Cycling the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail.
View from the trail, high above the modern highway
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The Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail in Oregon is a paved trail with a fascinating history. Built from 1913 to 1922 it was the first major paved highway in the Pacific Northwest and the first scenic highway constructed in the United States. Modeled after the great scenic roads of Europe, it was designed for a public who wanted to enjoy nature’s beauty from their Model T. With a maximum of 5% grades and 200ft turning radius it’s really a delight to bike.
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The trail head parking lot with restrooms and visitor information. $5 for the day.
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The twin tunnels with structure above to protect from rockfall.
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There are three disconnected ribbons along abandoned stretches of the historic highway that total 12 miles of car free cycling. I recently biked the section from Hood River to Mosier, a gentle but fun 4.5 miles through two climate zones. This section is considered to be the most scenic as it strays far uphill from the modern highway that replaced it. Winding past spectacular geologic formations, traveling through twin tunnels and past numerous viewpoints, it packs a lot into a short ride.
My only complaint is that I wished it was longer – so much so that after we finished the 9 mile round trip we turned around and did it again.
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The brighter the better…pocket free multi-utility…kits that zoom.
The new season is IN and flying out the door already. We’ve electrified the palette to give you every advantage when riding through Fall. More Soleil options (check out the new pocketless Free), more thermal tops and tights, new performance partners like Showers Pass and lots of custom creations that speak our collective language: BIKE.
“Anyone who has ever gotten on a bike should come to RAGBRAI.”
– From a 79 year-old cyclist riding in his 43rd RAGBRAI.
“Everybody’s Ride.”
– From a Dad on a tandem with his 12 year-old daughter.
“You don’t love it, you don’t hate it, you just live it – and then you fall in love with it.”
– Jeannette Segale, Terry Bicycles Bike in Bliss Ambassador
Headwinds, tailwinds, side winds; thunderstorms, heat, and humidity. All 12,000 plus cyclists are facing this together. Knowing this makes the miles of pedaling (and eating) across Iowa easier.
Occasional music from portable iPhones and speakers inspire riders as we grind up and over the frequent rolling hills: Bob Marley’s “People don’t worry, ’bout a thing, ’cause every little thing’s, gonna be alright,” and Pink Floyd’s “All in all it’s just another…” and everyone together shouts “Brick in the wall!”
The rolling hills appear to be alive in the distance, as thousands of cyclists make the roads morph into a large crawling caterpillar on wheels. Frequent Hills – my husband calls them Friendly and Frequent. I call them Frequent and Ferocious.
RAGBRAI: This Party on Wheels acronym stands for Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. Or, my interpretation: Ragged Athletes Gorging Back Rich Appetizing Iowan Food.
This is the forty seventh year towns have hosted the ride across Iowa, which originated with two cycling journalists from the Register newspaper.
Each year the ride grew until it’s now capped at 12,000 registered weekly riders. However, estimates are anywhere from 15,000 to 25,000, as riders hop on to join for a day, or several days, and state highways are closed to motor vehicles.
Each pass-through town (about every 6 to 12 miles) seems to try to outdo the previous town in welcoming weary cyclists. In Daud, (Yabba Dabba Daud!) riders are welcomed by Wilma and Betty Flintstone, complete with a functioning Flintstone Mobile.
Sprinklers, Bike Sculptures, Bike Trees, and historic buildings form an entertaining back drop as Boy Scouts, Swim Teams, Booster Clubs, Firemen, and all the friendly people of Mid-America turn out to raise funds for a variety of small town needs.
“Eat a slice of pie and help us build our grandstands!”
“Buy a two-dollar pocket taco and help fund our roof repairs!”
Each year a different route and a different set of towns reap the economic rewards as thousands of hungry, thirsty riders swarm their roads like a plague of locusts. I do my best to help. However, I have yet to try the peanut butter and jelly sandwich…with banana, strawberries and chocolate…on home made bread…grilled, as I just didn’t have enough room after consuming the Bacon Lettuce Tomato Cheese and Mayo sandwich on “thick hand-made” bread, which benefited the local high-school swim team.
