Road Cycling Skills

How to: Use Your Gears When Cycling Uphill

Get in gear and enjoy the climbs

Gain as much momentum as possible on a downhill approach

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

Gain as much momentum as possible on a downhill approach

If the hill you are about to climb is preceded by a descent, you’re in luck – you might be able to build up some speed on the way down, then save your energy by coasting up the first portion.

How to: Overcome the Fear of Descending by Bike in 7 Easy Steps

Get up some speed by pushing the pedals in a higher gear, getting into the drops, keeping your back low and your elbows and knees in. If necessary, lift you bum out the saddle slightly and push back, to stabalise yourself as your speed increases.

Just before you begin to climb up the other side, make sure you’re in a reasonable climbing gear, then put in some fast cadence pedal strokes to power you up when the going is still fairly easy.

You’re going to have to put some work in once the momentum fades, but you’ll have saved some energy.