Three tips for better climbing (SkillZ and DrillZ)

Castelli SkillZ and DrillZ Ride, 26 April – Climbing is equivalent to public speaking for many people. We know it must be done from time to time, but we dread every second leading up to the event. Most of the time, our fears are unfounded, or the fear is based on not being properly prepared for what we will undertake.

In today’s class, we addressed three techniques to help make climbing a more palatable endeavor. To see the video of the class to simply watch or follow along, check out Zwift Live by ODZ on Facebook or watch it below:

For some unfathomable reason, many people hate going uphill on a bike. It’s just like going downhill (only a lot harder, and you could be reduced to walking to the top while pushing your bike. Other than that, it is pretty much the same.)

Ok, so maybe it’s not much fun, but like everything we cover on SkillZ and DrillZ, there are techniques that can make climbing a hill not such a daunting task. During this week’s class, we targeted three specific areas that, when used correctly, will help riders get over all but the steepest climbs without burning through their energy stores. Like always, though, we started our class by working on positioning. During the warm-up session, I tasked riders with moving backwards and forwards within the group to try to understand the effects of the draft and the efforts required to move to the front.

It’s Not All About Being Skinny

Despite popular opinion to the contrary, climbing is not all about being skinny. Sure, it helps to be under 60 kgs, but that is only if you can generate a fair amount of power. A 60 kg rider who can only generate 120W is not going to fair much better than a 100 kg rider pushing 200W. Sure, there will be a small difference due to gravity, but it will not be insurmountable. The factor that influences climbing the most, in my opinion, is power management.

On the flats, a ten percent drop in power due to fatigue can translate to a bad day, but if you can hide in the draft, you may be able to recover or last until the end. On climbs, a 10 percent drop in power means that the front of the race will quickly disappear, leaving you to suffer through the solitary drudge up the rest of the climb. It’s pretty much the definition of the opposite of awesome. So, how do we ensure that we don’t fade to black while climbing the bigger hills and mountains? Well, there are a few simple things we can do.

Feel the Rhythm

First, we need to take a look at the length, grade, and location of the climb. If the climb is early in the race, why on earth are we going to attack it like a crazy person? Unless the race is a climb followed by all downhill, there is no need to go out like your hair is on fire. The climbs that are not decisive in the grand scheme of things need to be addressed as such. Now, that does not mean we loligag up the climb. Au contraire mon frere, we should use that climb to dispatch some of the weaker climbers who may be able to sprint or make a late break if the climb is the only decisive terrain for a long while. Or, we should keep the pace high enough to discourage attacks. That’s where climbing at a steady effort and cadence come into play. Team Sky and Movistar are masters at this. Watch any mountain stage that either of those two teams want to control. The pace is never easy, and the bigger or weaker riders get shelled early and often. However, the majority of the riders can stay with the group, albeit while suffering a little bit. Why are they able to hang with such a tough tempo? Well, that’s because the pace is consistent despite being high. Our bodies adapt quickly, and as long as the effort is not above our threshold, we can usually settle in and maintain for a good while. Provided the accelerations or few and small, riders can just get into their own rhythm and match the speed of the group. This reduces the number of matches being burned, as you do not have to call on your reserves to catch back on to a wheel.

To work on this skill, we went up the reverse KOM and the Esses maintaining a steady cadence and effort. Sure, we spread out a little, as gravity had a bit of play, but we stayed fairly well grouped other than those who took a flyer (talking to you T. Hageman! ;)). We entered the base of the climb at 2.5 and periodically lifted the pace, finishing off the climb at 3.0. That was a very small acceleration, and those who could hold that effort had no problem bunching up and working together. We repeated that drill as we went through the Esses, but the rolling nature and short duration of those climbs highlighted the difficulty of maintaining a constant tempo. The reverse KOM, though, was a great example of how to execute that technique.