Cyclists nosh on freshly baked pies as Amish Families hire local farmers with pick up trucks to haul their mobile ovens to sites alongside the route. These hard-working folks set up at 4:30 AM and begin baking pies: peach, raspberry, apple, blackberry, strawberry rhubarb — so many flavors and not enough days to try them all. I have to say: my peach pie savored alongside the corn and soybean fields was quite heavenly.
Iowans do this ride up right. We’re informed that there is a RAGBRAI book over a foot thick with everything towns and the state have learned over time about accommodating this one hit wonder of an onslaught of humanity. Expect lines, but know that every pie server, sandwich maker, smoothie dude, and Mr Pork Chop griller have the fastest method available to keep lines moving fast, and bellies on overflow.
A typical day starts at 5AM. The 6AM bugle calls resonate across the fields as tents are broken down and loaded on tractor trailers. Lines begin to form for coffee, breakfast and port-o-lets. Lipstick sunrise creeps up over the cornfields as silhouettes of cyclists pedal along, shadows following. Pedal through small towns to final destination of different overnight town about 70 miles East. Pull into camp late afternoon, bellies on empty even after BLTs, pork chops, corn, pies, ice cream and burritos. Locate a shady site if you’re lucky. Find your camping gear and baggage from among 1,000 plus other bags. Set up camp. Eat, Sleep, Repeat.
Numerous repeaters. One guy on his 43rd ride. What keeps you coming back, I ask. “This…” I look around with him at the hundreds of clustered tents and bikes; we listen to the sounds of the tent cityscape; quiet conversation, tent zippers opening and closing, mattresses being blown up, and snoring as the sun melts red, purple and blue beyond the cornfields.
Today the Tour de France winds up in Paris, after three weeks of intense struggle, and surprises all the way.
The parade into Paris is always the most widely watched stage of the Tour. It’s designed for TV, with a flat course highlighted by loops around the Champs d’Elysées, and tight sprints against the backdrop of Paris’s gleaming monuments.
Whatever happens in the sprint finish, as long as he doesn’t fall off his bike along the way, Egan Bernal will be the first Columbian rider to win the Yellow Jersey, as well as the youngest rider to win the race in over 70 years.
The 2019 Tour de France was fascinating from start to finish. With questions hanging over the only clear favorite, last year’s winner Welshman Geraint Thomas, riding for Ineos, and a wide field of possible contenders, expectations were wide open.
French rider Julian Alaphillipe, of Deceuninck-Quick Step, emerged as a serious GC contender. He scored a stage win early in the race to claim the Yellow Jersey, soon lost it, reclaimed it, and held onto it for most of the race, to the delight of the French fans.
Perhaps the least surprising result this year: Peter Sagan stepped into the Green Jersey very quickly, and there was little doubt he would keep it for the race. This is his seventh points category win, a new record.
Highlights of the Final Week of the 2019 Tour de France
A handful of possible favorites seemed out of the running after the first two weeks, with too much time to be made up. In the last week it became clear they were playing a waiting game, saving strength for the Pyrenean and Alpine stages.
Alaphillipe’s margin was not wide enough to be anything like certain, and with strategic efforts over a few days at least six riders vaulted into reach of the podium. Once again it seemed this could be anyone’s race.
Thibault Pinot had emerged in the second half of the race as a real force. Many French afficionados pinned their hopes on him, and there hardly seemed to be a kilometer on the entire course of the Tour without his name painted on the road as encouragement. After losing time in the early stages, Pinot made it all up with two stage wins in the Pyrenees. He fought his way up to 5th place, within seconds of the podium, and in reach of the win. His frustration was perfectly clear when he was forced to abandon early in stage 19, with a worsening muscle tear. With Pinot’s ambitions went the hopes of millions of French fans. At least they had the consolation of Alaphillipe still wearing yellow after so much of the race – the first time a French rider has worn yellow for so long in decades.
Alaphillipe gave his all in every stage, fueled by the honor of wearing the yellow jersey, and no doubt buoyed by the energy of the fans. He has been considered a puncheur, a rider who can both sprint and climb, but in this Tour he was tenacious in the high mountains as well, where the grimpeurs usually prevail and leave the others in their wake. He endured through the Pyrenean stages into the Alps, where the intensity of the climbs and the efforts of the climbers finally took their toll.
