Road Cycling Skills

How to: Use Your Gears When Cycling Uphill

Get in gear and enjoy the climbs

Image: Brian Townsley
Get into the right chainring early... Image Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious
Use the descent to gain as much momentum as possible. Rain: optional. (Image: Peter Trimming)
That applies to you, too! (Image: Tejvan Pettinger)
Women's pedal strokes not as powerful?
Image: Brian Townsley
Over a sprint your heart rate won't react in time to register the effort. Image: Coda2

The gears on your bike are your friends when the gradient goes up and using them effectively will make all the difference to your climbing.

For the basics on how to change up and down the gears, we explained shifting on Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo gear systems here.

Everyone climbs in their own way – some people like to stick to lower gears and spin their legs as much as possible, whilst others prefer to muscle it through the bigger gears. Lighter riders benefit more from getting out of the saddle whilst heavier riders will churn away in a seated position.

There are a few basic principles however that will help you – here are our tips…