Road Cycling Skills

How to: Use Your Gears When Cycling Uphill

Get in gear and enjoy the climbs

Get out of the saddle on long climbs and at tough points

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

Get out of the saddle on long climbs and at tough points

As beneficial as a steady rhythm is, over a long climb, perhaps over 10 minutes, you are actually likely to get a bit mentally bored and physically ‘stiff’.

Keep your riding varied by getting out of the saddle every so often, giving your quads and hamstrings a break by recruiting the muscles in your upper back to pull you up the hill as you grasp the handlebars.

When you get out the saddle, click up a couple of gears, but not so many that you find yourself increasing the effort drastically and riding ‘into the red’.

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Getting out of the saddle to power it over the steeper, tougher sections will help as well, as you’ll be able to recruit more muscles in this position.