Quintana is in the top echelon of the grimpeurs, pure climbers who seem to hang on in flat and time trial stages so that they can soar on the highest peaks. In this Tour he seemed too far adrift to still have hopes in the second half of the race, but on Stage 18 he showed us what he is capable of. This was a classic mountain stage tactic, where a bold attack and superior climbing ability can suddenly reverse a 5 minute deficit. Quintana seized his opportunity mid-way through a stage with multiple climbs and simply rode away, out of the reach of chasers, chiseling a 9 minute deficit down to 4 minutes – strategically into the zone of threat to the leader. Pinot overcame other chasers to place second that day, and advanced significantly himself.
Stage 19, in the Alps, was a day when Alaphillipe’s daily efforts and limitations as a climber were having an impact. He was struggling to stay with the Peloton when Egan Bernal attacked approaching the first of two high summits in the stage. He opened a two minute gap on Alaphillipe in only one kilometer, to become the virtual leader of the race. He was showing every sign of prevailing for a stunning win on the second summit.
It turned out the stage was won by a landslide – literally. Inches of hail fell on the course and tons of debris blocked the road ahead, forcing the days’ race to be suspended with no winner declared, and times taken from the summit last passed.
Belgian rider Tim Wellens, of Lotto-Soudal, was a constant figure in breakaways and summit sprints through the Tour, holding on to the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey for most of the race, only to lose it in the last Alpine stages to French rider Romain Bardet.
The last day in the Alps, Stage 20, was drastically shortened because of the weather related road conditions. It was almost a drag race, a third of the stage’s planned length, with more than half of it being a constant slog up a steep Alpine climb. The pace was fast, a breakaway moved early and stayed away from the peloton effectively, with one rider, Vincenzo Nibali, a previous Tour winner, accelerating from the front and staying well away for an impressive stage win – his first in five years.
Alaphillipe lost contact with the peloton on the climb, while Bernal and Thomas rode together toward the front of the race to claim first and second places overall. Bernal is only 22, and seemed a little astonished to be wearing yellow, but his consistent presence in the race standings, and impressive performances in the toughest stages, mark him as a champion to watch for years to come.
Where do all those cool Terry cycling jersey designs come from?
Every jersey pattern starts with a creative idea – a doodle or spark of inspiration in a designer’s imagination.
Where do those ideas come from, and how are they transformed into the sophisticated jersey designs of Terry cycling apparel – appealing patterns that work with all the technical requirements of athletic gear, and across a full range of sizes?
It’s a complicated business, but here at Terry it’s what we do every day.
Our special Tour de France collection is a great example of our unique creative approach to bike clothing. Let’s take a closer look at what happens behind the scenes, with the team members who create Terry jersey designs.
Creative Director and VP of Marketing, Paula Dyba, is the driving force behind the Terry Tour de France Collection. She considers this work to be one of the highlights of her year.
“I am an admitted Tour de France student. I love everything about it and really became a fan in the early days of Terry, mostly because of Georgena, who was a super fan of the pro peloton. There’s so much history and romanticism for the sport of cycling and for 21 days in July, life can be gloriously consumed by the passion for all things revolving around it.
“I have to say that planning for the next season’s Tour collection is my favorite thing to do as Creative Director for Terry. It begins with studying the route just as soon as it’s announced (which is never early enough), coming up with a theme that seems relevant to either the geography or some notable thing (this year was awesome as it was the 100th anniversary of the yellow jersey and the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx winning his first of 5 Tours). Next, I put together a Pinterest board with various inspirations that our designer can use to develop print concepts.”
This year’s board featured:
Eddy Merckx references from his racing career. He raced for Molteni and they had very distinctive jerseys.
Belgian crests and iconography, as the Tour began in Brussels which has a very deep cycling heritage.
Sunflower fields, which are also iconic and explode along the countryside in France this time of year.
Stripes and flags which you see lining all the great climbs during the Tour.
Fashion inspirations for print treatments around the color yellow.
