to answer this question and put this whole
discussion to bed, I thought I would do an experiment. Yes, I would do some science.
Yes, you heard me right, Hank doing science, yes with a mustache. I mean I'd normally leave
the science part to Ollie, or Si but Si seems to be frolicking in the woods and Ollie seems
to be sculpting that rather horrific hair cut. So I guess it's left to me. I am going
to pull on the lab coat and the glasses. Don't have any glasses but you get what I mean.
All right, let's get to it. So I made it here to my climb. Now, this is
a climb that I am going to do the test on and I'm lucky enough to drag my dad in to
help me. But dad, what do you think? What's more efficient? Climbing, or seated while
climbing? Hank's Dad: Well, I think it's got to be seated
because it must be more aerodynamic, comfier, and I have to say when I did it, you know
I can't really stand up anyway. Hank: Oh, so maybe our next video should be
teaching you to stand up while climbing? Hank's Dad: I thought our next video is going
to be restaurants and vineyards in France? Hank: Yes, maybe that one. All right now,
thanks for your input. This is a climb that's 1 kilometer long, average gradient of around
9%. So it should be absolutely perfect for my experiment. Now I'm doing it four times,
two standing and two seated. I'm going to average around 250 watts or I'm going to try
to, and we're going to work out the efficiency through my heart rate, so then we can go through
it all at the end. So without further ado, with my mustache and a rather soggy look,
I think I'm ready to go. What do you think dad?
Hank's Dad: Look at that mustache? Hank: Ouch. So I made it to the bottom of
my climb, in the little town of Nailsworth. Still a bit wet, a bit cold but luckily, I
got a climb to warm myself up. I'm going from the cattle grid all the way to the top. Should
take me around 3 minutes but we'll see. Heart rate's on, and the power is on which is good,
and I'm going to do a rolling start. So here goes, are you ready?
[music] Looks like we're in a yard already. In the
saddle, hitting that 250 watts. Got a nice truck behind me.
[music] So that's my first seated session done. I
tried sitting at 250 watts. A little bit over it, it's a bit harder when you goes on the
corners because you initially just want to just rise up them, or at least I do. But I
did my best to sit on the 250. My heart rate was quite high, but we'll see and analyze
it when we get back. But now I've got to spin round, back down to the bottom and I'm going
up, standing up. All right, without further ado, here goes.
[music] It's a lot easier to put the power-up, without
the saddle. You got the extra weight of yourself leaning on the pedals. So I think it's actually
harder sitting the 250 upset. I kind of want to sit at 300.
[music] First hairpin. Easy. Third hairpin, almost
there now. [music]
So excuse the weather. The weather is truly, or the rain has truly come out now. I apologize
for my dad who is sitting there on a motorbike while I'm staying warm actually in the climb
but that was my second run and it was just standing up, and I actually felt it was quite
sore, but I'm not sure because I haven't ridden a bike a lot in the last two weeks. But it's
quite sore in the lower back and the arms, and that is a massively long climb.
So my initial thought is, well yes, sitting might more efficient and comfier. But I've
got two more runs to go. Hopefully less traffic and a little bit less rain but we'll see.
All right, third time down let's go. Let's go on, all right. Third time up, this time,
seated. All right, let's go, dad. [music]
My cadence is naturally higher when in the saddle. It's just easier to turn that, to
pet those pedals in a higher RPM. Heart racing, we're at 167, between 150 and 165. Right,
that's third one done, feel like I'm well warmed up, getting back into the swing of
things and yes, it felt good to be seated. Got one more to go, and that yes you guessed
it, it's standing. [music] All right last run, standing. All right here
goes. [music]
I kind of want to sit down. It's horrible, but you're not actually allowed to sit down,
but you really want to. Last bit now, 100 meters, [music] and lap, done. Four, done.
So dad that's our experiment done, how did you find it?
Hank's Dad: Wet. Hank: Cold.
Hank's dad: Cold. Hank: You did well on the motorbike I thought.
Hank's dad: Yes, not too bad. Hank: But, what do you reckon, your initial
reaction to this experiment, what do you think is going to be more efficient?
Hank's dad: I think proved to you that actually sitting down is more efficient than you expected.
Hank: Yes, I think what I found quite interesting was when I was out the saddle, it was just
uncomfortable. You know when you kind of like, your back hurts. and you kind of like, get
tired of standing up, and you can see your heart rate going up. So I was kind of interested
in that and it's weird. I guess cycling, you have to do it on feel a little bit.
Hank's dad: Do you think if it's a shorter hill, like a quick burst of energy you'd be
standing up? Hank: Yes, I think on a shorter climb where
power to weight doesn't really matter and you can just bomb over it then--
Hank's dad: Because this is a long hill. Hank: Yes, and I think being out the saddle
on a steep climb-- Hank's dad: I'm going to miss standing up
on a hill like this, it a long time standing up.
Hank: So yes, I mean, my initial reaction is it's more efficient to be sitting down.
But we're going to have to see and look at the results. Let's go and get a shower then
shall we? Hank's dad: Let's go and get a shower
Hank: Not together. Hank's dad: We've grown out of that.
Hank: Dad, we've never did that. The data is in. Now, the first run I did was seated.
Now I tried to average 250 watts, unfortunately, I didn't do that. No, I actually average 275
watts. My heart rate was 167, so fairly average, and I did that one-kilometer climb, in 5 minutes
and 28 seconds. Now, if we look at the first standing run, I did a power of 282, so slightly
higher. I had a heart rate of 163 so slightly lower than seated. But I did the climb a fair
bit slower. I did the climb in 5 minutes and 43 seconds. So that's interesting, I actually
thought that out the saddle would be a little bit faster, but no. No, it's actually the
seated that is faster. So then if we look at the second seated run,
I did that climb with 276 watts, with a heart rate of 162, in a time of 5 minutes and 26
seconds. The last standing run I did with an average power of 276 watts, heart rate
was 167, but I did it in five minutes and 46 seconds. So I think what we can tell from
the experiment is that being seated is faster, it seems to be that little bit more efficient
especially on the one-kilometer climb average gradient of nine percent.
In conclusion, I guess seated and standing does have its place. If you're looking on
those longer alpine climbs then you can't sustain standing for that period of time,
but if you're looking to do a sprint or get a high max power then it's got to be out the
saddle using your weight to push on the peddles also. There we have it, I hope you've enjoyed
this experiment and I hope it's answered some of those questions you might be asking. So
next time you go out on the bike, work out what you find more efficient, have a go, and
let me know what you think in the comments section below.
One thing I would say though is if you struggle standing up or it's a weak area in your cycling
then practice it, if you're struggling to sustain a power while seated, then practice
that too, that way you've got more in your armory so if you do want to access that high
power you can jump out the saddle, and if you do want to sustain a good rhythm then
you can do that in the saddle also. Right, that's it from me and I'll see you
in the next video. Just want to say a big thank you to Hank's dad for getting wet, cold,
and helping me out with this experiment. I'll see you all in the next video. Make sure though
that you give this a big thumbs up, if not just for the mustache, luckily it didn't get
blown off. [sighs] [00:11:48] [END OF AUDIO]