Sitting and Standing

On the next iteration of the reverse KOM, we transitioned to switching between seated and standing. Determining when you should remain in the saddle or stand is really a matter of personal preference. If I am fairly fresh and not throwing down, I prefer to stay seated and spin up the climb. If I plan to attack or anticipate attacks, I may spend more time out of the saddle, as I can respond and accelerate quicker. Standing has the benefit of allowing you to use your bodyweight to put power into the pedals, which is a great way to give your butt a break during a steady tempo climb. It also taxes the system more.

Do your own experiment. Get out of the saddle and push a little higher wattage than when you were sitting. Your heart rate will go up significantly quicker than had you just accelerated from a seated position. The difference is that you may not feel comfortable or able to lift the pace from your seated position, and you surely will not be able to do it as quickly or violently as when standing.

For our drill, we practiced moving from the seated position at 2.5 W/kg, shifting up (harder) twice while coming out of the saddle and holding 3.0-3.5. After about a minute, we shifted back to our original gearing and sat down. We repeated it a few more times up the climb and then through the Esses before getting ready for the next drill.

Attacking Out of the Saddle

On our next trip up the reverse KOM, we stayed out of the saddle the whole time to work on attacking and bringing our body up to but not over our own redline (think blowing up your engine). The drill was to have a short but massive acceleration and then settling in at 3.5 W/kg before returning to 2.5 W/kg for a short recovery.

This drill was a bit harder and had us strewn across the mountain, but it showed riders how to manage their efforts. On the climbs, this is extremely important. The price you pay for overdoing it on a climb is exponentially greater than on the flats. On the flats, you can coast or soft pedal a good bit before your momentum completely falls away. On a climb, once you start to lock up, you’re done. It is very difficult to recover on a climb, as the pedaling never gets easier. It is very similar to riding in erg mode on the trainer when you slow your cadence down below 50 RPMs. At that point, you are simply mashing the pedals trying to turn them over. With a lot of effort over some time, you can get it going again, but the cost of energy wasted is tremendous. It’s the same thing on a climb.

Going Too Hard

Since we still had a few minutes, we rolled back to the Esses for the last few minutes of the class. The last, impromptu drill consisted of attacking at an effort over redline any time the grade went above two percent, riding at 2.5 W/kg between zero and two percent, and soft pedaling any descents. The whole purpose of this drill was to show the effects of attacking too hard and/or too often. Sure enough, many legs exploded in the last two minutes of the ride, but everyone got the point: ride smart. On that note, we transitioned to an easy spin for the remaining five minutes of the ride.

Conclusion

Remember, climbing is not much different than sprinting when it comes to having or taking an advantage. Sure, some people are naturally predisposed to be better climbers than others due to size, but the ability to time attacks and manage one’s effort can neutralize any size advantage. Plus, throwing down a crazy-hard attack may just get you away, as the traditional climbers may not think you can hold it or manage your effort after the attack. The next time you ride the hilly course, Box Hill, or the Volcano Climb, practice laying down some attacks and managing the efforts. Start easy and build up, just to see what you can do. If you know your limits, you can develop your tactics accordingly.

That’s it for this week. Next week we will go back to covering bridging a gap, but we will focus on doing it after a natural split in the bunch rather than an attack. Until then, Ride On!

Sprinting on Zwift (SkillZ and DrillZ)

Castelli SkillZ and DrillZ Ride, 19 April – On a number of occasions, we have discussed sprinting during the Castilli SkillZ and DrillZ Ride. Today, we focused a little more specifically on sprinting on Zwift vs outdoors.

To see the video of this week go to Zwift Live by ODZ on Facebook or watch it below:

Intro

Sprinting on Zwift is a bit different than during IRL races. In IRL races, sprints are executed best when the sprinter has a few teammates or unwitting accomplices help ramp up the speed while blocking the wind. The sprinter then has the opportunity to conserve energy and gearing before launching. During Zwift sprints, though, some TeamODZ teammates and I figured out that putting a few riders up the road, spaced a few seconds apart, gives the sprinter a better draft zone and multiple sling shots. Because of this difference, we decided to focus only on the Zwift-specific sprinting this week.