“My job’s easy – our designer has to take all of this and develop a collection around it. Sometimes it’s a literal expression, like the Eiffel19 and Belgian Heart designs. In other cases, it’s very illustrative and artistic, like the Stained Glass print.”
Terry’s lead print designer is Wayne Hammond, who was working on bike graphics at Cannondale when an opportunity opened for him in their apparel division: “I loved it, in a few years time I was the lead designer handling all cut and sew apparel for road and mountain biking, men’s and women’s, sublimated prints from inline collections, to Tour De France Race Kits.”
“I have always been a fan of Roberto Cavalli prints. I like Junya Watanabe, Stella McCartney. I love to follow big sportswear brands like Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Lulu, Athleta, Maloja for both prints & tech.”
Wayne starts a project like the Terry Tour de France Collection with Paula’s creative brief and visual references. With a goal of ten finished designs, he will set out to create multiple variations of 15 to 20 proposals, which will be considered in a series of roundtable discussion with the whole Terry apparel team. Favorites are chosen for further development.
Sometimes a design is shelved that has taken hours and hours of work to create. That can be hard, but Wayne is matter of fact about it. He says, “Some day I’ll fill a book with unused designs just for fun.”
Wayne often starts with very loose sketches for composition, and then transfers into software like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to develop designs and prepare them for the technical process of fabric printing.
He starts working on overall design concepts without considering apparel shapes, but adapts those into initial design proposals on a short sleeve jersey pattern for simplicity.
When the first round selections are made, Wayne places the patterns on different garments where zippers, side panels and special patterning come into play. He says designs often get better when those adaptations happen.
Wayne explains the technical considerations, “Terry offers a wide range of sizes and some designs can look completely different on a small size jersey, compared to an XL. Also, artwork that spans across seams is always tricky, you have to be careful, but Terry manufacturers have good print placement and great sewers.”
“While we try not to be overly obvious, designs can be created in a way that can help visually slim the body, you have to be careful that this effect works in all sizes, otherwise it can have a strange effect.”
Wayne definitely has favorites among his creations for this year’s TDF Collection:
“Eddy Fly jersey probably wins my choice. Aside from having a lot of respect for Eddy Merckx, this one took extra time to get right. Apart from multiple variations of the art, I was able to convince the team to try this print on a different garment which better suited the artwork. I was very pleased with the final result. Stained glass would be my second favorite, the art changed a lot during development and just got better and better.”
We rode ’til there was no more road, and found friends old and new, pork served more ways than we ever thought possible, and yes, uni-corns…
Terry returned to Iowa for RAGBRAI 2019 – after far too long a break – in the form of Customer Service Ace Jeannette Segale and her husband Joe, representing the brand and jumping in for a week’s immersion in one of the country’s great cycling events. They had a blast!
Despite cell coverage limitations, Jeannette sent dispatches back to Terry HQ as they rode. Here are some highlights from the first few days:
We’re told that 12,000 people registered to bike across Iowa in a week. Also, the number of daily riders is unlimited, so estimates are 22,000 to 25,000 riders/day.
State highways are closed down, State Police at intersections play rock and roll as thousands of riders spin safely thru intersections.
This is an economic injection to the tiny Midwestern towns we pass through. Riders are welcomed with water sprinklers set up and pork sliders, pulled pork, bacon on a stick, pork sausage, and any other methods you can think of for pork.
A local school has 140 students of whom 70 are on the debate team. All students were present to serve pies to hungry cyclists. So much food in every town it would be easy to gain weight on this 500 mile ride.
Everyone is in great spirits and even roadkill is treated special. I’ve seen dead possum with beads draped over them and a very stiff raccoon clutched a can of RAGBRAI IPA in it’s stiff little paws.
Next couple days are 80 plus miles and camp breakdown starts at 5:30 am. After ride, set up camp in new town, showers, laundry and dinner – not much time left to fill in on everything!
From cardboard pie or cheese shaped wedges atop helmets to hunkered down aerodynamic carbon-wheeled cyclists who take themselves very seriously, while most sit back and enjoy the ride and laugh at themselves.
Team names are creative: Antique Road Show – a bunch of old guys on bikes. Turbo Turtles etc., too many funny ones!
Men and women of the United States Air Force Cycling Team in dapper grey and black uniforms ride along with the other 10,00 plus cyclists. Always serving our country, here at RAGBRAI I’ve watched as they bike past, only to pull aside to help fix a flat, repair a chain, or aid whenever needed.
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So far so good! We both feel well and have been enjoying the adventure. It was wicked hot when we arrived on Friday and during the Vendor Expo on Saturday. We woke up to thunder and lightning Sunday morning and rode 65 miles, TDR-style, on our first day in the rain. It stopped raining by the time we reached our first night of camping and the weather has been sunny and not too hot since.Each little town we pass through has a festival going on. Lots of great music of all kinds in the towns and at night in camp.We’ve never ridden with so many cyclists. Some pictures are attached. Jeannette has been having fun talking Terry with lots of women, she’s a natural!
The party’s over for another year but if you didn’t get your fill and you haven’t entered the world of cycling-related podcasts, get yourself downloaded. Both of the following podcasts upped their game dramatically this year and the episodes are insightful, funny, educational and a great way to extend your cycle IQ. Download them all and you’ll be entertained into the fall.
The Cycling Podcast
Hosted by British journalists Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and French cycling personality, Francois, the Rapha-sponsored series The Cycling Podcast hosted daily doses of the race, local culture, gastronomy and prognostication. This year, they added Kilometer 0 with amazing interviews (the David Walsh 2-part interview is great), along with many episodes of the Cycling Feminin, covering the highs and lows of the women’s pro peloton. It’s an astonishing level of content and deft reporting.
The Move
Cycling’s #1 bad boy is back in what George Hincapie calls a Lance 3.0 version. THE MOVE is specific to the Tour de France, the Classic pro races and other endurance events. Lance, his deejay partner JB and former team mate George Hincapie provide insights that are truly unique, as you would expect from those who’ve been there, and – notoriously – done that. This year, the digs got better (out of the Air Stream trailer and into downtown Aspen), the guests more notable, and the addition of Johan Bruyneel is a fascinating dive into stage, rider and team strategies.
Into The Pyrenees, On Toward The Alps – Tour de France 2019 Turns Serious
After another week of exciting bike racing, with plenty of heroic efforts, unfortunate setbacks, some mystery and even tragedy for a few riders, the mood of the Tour has shifted. In the first week riders had commented that the race felt more relaxed than previous years. Now the stakes are clear and the remaining contenders are doing battle…
The key stages in the second week of the Tour de France 2019 seem to have been Stage 10, classed as a flat stage, the Individual Time Trial, and Stage 14, to the summit of Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees. These stages included surprises, and produced swings in the rankings that sealed the deal against many of the riders hoping for a podium finish.
The Wind Shapes The Race – Stage 10, on July 15th, from Saint-Flour to Albi
The race profile for this stage seemed as hilly as it could be and still be classified as flat. It was the kind of day when you might expect breakaways to be reeled in by a speeding peloton, with a mass sprint at the end.
Instead, strong crosswinds may have turned this stage into the turning point of this year’s TDF.
Late in the day, teams Ineos, Bora and Quickstep formed at the front and accelerated, a tactic often used to control the race in crosswind conditions.
The risk is that riders get tired, the wind forces echelons to form as riders try to shelter behind those in front or beside them, and the peloton can easily split. It’s much better tactically to force the pace at the front, keep together and rotate the leaders to avoid individual fatigue. Further back in the peloton it is too easy to find yourself in an echelon out of touch with the leading peloton.
That’s what happened to many of the leading GC contenders in the race. With the teamwork at the head of the race the gap eventually opened to more than a minute. Alaphillipe kept his yellow jersey, Thomas and Bernal remaining around 1 minute behind, while all the other expected GC riders fell to 2 minutes and more behind – gaps big enough to be very hard to overcome.
Individual Time Trial, July 19th, Pau – Suspense and Surprises
The course was technical and demanding, and perhaps fatigue played a part in a number of unfortunate crashes, which in a couple of cases took riders out of the Tour, notably young Belgian Wout van Aert, who had a great race so far.