Sprint Positioning

As we got into our drillz today, we started the class by discussing positioning. We have covered positioning many times during SkillZ and DrillZ, but I wanted to make sure that we reinforced the instruction by demonstrating the difficulty of sprinting from a poor position. So, we set it up to have two groups. Group 1 (G1) moved to the back of the bunch, and Group 2 (G2) held the front at 1.5 W/kg. When told to go, G1 jumped to 3.0 W/kg for 20 to 30 seconds. While 3.0 W/kg is not a full on sprint for most people, the doubling of pace of the main field is fairly realistic. The point was not for G1 to get away but to show how difficult it is to get away if the sprint is started from the rear of the field. In fact most of the riders were not able to get more than a second or two ahead of G2 after 30 seconds. G2 experienced the same effect when we swapped positions.

Teammates as Slingshots

Next, we shifted focus to Zwift-specific sprint tactics, specifically the use of teammates. During IRL events, the best way to execute a sprint is to have two or more teammates ramp up the speed, peeling off as they fall off pace, and ending with the sprinter launching off the wheel of the last teammate just before he or she loses steam. That works for IRL events, not so much on Zwift. Why is that, you ask? Well, there is one simple explanation. In Zwift, your avatar can ride through the riders in front of you. During IRL events, you can try that once. After you pick yourself up out of the heap of bikes and torn lycra, you will quickly understand how bad of an idea that was.

Since the leadout train is not very effective on Zwift, some folks have figured out how to get the same effect. Basically, it involves sending riders up the road, spread out every one to two seconds. Spreading out some teammates, creates a series of draft zones for the sprinter to use as slingshots and keep building speed. We executed this drill by sending myself and one other rider slightly up the road and having the two group take turns using us as slingshots.

Sprinting From a Distance

For the grand finale, we moved on to sprinting from distance. This is a tough move to make, but may be entirely necessary depending on your opponent. Sprinters come in different types. Some have immense power from 200 meters. Others have a quick, explosive start but can’t go for more than 10-15 seconds. Still others can go from 600 meters and beyond, despite not having super explosive power. Today we worked on going from longer distances to neutralize those short-burst sprinters because there truly is a technique to the long sprint from a bunch.

For the final series of drillz, we broke the long sprint into three parts. First, the burst is needed to create space from your opponents. Second, the gap maintenance is required to set up the finale and hold off any chasers. Third, the finale is needed to close out the sprint, closing the door on any counterattackers trying to come over the top. The burst can be roughly equated to three times your FTP. No, you cannot hold that for very long. That’s not the point. That effort is only a 10-15 second effort to get away. After that short effort, you transition into the gap maintenance phase, which is the longest phase. During this time, you have to hold at least 1.5 to 2 times your FTP. The further out you start the sprint, the longer you have to endure this lactic-acid, lung-searing, heart-pounding pain. The best part of this phase is that you only have another 10 to 15 seconds of effort remaining once you finish it. The bad part is that the remaining time has to be done much closer to the 3x FTP from the burst phase. Basically, you have to give everything you have.

The ability to endure this pain is what separates first and second place, more often than not. We executed a number of these intervals ranging from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Pretty much everyone felt that the 60 second effort was pretty horrible.

Conclusion

As we discussed at the end of the ride, sprinting is much more complex than just being the rider with the highest 10 second power. Placing yourself in a tactically beneficial position and utilizing your teammates to maximize your advantage will help you neutralize the strengths of your opponents. Then, following Sun Tsu’s advice to know yourself as well as your enemy, you can turn the tables on your adversaries. Understanding your capabilities and limitations will allow you to dictate the terms of the race, rather than reacting to the plan of another rider. Practicing the long sprint and developing the long power can give you an edge by disrupting the plans of those monster-legged, Greipel types. Notice that I indicated the need to practice. During the last drill of the day, the common theme was going too hard, too early and fading out of contention. Keep working on the drillz that we did during the class and really try to learn your capabilities, and you will put yourself in the best possible position.

Next week, we’ll work on our climbing skillz, including when it is appropriate to go over the red line. Until then, Ride On!