The story of the day shows just how powerful the yellow jersey can be to its wearer. Already second in the GC ranking, Welshman riding for Team Ineos, Geraint Thomas, was expected to use his time trial prowess to gain time against Julian Alaphillipe of Deceuninck-Quick Step, the French rider wearing yellow for the 8th day. Thomas did surpass the best mark of the day at all the checkpoints on the route, but Alaphillipe pulled out an extraordinary performance, energized by the drive to keep his maillot jaune, along with the cheers of a crowd delighted to see a French rider wearing it. He bested all Thomas’s marks, and won the stage convincingly, improving his leading time margin.
La Course – The Women’s Tour de France Race, 2019
A multi-day Women’s Tour de France is still a remote prospect, but the ITT was preceded by the current incarnation of La Course: a one day race featuring cycling’s top women road riders in the limelight.
They delivered a worthy spectacle. The 121 kilometer circuit was based on the upcoming time trial course. Its hills set the women up for an attacking race that winnowed out the field, but still ended with trains leading out for a mass sprint finish. The Netherlands’ legend, Marianne Vos, seized her opportunity early and outsprinted them all, showing clearly why she is one of cycling’s most impressive riders, male or female.
Asked afterwards about the status of the Women’s Tour, Vos was diplomatic, and positive about women’s bike racing. She pointed out the steady growth in the level of competition and support in women’s racing: “I think it’s getting more and more professional, but La Course is one moment in the year when the whole world is watching and that’s a big plus for women’s cycling.”
As the quality of riders, organization, and the race calendar continue to improve, and the women attract their share of the spotlight, surely a true Women’s Tour de France will become inevitable.
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Stage 14, July 20th, Tarbes to Tourmalet Barèges – Toughest Test So Far
The next day’s stage, ascending the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees, was an opportunity for a strong rider to open a wide rift, with a 20 kilometer mountain grind to the finish. Instead, it was a day of erosion, where riders who had been in reach of the podium slid off the back and out of the running.
Alaphillipe showed that his outstanding time trial performance did not weaken his ability to defend. In the final kilometer of the stage it was Thomas who came adrift when Thibault Pinot, a French favorite, attacked to win the stage. He moved up the GC ranks, while Alaphillipe, in second, widened his overall lead.
Now on to the Alps. The race is starting to get interesting…
While the wearer of the Maillot Jaune has every reason to be happy, psychologists tell us that the color yellow itself represents happiness, optimism, warmth, enlightenment and creativity. In addition to being the most luminous color in the spectrum, it’s also the color most often associated with religious (and cycling) deity.
Color therapists are very high on the power of yellow. It aids in decision making, helps people focus, and is the best color for creating enthusiasm for life. Yellow is used in color therapy to bring energy and encourage action. In the case of this week’s time trial, the yellow jersey certainly energized Julian Alaphilippe in his unexpected, smashing victory.
Most historians attribute the introduction of the yellow jersey into the Tour in 1919, making this year the 100th anniversary of the maillot jaune. As Michael Waters of the Smithsonian paints this colorful picture:
In 1919, the Tour de France returned following a four-year hiatus because of World War I. Two-thirds of the way through the race, the director of the Tour de France—Henri Desgrange—decided he needed a clearer identifier of the leader. He came up with the idea that whoever had the fastest overall time at a given stage of the race would don a yellow jersey—yellow in honor of the sports newspaper that sponsored the race, L’Auto-Vélo, which was printed on yellow paper.
As the story goes, around 2 a.m. on July 18, 1919, Desgrange gave the current leader, Eugène Christophe, the first incarnation of the jersey to take with him. But unlike its modern counterparts, this yellow jersey was made of wool, and Christophe complained that the yellow looked silly—according to historian Paul F. State, he insisted he resembled a canary.
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If you are in the mood for a longer read, “The Yellow Jersey” fills out the history of the icon with the colorful stories of the riders who have worn it. It’s full of interviews of Tour leaders and winners, including the oldest living Yellow Jersey wearer, Antonin Rolland, 94. Author Peter Cossins, also explores the interesting psychology of wearing the Maillot Jaune – often an elevating motivator, sometimes a curse in disguise.
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Give yourself some wings, brighten your outlook, get those creative juices flowing and celebrate the 100th anniversary with us this season in your own shade of optimism…
Top Cycling Climbing Tips – How to climb a mountain or two on a bike, and have more fun doing it.
This round up of our favorite cycling climbing tips will help any cyclist ride up hills better. Whether you’re just setting out as a cyclist or you’ve been riding for ages, there’s no need to be daunted by the prospect of those steep hills. These cycling techniques for climbing will help you conserve energy and enjoy the uphill ride a lot more. Please add your own favorite climbing tips in the comments.
How to learn to love climbing hills – the steeper the better!
Climbing is the hard part.
Hills, let alone mountains, are surely the number one obstacle for new cyclists, since they are associated with hard work and pain and all that.
This makes climbing hills one of the most daunting and challenging parts of riding a bicycle, especially for beginners who may try to avoid hills at all costs.
On the other hand, conquering difficult climbs on a bike gives you a sense of achievement and success that’s hard to equal any other way. Many times, you get the additional reward of incredible vistas that you feel you have truly earned.
In reality, the only way to get better at climbing hills on a bike is to “just do it!”
With the correct gearing, technique, and attitude, you can learn to love the hills — to seek them out, challenge them, defy them — because hills can be a vital part of your cardiovascular training program, and that feeling of accomplishment at the top of the climb can be addictive!
Regular training on hills will build your leg strength, your aerobic/anaerobic capacity, as well as the ability for your muscles to recover quickly from the hard effort. Early in your training, you’ll huff and puff up a hill, but after a month or two, you’ll be able to climb that same hill without getting nearly as winded.
Rich reward – pausing to admire a view she truly earned. Find out how to conquer the climbs with the following tips and techniques.
How To Cycle Up Hills Better – First Things First
Cycling Climbing Tip #1 – Choose the right bike for the ride
For newcomers to cycling especially, the first and most basic tip is a prerequisite for happy cycling no matter where you ride: use a bike equipped for the terrain you want to ride on. If you are ready to head for the hills that means having a wide enough range of gears to climb hills. If your bike doesn’t have a low enough gear to switch to when you tackle a hill, you simply won’t be able to ride up it.
Cycling Climbing Tip #2 – Get clear on which gear is which
When we talk about low and high gears, we’re talking about the numbers used to compare one gear with another. Avoiding the technical aspects, a low gear means it takes more turns of the pedals to go a certain distance; a high gear means fewer turns. Pedaling at the same rate, you will go slower in a lower gear. That means less effort, and so in a lower gear you can go up a steeper hill. If it’s confusing, think of lower gears as easier gears.
Get a Jump With Your Gears
You do not need to fear hills. The secret is technique, and the most important one is to use your gears to your best advantage. Learning to change gears smoothly, and to anticipate which gear to be in for the road ahead, are two keys to cycling comfortably on all kinds of grades.
Cycling Climbing Tip #3 – Shift early, shift often
Most cyclists wait too long before shifting to a lower gear when approaching a hill. Think of a hill in three phases: the approach, the climb, and the crest. Whatever your pedal revolutions, as soon as your cadence begins to drop off from effort, however slightly, immediately downshift. You may spin briefly at what feels like an unnaturally high rpm. The hill will quickly bring you back to a comfortable rpm. Apply this rule of thumb throughout the climb.
Cycling Climbing Tip #4 – Take the pressure off the pedals
It’s much easier to change gears when there is less pressure on the pedals. The strain in the chain when you are heaving up a slope can make it tough to move it between the rings and sprockets to get to the gear you need. That’s another good reason to change gear a little ahead of when you really need it.
Get a Rhythm Going
Cycling Climbing Tip #5 – Breathe deeply and get into the groove of your climb
Coordinate your breathing with your cadence. For example, take one breath for every one and a half revolutions of your pedals. It’ll help you go faster and will help prevent hyperventilation. Consciously pull in a little extra air with each breath – the extra oxygen helps your muscles do more work.
Be sure to relax your arms, shoulders, and back on climbs. Let your legs do the work.
Out of the Saddle or Seated?
Is is better to climb seated or out of the saddle? Check out these tips to know when it helps to sit or stand when cycling up a hill.
Whether one should be seated or out of the saddle during climbing has caused heated debate. Often the hill decides. Rule of thumb: If the grade is steady and not too steep, try to stay in the saddle. For shorter, steep bursts, get out of the saddle.
Cycling Climbing Tip #6 – Stay seated to conserve energy for a long climb
If you don’t need to climb fast, you can conserve energy by switching to a lower gear, finding a comfortable balance between your pace and effort, and staying seated.
Cycling Climbing Tip #7 – Stand to generate more power for a short climb
Standing on the pedals when climbing gives you the advantage of adding your body weight to the force of your legs. You can also pull against the handlebars more effectively, getting even more force onto the pedals. This lets you overcome a steeper grade faster than when climbing seated, but the trade off is it takes more energy to climb this way.
Keep in mind that climbing out of the saddle accelerates your heart rate to a higher level (requiring more oxygen) than if you stay seated. That holds true especially for heavier riders.
Cycling Climbing Tip #8 – How to Climb Out of the Saddle
Cycling climbing tips in action: she’s gripping the brake hoods for extra leverage, standing on the pedals for an extra burst of power, and looking ahead with an easy posture.
When you do need to climb faster or get past a steep section: with road bike handlebars, rest the V of your hands on the brake hoods and wrap your thumbs and fingers around them. If you have straight handlebars, keep your hands either on the handlebars or on the bar ends, if you have them. As you push down with each pedal, pull up on the bar with the opposite hand. Let the bike rock beneath you, but no more than a foot off-center.
It’s awkward to pedal at high cadence when standing, so if you’re already at high pedal revs when you get ready to stand, shift up to the next smaller cog in the back. The slightly higher (harder) gear will make you more stable, and the extra power you generate will let you use that gear to your best advantage.
Hand Positions for Stronger Climbing
Cycling Climbing Tip #9 – Change your grip to give you more leverage or a rest
Road style handlebars give several options for hand position, and you may find that switching it up during a long climb helps reduce fatigue and avoid straining certain muscle groups.
For long steady climbs, wrapping thumb and forefingers around the brake hoods gives you more leverage to pull against as you pedal, and can stretch the muscles in your upper back a little.
Gripping the bars along the straight sections beside the stem, with elbows bent, can help you apply more force when the grade is steeper but you’re still in the saddle.
The same hand position with elbows straight can relieve your lower back on less steep sections.
How to Get Better at Hill Climbing
Cycling Climbing Tip #10 – Try hill repeat workouts to improve climbing power
On one weekday ride each week, try doing a hill workout to improve your hill climbing ability and leg strength.
A hill repeat workout is shorter than a normal ride, but it’s very intense. Find a challenging hill that you can ride up in about 5 minutes. After warming up on the bike for about 10 minutes, ride up the hill at a moderate pace, then (carefully) turn around and ride back down. Pedal easy on flat ground for about 5 minutes or so, then ride up the hill again. Start off riding up the hill 2 times. You should be extremely tired when you’re done.
The next week, add one more trip up the hill to the workout, and so on each week until you can ride up the hill 5 times. Once you get to that point, it’s time to find a more challenging hill. Be sure to cool down by spending about 10 minutes riding easy on the bike after your hill workout.
Easy does it – settled in for a long climb on the Tour de France route, with relaxed position on the bends, in a low gear.
But I Can’t Make It to the Top
Cycling Climbing Tip #11 – Break that hill into pieces
Most beginning cyclists will encounter hills that are too difficult to ride all the way up. Don’t make those hills an all-or-nothing proposition. Instead, break up the hill into tiny increments. The first time you ride up “killer hill,” take note of where you need to stop. Next time you ride that hill, make it a goal to go a little bit farther up the hill, even if it’s just another 10 feet up. Push yourself to keep riding to the next driveway, street sign, or whatever.
Do this each time you ride the hill, and before you know it, you’ll accomplish what you first thought was impossible. You’ll ride the whole way up!
